AI is great at some things but not others. And it’s not a silver bullet for everything, as its current hype cycle may have you believe. In fact, it can do more harm than good in some situations according to our research, such as marketing software to SMBs that’s labeled as “AI-powered” (more on that in a bit).
Without going too much into the list of dos and don’ts, common areas where AI can be a slam dunk include saving time and automating rote tasks that users dread. For businesses, that includes things like helping them write marketing copy or at least get the ball rolling to overcome writer’s block.
AI’s broader use as a writing assistant is also gaining traction. Outside of marketing applications such as website copy, email marketing, and social posts, this can include professional writing tasks in a variety of fields. We’re talking everything from screenwriting to sales proposals to your personal social feed.
However, that last one is facing some resistance, at least in some places. LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky recently remarked that AI isn’t resonating with users as expected when it comes to users generating copy for their posts. This includes features like AI-generated suggestions for optimizing social posts.
Agency & Override
Pulling on that thread, it begs the question of why? And the answer may reveal strategic insight about where AI works and doesn’t. The prevailing theory in the halls of Localogy is that it’s all about things you want automated versus human-controlled. High-stakes endeavors are generally reserved for the latter.
In LinkedIn’s case, this is your professional face to the world, and thus a corpus of content that isn’t often trusted to automation. Even though most AI writing assistants, including LinkedIn’s current features, make a point to give the user agency and manual override, it still isn’t trusted in many cases.
“It’s not as popular as I thought it would be, quite frankly,” Roslansky told Bloomberg. “This is your resume online,” he added. “If you’re getting called out on X or TikTok, that’s one thing. But when you’re getting called out on LinkedIn, it really impacts your ability to create economic opportunity for yourself.”
Rolansky is partly referring to the cultural backlash to AI. Because it’s primed to take or nullify many jobs – and is already doing so in writing and creative professions – social feeds throughout the land are filled with trolling and social justice warriors ready to pounce on evidence of AI-generated copy.
Trust Issues
Ultimately, the question of AI’s resonance comes down to a key term above: high stakes. When things carry a level of importance – such as LinkedIn users’ professional standing – AI wanders into untrusted territory. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this phenomenon of AI’s untrustworthiness in some areas.
That brings us back to Localogy’s recent SMB research. In collaboration with Duda, we surveyed 750 SMBs to find that they’re positive overall about AI, but divided when it comes to particulars. That includes how and when it’s used. And like the above, AI largely isn’t trusted for “high stakes” functions.
These include things like payroll and other financial or operational software. This could change as SMBs – and the broader culture – get acclimated to AI. But until then, there are trust issues. Reticence can also be overcome to a certain degree if AI’s automation benefits and time savings are great enough.
Lastly, back to the part about AI doing “more harm than good” in some cases, SMBs in our survey were much more receptive to the term “automation” than “AI.” The former has more street cred, which has important strategic implications for selling software to SMBs, and how it should be framed.
Check out more about the report and its findings in our recent webinar, as well as the full report itself.
Header image credit: Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
