Is AI Creating An Uncertain Future?

You’d have to be living under a rock if you haven’t heard about AI technology sweeping the internet. From blog posts to videos and social media, people are questioning the future of AI in many different aspects. Will AI replace content writers? Will AI make SEO redundant? Is stealing jobs from people? All of those are valid questions. Let’s take a deeper look at some of this AI technology.

Implications of AI in Legal Marketing

In recent months, openAI developed ChatGPT, which was launched in late 2022, and has swept the world by storm. Quite literally the world. From a marketing standpoint, we’ve seen ChatGPT and other AI technology with the capability to write blog posts, determine longtail SEO keywords, create FAQs, social posts, and so much more.

While AI can do all of that for you, it’s safe to say you still need your marketing agency (of course we would say that, but keep on reading). You can ask AI to create a list of potential keywords to target, and it will, but the information is only partially there. You get just the keywords and not the metrics. How many users are querying for those keywords? What is the competition like to rank for those keywords? The keywords it proposes could be completely worthless in terms of what will actually get your law firm’s website to rank higher on Google – and to rank on pages that your potential clients are actually looking at.

And we can’t forget to mention that while AI technology has taken in most of what’s available on the internet, they are still dated by a few years. For instance, ChatGPT is only current on what’s available on the internet up until 2021. This means, that any timely content you’re trying to convey to current or potential clients is already dated. This becomes an issue when writing content on things like current laws related to your practice areas.

Further, ChatGPT clearly identifies that 1) there may be spelling or grammatical errors in its content (not a big deal) but that also, 2) you need to fact check everything. That’s a pretty big one. This is one of those situations that brings to mind the meme or commercial about “It’s on the internet so it must be true.” Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that everything you get from ChatGPT or any other AI software is factually accurate.

So, while I’m sure some will be inspired to try their at using AI derived content for their legal marketing needs; on their own, based on AI, it is not advisable to do so.

AI in the Legal Realm

Ready for some headaches? We aren’t either, but surely, as this technology becomes more widely used, they’re coming. In a recent Facebook post, we saw one estate planning attorney use ChatGPT to create his will. His response was, “Goodbye career.” In his screenshots we can see that ChatGPT clearly states that it cannot draft legal documents such as a will and to consult with a qualified attorney. However, when he rephrased the question to say “create a hypothetical will” ChatGPT provided a darn good template – hence his “goodbye career” moment.

As more and more turn to AI, you’ll likely come across these AI written legal documents that will bring about those headaches we mentioned.

SkyNet Foreshadowing?

With AI, users have the ability to create anything and everything. From content, code, legal documents to art, graphics, and even videos. Yes, videos. We just came across a Facebook Ad for a company that has created AI avatars. You can select your person, language, accent and then, plugin the wording you’d like it to say and the result? A video with what looks like a real person talking through the script you’ve input. The company in question intends for their software to be used in training modules for things like onboarding, for example.

While this AI technology offers affordability, timeliness, and more, is it a sign that SkyNet is coming soon?

Despite all the cons pointed out in this article, there are definite pros as well. What it all comes down to is whatever you’re creating on or about, you need to have a thorough understanding of the subject. What I’ll leave you with is this: Google, and the other search engines, are planning to launch a tool that will identify AI written content. Meaning, there is a chance that it could impact your SEO. And we definitely do not want that.

You’re Soooo Debby Downer, What Can I Use AI Content For?

In our opinions, not much yet. However, our thoughts wander to using it when only necessary for budget or time reasons. An example of this would be website page content. Keep in the mind at its core, AI is scouring the web trying to answer your query. So… by its very existence going to capture the already indexed content on the web. It’s literally copying. But, to that end, how many more unique pages of “Personal Injury Attorney New York” can be written? So, using these tools to fill in content gaps in your SEO strategy for pages on your website’s main menu or geographically descriptive pages may certainly be on the table for the DIY’er or even an agency that needs to write a piece of content quickly.

You do the lawyering. We do the marketing.

It’s tempting to go forth and conquer with AI, but why risk causing issues down the road with your law firm’s marketing. We will leave the lawyering to you (and not risk using AI to draft a will for us) and we’ll tackle your marketing.

Precision Legal Marketing has a proven track record with legal marketing. We take the time to analyze the metrics and create content that will help improve the odds with Google. So, if you’re ready to watch your law firm grow, get in touch with us today.