By Cathy Planchart, Senior Project Manager

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is more pervasive in our daily lives than we may think. Certainly, you have asked Siri (an early version of AI) to call a phone number. It is so much faster than finding the person in the contacts on your cell phone. Facial recognition, which relies on many of the processes and techniques associated with artificial intelligence, can now be used to unlock our cell phones, in lieu of a pass code or fingerprint. Many GPS navigation systems, such as Google Maps, employ AI. Using GPS is so much easier than using a paper map, although not always 100% effective. But even Google Maps is getting better thanks to AI.

So, now we have a new-ish AI tool, ChatGPT. This is a “chatbot” that uses natural language to create humanlike (note the suffix “like”) conversational dialogue. Many people use this language model to compose written content. Is it OK to use ChatGPT for creating marketing content? It might make a marketer’s job easier and more efficient. But would the content be equally effective as when written by a human? When is it OK to use ChatGPT and when is it not?

Personally, I have not used ChatGPT. But I have talked with others who have shared their experiences with me. Here is what I have learned.

Garbage in – garbage out

In computer science, garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is the concept that bad input data produces an output that is corrupt. An example of “faulty input yields faulty output” is when someone with whom I spoke used ChatGPT to write the “prior work experience” part of her resume. The input was simply three prior job titles, and nothing else. The output was plain vanilla: the content provided by ChatGPT did not speak to the essence of the person (call it “personal brand”) or tie in with future career aspirations. Lesson learned, provide an input robust enough to result in a useful output.

A messy first draft

A writer I admire, Ann Handley, talks about the “messy first draft” and applauds it because it means that you started. Many of us have a hard time starting a writing task; i.e., writer’s block. Sometimes we need a little inspiration. So, is it OK to use ChatGPT to write the messy first draft? I spoke with someone who used ChatGPT to write a cover letter for a job application. As input, the person provided the chatbot with the job description and his resume. And voila! ChatGPT produced a “messy first draft” for the person to edit and humanize. The net result was increased efficiency in executing an otherwise arduous task.

Content marketing

Press releases remain an integral component of content marketing. So, can we turn press release writing over to ChatGPT? Maybe, but I’d advise otherwise because of the risk of potentially inaccurate information. However, one person with whom I spoke used a press release written by a human as input for ChatGPT to write three Tweets, two Facebook posts, and come up with an image for Instagram. Wow! ChatGPT proved to be a time-saving and effective AI tool for this marketing professional who was challenged daily with the task of creating new social media content.

As a marketing professional, when is it OK to use ChatGPT and when not? We’ll let you be the judge.

MKP communications inc. is a New-York based marketing communications agency specializing in merger/change communications for the financial services industry.