Navigating the age of content abundance: A double-edged sword
Generative AI represents a transformative force in content creation. When used strategically, it offers immense potential to scale creative content, accelerate output, and achieve growth — to realize previously unattainable marketing goals, such as true 1:1 personalization, and unlock near-limitless opportunities for brand differentiation and business value.
But in the age of content abundance — an era when organizations can create massive amounts of content at unprecedented speed using generative AI — success is not guaranteed.
There’s another alternate world where enterprises’ implementation of generative AI for content creation is inconsistent and nonstrategic — possibly even detrimental to their organization. It’s a world filled with low-quality, homogeneous content that washes over audiences in a vast and tepid sea of sameness, diluting brands, eroding consumer trust, and drowning creative teams in routine tasks.
“Generative AI is going to flood the market with content and make it hard to find the real gems.”
– Johannes Saam, Technologist futurist, Framestore
While generative AI holds tremendous promise for creative and marketing leaders, it can be a double-edged sword if not wielded carefully.
Navigating the age of content abundance
To effectively embrace generative AI for enterprise content creation, organizations need to think long-term about the people, processes, and technology required for this transformation. And to use generative AI to produce consistent, meaningful experiences, they must invest the time and resources to maximize brand performance, uniqueness, and safety.
Adobe research has identified five key imperatives to help your organization navigate the age of content abundance.
1. Evolve the role of creative teams. The proliferation of generative AI is a major inflection point for creatives. Immediate impacts will be a reduction in traditionally rote tasks, increased efficiency, and more strategic responsibilities. Teams should be empowered to design new systems that scale content creation and production while ensuring brand consistency and quality. Competitive advantage will come from elevating creatives to a higher level of abstraction that leads to greater personalization, better self-service, and more revenue.
2. Avoid brand dilution and drive differentiation. Adopted without strategy, generative AI can exacerbate content homogeneity. Many organizations will use the same tools and even the same consumer data to mass-produce generic material that doesn’t stand out or drive engagement, dilutes the brand, and diminishes marketing results.
3. Integrate human ingenuity and creativity with AI. While generative AI excels at scaling production, the human touch ensures content is resonant and distinctive in an increasingly saturated market. For early creative processes, the technology is an idea partner, helping teams visualize and expand the conceptualization canvas. For later-stage development, it can become an execution agent.
“When combined with human taste, generative AI will unlock groundbreaking ideas and new forms of expression and revolutionize how we bring brands to life.”
— Heather Freeland, Chief Brand officer, Adobe
4. Manage trust and loyalty. Generative AI has the potential to significantly affect audience attitudes and behaviors. Consumers are excited about its ability to redefine experiences, but they have concerns about accuracy, sensitivity, and attribution to creators — all of which can impact trust and purchasing behavior. Enterprises need to walk this tightrope carefully, continuing to innovate while mitigating negative impacts on brand perception and loyalty.
70% of consumers are less likely to purchase when brand content doesn’t accurately represent products, and 63% are less likely to purchase when content is biased or insensitive.
5. Redefine ROI beyond productivity. Productivity and efficiency are a common driver of generative AI adoption for enterprises, but focusing solely on boosting the bottom line won’t drive differentiation or competitive advantage in the long term. An Accenture report found that organizations that reinvest productivity gains to deliver consumer value will see 25 percent revenue growth over those prioritizing cost reduction and speed to market. Brands that reinvest the savings of generative AI for content creation into growth initiatives will benefit the most.
“What do we do with the extra time generative AI gives us? We reinvest it to produce higher quality content and grow the brand.”
— Mauro Porcini, Chief Design officer, PepsiCo
In the age of content abundance, get curated generative AI guidance
Enterprises that embrace generative AI purposefully have the opportunity to thrive in this new era of content abundance. But without a balanced strategy, organizations won’t fully realize generative AI’s potential.
While creative and marketing leaders recognize the skyrocketing demands for content, the direct benefits and uses of generative AI are still uncharted territory.
Unlock Adobe’s actionable strategies for AI-driven content creation in this report.