It’s been a couple years now since AI writing tools really took off, but they’re still a lot like the new kid on the block. They cool, trendy, and they have that accent that makes them sound so smart!
But are they really the coolest, smartest kid in the class? Or is it just that they’re new and shiny that makes us think they’re capable of anything?
Just like any kid, AI is not capable of anything. But it does have strengths and weaknesses. Understanding what those strengths and weaknesses are enables us to use them to their full advantage.
So let’s talk about AI’s strengths and weaknesses.
Table of Contents
- AI Writing Software Is Not New
- ChatGPT vs Bard
- First Answer to How to Use AI the “Write” Way: Check Its Work
- How AI Writing Software Works
- How to Use AI the “Write” Way
- Conclusion
AI Writing Software Is Not New
Let’s start with the fact that I’ve been using AI writing software for years. Back in 2018 Google released a feature of Gmail that helps you write emails faster and I use it all the time. The first time I realized I could respond to an email by just clicking a button and then hitting send, I was ecstatic. It’s especially helpful when I’m responding to emails from my phone, which is the time I am most likely to make a typo. Gmail’s 5-year-old AI feature takes care of that for me while helping me respond to emails much faster so I can move onto the next one.
It’s not just the buttons at the bottom. If you don’t use Gmail (or if you disabled this feature), you might not have noticed that as you’re typing, the AI software will predict how you want to finish the sentence and it will provide a prompt in gray. To accept the prompt, just hit “Tab” and your cursor will jump to the end of the gray text and you can keep writing. To reject the prompt, just keep writing.
I use this all the time, both in Gmail and in Word documents. I love how much more quickly I can write with this feature, but it’s not always accurate. There are plenty of times where I just keep typing because the AI failed to accurate predict what I was trying to say. I’ve even come across the occasional prompt that’s so off base it’s hilarious.
ChatGPT vs Bard
You may or may not have heard that Google’s stock plummeted after they released an ad in which they asked their new AI a question and it gave them a wrong answer. Honestly, I just think the whole thing is hilarious, but it’s not unique to Bard.
The first time I asked ChatGPT a question, it gave me a wrong answer, which is a big reason I’ve been hesitant to use it.
First Answer to How to Use AI the “Write” Way: Check Its Work
Just like you don’t take every answer at face value when you Google something (at least I hope you don’t), you shouldn’t take every answer AI gives you without questioning it. If you’re using AI to write marketing content for your business, hopefully you can easily identify when it gets something wrong. If you’re operating outside of your comfort zone, check its work to make sure it gave you the right answer.
Google’s mistake was not in releasing or advertising Bard too soon. Their mistake was not checking its work before publishing their ad.
How AI Writing Software Works
Let’s say you tell your preferred AI writing software to write a blog post about content distribution strategies. The software “learns” the answer by scanning the internet for content on the topic and then basically regurgitates that content into an answer for you.
How can you position yourself as an expert in your industry by publishing the same content everyone else is publishing?
Wouldn’t you be better off coming up with some out-of-the-box ideas for content distribution and publishing those instead?
I was recently talking to another SEO professional who has been struggling to find a way to use ChatGPT for their business. For example, they tried asking ChatGPT to come up with 5 blog post topics for a client they’ve had for a while. Four of the topics had already been covered, and the fifth one didn’t make sense.
I have a list of better ideas for coming up with content topics. Not included in the list, is probably the most important one: ask your clients and prospects. You’ll get a much more specific answer from them than you could ever hope to get from AI. Their answers will also tell you a lot about the kind of expert they perceive you to be. If they’re off the mark, that means your messaging needs work.
How to Use AI the “Write” Way
As a professional content marketer, you might expect me to tell you to just not use AI writing software. It’s true that I don’t use it, and I’m not sure I’m going to on a regular basis, but that’s me. Just because I don’t find it particularly useful doesn’t mean you won’t, but I do think there’s a right way and a wrong way to use it.
Edit AI-Written Content
In addition to checking your AI’s work to make sure it’s accurate, you’ll also want to edit it to make sure the content makes sense, flows well, and is written in your brand voice.
When I timed myself using an AI writing software vs writing a blog post from scratch, it actually took me significantly longer to get the AI-generated content ready to publish compared to writing from scratch. But I know I write fast because writing is my thing. Not everyone can write as fast as I do, so if AI writing software can save you some time, by all means use it.
I recently saw a post online from someone who used ChatGPT to come up with some topic ideas and generate some content. She edited all of it to the point that an AI checker did not recognize the content as AI generated. It took her 3 hours to do all that editing, but she said doing it without AI would have taken her closer to 8 hours. It still saved her a considerable amount of time, but it also still required a significant investment of time. Don’t think you can tell AI to write something and just publish it as is. It’s a tool, not a replacement.
Tell a Story
Incorporating stories into your content is incredibly important. As humans, we are primed to engage with stories and to remember them. So if you want people to keep reading your content and to remember you afterwards, you have to tell them a story.
I have yet to see AI write a good story, and someone once sent me an example of an AI-written story that was hilariously bad. So, when you’re editing your AI-generated content, in addition to making sure it flows well and that is in your brand voice, you should also include a story, and that part is better off if you write it yourself. I know it’s cheesy to say that you should write from the heart, but that’s the only way to make sure your content will resonate with people. Our emotions drive our behavior and our decisions (no matter how much we might deny it), and AI is just not capable of tapping into those emotions.
Use AI to Generate Prompts
I have my own tips and tricks for overcoming writer’s block, but if that blinking cursor is the bane of your existence, asking AI to generate a prompt for you can be a great way to get over the hump and start writing. Sometimes all we need is one sentence (or paragraph) to help us get the creative juices flowing, and AI can definitely help with that.
Use AI to Organize Your Thoughts
There’s a difference between knowing your subject and knowing how to put your thoughts into writing in a way that is cohesive, engaging, and easy for your audience to understand.
AI can’t get you all the way to that last one, but it can get you most of the way there in a fraction of the time it would take you to struggle there yourself.
So don’t struggle. AI is incapable of having an original thought. But it is really good at taking existing thoughts and information and organizing it for you. So don’t be afraid to word vomit into ChatGPT (or your AI tool of choice) and have it turn those thoughts into sparkling prose.
Identify Your Brand Voice
Another quibble I’ve had with any AI writing software I’ve tried to use is that the content it has generated for me has been very bland and generic. It was not writing in my voice, which would not do anything to help me or my clients stand out in a field crowded with content.
I’ve heard from people who have used it more than I have that, if you play around with it enough and give it feedback on the content it creates for you, it can learn to write in your voice. That’s great, but does that mean I’ll have to re-teach it which voice to use every time I want it to create content for a different client? Will I need a different account for each client?
If you’re not busy writing content for different clients and only need to worry about creating content for yourself, apparently you can train AI to write in your voice. But that leads to another question: Do you know how to define your brand voice? Is the tone of your content consistent across all your platforms? Does it attract your ideal clients? Does it help differentiate you from your competitors? Does it make people think about your brand the way you want people to think about your brand?
I talk to a lot of people who get stumped on these questions, so if you’re not sure how to define your brand voice, you’ll need to figure that out first.
Do Your Keyword Research
Some AI writing software will ask you for a keyword before it creates any content for you. I got frustrated because when I did, the software appeared to replace my keyword with a different keyword. It then put that keyword in the content so many times that it was obviously keyword stuffing, which can do more to hurt your SEO (and readability) than help. Even worse, when I took the AI-generated keyword to my keyword tool, it had no searches. Yes, I was surprised that the content was decent, but it would have done nothing to help me stand out on Google or against any of my competitors.
If you do use AI to create content for you, be sure to do your own keyword research (or have someone like me do it for you). Then make sure the keywords are in all the right places and sprinkled throughout your content frequently enough to get Google’s attention when someone uses that search term, but not so frequently that Google punishes you for keyword stuffing.
Conclusion
We are officially living in a brave, new world in which robots can do more than we ever thought possible. Sure, most of us knew this was coming, but we didn’t think we would see anything like this for a long time. Regardless of your feelings about AI content creation, there’s no denying that it’s here, and it’s here to stay. The only question is, how are we going to respond?
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