Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making waves in the tech industry and is changing the way we live and work. One of the most significant applications of AI is in the field of content creation. AI-driven content refers to the use of AI algorithms and tools to create, curate, and manage various forms of digital content.

One of the most common forms of AI-driven content is automated text generation. This involves using AI algorithms to analyze and understand existing text, and then generate new text based on that understanding. For example, news agencies use AI to write brief news summaries, financial reports, and sports updates. AI algorithms can write articles in seconds that are free of errors, saving time and reducing the workload of human writers.

OK STOP, ENOUGH!!!

Thank you for enduring and hopefully, I did not lose you in the first two paragraphs which were actually generated by ChatGPT. This is not an admission but the catalyst for this article. ChatGPT has been mentioned in 90% of my conversations this week. I feel like everyone is talking about it and rightfully so. It really is quite impressive. You can bash out a 2000-character article in seconds. Seriously seconds. But… as demonstrated above it is vanilla, academic and lacks any personality (and the Aussie spelling). There is no “me” in it. For me writing content is not for content's sake. Not to trick some algorithm to improve my SEO, likes, shares and comments. No, I write to get the ideas out of my head and to learn as I research points for and against the thoughts. I also always hope to inspire, entertain and challenge my readers. ChatGPT in my humble maybe naïve opinion is not going to do this.

So, what’s the problem with ChatGPT?

Well, nothing, it's what we choose to do with it that could be the problem.

If everyone turns around and thinks “cool, now I can build my online thought leadership profile with generic articles in seconds” or “sweet! ChatGPT can do my university essay for me while I go to the pub” then all that’s going to happen is the internet will be full of bland articles that nobody reads because it lacks the creativity, nuance, and human touch that is essential in engaging content and content that whilst may be free of grammatical errors may perpetuate biases and stereotypes because the AI learns from existing content that may contain such biases (that and a possible future generation of lazy, ill-informed, ignorant beer-belly buffoons).  

Purpose and Meaning.

Yes, I’m going there yet again. We need and desire purpose and meaning in our lives, purpose-driven work, lives and hobbies, meaningful relationships, experiences, content, and more.

Sure, ChatGPT might be able to bash out some SEO-optimised content but does it help fulfil your purpose or is the content meaningful and memorable to you? Probably not.

We have the choice to use (and consume) AI, how and when we like it.

So how does this relate to employee engagement?

Let me first dive into a couple of examples of AI and then I’ll explain.

AI-driven personalised content - AI can analyse data on an individual's preferences and behaviour, then generate content tailored to their interests for example how Netflix has "suggested for you” and Spotify wrapped. On that, all well and good if it’s just for you but, if you for example, have 3 daughters (like me) who hijack it regularly it’s not so great… “I” did not listen to Taylor Swift more than anything else in 2022. OK back to my point. AI can recommend products, songs, movies etc. based on your previous purchases, and streaming service viewing history.

AI content management - AI can automatically categorise and tag content, making it easier for organisations and people to manage and access their digital assets. For example, if you search words in your Photos app, like “car” it will find all the photos with a car in them. It’s great for when you are in a conversation, and you remember a photo that you want to show someone. Nothing worse than killing a conversation because you spent too long looking for a photo 3 years ago kissing an amphibian in Cairns after winning the Cain Toad race (true story).

AI-powered content management systems can also detect duplicates, flag irrelevant or low-quality content and help you stay on top of your content library.

All this relates to employee engagement in that we love personalisation because it builds a sense of relationship, ownership and self.

Historically employee inductions and onboarding has been generic and caters for the group, not the individual, making those early first impressions of a workplace sterile, inflexible, bland and perhaps cold. AI can help personalise the content and delivery so that it feels like the company already knows you and cares for you. This is a vital building block in trust and having a sense of self in a workplace that often asks you to be like everybody else.

I saw a cool post this week from Amanda Ciccatelli. HLTH, the company she works for does something pretty cool. It provides its employees with their own unique caricatures that have little nods to what makes each employee unique. I absolutely love this but not every employer will have the time or budget for this so again this is where AI could help. I recently came across Mid-journey which is AI-generated images. READER WARNING: it is super addictive. With it, you could have employees generate their own fully personalised and unique avatars in seconds. Below is an example of some images it generated when I asked it to create a cute 3d purple and orange mail-delivering DJ (long story).

Now, what about finding the right information quickly? Having worked in contact centres for years I know the value of feeling confident in an answer when speaking to a customer and being able to do that quickly. It usually makes the call more efficient and reduces the likelihood of a customer calling back (which as we know is the biggest detractor in customer satisfaction). Having recently started at livepro, I've been impressed by the AI that helps deliver the right answer at the right time to the end user so they can provide customers what they need in a timely manner. This is a far cry from the paper folders and rubbish intranets search functions I used when I first started in call centres.

AI can also help eliminate some of the work that does not feel purposeful, instead making an employee feel like a widget-producing robot. Here is an example of what ChatGPT produced when I asked it to “build me a sales plan with 3 points, each with 3 sub-points”

So although not perfect (as it admits) it is a great base that could speed up parts of a job so employees can focus on doing what they find meaningful.

Finally, and by no means is this a conclusive list if you are interested in what other AI is out there and what it does then check out:

• Jasper AI (writes anything)


• Jenni.ai (writes essays)


• Do not pay (AI Lawyer)


• Tome (3d modeling)


• Dall-E-2 (creates art from text)


• Synthesia (creates a talking avatar)

The Wrap Up

AI-driven content is a rapidly growing field that offers many benefits, including increased efficiency, personalised content, and improved content and knowledge management etc. However, it is crucial to ensure that AI algorithms are used responsibly so that they don't perpetuate biases, undermine the quality of the content they generate and ruin all of us from bothering to read or write anything engaging.

As AI continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how it will shape the future of content creation, employee engagement and work as a whole.

One thing ChatGPT has changed for me is that I intend to add more of myself into each article (despite what Grammarly is suggesting) so you will never be in doubt that it’s me writing. These articles take me time that I could be spending elsewhere, so as I sit here writing this with my 6-year-old asking to play hide and seek for the 3rd time today, I want to make this worth your read and my time.

As always and until next time

Hooroo

By Luke Jamieson

Keywords: Generative AI, Customer Experience, Future of Work