How are Aussie businesses planning to use generative AI tools to produce social media content?

In this article, Capterra finds out what businesses can do to keep up with GenAI trends safely and effectively.

Social media users in Australia are about to see a lot more AI-generated content on their favourite platforms. According to Capterra’s recent global study that included 200 Australian marketers, GenAI tools will be used to produce, on average, 61% of Australian firms' social media content by 2026—a rise from the current 49%.* The respondents for this survey were part of a wider global audience that included over 1,600 social media marketers across 11 countries.

Australian companies expect GenAI to boost engagement, productivity, cost savings, and yes, human creativity. But they also worry about the consequences of potentially spreading misinformation among their audiences through AI-generated content. 

Businesses can take steps to ensure they use GenAI responsibly, including creating a formal internal policy and using a human-in-the-loop strategy.

GenAI usage for social media marketing is on the rise

By 2026, Aussie businesses that currently use GenAI for marketing purposes will increase, on average, the amount of social media content they create using GenAI to 61%—well above the global average of 48%. Over three-quarters (78%) of Australian respondents anticipate their company will increase spending on GenAI tools as well. 

Overall trends indicate that regional power users of GenAI will double down on the technology, while users in other regions will undergo more modest increases. This will dramatically increase the overall circulation of AI-generated content on social media in Australia to the equivalent of one in every two branded posts.

Currently, countries with above-average use of GenAI for social content creation include Canada, Australia, the U.S., and Brazil. However, over the next 18 months, the U.K., Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Spain are expected to make the biggest relative increases in GenAI use.

Notably, current power users are located in primarily English-speaking countries (excluding Brazil). This adoption trend reflects that content on the internet—i.e., data that AI is trained on—is largely written in English, and AI tools have historically been optimised to serve anglophone audiences. [1] Non-English speakers can, of course, still use GenAI as many tools offer translation features, and some are in development to serve a wider range of languages. [2] But English speakers have a head start using AI tools in their native language (and dialects).

The global projected increase is a staggering figure that illustrates companies’ enthusiasm for AI tools and foreshadows not only the efficiency and cost savings they’ll likely incur but also the challenges or risks they’ll face in ensuring responsible use of GenAI.

GenAI tools boost productivity for Aussie marketers

Improving productivity is the primary reason Australian businesses have started using GenAI for social media content development. Many marketers report that the tech fulfils this goal and then some, leading to easier, faster, and more efficient workflows. 

According to a collaboration report between Microsoft and the Tech Council of Australia, GenAI could benefit the national economy by increasing jobs through the creation of new products and services and improving efficiency levels in existing industries. [3]

Businesses say GenAI enhances the creative process by helping marketers generate ideas, automate routine tasks, and find new ways to personalise content for specific audiences.

GenAI’s social media performance is so satisfactory that many businesses view it as a complementary, or even superior, tool vis-a-vis human marketers. 

• 91% of Australian businesses using GenAI for social content say the tech has saved them a moderate to significant amount of time. 
• Nearly four in five (78%) say the use of GenAI-assisted content has increased their social media engagement and impressions. 
• Most businesses in Australia claim that GenAI-assisted content performs as well (32%) or better than (51%) content created solely by humans. 

GenAI usage has driven the ongoing human-versus-bot discussion home for 40% of businesses, who say their use of GenAI has made it challenging to maintain the value of human creativity within their organisations. 

While that, on its face, seems like a pretty bad sign for human marketers, it belies all the work these same marketers say they have to do to ensure the quality of GenAI content. The prevalence of errors and misinformation in AI-generated content means these tools will need human supervision for the foreseeable future.

Maintaining authenticity and human creativity is a challenge in using GenAI for social media content

Superhuman performance notwithstanding, GenAI comes with risks. Significant oversight is essential to ensure the quality and safety of the content it creates. 

For example, many businesses (42%) say maintaining the authenticity of AI-generated content is a top challenge. So is ensuring AI-generated content actually resonates with audiences (31%). GenAI’s frequently bland or off-brand output needs editorial tweaking to be post-worthy.

Then, there’s the burden of preventing the spread of AI-generated misinformation. Most Australian businesses, but not all, take the responsible route and review AI-generated content before publishing it on social media. And while most companies say GenAI saves them time overall, more than half (55%) report that the amount of effort required to edit and review AI-generated content goes above and beyond what they expected, something that businesses thinking about buying GenAI software should factor into the total cost of adoption. 

And even with all that careful work to clean up AI-generated content, nearly all (96%) businesses worry about GenAI accidentally harming their reputation.

Over half (56%) of businesses using GenAI for social media (including those that don’t review content before publishing) report instances of quality-control issues with the content, including factual errors, plagiarism, bias, or straight-up nonsense. And while the remaining third claim not to experience these issues, they probably just haven’t looked hard enough.

Again, native language makes a difference: Businesses in primarily English-speaking countries are significantly less likely to report factual errors or nonsensical responses than otherwise, likely because AI tends to be better trained in English. That said, businesses in anglophone countries are more likely to have accidentally exposed proprietary information through their AI-generated content. 

So, sure, it’s impressive that GenAI can churn out memes faster than your wittiest social media intern on their best day. But if those memes need significant revisions because they’re boring, nonsensical, or offensive, you are still only as productive as that intern’s editing bandwidth. And do you trust an intern to know how to protect sensitive info, should the AI choose to blab about it? 

The reality is that GenAI presents businesses with serious challenges that are both practical (ensuring AI-generated content looks authentic) and existential (ensuring it doesn’t leak company secrets to social media platforms). Though many are optimistic about GenAI’s potential, businesses can’t yet rely on unsupervised GenAI to rescue them from the engagement doldrums or to wipe out their marketing payroll.

Additionally, Australian small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) can protect their proprietary information by consulting Australia’s National AI Centre SME business brief before fully embracing the technology and determining if their data is AI-ready. As outlined in the brief, SMEs should handle data containing personally identifiable information with care, adhering to data retention and privacy regulations. Safe and secure data storage is essential, and transparency with customers or clients about data usage is a must. [4] 

3 steps to implement AI safely and effectively

It would be silly to deny the benefits of GenAI for social media marketing. It saves time and money while increasing productivity, and experts generally consider it to be highly useful for content production. [5] 

But experts also caution that GenAI could be a poor fit for businesses that do not effectively mitigate its inherent risks. Here are some steps businesses can take to ensure they use GenAI safely and responsibly.

1. Implement a company policy for the use of GenAI

Implementing a company policy on the use of GenAI at your organisation helps align stakeholders on use cases and best practices. It’s good to have one on hand when hiring new marketing employees or contracting with agencies or freelancers. An internal policy is also a great way to establish a human-in-the-loop standard at your business to ensure the safety, legal compliance, and brand alignment of AI-generated content.

According to globally surveyed respondents, businesses that have policies in place for GenAI use, whether informal or formal, are more likely to report that GenAI:

• Saves them time on marketing initiatives
• Improves engagement metrics
• Yields a competitive advantage

Revisit your GenAI policy as needed, such as when upgrading to more advanced tools or if your business’s use of GenAI broadens in scope.

2. Include a step to review AI-generated content before publishing

Don’t run the risk of publishing boring or misleading content; practise a human-in-the-loop strategy by always having a person check GenAI output before posting it on social media. 

Globally, companies that leverage GenAI content using a human-in-the-loop strategy are significantly more likely to report that GenAI:

• Boosts efficiency
• Reduces turnaround time of content delivery
• Increases engagement and impressions

3. Measure GenAI’s effectiveness using both internal and external metrics

Yes, you should monitor the performance of your AI-generated content on social media. But if you let external metrics speak for your marketing team’s overall experience using GenAI tools, you’re only getting half the story. 

Measuring success internally is crucial to understanding the true cost of your GenAI tools, as well as retaining talent and maintaining employee morale in today’s increasingly automated marketing landscape. Business leaders should keep in mind that GenAI is a powerful technology best used to support, not fully replace, human marketers. 

Check in with your marketing team about the following quantitative and qualitative metrics, as they relate to your GenAI tool(s):

• Frequently encountered errors or issues
• Time/effort spent editing or reviewing AI-generated content
• Ease of use
• Recurring or unexpected costs

GenAI should help your creative staff get more done, not bog them down with the busy work of tweaking mediocre bot-generated content. If your marketers feel as if your GenAI tool isn’t helpful, find out why and make some changes.

Make informed decisions amid the rapid uptake of GenAI tools

Businesses across the world will prioritise GenAI in their marketing workflows in the coming years. They’ll face some hurdles as AI tools continue to evolve and will need to rely on internal policies, conduct data-driven performance evaluations, and remain realistic about what their AI tools can handle. That said, they will likely unlock cost savings, increased productivity, and other benefits as a result of using GenAI. 

If your company is interested in GenAI software for social media, you should carefully consider investments in this space, prioritising vendors with excellent user reviews. If you’re not sure where to get started with GenAI, consider working with a social media marketing agency that provides AI-powered services.