This week’s blog is contributed by PPR Strategies’s winter 2024 intern, Rachel Carroll.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is the trendy buzzword on everyone’s lips. During my internship at PPR Strategies, I took a core class on AI and its applications in marketing. I learned that AI is way more than just a trend, it is an efficiency tool that can be used to the advantage of countless industries, including economic development organizations (EDOs).
At PPR, we believe in embracing new technologies and that AI should be viewed as a useful tool instead of as a replacement for a human employee.
It is essential for EDOs to create a personal touch when marketing their region. As a result, many choose to keep the “smart assistants” and prompt generators at arm’s length.
However, this doesn’t mean that all AI should be shunned. Think of the relationship between AI and human intelligence as one based on collaboration, not competitiveness. It’s essential to keep human connection at the forefront of your organization’s mission and message, and it’s equally important to utilize tools that can cut down time spent on trivial tasks. That way, you’ll be able to hone more energy into the efforts that truly require a human perspective.
With that being said, here are some AI tools you could use to increase productivity and efficiency:
ChatGPT: ChatGPT is a chatbot created by OpenAI that is trained to respond to prompts given by users. Using ChatGPT, you can outline a research report, ask it to explain difficult concepts, provide topic inspiration for content, and more. Although it’s no substitute for creating personalized written content, it can inspire you and help brainstorm ideas based on the information you feed it. Additionally, it can be used for more technical purposes like organizing your thoughts through designing outlines or agendas.
Grammarly: Grammarly is an online writing and grammar-checking tool that helps users improve their writing. While this tool is heavily used by essay-writing college students, it is useful for all forms of composition! AI capabilities have recently been added to Grammarly to help users instantly re-write paragraphs, outline ideas, adjust tone, and draft different content pieces like email messages, company updates, and progress reports.
vidyo.ai: If you’re looking to upload clips from conferences, presentations, or podcasts on TikTok or Instagram Reels but don’t want to go through hours of video footage searching for highlights, vidyo-ai is for you. After uploading your video to vidyo.ai, you will be presented with minute-long highlights from your original video that can be repurposed into short-form video content. They even provide captions!
Eightify: In the same vein as vidyo.ai, Eightify can scan any 30-minute YouTube video and create a summary that identifies its key points. If you don’t have time to sit through a YouTube video and pause every minute to take notes, Eightify could be of great help. As always, though, be sure to scan through what Eightify writes to ensure accuracy. While AI is a sophisticated processing tool, it’s not 100% reliable.
Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a paid social media management tool that provides the ability to publish and schedule posts, AI content creation, and more. Marketers will be the first to complain about how tedious pulling social media analytics can be. Using Hootsuite, you can auto-generate analytic reports that list ideal posting schedules, improve your social media’s ROI through tracked conversions and goal tracking, and repurpose your top-performing posts.
Each of these tools can save you time, improve your organization’s content creation process, and still maintain your brand’s professionalism and voice. Remember! Always double-check any AI-generated content before posting it online!
We hope to see more EDOs embrace AI as a collaborative tool for creating efficiencies and handling monotonous tasks, freeing up staff to focus on more nuanced undertakings.
A helping hand can come in many forms: a useful AI tool, a networking group, a guiding mentor—the list is endless. PPR Strategies can also help support your efforts alongside these other great resources! Want to know more? Click here to sign up for our newsletter and get the conversation started.
Reimagining Places With You,
Rachel Carroll and the PPR Strategies team
