Content generation is increasingly being undertaken using management platforms and dispersed teams of freelancers, rather than traditional fixed role, in-house teams.
This trend is evident in a burgeoning gig economy and a rise in technology companies providing HR and content platforms. Over and above AI, these content marketplaces represent the future of content creation.
AI for content generation is a long way off
Though AI seems to be a trend that is living up to the hype, content generation is one area where its potential impact is perhaps overblown.
Yes, deep learning is proven to craft more effective email subject lines and other short calls to action (such as in display advertising) but natural language processing is nowhere near good enough to craft long form copy.
Yes, deep learning can be used to manipulate images and even create convincing new ones (see below), as well as create movie trailers it seems, but the training of these networks and the ‘robot hand-holding’ necessary means they are also a long way from proving an autonomous solution.
What are content marketplaces?
Content marketplaces are in vogue. They connect businesses with writers, graphic designers, film makers and the like. Though marketplaces are nothing new, the technology they offer is improving and plays a big part in eliminating inefficiencies during large scale content production.
One such marketplace is Quill, which specialises in creating what it calls ‘primary content’, the content that influences consumers at the point of conversion, be it product descriptions or buying guides.
Quill’s cloud platform automates network management, quality control, production and delivery processes. Work can be viewed and edited in the platform, and APIs can deliver the content to a client’s CMS or ecommerce platform. Access to hundreds of freelancers and the automation of bureaucracy such as allocation of tasks and invoicing is what makes this kind of platform a candidate for increasing scale and speed.
For companies with thousands of product SKUs, platforms like Quill are a way to achieve well-crafted content quickly.
Another notable marketplace is Gigster, this time in engineering. Gigster is a software development service which uses more than 700 freelancers to work on projects for corporate giants such as MasterCard and Airbus. One interesting component of the Gigster service is its use of AI to increase the efficiency of its projects.
The company monitors projects to look for patterns that predict bugs or issues with deliverables, assessing activity data across software such as Trello, Slack and GitHub.
Gigster ultimately allows its clients to use a blended workforce of inhouse and freelancers, and to develop projects with much greater speed.
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