These words were written entirely by Chat GBT in answer to a question about the manufacture of children’s toys in 2023 and the response took just under 5 seconds to produce:

“In 2023, the manufacture of children's toys in the UK has seen a continued focus on sustainability and safety, reflecting a growing awareness of environmental concerns and consumer demand for responsibly sourced materials. Many toy manufacturers have embraced innovative technologies, such as 3D printing and advanced materials, to create toys that are not only engaging but also durable and eco-friendly. 

“Stringent safety standards and regulations have been upheld to ensure the well-being of children, with increased emphasis on non-toxic and hypoallergenic materials. Additionally, the industry has witnessed a surge in customisable and educational toys, catering to the evolving needs of parents who seek products that stimulate cognitive development. 

“Collaborations with local artists and designers have flourished, fostering a vibrant and diverse range of toys that celebrate British creativity and craftsmanship. Overall, the landscape of children's toy manufacturing in the UK in 2023 is characterised by a commitment to quality, safety, and environmental consciousness.”

We would rate the standard of content so speedily produced as very competent for the information given and for the style and flow of the writing in dealing logically with a wide-ranging topic.

Actually, we only asked for one paragraph to be produced, but Chat GBT had a lot to say about toys, so we split the text into three paras to make it more readable!

Of course, the use of artificial intelligence covers a huge range of activities in industry, commerce, finance, healthcare and other areas, so the production of written content is just a small part of the range of solutions it can offer.

Yet it is a particularly important one, because some see it as a threat to the jobs of people in the creative industries, such as the marketing and copywriting services that we provide at BBI Brandboost. So it is worth saying now that we have the opposite view. We are hugely enthusiastic and excited about AI as a support for the work we carry out for clients!

Why do people worry about AI?

Apart from the anxieties about AI and robotics taking over the jobs previously carried out by people, with subsequent loss of careers and earnings, there are a number of other valid concerns that have been raised about AI in particular. These include:

1. Its ability to produce fake information and fake visual images that are credible to a greater or lesser extent.
2. The potential lack of authoritative authenticity in any documents presented for scrutiny from academic theses to marketing proposals. In other words, can we trust that what we read reflects the views, knowledge and experience of people that wrote this?

BBI Brandboost produced several articles about AI, or with reference to it, for our website newsroom in 2023. Back in May, I wrote a piece titled “Is AI the Devil you Don’t Know?”. In this I included comments from two members of our team with in-depth experience in marketing and communications. Their observations were as follows:

From Account Director Jason Freeman

“Marketing agencies may adopt AI to help with copywriting. If those agencies or their clients believe that this new tool will be some kind of marketing panacea – that the bot they call up will suddenly ensure a higher rank in search results or more website traffic – they have a shock coming. As Google says: ‘Using AI doesn't give content any special gains. It's just content.

“I stick to the point that AI is a tool to serve us rather than being a means of managing and controlling the creation of online content. This has to be the product of human inspiration rather than an automated process. Otherwise, how can we progress to new and innovative ideas?”

From Head of Communications Ronnie Gunn

“Businesses like ourselves are bombarded with emails, including one that was recently misdirected to us by a company offering 50 blog articles per month.

“This instantly smacks of automation which would be a turn-off for most people. Industry spokesmanship is a major way that PR can promote the views of their clients through the personal expertise of those that work with them in a managerial or technical capacity. But if blogs by-lined by an author are perceived to be automated, that would instantly spell dishonesty which would have a massive negative impact on the brand in question.”

So from the perspective of professional marketers, we believe that:

1. AI is an exceptionally powerful and useful tool, but should be used as a template for the production of content rather than the automated author of a finished product. This has to be enhanced by the creativity, research and knowledge of human input. For instance, our Chat GBT generated introduction to this article about toy manufacture is competent but cold. It lacks both specific examples of successful generic products and a sense of enthusiasm about a manufacturing sector that gives so much pleasure to children, especially at birthdays and Christmas! 
2. The absolute imperative of checking facts, probably through multiple authoritative sources, is a core demand on marketing agencies and must continue to be so. We are rightly required to substantiate information and messaging that we communicate on behalf of our clients. This can be obtained from established media channels, industry associations, NGOs and other online resources. 

So, in conclusion we have checked out AI and found it to have been an invaluable support for the services we provide for our clients. But we also rigorously check on the information it provides and ensure that content we produce is original, researched and specifically tailored to our vision of a client’s specific requirements gained through mutual consultation.

Please contact us to discuss how AI could be used to further the promotion of your business objectives.