A Year of AI Transformation

An IT Leader's Perspective on the State of AI

AI is the new frontier in tech. At Highwire, we’ve been exploring ways to leverage the latest emerging tools under the AI umbrella to make our workflows more efficient. Our goal is to give our team of expert communicators more time to be creative and productive so they can provide better service for our growing roster of clients. 

However, this space is moving fast — so fast, in fact, that it can be challenging to keep up. Read our blog to find out what IT leaders like myself are keeping an eye on in the world of AI: the trends, the sources, and the next big challenges to overcome. 

Jason Mayde

Head of Information Technology

You ask. We answer.

When it comes to content generation, who produces better results, humans or AI?

We worked with one of our clients to answer this exact question. 

In a world where AI is quickly expanding capabilities, many marketing and communications pros are using it to help generate content. There’s pros and cons when it comes to AI and we caution against throwing all your eggs in the AI basket. Here’s we found: 

• Human content ranks faster, by a factor of more than 2x
• Human content ranks higher, with an average rank of 16 positions higher — almost 2 full search result pages!
• Human content leads to more down-funnel engagement — AI-generated content led to 0 new contacts for our client.
• 98% of our client's Q1 2024 search traffic was generated by human content, including three top-10 keywords, two top-five keywords and one top keyword in a 60-day period. 

But that doesn’t mean AI shouldn’t be a part of your content creation process. While we believe humans should do the bulk of the actual writing, there are ways AI can help with productivity and efficiency:

• Brainstorming: If you’re unfamiliar with a topic or just don’t know where to start, a well written prompt can help point you in the right direction.
• Short-form copy: Since AI can summarize completed work, shorter blurbs like meta descriptions, social media content, and ad copy are a good fit.
• Grammar check: Tools like Grammarly, a cloud-based “writing assistant” with AI-supported features, can help writers throughout the draft process by making suggestions based on custom style guides.

AI and Industry News

• Highwire'e Mike Steavenson recapped the highlights, insights, and bold vision for the future of AI and cloud technology from AWS re:Invent 2024
  
  
• Ron Miller, enterprise reporter at TechTarget, launched a new blog called Fast Forward, which focuses on enterprise CIO, CISO, CTO, and Heads of AI profile features
  
  

• CNBC Disruptor 50 Award nominations are now open. The deadline to apply is February 10, 2025.

A Look at AI's Big Moments in 2024

Find solutions to your challenges.