This Week in Marketing: Artificial Intelligence and Human Ingenuity

What is the future of AI in marketing?

Artificial intelligence can automate your manual marketing tasks, spot data trends to better focus your marketing, help your team act on micro-moments, and provide personalization at a massive scale. It can even (with limitations) draft marketing content for you.

But the one thing AI can’t do is have an original thought. This technology can combine ideas, synthesize topics and regurgitate them — but it’s not thinking (at least not yet). It still falls to us as marketers to think about what we’re offering our audience and make sure it’s valuable, thoughtful, honest and helpful.

It’s important to remember that AI is still subject to human limitations, too. AI that is trained on biased data will reflect all-too-human biases in its output. As we automate more and more of marketing, diversity in marketing teams will be more important than ever.

In this week’s roundup, we start with a piece to help marketers better understand the possibilities and responsibilities of AI. 

Read on for the best new marketing content from the LinkedIn Collective and the rest of the internet.

What to Read

Why Understanding Responsible AI is Important for Your Brand (LinkedIn Collective): Artificial intelligence will be a major part of the future of marketing. It’s up to marketers to use these tools not just effectively, but responsibly as well. I worked with Christopher Treshan Perera to put together this brief primer.

3 Keys to Authentic Sustainability Marketing on LinkedIn (LinkedIn Collective): As AI content proliferates, authentic human connection becomes a greater differentiator. Here Alexandra Morales shares tips to ensure you’re hitting the right notes with your sustainability messaging on LinkedIn.

What B2B and B2C Marketers Can Learn from the World of Politics (Basis Technologies): Honesty, authenticity, and transparency may not be features of political advertising. But, according to Clare McKinley, marketers can still learn tips on team-building, agility, and more from those ubiquitous ads. 

7 Content Writing Trends For 2023 (Search Engine Journal): From AI and video to podcasting and in-person events, Ron Lieback takes a thorough look into the near future of content marketing in this insightful piece.

How to Optimize LinkedIn Content for B2B Marketing (MarTech): B2B marketers can use LinkedIn to build a community, strengthen brand relationships, establish thought leadership, and much more. Michael Brenner lays out six ways to make your content marketing on LinkedIn more strategic and effective. 

4 Strategies for B2B Marketers to Increase ROI During the Economic Downturn (Entrepreneur): The current economic landscape may be challenging, but it’s still possible to get ahead. Growth marketing advisor Tal Schlosberg shares his tips for dealing with longer buying cycles, budget restrictions, and more.

What to Watch

The Best of B2B Thought Leadership

In this clip from the latest LinkedIn Collective Live, Tusar Barik from LinkedIn and Joseph Kingsbury from Edelman share examples of businesses doing B2B thought leadership right.

What to Know

The most successful marketers never stop learning. These 20 marketing books every marketer should read are a great jumping-on point for your continuing education.

Follow the LinkedIn Collective for even more expert insights, and register for the next LinkedIn Collective Live: Driving Startup Growth in Today’s Macro Environment.