UK businesses plan to use GenAI for an average of 48% of their social media content by 2026, up from 36% in 2024.
In fact, reliance on GenAI for content creation is supposed to increase at a faster rate in the UK than anywhere else globally. The new research comes from Capterra.
“As UK businesses prioritise generative AI in their marketing workflows in the coming years, significant oversight is essential to ensure the quality and safety of the content that generative AI creates,” says Molly Burke, senior marketing analyst at Capterra.
Over the next 18 months, the UK is set to see a 33% boost in GenAI usage, which is the largest uptick among 11 surveyed countries across Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.
Of the nearly 200 social media marketers surveyed in the UK, 83% also expect their company to increase spending on GenAI tools, underscoring the value they see in the technology.
86% of UK marketers using GenAI for social content say the tech has saved them a moderate to significant amount of time. Over three-quarters (77%) say using GenAI-assisted content has increased their social media engagement and impressions.
However, two-thirds (66%) of UK marketers using GenAI for social media report instances of quality-control issues in AI-generated content, including factual errors, plagiarism, bias, and just nonsense.
“To ensure the responsible use of this tool, businesses should create a formal internal usage policy as well as implement a human-in-the-loop strategy, so a person always checks content before it is published on social media.” Burke concludes.
92% of all UK respondents still express concern about the risk of GenAI spreading misinformation through this channel.