Turn AI into a travelator, not a cookie cutter

I’m a content creator, writer and editor and I used AI to help me write this article.*

• “In the realm of...”
• “More than ever, ... isn’t just about... it’s about...”
• “In this piece, we’ll delve into...”
• "In today’s [adjective] [industry sector], [noun] is no longer a luxury; it’s as a necessity.”
• Excessive use of words such as amidst, foster, numerous, savvy, showcase, transcends, and utilise (among many others).
• Lots of US spelling, punctuation, and grammar (fine if you are in the US).
• A conclusion that just repeats the points you’ve already talked about.

AI-generated marketing content can seem like magic. Just like that, a blog post appears. In an instant, here’s a whitepaper. And now, here’s a brochure. It seems impressive at first glance. Amazing! Job done. File it with the client.

Take a closer look and you’ll soon learn to spot how AI often repeats words, sentence structures, and syntax. This repetition weakens the message, making even highly targeted and specific pieces of content look like they’ve just rolled off a factory production line. In a way, they have.

No matter which AI tool you choose, the majority are built on platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or something similar. They act like an advanced autocorrect, predicting the next word based on essentially the same set of rules. This leads to the repetitive words and phrases you see above. This makes it challenging to create specific content, such as maintaining a client’s tone of voice and house style, or accurately including messaging, persona, and buyer journey requirements.

When you were a kid, did you ever turn your bike’s handlebars the wrong way round as a kid and then try to steer, ending up weaving all over the place? Me? I fell into a ditch and cried while my brother laughed and laughed and laughed. Creating very specific content feels like that (minus the laughter).

Despite our efforts to prompt the AI to remember to use certain vocabulary, spelling, or grammar, it inevitably reverts to the generic style it’s programmed with, which is inevitably from a lot of US government documents and web content. Many marketers are okay with this. They’re replacing skilled writers and editors with cheaper interns to churn out content based on a single prompt sentence.

They hope the prospective buyers won’t know the difference. Maybe they don’t know now, but as more businesses employ AI, they – and you – will become adept at identifying AI content. (I can now tell the difference between ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4 immediately I’ve edited so much of it.)

Here’s how:

• Drafting content creation briefs
• Sketching out content outlines.
• Enhancing SEO.
• Coming up with engaging headlines.
• Checking for consistency across multiple pieces of content.
• Summarising masses of client information for use in other projects.For content inspiration.
• Carrying out research.
• Analysing content for sticking to brand voice.
• And, yes, producing a first draft of what we need.

We use it just to speed things up a bit, like walking on a travelator, not as a replacement, like a golf cart. Our skilled professionals spend a lot of time prompt engineering to get a decent output who then fine-tune the content to ensure it aligns accurately with our clients’ brand and message. It’s not as fast as accepting the first thing that comes out from a one-sentence prompt, but it’s definitely better than that and it’s also faster than doing it from scratch.

Are you ready to elevate your brand’s content? Join us at Everything Connected as we bridge the gap between AI efficiency and the irreplaceable touch of human creativity. Get in touch with us today to make your content truly stand out. Together, let’s create content that resonates, engages, and converts.

So, do you want your content to be like bespoke tailoring or to be industrially churned out and exactly like everyone else’s? Get in touch with us to get the superior content you want and deserve.