Last week, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a dialogue-based AI chat interface that makes it possible for anyone to take advantage of its GPT-3 language model to produce uncannily human-like text. The entire technology industry was quickly transfixed. Entrepreneurs and investors spent last weekend glued to computer screens, experimenting with the tool to better understand its possibilities and limitations.

“ChatGPT is one of those rare moments in technology where you see a glimmer of how everything is going to be different going forward,” tweeted Box CEO Aaron Levie. And entrepreneur and Y Combinator Co-Founder Paul Graham said “The striking thing about the reaction to ChatGPT is not just the number of people who are blown away by it, but who they are. These are not people who get excited by every shiny new thing. Clearly something big is happening.”

Marketing will be one of the first job functions transformed by the tool, because of its heavy focus on research and writing. While it is by no means perfect, if ChatGPT can cut down on even a small percentage of time it takes for a marketer to complete a task, we’ll see teams flock to the technology for a competitive advantage, and the very nature of their jobs will change permanently.

ChatGTP is already changing how I do my job; stay tuned for examples of how I used it to write this piece.

Content marketers in particular will need to develop a strong understanding of how to use the product to customize generated content so that it suits business needs—they'll need to master thoughtful editing, organizing and enriching with perspective or personality. We’ll soon see a proliferation of new courses that teach individuals how to phrase searches and set parameters to achieve the best outcomes with ChatGPT. Marketers that are masters of the technology will jump leaps and bounds ahead of their peers. 

SEO will also become more exponentially complicated. Many companies develop low-quality content with keywords and linkbacks, simply to improve their search engine rankings. In 2022, Google made ongoing efforts to cut back on spam and prioritize helpful content. When used with human intervention, ChatGPT can help companies develop content that is both high-quality and SEO optimized as the technology can be used to generate text with targeted keywords and phrases.

Here is how ChatGPT responded to my question about SEO and Google’s search algorithm:

Not every company will follow best practices, so ChatGPT could also lead to a proliferation of generic, spammy content that forces Google to further evolve their ranking algorithms. In the coming years, marketers will need to consider how ChatGPT is being used as its own search engine, replacing Google, and how they can adapt their SEO strategy for ChatGPT searches.

While the current iteration of the product doesn’t yet take into account real-time information, future releases will allow media to publish breaking news faster, fact check and produce more content—which could change how public relations teams pitch stories and secure coverage on behalf of clients. There will likely be a proliferation of news outlets that rely solely on ChatGPT and may offer a pay-per-engagement model, while others that provide more in-depth, editorialized stories with human input and perspective. Publicists will need to know how to secure coverage and work with both, or a mix of the two.

Communications teams will also be able to understand trends and expand on ideas faster than ever, to produce unique social media and thought leadership content in new ways. As more companies and individuals have the tools needed to develop compelling content, differentiation will require compelling visual content, partnering with influencers to amplify messages, and raising the quality bar with a focus on bold, controversial, or unique perspectives which ChatGPT isn’t capable of producing.

While one article can barely scratch the surface on the ways that ChatGPT will change how we work, the tool itself helped me come up with concise, well-structured arguments and examples that were used throughout this article.

To optimize the use of ChatGTP, it is crucial to ask pointed, specific questions. To ensure I was able to construct a fair and balanced piece, I requested for the “positives and negatives” or “pros and cons” of certain issues.

Here is how ChatGTP responded to my question about its use to support marketing writing:

For the editorialized writing we do at my PR agency Six Eastern, the tool is helpful for expanding upon and organizing thoughts with speed. In drafting this story, it was not able to add my strong perspective, or perfectly convey many of the finer points I wanted to make. For example, the tweets I referenced in the first paragraph were self-researched and the argument that it’s crucial marketers master ChatGTP is all my own.

It’s important to note the value I find from the tool isn’t the same as how other parts of marketing may perceive it. For example, when writing a jingle or tagline, ChatGTP’s value is its ability to spark creativity rather than provide research or well-constructed writing.