I’ve seen a lot of surveys that say that one of the low-hanging fruits for AI today is in “creating content.” 

The message these reports tend to give is that distributors shouldn’t wait. Get your team on ChatGPT immediately! It will solve all your content creation problems.

The problem: This oversimplifies the role ChatGPT and generative AI tools can and should play in sales and marketing content generation for distributors. And it undervalues the content your team uses every day to support their sales efforts.

Think about the breadth of content you need to support your sales and marketing efforts: 

• Product content  
• Blog posts 
• Technical sheets 
• Case studies 
• Guides 
• Website copy 
• Email campaigns 
• Direct mail 
• Sales flyers 
• Sales rep emails 

The risk of applying AI universally to all these conveniently avoids answering one big question.

What is your differentiator?

If it’s your expertise, you need to then decide which content must be infused with that knowledge to be credible, relevant and useful to your team and, more importantly, your customers.

And, on the flip side, where AI can amplify content at scale that may not need that personal touch. In the hands of the average user, most content coming out of a GenAI tool can be bland. It simply does not engage — especially if you don’t edit or add anything to it.

That can be fine for some applications. For example, product descriptions for your eCommerce site may be a great target for the use of AI. (But they still need a human’s review to ensure you’re not sharing wrong or even dangerous information.)

Content that isn’t a candidate for 100% AI? An educational article on how to use the right fastener in a specific application in a subzero environment … in your local market. That requires insight from your technical experts to get it right or there could be real consequences.

Because today, anyone can leverage ChatGPT or similar tools to find an answer. They don’t even need to go to Google anymore. So, you need to add what you bring to the table to the conversation.

It’s the difference between fast food (generic/predictable) and a high-quality home-cooked meal (personal effort tailored to an audience’s preferences).

It’s the same reason they reach out to your sales reps or product specialists. They need someone who can give them advice tailored to their needs. Given that many B2B buyers no longer want to reach out first to a sales rep, you need to share that expertise in other ways.

We interview distributors’ subject matter experts every day and infuse the content we create with their unique points of view and experiences in the field. That’s missing from pure AI-generated content, which means it will be far less effective.

And that brings up my final point.

The idea that AI can take over all content creation for a business overlooks all the work that needs to happen around that content – AI-generated or not – to ensure that what you’re creating is worth creating.

AI is a tool. It’s not a replacement strategist, researcher, professional writer or video producer. Without a strategy behind your sales and marketing content, your content will fall flat.

Simply put, whether a human or machine is creating content, you still need a reason to do it, topics that align with your customers’ pain points (which requires talking to your customers) and a plan to distribute it.

Most distributors bank their businesses on their expertise. Without a check on the content they’re creating, they’re throwing that differentiator out the window.

The Final Word

I’m not against using ChatGPT or similar tools. I use them in certain applications. But be careful and selective about where you apply AI. And make sure someone is overseeing that effort. As these tools stand now, they cannot replace your team 1:1 unless you want your sales and marketing content to fail.