How are your peers using AI tools for their thought leadership in 2024? We conducted research to find out.
Generative AI only became publicly available a little over a year ago. Since then, your firm has likely found itself in one of two camps: Either you’re a pro at prompts (and therefore overall productivity), or you’re stuck on experimental mode.
Regardless of where you stand, you aren’t alone, and we have the data to prove it. We surveyed over 230 middle-market professional services firms from consulting and IT services to architecture, engineering, and financial services. Our goal: Understand how firms are incorporating AI into their thought leadership development process.
The biggest takeaway? The newly formed adage “AI won’t take your job, but people using AI will,” may well be true. Here’s what the data say.
AI IS MOST POPULAR IN THE EARLY STAGES OF THOUGHT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
AI adoption is widespread. In fact, the vast majority of firms — 90% — are using AI in some aspect of thought leadership development.
While most firms are using AI, we found almost all use cases occur at the “execution layer” of organizations (99.5%, according to our podcast interview with David DeWolf of KnownWell). This means people are using tools like ChatGPT and Bard to enhance their personal productivity, without specific instructions or mandates from their company.
Whether you struggle with sales outreach emails or need help buttoning up a piece of thought leadership content, AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Bing can help you execute your marketing goals. They can be useful for everything from brainstorming topics and drafting outlines to creating metadata, SEO, and engaging social media promotional copy.
Further, our survey found firms are more likely to use AI at the early stages of content development than for the actual content creation process or for later stages of publishing and promotion:
- 55% frequently or always use it to develop a preliminary outline
- 55% frequently or always use it to perform secondary research
On the other side of the process, we learned:
- 46% frequently or always use it to develop a finished asset (write an article, generate a video, etc.)
- 47% frequently or always use it to develop metadata and SEO elements for a content piece
- 49% frequently or always use it to develop promotional content (e.g. social media posts)
Respondents used AI tools less frequently to:
- Identify new topics
- Edit the final draft of an article
- Produce images for content
- Generate audio for content (for example, an AI-generated voiceover for a video or article)
Bottom line: While AI tools are being utilized more heavily for the earlier stages of the process, like outlining and research, there seems to be some value in leveraging AI capabilities for later stages like asset creation, metadata optimization, and promotional content.
TOP THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS TAKE AN END-TO-END AI APPROACH
We asked respondents to rate their thought leadership programs based on how effectively they are:
- Identifying the right focus issues
- Creating original research-driven content
- Turning internal expertise into content
- Successfully marketing their thought leadership
- Leveraging thought leadership to win more work
- Turning their thought leadership into differentiated services
- Cultivating a culture conducive for thought leadership to take hold
Notably, the firms who rated in the “top quartile” of effectiveness (i.e. those firms who’s total effectiveness scores put them in the top 25% of the sample) overwhelmingly use AI.
- 81% frequently or always use it to identify new topics
- 83% frequently or always use it to edit article drafts
But here’s the kicker: Across the board, these top quartile firms are 20% more likely to frequently or always use AI in all aspects of their process.
So not only have these firms figured out how to leverage AI to make their process more efficient, but they’ve found that making the most of what these tools can do fosters a more impactful program overall.
THE TAKEAWAY: USE AI TO MAINTAIN A COMPETITIVE EDGE
There is more to explore about the intersection of meaningful thought leadership programs and the role of AI tools in the development process. As both your firm’s needs and AI tools evolve, so too will the working dynamics between you, the human expert, and your artificial intelligence counterparts.
But one thing is certain: Incorporating these rapidly evolving tech tools into your production process can be a key driver in the success of your thought leadership efforts.
While AI can’t create a compelling POV for your firm or lend your firm’s unique viewpoint on critical, topical issues, it can streamline and sharpen the ways in which you share it. The firms who feel most confident in their thought leadership programs are proof.
Ready to dive deeper into how AI is shaping the consulting industry? Check out our recent webinar, AI and Thought Leadership.
