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Andy Edmonds Andy Edmonds
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Andy Edmonds

Head of Engagement

About this Author

Andy is the Head of Engagement at iProspect UK, overseeing our specialist blogger outreach product Talented Talkers, Content Marketing and our Digital PR, Events and Experiences teams.

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Will AI Replace Writers and Editors?

Will AI Replace Writers and Editors?

The short answer is no! Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about the end of human copywriting, and how just last week Google officially realigned its focus from mobile first to Artificial Intelligence first. To add credibility to this statement, this time last year we saw IBM Watson edit The Drum, a magazine website and publication; if you believe what you have read then you might have cause for concern if you’re working in the traditional or digital content industry. Fear not, I’ll explain why you need not worry for at least another decade. Should we dust off our CVs? The reality is that there are already machines creating content and they have been doing so for some time now. Gartner predicts that “by 2018 20% of all business content will be authored by machines” and whilst that sounds scary, it really isn’t as notable as it may appear. As marketers it’s important we embrace new technological advancements as they allow us more scope to focus on the things that only we can do. At the moment, the technology used by machines to create content NLG (natural language generation) is good - chances are you’ve consumed content delivered from one of these platforms in the last week. This might have been in the form of live football commentary, financial reports or Google paid adverts. The problem with this content is in its soul- or lack thereof. While this content is important, maybe even essential when your football team is playing and you don’t have access to a TV, it’s not engaging and doesn’t evoke much emotion (except if your team loses). Why? Currently, a machine can’t create content on its own; it must have access to a template and a structured data set. If you provide both these things, then like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, you have a machine creating structured content. This works perfectly for generating weather reports or financial summaries, adding a little meat to the bones, but it doesn’t work well when trying to drive engagement or evoke a reaction. Why machines can’t do it all Think back to the last piece of content that you clicked on, shared and engaged with. I mean, really engaged with. I would bet that it played on human emotion to drive a reaction, whether you laughed or cried. This kind of content drives shares, likes, clicks and comments. Whilst AI can help inform us of the latest trends and the topics that are resonating with people, no algorithm in existence right now can add creativity or sentiment to that content. This isn’t to say that as AI advances and machines learn this won’t become the case, but for now, when it comes to content campaigns that need to create a reaction, it is teamwork: machines to do the heavy lifting and humans to keep it relevant and relatable. So what does it mean for you? AI is coming! Embrace it and let it do all the hard work. I don’t believe that content writers and editors are going anywhere fast. At iProspect, we already ensure that the content we create is written by humans and informed by data to drive the positive reactions we need to enhance performance across all channels. We call it Intelligent Content, and moving forward we’re only going to make it more intelligent as technology advances and we continue to embrace AI and machine learning.  0 3 min read
Content marketing worth $412 billion by 2021

Content marketing worth $412 billion by 2021

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 19.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0463c1; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0463c1} Here’s some exciting news for content marketers: a November report from Technavio estimates that the global content marketing industry will see a compound annual growth of 16% from $195.58b in 2016 to $412b by 2021. The report highlights a number of key factors including global mobile phone adoption and growth, brand and loyalty objectives, lower cost than traditional advertising and an increased conversion rate as key growth drivers across the period. Why should we care? Content marketing isn’t a new thing: it’s been growing in popularity consistently for the past five years.  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p6 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 15.0px} li.li1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font: 12.0px Helvetica} ol.ol1 {list-style-type: decimal} ol.ol2 {list-style-type: lower-alpha} And according to a CMI (Content Marketing Institute) study, 87% of brands are now using content marketing and 53% of those surveyed stated that they were looking to increase investment over the next year.     What will fuel the incremental $217.3bn estimation by 2021? In my opinion, the strong growth in content marketing is being driven by a few key factors: A shift in consumer behaviour Big data The cost, effectiveness and measurement 1. Consumer Behaviour  At its heart, content marketing is all about the audience. Therefore it is vital that content inspires, educates and entertains and that this content is delivered at the right time and in the right places to a defined audience.    But consumer behaviour has changed over the past few years and I believe this has fuelled and will continue to fuel content marketing growth. We now have access to content 24 hours a day, 365 days a year which means that we’re marketing to consumers with more options and distractions than ever before.    Here’s a great example of how content marketing has evolved in line with this consumer behavioural shift:    It’s 6:00pm. I’ve just got home, I’m hungry and I want inspiration for dinner. Do I Look through a recipe book Scroll through recipes on BBC Good Food  Find a YouTube Food Channel like Tasty or Ask my Amazon Alexa for a recommendation    As you can see, the options are vast and as a result, it’s important that brands find their way to join in on the conversation and build their online communities around the content they are creating. Additionally, the aim should to be ensure that the content aligns with the shift in consumer consumption, behaviour and expectation. Think bigger, better, cross-device, more relevant and personalised. These behaviours and needs will continue to challenge and grow the industry. 2. Data The growth of the internet and advancements in technology have left us sitting on a wealth of data. We’re able to find out exactly who our consumers are, what they’re buying, when they’re buying it and, in some instances, what they’re doing post-purchase. In fact, we even have access to data that helps us identify how they get to the stage of purchasing, and how they’re interacting with our websites and content across all channels.   This wealth of data is driving decisions and is enabling us to create better, more targeted content that’s more effective and, ultimately, measureable. We’re getting smarter and creating content based on data.    At iProspect, our Intelligent Content proposition supports current and future clients using the wealth of available data and insight to develop better content that has a purpose. It’s our ability to leverage this data at the beginning and end of the content marketing journey that will contribute significantly towards the 2021 estimation. Our ability to create something based on data and then use that data to show the effectiveness will significantly support continued growth. As we continue to develop our A.I., tools and machine learning algorithms, this will only increase how intelligent our content is and the results that it ultimately yields. 3. Cost, Effectiveness and Measurement  Quite simply, content marketing is more cost-efficient to plan, promote and report than many other traditional marketing activities.    It’s no surprise that a third of brands surveyed by the CMI are spending a significant portion of their marketing budget on content marketing, and I’m looking forward to seeing this increase even more over the coming years.   What will we see between now and 2021? More content marketing professionals The wide adoption of content marketing teams within brands, supported by agencies  Bigger, better, more relevant and targeted campaigns Machine Learning and A.I. used more to ensure increased levels of data can be leveraged effectively Higher expectations for better ROI       0 5 min read

Andy is the Head of Engagement at iProspect UK, overseeing our specialist blogger outreach product Talented Talkers, Content Marketing and our Digital PR, Events and Experiences teams.

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The Pace of Progress | dentsu 2024 Media Trends

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