From Hype to Practice: AI Conquers Marketing

Already four out of five surveyed companies use AI-supported tools to ease their work – this is one of the findings from the "The State of CMS" report published by Storyblok. The results are based on a survey of 1,719 companies from Germany, the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, and Sweden on the topic of content management.

Companies especially rely on AI in the areas of content creation and editing, as well as in research and conceptualisation. This development can be explained by the fact that marketing teams, in particular, are under great pressure to meet the demands for contemporary content while simultaneously reducing costs and shortening deadlines. Against this background, AI-generated content emerges as the biggest trend (68%) in the report.

How Companies Increase Efficiency with AI

But the interest in AI is not limited to mere content creation. AI solutions for personalisation and automation are also among the most popular trends. In fact, automating various processes can save work steps – and thus crucial time. Companies can then invest the time saved into personalising content: those who want to optimally accompany potential buyers on their customer journey and stay ahead need content that not only meets the information needs of potential customers but is also relevant and optimally tailored to the personal interests of the target audience. Therefore, it is assumed that companies will increasingly rely on AI-supported content tools in the future to assert themselves in a fast-paced digital market against the competition.

What Hinders Companies from Using AI?

Even though the interest in AI-supported solutions is high, the content management systems (CMS) used by companies often do not offer the possibility to integrate such tools directly. Accordingly, it shows that 75 percent of the surveyed companies still use monolithic CMS, which are difficult to expand due to a lack of omnichannel functions and technological inflexibility.

This is simultaneously one of the biggest pain points that CMS users complain about: lack of functions as well as limited expandability and, thus, little flexibility. Many companies try to compensate for this insufficient flexibility by using several CMS simultaneously, for example, to implement omnichannel strategies. According to Storyblok's survey, half of the companies use two to three CMS simultaneously – a third even four to five solutions. To a certain extent, missing functions can be compensated for in this way. However, this comes at the expense of user-friendliness and takes up additional time and financial resources. The content production itself also becomes more complex and inefficient, so it is often worthwhile for organisations to switch to a centralised headless solution that simultaneously allows the integration of AI tools.

AI Revolution in Full Swing: How Can Companies Keep Up?

When using AI, it is important to set up conditions and rules: already three-quarters of companies have introduced security measures or regulations for the use of AI. This shows that the speed with which AI is spreading in marketing is not coming at the expense of control, security, and regulation.

However, the CMS report also makes it clear that technical implementation often fails. Many organisations do not have the necessary tools to seamlessly integrate AI into their processes. As a result, there could be a noticeable trend towards headless CMS solutions in the future. Due to their greater flexibility and scalability, they represent a future-proof approach compared to monolithic CMS. One in four companies already uses the innovative technology, and the majority plans to switch to a headless CMS within the next two years. After all, it is more important than ever not to lose touch in the digital market.