The AI backlash is commencing - here’s what you can learn from the big brands

How rad is AI? I don’t think I’ve spoken to anyone lately who hasn’t found a use for it. But we all also know that, a lot of the time, AI-generated content is quite shit. 

Sure, we can punch out a whole lot of content super-quickly, but then what? We spend a chunk of time going through and fixing it up all the hackneyed phrasing, the weird context statements, and the glaring factual errors. 

Source: Reddit

Or, worse still, we don’t. 

Everyone has been in a rush to find the best uses for AI, to get ahead of the game, and to increase their productivity by 7000% (whether or not this is great from a mental health perspective is a whole other conversation we’ll have another time). 

If you’re a small-to-medium business (SME), you might be struggling to keep up, because you need to have the resources to stay on top of the weekly AI developments - how to write prompts, which platforms are doing what, and how to automate your content so it runs itself while you’re sleeping - while also running your actual business and doing what you do best. 

But before you invest a whole lot into AI-generated content, hiring an AI prompt engineer (that’s a real job now, BTW), or just run into the street screaming, let’s take a breath and look up at what’s going on in the world. 

Looking to lessons from the big brands

Big brands have big budgets and the ability to launch themselves into whatever they like, and Rolling Stone reports there’s a massive backlash against AI that’s starting to occur. 

They’re figuring out that the content AI produces can sometimes lack the nuance, empathy, and authenticity that us human creators bring. This can lead to consumer backlash, damaging a brand’s reputation and eroding customer trust.

(We don’t want to be one of those ‘I told you so’ types, but this is what we predicted back at the start of the year.)

Here are a few instances we’ve seen lately:

Eroding trust in the media

A few media outlets have found themselves in hot water recently after publishing AI-generated articles under made-up bylines. The content has been sub-par, to say the least, leaving readers calling BS and clicking away - because why would you trust that site to bring you the news? For any business, no matter what industry you’re in, maintaining trust in your content is key to building brand loyalty, and the lessons these media outlets are learning is a great one for SMEs to take note of and avoid.

Shifting away from Google

Even tech giant Google isn't immune to overusing its AI. I don’t know if you’ve googled anything lately, but Google has been allowing its search results to fill up with AI-generated content, inadvertently burying useful, high-quality information under a heap of low-value, generic articles (or slop, as we now call it).

While Google still dominates the search world, we are starting to see a movement away from the platform towards ChatGPT (if you’re going to use AI, you may as well be up-front about it), or social media platforms like TikTok. 

Applause's 2024 Generative AI Survey found that 91% of people are using chatbots for research, and 81% prefer them over search engines for basic queries. 

But what about when people want in-depth information, or knowledge they can trust? That’s where your opportunity as a subject matter expert comes in. 

The now infamous Willy Wonka pop-up disaster

In Scotland, a Willy Wonka-themed family event turned into a fiasco when AI-generated images used for marketing set unrealistic expectations of what people would actually find there. Families expecting a magical experience were met with a grim warehouse-like setting instead. The resulting outrage sparked a range of hilarious memes, but was also a powerful lesson in the dangers of misleading marketing. 

The backlash against AI-generated content

The public’s discontent with AI-generated content is growing by the week. People aren’t stupid, and they don’t like to be treated as such. Consumers are starting to demand more transparency and authenticity from businesses, and relying too heavily on AI is leading to a backlash.

Smart brands are getting ahead of this movement in some clever ways:

Dove’s stance against AI

Dove made headlines recently by pledging not to use AI-generated content in its ads, aligning with their "Real Beauty" campaign, where they use real people over airbrushed models. And people are loving it. Dove is reinforcing the brand’s commitment to authenticity and showing that choosing human content over AI can actually strengthen brand loyalty.

Cara and PosterSpy ban AI altogether

Creative platforms like Cara and PosterSpy have taken strong stances against AI-generated content. Cara filters out AI images to promote authentic artwork, while PosterSpy enforces a strict no-AI policy to protect the integrity of their artists. Rather than flowing with the AI tide, these platforms are carving out their own niche, catering to a growing audience who are demanding genuine creative expressions, proving that there's still a significant market for human-generated content.

Can consumers really spot AI-generated content?

As we discussed above, consumers aren’t stupid, and they’re becoming pretty good at identifying AI content. That old adage that you can fool some of the people some of the time is true here, but fooling all of the people all of the time won’t fly.

Some of your common hints are:

1. Lack of depth and emotion - AI content just doesn’t have the depth, emotion, and personal touch that a good human writer does. All the facts may be there but there’s something mechanical about it. 

2. Repetitive patterns - AI tends to lean heavily on repetitive patterns and phrasing, making the content feel same-same. 

3. Contextual errors - AI doesn’t do context, so will make errors that a (halfway decent) human writer would not make. AI, for instance, knows ‘kick the bucket’ means to die, but it may not know that you should definitely not use that term in an official obituary.

Lessons from the big brands

So what lessons can we take and apply to our marketing, without throwing all the money at it that the big brands have done?

Here are a few:

1. Prioritise quality over quantity - While AI can produce oodles of content in seconds, your secret weapon is your ability to create quality content. Authentic, well-crafted content created by humans who know what they’re talking about and who actually care about their customers is far more likely to engage and retain your customers, and to help build long-term brand loyalty.

2. Maintain human oversight - If you’re going to use AI-generated content, make sure it’s always reviewed and approved by human editors. This helps catch errors and ensures your content aligns with your brand’s voice and values.

3. Use AI as a tool, not a writer - AI is great for mundane tasks like data analysis and initial content outlines, but nothing can replace human creativity and insight for your final outputs. This hybrid approach gives you the efficiency we’re all after without sacrificing your authenticity and connection with your customers.

4. Be transparent with your audience - If you use AI in your content creation process, be up-front and transparent about it with your audience. This helps you to build trust and shows that you value honesty and authenticity.

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