Agency Vision in an AI World

B2B marketing has changed radically in the past few years, but not always in the way people expected. AI has made content quicker and easier to produce. It's made data more important. It's made search engines less important, dramatically disrupting acquisition strategies across digital channels. Marketing has become more efficient, but not necessarily quicker or more effective. Marketers are still following the same content development and campaign execution workflows as before. It's just that some steps have been automated with AI, mostly to assist with tasks frequently delegated to agencies or freelancers. That has allowed marketing departments to dramatically reduce agency spend.

AI Assisted Content

Generative AI has been adopted across the full content lifecycle, but mostly for drafting copy and images on an ad-hoc basis. In content workflows, it's really only hero assets and high profile campaigns that are still routinely outsourced. As a result, day-to-day content production is now significantly more likely to be written in-house. That has had a perceptible impact on content quality, but not enough to affect overall campaign performance. AI generated content may be inferior to agency content, but it's good enough for most purposes. Indeed, there are benefits to AI-assisted content production, alongside the obvious disadvantages.

AI opens up content production to subject matter experts within the business, particularly for short form content such as blog articles. It allows these experts to authentically articulate the brand perspective, without a copywriter acting as an intermediary. Used properly, AI helps guide the authentic brand voice, even when it lacks that additional layer of professional polish. Instead, the marketer's role shifts to that of an editor. Of course, this only works for thought leaders willing to assist with marketing content.

Speed vs Quality

Creative agencies still have a key role in strategy and media planning, but the days when agencies wrote every article on the corporate blog are gone. AI has not yet revolutionised campaign planning, and it's not clear whether it ever will. It can help generate and validate ideas, but marketers still want human-expertise to confirm brand positioning and validate high level plans against industry peers. That's where agencies now offer the greatest value.

As content becomes quicker and easier to produce, the need for third party validation becomes ever more important. The technology industry has always tended to prioritise speed to market over quality of output. AI risks broadening that tendency. Speed is a good thing. In theory, reducing campaign lead times allows marketers to adapt and optimise underperforming campaigns. Badly received messaging can be re-written before it causes long term damage, but poor creative still has an impact.

The Need for Human Expertise

Accuracy, quality, and relevance should not be sacrificed in the rush to be responsive. It requires deep customer expertise to find a relevant message and the right balance. The best content strategy is to develop good content in the first place. First impressions matter. If a prospect's first exposure to a brand is through badly optimised AI slop, then brand reputation will suffer. This is a risk even when content is heavily personalised to the buyer's context. Personalised content is just as likely to annoy prospects as generic content.

AI does not replace human judgement, and it cannot confidently predict how particular campaigns will resonate with particular audiences. That is where experience is essential. The leading agencies provide unique insights into campaigns and strategies that cannot be replicated with AI. Such judgements are especially important in the AI age. Customers want authenticity; marketers want results. The right blend of human ingenuity and AI velocity can deliver successful campaigns for everyone. 

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