Guest Post: Will You Ignore or Embrace AI?

Today’s guest post is by Jill Kurtz, who provides online marketing strategies for small businesses through Kurtz Digital Strategy. She uses more than 30 years of marketing and communication experience to help each client reach customers and prospects using websites, social media, and other online tools.

Artificial intelligence – AI – is everywhere. Companies and people who want to be on the leading edge of “what’s next” can’t seem to write enough about it. Just about every tool I use as a marketer seems to have added an AI tool of some sort. Even Congress is talking about it.

Clearly, we are interested in AI and what it means to our lives. How that interest translates into the day-to-day in our areas of endeavor is up to us. Will we go all in, ignore AI or something in-between?

I recently took a poll on LinkedIn and found a lot of interest in AI. Everyone wants to know what it will mean for their work. More than 75 percent of respondents said they were still researching and waiting to see what develops. Only a handful declared they were actively using AI.

I think a cautious, careful approach is a good thing.

As a marketer, I find myself thinking about issues of trust, transparency and authenticity. Can we achieve these important aspects of engagement with customers and prospects while using AI? Maybe.

What it comes down to for me is whether we use the tool and let it control the message, or if we thoughtfully let it help us generate content that is a worthy part of our marketing efforts.

Our ideal clients respond to our real voice. If we can use AI to support that voice, great. If we use AI to create a disconnect from our actual business and approach, we’ve created a problem that will ruin our marketing efforts.

As with everything in marketing, the best answer lies with your specific business and particular goals. I think a thoughtful approach will lead to the best answers.

• Can AI automate non-value added tasks in your day?
• Can AI give you the spark you need to generate content that interests your customer?
• Can AI help you understand how to differentiate yourself from competitors?

Like many tools before it, AI is a disruptor. The question for us today is whether it will enhance what we do or somehow diminish it.