The Future of AI for Content Generation

Recently we launched the AI Content Generation Market Map and a few voices in “AI marketing land” suggested either Google or Microsoft were going to come along and buy up the leading AI content generation tool companies.

It’s a little early to say if the future of AI for content has been decided just yet.  Here are a few reasons why. 

Machine Language Model Opportunity

With the development of GPT-3 by OpenAI and the growth of the number of AI writing companies as a result, we now know better where the opportunities exist. The industry sees what’s possible with AI content generation tools, and their proliferation has exploded.

Even if OpenAI is impacted in the future, there are other models out there. If other language model companies open their doors to give startups looking for more opportunities to enter, then today’s AI content generation companies have the option to move to other language models. Some AI companies already take data from several models. 

Artificial Intelligence Content Category: Scope Opportunities

 The AI content creation category’s scope of opportunity is so large, it may not be possible for any single company to provide solutions for every application, every type of content, every channel. To explain the scope of the AI content creation technology category, 20 years ago blogging appeared on the scene and changed content marketing forever. AI content generation is a technology that will have many different subcategories, comparing the technology with blogging. AI content writing has as many applications as blogging, but with blogging, a technology provider just needs to enable customers to tailor the design of the blog for their own brand and industry. Each kind of content has its own set of rules and requirements when using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to generate content. For example, generating long-form content differs from creating landing page copy, press releases, headline text, or ad copy. There are lots of companies that write generic long-form content for their clients. For AI content companies, the key skill will be creating different types of templates for various kinds of content or channels. Part of that process will be in discovering what content has the greatest impact. Consider how many different kinds of content exist, including landing pages, ads, headlines, etc., and how they differ.

There’s space for different AI marketing companies to specialize in a way that early blog platform companies didn’t have to. One blog technology platform could be used for multiple types of content, including travel, banking, law (etc.). Yes, the blog has to look different, but the essential technical functions of how content is produced on a blogging platform are much the same. Different types of content require different amounts of content creation. Some types of content need less than others. This allows AI content companies to specialize in different types. The jury is still out on whether the winners will be AI content companies that build specific models for their type of content or companies that provide models for every type of content.  A key determinant might be how AI companies track the progress and results from their produced content. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Writing Company Acquisitions and Mergers

Will there be consolidation amongst AI writing software companies? There are already examples of buyouts and mergers, and by their nature support the issue that the opportunity with AI content companies may lie with many different AI content companies focusing on the different forms of content. 

• Unbounce purchased Smart Copy (Snazzy AI) in May of 2021 to help enhance Unbounce’s landing pages
• Hootsuite bought conversational AI vendor Heyday. Tom Keiser, CEO, Hootsuite, said, “Modern-day brands have to manage a multitude of daily interactions and conversations at scale—which is impossible to do without AI automation. With the acquisition of Heyday, Hootsuite will now give AI capabilities to marketing, sales, and support teams globally so they can deliver exceptional experiences at scale.
• Unbounce is an example of a leading technology company in one market, the landing page builders market buying an AI content company to bring AI content innovation into the landing page optimization industry. Content is part of the landing page builders market, and having research, briefing capabilities, and AI writing capabilities will be part of that marketing technology category into the future. Unbounce stated in its press release about the Snazzy.ai purchase that content is one of the top deciding factors in page optimization. 

Unbounce has about an 18% market share and is second in market share in the landing page market according to Datanyze

So, the question to ask is whether or not artificial intelligence (AI) content creation will be able to help competitors like Unbounce support their clients and thereby increase its market share of the landing page industry. It may be true that there was some truth to the idea that consolidation would happen in AI marketing, but maybe the opportunity for acquisitions comes from different technology companies that dominate other technology categories.

Big or Small: Artificial Intelligence Content Generation Opportunity

PR pitches or research that works for a journalist based on their previous work, stories for role-playing games, are just a couple of examples of niches in content types that AI writing companies may support in one of their AI writing templates. Each company has an opportunity to create its own unique templates. Microsoft and Google aren’t going to waste their time supporting hundreds of small markets. Not unless they have a tool that works across many, many small markets. So it’s unlikely that these specialized AI companies will be acquired by one of the large software companies any time soon.

Over the past several years, there has been an explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) content generation technology. According to AIContentGen’s AI Content Generation Market Map, there are now over fifty different companies offering their own solutions for generating AI content. Now is not the time to turn away from AI content generation for fear of consolidation. There might be some consolidation yet there’s a great opportunity for content marketers in many of the AI offerings that exist today. This is the time to discover the AI writing tools that are available and to learn how to leverage them for better productivity and results. This is a very exciting time to be in content development. And the future certainly involves more AI. Embrace it!

AIContentGen and its Senior Analysts, Scott Sweeney and John Cass are solely focused on researching, publishing, and consulting on the AI Content Generation for marketing, communication teams, agencies, and the writer’s marketplace. If you’re searching for the latest and greatest information, then AIContenGen has got you covered! Keep current by following us on LinkedIn, and subscribing to our blog.