AI content goes mainstream

Despite all the noise on generative AI—tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E, which create new text or images from a prompt—many marketers have resisted using AI to create content at work. They see the risks as too high and the technology too untested.

But that’s starting to change. In 2024, AI for content generation is set to become mainstream, with 42% of marketers who haven’t yet used AI to create content now intending to do so, according to Canto’s 2024 State of Digital Content report.

AI eliminates mundane marketing tasks

Could 2024 be the year marketers and agencies eliminate mundane admin tasks for good? Maybe not, but we can dream. And surveys suggest that this year will see AI-powered tools take over those low-value, un-creative tasks which are the bane of marketers’ day-to-day. 

In fact, 44% of marketers who haven’t used AI to organise, share and distribute content plan to  start doing so within the next year. This means that, by the end of 2024, three out of four will lean on AI regularly to manage their content.

Think of the time-saving potential if teams can use AI to help resize images, automate admin tasks, and use AI to find content instead of digging through folders. 

An example of this technology in practice, Canto’s AI Visual Search enables marketers to carry out extremely specific searches without relying on tags, keywords, or other metadata. Instead, they can use natural language to describe what they need, and the AI analyses visual cues in images and videos to find the perfect media content for any campaign. Embracing this sort of tech can bring unexpected benefits, as one user of Canto’s AI Visual Search puts it: “From day one we have had great success finding new content we didn't even know we had in our Canto library”.

AI to give ‘content confidence’

One trend not to be underestimated in 2024 is the use of AI-powered DAM solutions. A huge 84% of marketers who use AI-powered DAM tools feel “extremely confident” they can meet this year’s content goals, compared to just 25% who don’t use any DAM platform.

And no wonder. It was difficult enough keeping track of digital assets before GenAI, but now marketers are facing new challenges: identifying whether content has been human- or technology-created, knowing which asset is an original and which a variant, and so on. AI can bring new complexities, but an AI-assisted DAM platform is the answer for ‘content confidence’.

AI gets personal

The best way for marketers to meet strategic goals is to understand customers better than anyone else—who they are, where they show up, what they like and dislike. And what better way to create this relationship than with personalised content? 

In fact, Canto’s 2024 State of Digital Content report found that marketers’ top priority for their content this year is to improve the customer experience (56%), and the leading way to measure their content’s effectiveness is by audience engagement (56%). Not driving growth or revenue, but enhancing experience and engagement. 

Enter AI, because in a weird turn of events AI tends to be better at personalisation than humans, analysing customer behaviour at scale and driving better engagement rates.