The recent Ahref report on Content Marketing makes an interesting read. I agree with a few observations, while a few statistics were particularly surprising.
Below, I’ve picked up 4 big trends from the report while sharing my experiences from the field.
Let’s dive straight in.
1. AI content is mainstream
People outside of the marketing world underestimate the extent of AI penetration in content creation. Strike that. Most people are using AI even for functional writing. Your graphic designer, whose primary application of writing is for emails, uses it too. For people whose core job is not writing, GenAI tools are a god-sent.
Ahref report reveals that 74.2% of the new webpages contain at least some AI-generated material. Only 25.8% were purely human-written.
The trend is visibly pronounced on LinkedIn. A few acquaintances whose writing skills were strictly okay just a few years ago now write with flourish. Such flourish that I wince at the drastic fall of a once-prized skill.
Even writers with strong inhibitions against AI use, still use it for research, editing and review.
2. AI brings unprecedented cost efficiency and productivity
With all the speed and efficiency AI brings, it’s a wonder we’re not inundated with content yet. Or are we already?
Ahref report notes that companies using AI publish 47% more content each month. AI-generated content is about 4.7 times cheaper to produce than human-written content, with most companies spending less than $500 per month on AI content tools. AI-generated content is about 4.7 times cheaper to produce than human-written content. Further, 38% of respondents reported saving money on writers due to AI.
Beyond the core writing, AI tools are good at analyzing content for logical clarity and impact. They’re surprisingly good at identifying the proper sequence and structure to build an argument.
Besides long-form content, marketers need tactical content for smaller tasks. Like generating yet another social media variant to push the same old report. AI is surprisingly good at this.
What does this mean for writers?
A few writers may harp at the quality of AI-generated content. “But even if your output is 30% better than ChatGPT’s (and that would mean you’re very good – most people aren’t), the LLM is 1,000x faster than you. Most CFOs won’t blink at 30% lower quality outputs in exchange for 1,000x productivity.” (- Personal Math with Greg and Taylor “Yes, You Will Lose Your Job To AI”)
AI is already better than many junior writers. With advancing proficiency, AI is poised to change the organizational pyramid.
3. GEO will soon replace SEO
Sources that crop up in GenAI responses (referred to as GEO in the headline; GenAI engine optimization ;)) are akin to publicity. They are perceived to be more credible and less tainted by commercial objectives.
The Ahref report confirms this. Visitors from GenAI tools like ChatGPT convert at rates up to 23 times higher than traditional organic search visitors.
Given the tiny traffic that GenAI tools currently drive (about 0.1%), this may not matter immediately. But the implications of GenAI referral traffic are huge.
The report reveals that AI sends the most traffic to business websites in the US, compared to the UK or India. Further, only 14% of the top 50 mentioned sources were shared across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI. Also, 26% of brands have zero mentions in AI Overviews.
Those who fail to optimize for GenAI may, in the future, risk being lost in the rabbit hole of the internet. Already, GenAI tools are the go-to information source for a significant chunk of GenZ kids. Most don’t google the way we do (did I just reveal my age here?)
4. Human-AI collaboration is the way forward
Many organizations already mandate “human first, human last” as a part of the GenAI use guidelines. For all the hype, only 2.5% of pages were created entirely by AI. In fact, 71.7% of pages show a mix of AI and human contributions.
For a company, AI would have been an unassailable advantage if competitors couldn’t access it. But when the competition enjoys a similar level of AI access, the company must fall back on its people (again) for business edge.
That’s one reason I’m cautiously optimistic about humans’ enduring importance in the upcoming AI ice age. Although early successes will be driven by tech adoption and innovation, the competitive edge will eventually come from human capabilities once AI becomes universally accessible.
Musings by Madhav 
Leave a comment