Webinar: Transforming Content Management and Creation through AI

(Generative) AI is a red hot topic. Applications are developed at the speed of light and pop up at expected, and totally unexpected places. But how about AI in the realm of content management and creation? Are there any organizations yet who have actually managed to apply AI to content in a way that really contributes to their business goals? 

As industry experts deeply immersed in the content business, we at WoodWing have delved into the possibilities of AI. This blog encapsulates the insights, best practices, and key takeaways from WoodWing's webinar on leveraging AI to transform content management and creation. It distills the main highlights, discussion points, and learnings from the webinar, featuring notable speakers Chuck Gahun from Forrester, Tom Pijsel from WoodWing, and Russel Pierpoint from Qonqord.

What is Generative AI?

Before we explore successful applications of generative AI, let's ask ChatGPT to provide a simple and straightforward description:

“Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning algorithms to create or generate new content such as images, music, text, or even videos. Generative AI models are trained on large datasets, learning to generate realistic and creative outputs by capturing and understanding the underlying patterns, structures, and features of the original data.”

With this clearer picture in mind, let’s find out if there are any benefits to be uncovered beyond the hype.

More than just a buzz

Market analysts at Forrester are about to release research that shows that more and more organizations are in fact starting to experiment with the use of generative and augmented AI. 

With this clearer picture in mind, let’s find out if there are any benefits to be uncovered beyond the hype. And that they are indeed successful in finding ways to support their business. Thus, delivering tangible proof of what many of us already expected.

AI capabilities are virtually boundless, ranging from data analysis and fraud detection to research and (software) development. They also excel in automating and optimizing repetitive tasks, as well as streamlining workflows, to name a few. These capabilities contribute to increased efficiency, improved business results, and enhanced job satisfaction.

But what about specific applications in the content arena? Hold on to your hats when we dive into effective implementations of AI in content development and governance that we have come across.

The most common use cases involve the rewriting or summarization capabilities of AI. For example, in the publishing industry, AI generates snippets of articles, books, newsletters, and papers, instantly creating teasers for websites and social media.

Video 1: How to use AI in WoodWing Studio to create headlines for social posting or images for textual stories and articles

Another possible practice is to use the tremendous ability of AI to take large amounts of data and summarize it, break it apart and help you use it a lot more. Ergo improving ROI on data and content.

But there are countless other scenarios:

• Review and enhancement of customer journeys and content per customer touch point for better conversion and increased customer satisfaction
• Website and SEO analysis and optimization, resulting in improved performance and boosted conversion rates
• Putting together practical follow-up guidelines for sales to make the most of marketing campaigns
• Automation of the not so interesting but hugely important task of classifying content
• Creation of images that are based on prompts and tailor made for any text at hand
• Putting together stellar social media posts that attract large numbers of your target audience and directing them to the right offer
• Continuous improvement of webshop designs based on customer behaviour learnings

In retail there are huge opportunities to speed up copywriting for products. Using structured product data as prompt to create product descriptions for example. That will alleviate the biggest pressure: do more, quicker. And generative AI is helping us do just that.

 

Russel Pierpoint, Owner at Evolved Media Solutions (Qonqord)

Key webinar poll highlights:

So do copywriters, designers and marketeers have to fear for their jobs?

No!

A bold statement, but a very true one, nonetheless. Making the most of AI is not so much about technology that is making human beings redundant, but about exploiting each other’s strengths. 

Yes, AI can design faster than designers can. But designers can take the initial AI sketches and outlines as a starting point to spark their own creativity. Taking their own creations much further than they ever could have done on their own.

Marketeers can at last spend more time on adjusting and improving campaigns and content pieces; when AI relieves them from the avalanche of daily activities and from the burden to do more, faster.

And as final example, copywriters are needed now more than ever as they are the only people who can check, revise and fine-tune AI-generated copy before it’s safe to be released into the world.   

“Using generative AI is not so much about using creative expression and taking work away from designers. It is more in helping designers jumpstart their work in looking for new ideas around creative expression and then augmenting their design cycles to create maybe even more comprehensive designs.”

 

Chuck Gahun, Principal Analyst at Forrester

Here’s how to get started

Generative AI is going to hugely influence content creation and management in one way or another. It can completely change the content creation playground or make already good things better. As well as any option in between.

No one knows where we are going exactly and how fast we will get there. But one thing is for sure: you don’t want to miss out on opportunities to improve your business. When you now know that many AI-generated improvements are basically at your fingertips. You just have to get started! 

But before you do, consider the following do’s and don’ts.

Do

• Invest time in discovering (at least part of) the available options. Find out what technology is out there and what the potential benefits are; and don’t forget to check what competitors are doing
• Encourage your employees to experiment with AI in their work to see what the potential benefits are. Create a clear and safe setting for them to do so
• Use more than one AI solution. Try out which one is best suitable for you in any given moment in time
• When you do what you always did, you will get what you always got. Try to see things from a different, innovative perspective and you might discover a whole new range of benefits and possibilities
• Be aware of the legal considerations:
  
  • When using OpenAI, liability lies with the user, not with OpenAI – the user is always responsible for the content created
  • Create your images with Midjourney and you’ll own all the assets you create, but you grant MidJourney the right to use the image in any way
  • AI models use datasets to be trained on. If you use different tools (language models) instead of one specific one, you will most likely be able to avoid legal problems. 
  • Most models are continuously trained based on feedback, so never share confidential data!

Video 2: example of the use of generative AI in a content acquisition process for imagery

Don’t

• Don’t think the use of generative AI in content creation and management will go away. It won’t.
• Don’t wait with implementing AI governance, your employees are most likely already using it!

AI generated content can be biased and even incorrect. Therefore, don’t let AI sit in the driver’s seat just yet, but it can be a formidable co-pilot.

 

Tom Pijsel, VP product management at WoodWing