Linda Louis | Co-Founder & Managing Editor
There is no point denying that generative AI tools like ChatGPT aren’t going anywhere. In fact, these tools will only get more intelligent — and who knows — maybe wiser!
But that’s no reason for creative content writers to throw in the towel…
In fact, the two things are not interconnected at all. AI tools have their place in this world — and we have ours. We should be able to discern where AI capabilities for content generation end and where our creativity begins. AI is, after all, “artificial”. It can only do as much as it has been “programmed” to do.
And we all know: That’s not how HUMANS operate.
Humans as a race are so stubborn that we can’t be so easily programmed; that is, if you, at least, have a few creative fibers in your system. So, I'd say that there is no reason to panic or feel threatened by AI or ChatGPT or be bothered by the notion that they could usurp the position we have held in the world of content creation.
So, what must we do?
We learn to live with AI content writing software and tools and utilize them to do the mundane chores that we usually do ourselves before and after doing the actual creative part, i.e., writing or editing.
So, how do we learn to live with them — or rather — how do content writers and editors use AI to improve their lives?
It’s really quite simple if you think about it. But let me break it down for you…
How AI Can Assist Content Writers Do Their Job — The Right Way (No Faking It!)
Here are a few ways…
#1. Help Research Topics: AI tools can help you find and collate points that may help you write the article. You can find different angles to cover, determine what volume is appropriate for the topic, and even understand the purview of the subject. That can help you do justice to your readers without having to spend too much time going through each and every individual search engine result.
#2. Find Relevant Citations To Credit: Finding the correct sources to cite for your article is among the most important yet boring parts of writing content. However, it must be done — and done right. So, why not automate it? This isn’t AI blog writing; this is intelligent content creation! Of course, you can’t take AI’s word for it…you must check to see if the citations are indeed justified and confirm what you are trying to establish.
#3. Help Structure A Wireframe For Your Content: Ah! This is the best part of using an AI writing assistant. A good content writer can guide you in creating a good outline for your article. Of course, you may have your own reservations, preferences, or changes to make. But these AI content generation tools can help you get started.
#4. Quickly Find Apt & High-Frequency Keywords: You can find the best-suited keywords for your article and optimize your content for search engines. In fact, I have used one such AI content optimization bot to find apt and high-efficiency keywords for this article. And it works. I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?
#5. Find Topics To Write On: If you’re unsure about what you want to write because the client has left it to you to determine the topic of the next article, and you are not getting paid to use your brain (or heart, for that matter), then don’t. There are easier ways to get your creative juices flowing. And that’s an AI content ideation tool. You can use it to find new, relevant topics for your client’s blog or marketing emails.
#6. Help Find Apt Images: Freelance content writers are often expected to find and attach related photos with their copies. However, the issue here is that the writer is not a professional photographer, and you can’t pick up random file photos from the internet. There is the issue of copyright. And you can’t defy the laws. That makes browsing for suitable images more tedious and time-consuming. AI-powered content management systems can often help you solve this problem.
#7. Help Overcoming A Creative Block: Yes, it is true. Some AI tools can provide excellent angles and insights into the industry to help you get started on your intro or even cough up data that you can utilize in your article or emails. If you are unsure about the first very few words to start with — well, it happens to everyone once in a while — then hit up a good AI content writer to combat your writer’s block.
#8. Find Quirkier Alternatives While Writing: You can fetch quirky headlines, taglines, summaries, or even brief intro ideas (see above point) from a good AI content writing tool. Such AI-powered content marketing strategies can help move forward more fluidly than getting stuck on dull ideas.
But beware. These should not be copy-pasted as the final draft. That would not only be wrong; it would be downright plagiarism. AI tools can’t really do much to rewrite content for you. It is not meant to do so.
#9. Run Post-Writing Diagnostics: Grammar and Plagiarism checkers are AI tools too that we have come to use and rely on to a considerable extent. And we do know their follies. Their results are not sacrosanct — which is why we must never follow them blindly. But they do help prevent errors that we may have missed while writing or editing.
Plus, you can also use AI tools to find shorter, more crisp ways to communicate. These tools can help prevent passive voice, roundabout sentences, and a lot of fluff, such as squinting modifiers, like actually or basically, and subordinating conjunctions like “in order to” when you are expressing intent and can simply replace it with “to”.
But be careful while selecting the changes that your tool is recommending. They may not always be correct.
Note: Unless you know the language you write in properly, no AI tool can help you write quality content.
Things That AI Can’t Do For You
#1. Write Entire Articles For You: You can’t expect “content writing chatbots” to cough up a 4000-word copy. It can give you maybe about 500 — 1000 words tops. What good is that if it does not fulfill your requirements?
#2. Give You An Error-Free Copy: While using chatbots for content writing, don’t expect to get an error-free copy. It is AI. It crawls the net as per your prompt and throws everything it finds relevant back at you. It is up to you to clean its grammar, punctuation, spelling, facts, tonality, concepts, etc.
Don’t expect too much of your AI tools — paid or otherwise.
#3. Convey The Right Tone Or Emotion: A bot doesn’t know how you want to approach your readers or how you want to broach a topic. It is incapable of empathizing with your readers’ pain points like you would. You will need to instill emotion into your content and give it the right tone.
#4. Ensure Quality Of Information: In fact, ChatGPT itself admits that the information it coughs up may not be up-to-date. Whether or not the information an AI tool provides you with — citations, statistical data, random information of any niche — is relevant, correct, and most recent is for you to check. You can’t rely on AI tools to give you the best quality of information, no matter what any of the companies making money out of AI tools tell you. You MUST double-check any information before using it.
AI tools cannot verify facts — something that is essential in this time and age. One cannot simply rely on one source of information and cite them or simply state them. You need to check the veracity of each and every source and fact before using them in your copy.
#5. Understand (or Predict) Your Clients’ Specific Needs Or Your Readers’ Psyche: Only you understand your client’s expectations and your readers’ needs. The onus of addressing them through a copy is on you. AI can’t do that. It will only deliver what you feed into it. So, use the data and turn it into relatable and relevant information for your readers. That’s how you can serve your clients best.
#6. Be The Content Writer That YOU Are: Finally, writing is still an art form. You can never expect the same kind of creativity or craftsmanship from artificial intelligence that a human can deliver.
Think of it this way — AI can offer mass-scale machine-made garments that look all the same, while human content writers can provide uniqueness and the “human touch” that widely varies from person to person.
No Bots Here — Only REAL Humans At Your Service
While we can certainly leverage AI tools to get our job done faster, we can never rely on them to give us nice, clean, proper, error-free, factually correct, high-quality content. And we understand that perfectly well. And that is why we trust our own instincts, senses, and creativity far more than any bot.
Heck! Bots can’t even give us proper answers or correct grammatical errors without human intervention, let alone write the content for us.
Plus, we respect our clients far too much to defraud them with automated content writing services that will do little to add value to their marketing plans.
So, rest assured; when you sign up with Creatie, you get nothing but the REAL deal!
All you need to get the kind of creative content your brand deserves is to hit us up today! See you on the other side! ☺️
