It used to be a novelty a few years ago to use AI to create content. Now it’s just the way many brands do business. AI content creation used in various contexts, such as blog posts, captions, product descriptions, and even email sequences.
However, speed isn’t necessarily quality and convenience isn’t necessarily connection. If you’re considering leveraging AI content creation tools without knowingly harming your brand, then understanding the pros and cons is crucial. This article delves into the areas where AI can truly assist, where it might fall short, and how to leverage it while keeping the human touch.
Why Brands Turned to AI
Content used to be time consuming. One blog post might take a full afternoon to conduct all the research, draft and edit it. Repeat this with the social captions, emails and product copy and content creation soon became one of the primary time suckers in a business.
That’s where AI came into the equation. Things that used to take hours now take minutes, at least for a first draft. That pace is difficult to overlook, especially when it’s a small team or a particular founder and their equivalent of 5 folks.
AI Content Creation When it Matters Most
This is no fantasy; there are concrete advantages to it.
- Speed on First Drafts. Many writers find it the most difficult thing to get their writing started is staring at a blank page. Using AI, this barrier comes down. You don’t start from nothing, you start from something, even if it needs lots of editing.
- Handling Repetitive Formats. These are the same product descriptions, meta descriptions, and social captions that appear and reappear over and over again and don’t necessarily require out-of-the-box thinking. This structured writing is good for AI, which can save human time on tasks that don’t require a human touch.
- Brainstorming and Idea Generation. When the final product will be a person, AI can be helpful in coming up with some angles, headlines, or even content ideas you may not have considered yourself. It’s an effective way to start being creative, but not the end goal.
- Leveraging Technology to Improve Business Results. Many small businesses and individual content creators may not have the budget for a dedicated content team. When resources are limited, AI can help one individual create more content than they would be able to do on their own.
Where AI Content Creation Starts to Hurt Your Brand
The downside is not as apparent at first glance, but will become apparent over time, typically in a manner that is not easily corrected.
Existing content is used to train AI models, so the default output is what is typical. While AI-generated content can be polished and refined, it is also possible for it to be vague and dull, like any brand might use, which is why it’s no brand. It is one of the most frequent criticisms to the AI content creation pros and cons debate. Market Consistency is different from Consistency in a brand. Differentiation is not apparent if the content is indistinguishable from that of your competitor.
AI tools are confident even when they are incorrect. The facts are put forward bluntly, whether or not they are true. In fields where precision is truly important, such as healthcare, financial services, or legal matters, unedited AI-generated content can pose significant risks, rather than just a subpar brand image.
People are becoming adept at detecting AI-generated content, particularly when used without any human oversight or input. If your readers feel that no human was involved in the creation of something of value, you could see trust in the brand slowly seep away and it’s without ever saying a thing.
A brand voice is formed with little, specific details. Certain phrases. A unique style of humor. Founders’ natural explanation style. The widespread use of AI, particularly without any editing, erodes over time those sharp edges into pleasant-sounding but forgettable writing.
Finding the Right Balance
When it comes to weighing the AI content creation pros and cons, the outcome is often the same. While AI can be a potent aid for drafting and structuring, it can never replace judgment, personality, or real-life experiences.
The ones that do a good job with AI seem to see it as a first draft tool, not as an end-all tool. Someone still goes through the output, includes certain information that only they could possibly know, and tweaks the tone until it really is the brand, not a “twin” of another brand.
Utilize AI in structural and repetitive sections of content. Speak in your own voice for opinion, experience or emotion. The product description providing information about dimension and material is a sensible area for AI assistance. A founder story which explains why the business is even there in the first place is not.
Practical Ways to Use AI Without Losing Your Brand Voice
Here are some habits that help you make a difference. Always edit AI drafts before publishing, never copy and paste. Try to make a few small changes in the phrasing and the piece can be brought closer to the real voice.
If you can, give the AI some examples of your previous writing to instead default to something that is similar to your previous writing style. Use mostly human written content that is opinion and/or emotionally personal. This can be anything from a founder story, a more controversial stance or something that’s designed to connect more with your audience.
Always check the facts of anything created by AI before it goes live, particularly numbers, claims or anything industry specific. Don’t assume that just because someone has confidence in the writing, that he or she is accurate behind it.
Where This Leaves Brands Going Forward
There is no reason for AI content creation to ever go away. When used sensibly, it is a time saver, and alleviates friction in aspects of content work that never required human intervention in the first place.
It will be the brands with less content that will stand out. That’s the ones that are going to still sound like them, even though AI wrote the initial draft. Rather than debating AI content creation pros and cons, that’s the true distinction.