5 Ways That AI Will Change Social Media Marketing
With Meta and X both increasing their focus on AI, and other social apps looking to integrate more AI features, what does that mean for the future of social media, and the expanded impacts on our interactive structures?
Because no matter how you look at it, social media is now a crucial element of modern interaction. Facebook has some 3 billion users, all logging into the app regularly, and relying on the platform to keep them updated on news from family and friends. 3 billion, for context, is 37% of the global population, and when you also consider that several billion people can’t access Facebook at all (it’s banned in China, and other nations, while many regions also don’t have web connectivity), that is an unprecedented amount of global engagement.
And with that in mind, what will be the impact of Meta inserting AI-generated profiles into its apps, as it’s suggested that it’s looking to do?
More engagement is a good thing for Meta, for sure, but is it also good for the actual humans typing their responses to these artificial beings?
This is just one of the considerations of the gen AI shift on social, and its expanded impacts.
Here’s a look at five key considerations for the AI push.
1. The integration of AI characters
When a Meta exec noted last month that they expect to soon integrate AI characters in their apps that will post and engage like humans, it sent alarm bells ringing for many human users.
Though it’s not an entirely unprecedented concept. Bot profiles have been interacting with your content for years, while wholly AI-generated characters are now broadcasting shopping streams in some instances.
As such, it’s not a huge surprise, while Meta also flagged this next step last year, when it re-hired Michael Sayman, who had just created a social app populated with thousands of AI characters.
And conceptually, there is some logic to the integration of these AI profiles, in that they’ll give people the dopamine hit of likes and engagement, and grow their follower counts radically. Which, no matter how you look at it, is what most social media users actually want, in attention and popularity, and that holds even if they know, logically, that not all of that attention is legit.
Like it or not, many users will simply choose not to question the humanity of their following, so long as their engagement numbers continue to go up. And for Meta, that could actually be a big win, so much so that it would unsurprising to discover that they already have some AI bot profiles in circulation, as a test to see how legitimate they seem (some people did uncover some older AI-generated profiles recently, though Meta says that these were part of an earlier test).
The ultimate impact, then, will likely be a positive for Meta’s engagement numbers, in keeping users coming back and posting more often. Because of the perception of a captive audience, because the response data indicates that people want them to keep sharing their updates. And with a selection of AI profiles juicing the numbers, that’ll also likely see more real people joining in, which will again enable a level of disassociation with the reality that not all of these profiles are real.
I do think that this is going to be a win for Meta, and I do think that, in the majority, having more “people” engaging will be of benefit for Meta users, no matter how real they may be.
There are more complex mental health questions around the development of actual relationships with AI characters, and what that could mean for people who come to depend on these simulations for companionship. Various academic studies on such have found that there are positive benefits, but also significant negatives, in exacerbating social isolation and reducing actual human contact.
Such concerns, at Meta’s scale, should be explored in more detail before pushing ahead with any such plan.
Though we all know that’s not going to happen.
2. AI misinformation and confusion
Another key element of concern in the expanded AI push is the proliferation of AI-generated content designed to depict events that never happened, in order to influence audiences.
At this stage, it’s difficult to say how significant a concern this will be. In the most recent U.S. election cycle, for example, Meta noted that the use of AI for this purpose was minimal, contributing “less than 1% of all fact-checked misinformation.”
This was expected to be the gen AI election, with a tsunami of false depictions. But it didn’t happen, which likely comes down to the questionable quality of the content being produced, and proactive measures enacted by the platforms themselves to detect such.
But AI generators are going to get better, and deepfakes will get harder to detect. So while, at this stage, there’s no evidence to suggest that a flood of fakes is going to take over, and confuse the world with such depictions, there are legitimate concerns in this area.
While at the same time, we’ve also seen an increase in accused people pointing to AI as the culprit instead of them, while we’ve also seen ridiculous AI-generated images generating big engagement in some social apps.
So such tools are being used to fool people, just not in the main way that misinformation experts had expected. Still, that does suggest that it could be used to angle people’s opinions, but maybe not at the scale anticipated.
But then again, maybe this is just the early stage, the first wave of legimately passable AI images. Broader digital literacy has likely also increased awareness, and halted the spread of such, but as the technology improves, there will be more and more ways for influence groups to use AI creations to sway elections.
Bot profiles could be another consideration, with these digital depictions able to sway voters by announcing their support (or not) for certain policies. AI providers could also angle the answers provided via their chatbots, and the more information that we filter through AI tools, the greater the vector for manipulation.
In the end, that’s more likely to be the concern, not so much in fake images and video, but in more subtle seeding of ideas through AI responses.
And that could become a bigger issue if our information preferences also narrow down, as expected.
3. Democratizing creation
At the same time, AI is providing new creative tools, for many people, enabling artistic expression beyond your wildest dreams.
Many successful artists are already integrating AI elements into their process, which provides more options to translate ideas as they see them in their heads into a form that they can share with others.
AI music generators will empower a whole new wave of artists, without requiring years of musical knowledge, AI video will see all-new cinematic expression, at a fraction of the cost, AI writing tools will help authors realize and refine their ideas.
There’s much opportunity, but at the same time, enabling people to skip those middle steps, and miss out on the key elements that make art great, will also see more sub-par content flooding in.
This is what always comes to mind when I see people making declarations like “Hollywood is so over” alongside depictions of animated content, generated by AI, which looks similar to a major production.
The thing that these creations are missing, and will always miss, is an actual human heart, a human-centered story, powered by artistic elements that align with the same creative vision, and come together to produce true art.
Very few people can master this, and it takes years of work to write a script, or to paint a picture, or compose a song that’s able to capture the emotion that the artist felt, and re-create that in the body of the viewer. It’s a medium for human connection, and generative AI is nowhere near re-creating this. And I doubt that it ever will.
So while more people will be able to create, that doesn’t mean an end to art as we know it, because to create truly resonant, meaningful art does require those middle steps, those learnings that inform your artistic choices.
Sure, you might be able to create something that looks like the art you know, but very few true artists will have the capacity to use it well.
4. AI agents
The next big step for generative AI providers is what they’re calling “AI Agents”, which are essentially bots that can also undertake additional steps and tasks on your behalf.
OpenAI previewed its coming AI Agent system, called “Operator” which will be able to undertake web-based tasks on your behalf, like booking a holiday based on your stated preferences.
These systems are considered the evolution of generative AI assistants, growing from just providing you with answers, to being able to simplify your life, by undertaking menial tasks.
LinkedIn is also developing the same, as it moves into what it’s calling the “Agentic Era”.
As per LinkedIn:
“Whether that’s helping a recruiter hire for the right role, a marketer be more successful or a learner building the right skill. We will put you, the professional, in the driver’s seat giving the agent directions for the tasks you need completed and providing oversight on actions so that it can learn your preferences and make interactions more personalized to how you work. This will give you more time and space to focus on what you love about your job, increasing your access to opportunity. We see this as giving our members and customers agency in the agentic era.”
This could be a major shift in digital interaction, impacting the marketing process as a whole. Because if people are increasingly relying on machines to do the work for them, in regards to discovery, that’s a paradigm change in how brands present themselves to prospective customers.
If, for example, AI agents are customized to user preferences, you’ll need to be one of those preferences to get their business. And if they’ve established rules that dictate such, and they’re happy with such, it’ll be even more difficult to get them to change.
This is a key consideration for the next stage, that will impact everything you do, and it could require all new thinking around how you maximize your opportunities.
Given this, I anticipate a bigger shift towards customer experience and services, and a larger focus on keeping your existing clients happy, to ensure that you remain in their agentic preferences.
5. Improving ad performance
Finally, there’s the improvement of ad performance based on machine learning and AI, which utilizes systematic understanding of what works on each platform to maximize ad engagement and response.
This is already forcing marketers to re-think what they know, and their years of understanding of customers, because AI systems are already producing better results than any level of human customization and targeting can.
Eventually, generative AI and machine pattern recognition will take a significant proportion of the human input out of ad creation, simply because it won’t need it. You’ll just give the system the URL of your product, and it’ll be able to take the descriptions and images, and create a campaign that will resonate with the right audience, based on its understanding of each individual.
It’ll be hard for any marketer to compete with this, but then again, the most resonant ad campaigns, especially those that help to build a brand, are creative, engaging, and connect with audiences on a deeper level than just need.
As a result, I think that creativity will still reign supreme in advertising, and showcasing a brand’s values in new ways. Basic DTC ads will become easier, via the process outlined above, and industry expertise will shift to maximizing AI-matching, as opposed to competing on audience and targeting knowledge.
But again, with agents coming in, branding will become more important, and storytelling is at the core of all successful branding. So while elements of marketing will be impacted, building a strong brand, that resonates with the right audience, will still come down to human connection, something that AI systems will not be able to simulate.
So, in effect, AI is going to transform many elements, and smart marketers would be wise to start learning the potential, and limitations, of AI tools, in order to maximize their efforts. But human connection is not something that machines can re-create, and not something that will be replaced so easy.
Simple ads, simple promotions, those will be swallowed up by AI, but as we move into an era where AI systems are undertaking more activities on our behalf, it’s the brand that will remain important, and the experience you can provide that’ll elevate your offerings above the rest.
Originally published at Social Media Today
