Photo by Jaime Lopes on Unsplash

“You cannot build trust with AI and you don’t get the same human emotions with AI.”

So said one IT leader who took part in a recent Vanson Bourne study. The market researcher’s small snapshot paints a bleak picture for tech marketers who use AI for content aimed at IT decision-makers (ITDMs).

It’s a survey of just 100 UK-based ITDMs but the pie chart shows almost a third (32%) of respondents say the use of “AI-generated and automated content” by IT vendors makes them more sceptical of their marketing content overall. Others seem to be more inclined to avoid companies that use AI in that way (either by placing more on trusted third-party sources or relying more on content they can access without speaking to a vendor).

Meanwhile the biggest category, 39%, is for those who “value in-person interactions where trust can be built directly with vendors”.

Indeed, the March-conducted research goes on to talk positively about ITDMs still being broadly positive about in-person events.

Show us you’re human

The Vanson Bourne findings are in line with the he Global Thought Leadership Institute at APQC’s report back in February (Promise and Peril: How attitudes to and practices in thought leadership are changing in the era of AI), where almost seven in 10 (69%) executives said the use of GenAI in the creation of thought leadership aimed at them would “negatively impact their appetite to engage with the producing organisation” and 74% said it would “negatively impact a purchase decision”.

Our own The State of AI in Thought Leadership report, with field work conducted in January this year, found various ways in which those in thought leadership in large B2B tech and professional services are using AI. But many are remaining careful about how AI is used in production of content. The above research underlines why that is.