The Power of Authenticity in the face of AI

As technology advances, it's easy to get caught up in the convenience and efficiency it brings. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising every corner of our lives, and as we've seen in many news articles, experts suggest that it may be misused or even threaten jobs.

And while Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Open AI, and Google's Bard and Generative Search are making a rapid and significant impact, are humans still needed?

Well, the answer is, of course, YES!

AI might be reliable, but it's essential to remember that behind every email, website, or blog is a person and, ultimately, a human interaction.

Take Google's Generative Search AI (SGE), a tool that integrates into the Google Search experience. This AI allows users to ask new types of questions, expanding the boundaries of what they believe a search engine could answer. It provides a comprehensive overview of a topic with relevant links, and users can also engage in a natural conversational mode, asking follow-up questions.

This will transform the search information journey into a seamless and intuitive process, from simply searching for a specific product to helping searchers write reviews. In turn, the aim is that this will weed out content that has been generated purely to beat the search algorithms. 

The recent update to Google's search quality rater guidelines sheds light on the criteria used to assess the expertise of content creators. The acronym E-E-A-T represents Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness - we have discussed this in more detail in one of our previous blogs.

So, what does this all mean?

What stands out is the importance of being perceived as trustworthy and knowledgeable in your field. The information and content you share on your website, blogs, and social media platforms, as well as opinions and reviews from others, play a vital role in establishing your credibility and expertise in the eyes of these AI-enabled tools. This video from Content at Scale explains this in more detail.

For professional services firms, this is a reminder to continue to be authentic through every aspect of your content and establish strong relationships with clients and networks. Taking the time to share industry expertise and knowledge and connecting with individuals on a personal level can develop trust and build a reputation as an industry expert. We explore in this blog how to make marketing more human.

What makes content authentic?

When it comes to content, being credible is essential. It's all about having influence and gaining the trust of your audience. To build your brand through thought leadership, credibility and authenticity are key. With the advent of AI-enabled tools – there will be fewer ‘hiding places’ than ever.

Here are a few tips to boost your credibility and authenticity:

• Be useful: Your content should help your audience and provide value
• Include sources: If you're sharing facts or stats, back them up with references. Link to the original content if it's available
• Consistency: Authentic content should deliver consistent messaging and values across different channels and platforms
• Avoid mistakes: Typos and grammar errors don't look professional if this is a challenge, and as a ‘belt and braces’, use a checker like Grammarly to avoid them
• Real-life examples: Incorporating real-life examples backed up with testimonials and case studies as far as possible into the content
• Interaction and engagement: Authentic content helps to encourage interaction and engagement with the target audience. So invite feedback, comments and follow-ups
• A study reveals that nearly 8 in 10 customers would only engage with content that displays well on their device. This highlights that, on a practical level, it is important to get the basics right by ensuring that your content appears correctly as a ‘trust signal’ to reinforce your credibility

Key takeaways

Realistically, we cannot avoid embracing the significant opportunities that AI brings - staying on top of any industry shift is crucial, especially in highly competitive sectors such as professional services. However, it is also important to ensure that increasing reliance on AI doesn’t put a stop to your personal approach to building relationships with your target audience, be that clients, prospective clients or even when trying to attract new talent to your organisation.

In a recent BBC article, a Meta scientist regarded as one of the three "godfathers of AI", Prof Yann LeCun, suggested that intelligent computers would create "a new renaissance for humanity", similar to the impact the internet or the printing press had. However, he very much doubted AI wouldn't take over the world or permanently destroy jobs, so it's not worth becoming too reliant on it just yet!

How to start making your content trustworthy

Cal Partners is an award-winning professional services marketing agency. Our extensive professional services expertise and experience have helped many clients produce and distribute trustworthy thought leadership content as part of their wider SEO and digital marketing strategy.

Please book your free consultation to find out how we can help you.