How To Leverage the Power of AI Content Creation

AI content creation is taking the online marketing world by storm. While many people are seeing the advantages and dangers, few clearly envision AI’s future role in content creation.

• Business executives see the opportunity to save on content production costs. 76% of recent survey respondents said they would use AI to create basic content and write copy.
• Content creators see the possibility of creating better content faster. AI is valuable because it can speed up ideation, building outlines, and editing. But, only 14.03% of creators trust keyword data from AI tools.
• Consumers are concerned about accuracy and potential biases in AI-created content. A Forbes Advisor survey found that 76% of consumers are worried that AI might misinform them on a business’s website.

Let’s look deeply into how your business can leverage the apparent benefits of AI-based content creation and avoid the pitfalls that concern consumers and may lead to legal issues and reduced SEO ranking.

To AI or Not to AI

The Harvard Business Review states, “AI won't replace humans — but humans with AI will replace humans without AI.” 

However, AI uptake is slower than you might expect from all the media hype. An Authority Hacker survey reports that only 35% of businesses have adopted AI. 

Why? 

Because many executives view AI as an “either/or” issue. They either stay with human-generated content or run with AI. They’re not seeing what the Harvard Business Review sees. The future of content marketing is humans using AI.

Even though the AI revolution is hanging content creation quickly, two-thirds of businesses have yet to embrace it because they have difficulty trusting that AI won't misuse data or provide inaccuracies. Marketers and content creators:

• Fear that bland AI-powered content creation will replace the human creativity and intuition that are essential for highly effective marketing
• Worry that AI cannot engage customers and build trust because it’s unable to express the full range of human emotion and behavior
• Lack the skill and knowledge to use often-intimidating AI tools
• Face challenges in integrating AI with existing systems and processes
• Are concerned that while AI-generated content may seem flawless and logical on the surface, a deeper inspection will reveal a lack of original reasoning and creativity

While these concerns are valid, leveraging AI for content creation can overcome them.

3 Ways To Leverage AI Generative Tools

It may be smart to start small and work your way into adopting AI generative tools. Remember how Netscape brought the internet alive way back in 1994 with the introduction of the first browser? Pundits immediately proclaimed the death of retailing, but it took many years of learning and developing new products and systems before online marketing took off.

ChatGPT put AI content creation squarely on the map in November 2022. However, it will take many years of learning and improving AI before it lives up to all the expectations the media has created. Here are three ways to start with AI content creation tools while you learn and explore the possibilities.

1. AI Content Writing Tools Help Generate First Drafts

Type in a well-thought-out prompt containing a keyword, subject, or title, choose your parameters, and click Generate Draft. Bing’s version of ChatGPT4 will spit out a perfectly written draft in seconds.

Below the draft, the Bing AI tool will display options for making changes in the next iteration. You just saved a LOT of time researching, choosing content, and structuring your blog post. 

Now, all you need to do is improve the storyline to fit your audience, check the facts for accuracy, find some statistics to boost believability, and insert some links. Then you’re good to go.

2. AI Content Generators Can Repurpose Your Content

Most blogs have a lot of good material hiding away in the archives. Artificial intelligence blog writing can help you quickly rewrite that content into fresh, original articles without creating it all over again. 

AI can rewrite existing content using a different style, tone, or voice and create new headlines and subtitles to appeal to a different audience. You can also use AI to repurpose fresh content by turning blog posts into podcasts or videos to reach a wider audience. Expanding content with additional details, updated statistics, or new facts can add value and depth.

AI can quickly summarize the main points or key takeaways to use in social media posts and emails that will drive traffic to your blog posts. AI will even draft those short pieces for you. By utilizing AI for these smaller tasks, you can give your content team more time to focus on generating new, inspiring content.

3. AI Content Creation Tools Are Great Sources of Inspiration

Most of us get stuck for ideas at some point in the writing process. And even if you're one of those fortunate individuals who are never at a loss for words, AI may find additional ideas you can include to make your content richer and more valuable.

AI writing tools and chatbots can help you: 

• Brainstorm, explore different perspectives, and dig deeper when you continue to ask questions
• Save research time by summarizing articles so you can pick through the main ideas 
• Analyze current trends and suggest popular topics to boost engagement
• Generate a list of questions for your blog post to answer
• Analyze competitors’ posts so you can make sure you are including the same base information. Then, you can add your research to create a better article that will excel in the rankings.

AI can inspire, but the unique insights and the storyline you craft while weaving in brand message and voice engage your readers and achieve business goals.

5 Limitations of AI Generative Tools

AI tools for content creation can produce text that is easy to read, informative, and grammatically and structurally correct. However, AI content writing has five critical shortcomings.

1. AI Language Models Are Completely Dependent on Input

Everything starts with a good prompt when you're using AI content generators. Bad prompts get lousy content. Often, the tool will just balk and display an error message if it’s asked to do something it considers unethical or illegal. Here's what ChatGPT says about writing prompts:

“A good prompt for AI is one that is clear, specific, and well-defined. It should provide enough information and context for the AI to understand the task and the desired output. It should also include any constraints, rules, or expectations that the AI should follow.”

Here are examples of good prompts:

• You are a review writer. Write a review for the HP Pavilion gaming laptop Ryzen 7.
• Generate a haiku poem about autumn. A haiku is a three-line poem with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. The poem should not rhyme or use punctuation.

According to ChatGPT, “A bad prompt for AI is one that is vague, ambiguous, or too broad. It may leave out important details or instructions that the AI needs to complete the task. It may also be unrealistic, unethical, or harmful in its request or goal.”

Examples of bad prompts:  

• What's the best computer?
• Write a story
• Hack into this website and steal their data

Sometimes, it can take a few tries to write a prompt that gets the exact content you are looking for. If your AI content creator doesn't give you what you are looking for on the first try, don't be afraid to update your prompt and try again. 

2. Generative AI Is an Unreliable Source of Information

Occasionally, AI content is incoherent, irrelevant, or simply not true. Examples are, “The sky is green” or “Barack Obama is the President of Cambodia.” Hallucinations happen because ChatGPT has no access to real-world knowledge or context. 

If you do not use a human to check your AI-generated content, you may experience negative impacts, such as: 

• Plagiarism: AI sometimes copies or paraphrases existing content. This can result in duplicate content problems that lower your search ranking or result in legal ramifications.
• Low Quality: While AI content is continuing to improve, even the best AI sentence generator can occasionally return results that are not very accurate, original, or relevant. Your credibility and authority can suffer if you publish low-quality, AI-generated work. 
• Ethical Issues: Violations of intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or ethical standards can occur because of how AI acquires its knowledge. If you do not review your content prior to publication, you may open yourself to unnecessary legal and professional risks. 

3. AI Copywriting Tools Lack a Human Touch

AI copywriting tools rely on data and algorithms. They can only access content that has already been created and then manipulate that content using an algorithm. The result is often repetitive, generic, or inaccurate content that fails to tell a fresh, unique story that speaks to the emotions and pain points of the target audience.

Because copywriting AI tools lack human writers' creativity, originality, and critical thinking skills, they struggle to create engaging and persuasive content because they cannot understand the context, emotions, and nuances of human communication. While AI copywriting tools can help generate content ideas, headlines, or outlines, they require human input, editing, and review. Your copy can attain your business goals by keeping human creativity in the mix.

4. How AI-Generated Content Could Negatively Affect Your SEO

Your SEO ranking can suffer because AI cannot distinguish between fact and fiction. A human must check facts, edit content, and insert statistics, quotes, and links to help your content rank at the top of a search.

Rather than attempting to sort out whether a human or a machine wrote content,  Google Search Central has released E-E-A-T guidelines. An expert can closely monitor and improve machine-generated content using E-E-A-T to meet Google’s rigorous quality guidelines. Here’s a breakdown of E-E-A-T:

• Experience: Does the writer have actual experience? This is a valuable measure for review writing.
• Expertise: Does your content and website demonstrate the highest level of expertise available on the subject?
• Authoritativeness: Is your website and content linked by industry leaders and Influencers?
• Trustworthiness: Does your website demonstrate the hallmarks of security? Google looks for HTTPS, secure payments, terms and conditions page, Google Business Profile, and your business name and contact information. Your content should display the author’s name and contact information.

Knowing the guidelines, it’s easy to understand how E-E-A-T automatically assigns a low rank to most AI-generated content that humans haven’t tweaked.

5. Generative AI Tools Could Cause Data Breaches

America's biggest bank, JP Morgan, has blocked access to ChatGPT on its computers. The bank has also forbidden its 300,000 workers from putting bank information into the chatbot or other AI tools.

Many other businesses have imposed similar bans on generative AI because there are too many risks of exposing confidential data. Sensitive information could inadvertently leak if an AI text tool is trained on a large body of documents, like emails, reports, and contracts. The tool could include personal or proprietary information in its output, like names, addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, passwords, and trade secrets.

Why Human Writers Are Still Necessary for Successful Content

AI writing tools can be beneficial for ideation, outlining, and first drafts. But generative AI tools usually spit out dry, boring, and repetitive content because AI researches and regurgitates existing web content. Human writers and editors are needed to bring the machine output to life to engage and delight readers. 

For example, see the two sentences provided on the Compose.ly writer guidelines. 

• AI-generated Content: “Explain your day-to-day operations. Provide the location, layout, and design. Include information about suppliers and equipment.” 
• Human-revised Content: “Explain your day-to-day operations. Provide the location, layout, and design of your proposed business. Other details, such as information about suppliers, equipment, and technology requirements, can add value to your plan and help attract investors.”

Human writers can create engaging and relevant messages because they can understand context, purpose, and audience. With their finer perceptions, humans can establish trust and rapport with readers in different situations and on various platforms. This ability is essential for successful marketing.

Businesses can realize many more benefits because human writers can:

• Produce strategic, story-driven content aligning with brand identity and vision. Businesses can differentiate from competitors and build a loyal customer base.
• Produce engaging content by using creativity, humor, and emotion. The content becomes memorable and sharable.
• Create an authoritative influential voice by weaving in facts and statistics and writing with clarity, simplicity, and structure. They can also interview thought leaders and experts to provide unique, authoritative content that's available nowhere else. 
• Collaborate with professional editors, designers, and marketers to further elevate content. 

Unlock More Insights With Compose.ly’s Complete AI Guide

There's a treasure trove of information about AI content creation and actionable tips in Compose.ly’s AI guide. You'll discover everything you need to know about using AI content generators using its in-depth exploration of critical topics like how to:

• Write effective ChatGPT prompts and avoid rookie mistakes
• Go deeper into content ideation
• Find the best keywords for your content 
• Write product descriptions that rock
• Optimize emails and create unique subject lines
• Create social media copy tailored to the platform in your brand voice

Download The Content Marketers Guide to Content Creation now.