Innovation
How generative AI is reshaping thought leadership
Almost a third of leaders (29%) are already expanding their use of gen AI having proven the business case for using it in thought leadership—compared to an average of 14% for all other organizations. In contrast, three in five laggards are still researching the possibilities for gen AI in their thought leadership to build a business case for investment. Just 3% of respondents have yet to use gen AI at all in thought leadership.
ChatGPT is the most popular platform, followed by Microsoft Designer, Dall-E, and Bard. A small number, 7%, of respondents are also experimenting with their own protected sandbox/gen AI engine.
Although leaders are much more advanced in their adoption of the technology, they are exploring in the same areas as other marketers; predominantly data analysis (59%) and visual content (59%), but also idea development, written content, and desk research.
Reflective of their advanced adoption and (perhaps) understanding of gen AI, leaders appear to have a more positive view of the technology’s impact on thought leadership compared to the rest of our sample, particularly laggards. For instance, 90% of leaders believe gen AI will change thought leadership forever, compared to just 57% of laggards. Eighty-nine percent of leaders believe gen AI will make thought leadership easier to produce, compared to just 49% of laggards.
Gen AI helps kickstart our writing and avoid writer's block.
I'm positive
I'm on the fence
I'm negative
I don't know yet
The essence of thought leadership is originality. New, data-backed ideas form the basis of innovation, so when “thought leadership” parrots existing narratives and views, it becomes just another piece of content amid the noise.
Many marketers have asked whether gen AI—models that learn patterns from input data to generate new data with similar characteristics—is at odds with what thought leadership stands for.
Thought leadership producers appear conflicted on this matter: while 75% of respondents think gen AI will increase the quality of thought leadership content, 72% believe it will make everyone’s thought leadership the same.
This conflict was apparent in our interviews with leaders. Some are enthusiastic about gen AI’s strengths. “Basic grammar mistakes or even tone of voice [errors] have been eliminated,” says Shimona Chadha, Vertical Marketing Head (Americas), HCLTech. Others are concerned about misuse. “There’s a risk that it could be used by inexperienced operators and that it creates ‘synthetic data’ that confuses rather than clarifies,” says Samad Masood, Associate Vice President, Infosys Knowledge Institute, Infosys.
However, most agree that gen AI is a means to an end, not an end in itself. “The benefit of gen AI is not creating more content because it's easier and cheaper; the distinction is being able to target what you're creating,” says Jeffrey Brown, Global Marketing Director, Solutions & Services Group, Lenovo.
Marketers have a responsibility to use the technology with care. “A lack of differentiation is already a problem in a lot of content marketing, and used badly, without the right strategy and expertise in place, gen AI could industrialize that problem," says Will Sturgeon, Head of Content and Thought Leadership, PwC UK. "It can add huge value in lots of ways, but the suggestion it could simultaneously increase both the homogeneity and quality of content is an odd one. People mustn't conflate simply increasing the volume and velocity of content with increasing the value of content.”
As gen AI matures, we’ll continue to monitor the trends and track the best practice applications for gen AI in thought leadership. Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date.