Content writers are constantly being told that our jobs are under threat from AI. That’s Artificial Intelligence if you haven’t been acquainted.
But should we be worried?
Is AI a threat to content writers?
Can a bot be programmed to write like a human?
That’s the ultimate plan, according to Forbes.
But it’s also been suggested that, rather than it taking over our jobs, AI content writers could become an ally to human content writers. And that, in future, we’ll be getting bots to research and write the bulk of each article, so we just edit and perfect it.
As a content writer who enjoys the writing process, I can’t say I’m enamoured by the thought of my job being reduced to editing. Or playing second fiddle to a machine.
But what are AI content writers capable of and how can we rate them?
Testing an AI content writer for myself
As they say, it pays to know your enemy. So I decided to try a little experiment.
I signed up for a free trial with AI Writer, one of Google’s top rated AI content writers, to see what results I got.
And, as a comparison, I asked its AI content writer to write my last three articles.
Before you read the results, there are some things you should know:
- I was only able to give the AI content writer the main title of the blog — so I couldn’t specify the subheadings or structure
- The results you’ll see are raw, draft articles, which are supposed to be worked on to make them perfect
- The AI-generated articles are run through plagiarism checker, Copyscape which, on average, rates them as 94.47% unique.
Evaluating the results
I’ll talk about my response to the articles when I’ve shown you the results, but in the meantime I’ve assembled some independent stats to compare my articles with the AI versions.
Article length
I’ve calculated the word count for both articles, based on the bulk of the article. While my word counts vary depending on the subject, the AI’s articles are all in the same ballpark — between 800 to 900 words.
Flesch reading ease
This is a feature of Yoast that evaluates written content. The higher the score, the easier it is to read.
Plagiarism check
A plagiarism check tells you what percentage of the content is unique. Ideally, your content should be 100% unique. However, there may be some duplication if you’ve included a quotation or short passage from another website or blog.
Now, on to the three articles. I’ve published them in full so you can see exactly what you would get from an AI writer.
1. Why your website isn’t working
My article identifies some common problems that prevent websites from drawing traffic and making money.
If you haven’t already, you can read my original article here.
The AI content writer, however, took that title literally and focused on actual defects and technical troubleshooting rather than the human errors I talk about myself.
Lesson learned. I reworked the title so it was more literal in terms of my original and requested it again. Here’s the article it came up with:
Why Your Website Isn’t Profitable
If you want to make money from your blog, consider this method of turning your website into a source of income. Now count the most popular ways to make money from your site, and find a variety of sources of income for the site. How to make money from a blog: Optimize your websites, find ways to make money from your blogs, and how to make it on a website with more than one page. [Sources: 11, 12, 14]
When you build a website, you should also consider making money from your audience by buying it the very first time you buy it. There are a few ways to make money from your website, but the above ways of monetizing it are better if you don’t have a large number of visitors. No matter what money you choose, the strategy you choose will need to draw traffic to it, and there are many ways you can make more money if your site is viewed as lucrative by advertisers. Affiliate Income and Google Adsense are two good candidates as they are the two most popular ways to make some money for your websites, especially for those looking for sites that generate passive income. You can use affiliates for displaying ads on your sites from a few listings here, such as Google’s AdSense and AdWords. [Sources: 10, 11, 16, 17]
If you want to make money from your website, dive in and talk about how you can monetize it with 12 tested strategies. The key to increasing a website’s profitability is two things: first, you get a better understanding of how it will increase profits, and second, you need to track, measure, and account for its results. In this article we go to Capture exactly how you make your websites profitable and how we help you and your customers Understand that your website must be profitable in order to be profitable. [Sources: 2, 4, 13]
Your website is designed to transform your website visitors into leads and sales. Your website may generate revenue or expand into an in-person business (if you have one), but it doesn’t have to be 99% online if there’s no chance of it being profitable. You need a lot of traffic for any monetization method, including selling goods or services on a website. In the case of Adsense and affiliate marketing, we need the traffic we have, and in the case of social media and other forms of online advertising, our website must also have a large proportion of that traffic. [Sources: 0, 5, 6, 11]
Even if you never monetize your site, you may be able to sell it for a nice penny, and although you never “monetized” it, your site can be profitable in some way. [Sources: 3]
Do not underestimate the value that your hard work and brand will have for others, and do not be too anxious or insecure. Selling your website may not be the direction you envisaged for your business. If you are thinking about selling your businesses but are too scared, or if you are “too scared” or “too insecure,” it is time to take a step back and think about how selling a website can be more profitable and beneficial than keeping it. [Sources: 1]
Creating video content for your website will not only help entertain your visitors, but could also earn you some money. If you have digital marketing skills and have already created content, you can use Google Adsense to monetize the site. It is wise to measure the ROI of a website by looking for ways to incorporate professional web development into your business. Instead of focusing on the numbers, there is plenty of time for that later, and it is worth it. [Sources: 8, 9, 15]
The ability to receive advertising typically depends on how many page views your site generates. So if you want to build a profitable website, you need to have constant, large search traffic coming to your website every day. Since traffic correlates with the profitability of the Internet, especially if your websites rely on advertising revenue or affiliate revenue, estimating the traffic your website receives is a good way to know if they are making money. Depending on the number of page views and the amount of traffic your website receives, advertising space can be sold to your company for a flat fee. [Sources: 3, 6, 7, 13]
If your website has been around a long time and you have established strong visibility and popularity in your niche, the value of your website will increase. Regardless of which method you choose to monetize your content, the chances of creating a website that actually makes a profit are the same. Now that you know a little more about how websites are monetized, you can use that knowledge to get the most out of your websites and turn your passion into profit. [Sources: 6, 13, 18]
If you do a good job of building up steady traffic to your site by connecting with your community, there are a few different ways to monetize your hard work. If you don’t sell anything on your website, you can still use the most important inbound marketing techniques. To get traffic and make money through Adsense, I would recommend using SEO to drive traffic to the site. Building traffic for a website is one of the goals of monetization on AdSense, but it is also very important to create value for your readers because that is exactly what is monetized. [Sources: 6, 9, 12]
Sources:
[0]: https://profitworks.ca/blog/297-why-having-a-website-is-important
[1]: https://www.incomediary.com/selling-your-website
[2]: https://myinternetmarketingpartner.com/how-your-website-should-turn-a-profit/
[3]: https://www.nichepursuits.com/make-money-from-a-website/
[4]: https://www.wpelevation.com/2016/05/its-your-job-to-make-a-website-profitable/
[5]: https://www.omniconvert.com/blog/how-web-hosting-affects-website-traffic-engagement-profits.html
[6]: https://www.reliablesoft.net/how-to-make-a-profitable-website-without-selling-anything/
[7]: https://www.jeffbullas.com/online-business-idea/
[8]: https://goingclear.com/how-the-roi-of-web-design-equals-profits-for-your-business/
[9]: https://thelead.io/digital-marketing/make-money-with-adsense
[10]: https://longtailpro.com/profitable-website-ideas/
[11]: https://www.weebly.com/inspiration/profit-website/
[12]: https://websitesetup.org/33-ways-to-monetize-website/
[13]: https://wealthfit.com/entrepreneurship/make-money-from-website/
[14]: https://www.biblemoneymatters.com/how-to-build-and-sell-a-website-for-extra-money/
[15]: https://www.savethestudent.org/make-money/ways-make-money-from-website.html
[16]: https://blog.travelpayouts.com/en/how-to-monetize-a-website/
[17]: https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-much-is-my-website-worth/
[18]: https://managewp.com/blog/website-worth
Performance statistics
AI content writer’s article:
Length: 889 words
Based on the meat of the article and not including the source links.
Flesch Reading Ease (Yoast): 37.5 Difficult
This seems mainly due to the length of the sentences, 46.3% of which contain more than 20 words. And the lack of headings, which would be added later by a human editor.
Plagiarism check (Small SEO Tools): 100% plagiarism-free
My article:
Length: 2,475 words
Based on the main article and not including the promotional ending.
Flesch Reading Ease (Yoast): 71.5 Fairly easy
There was no advice for improving the reading ease.
Plagiarism check (Small SEO Tools): 100% plagiarism-free
2. How to write better content
The second article, I wrote using a combination of things I learned in a webinar on Maximising On-Page Optimisation and my own experience.
The result was an article that looked at creating content that’s compelling for your human audience and that satisfies Google.
You can read my original article here.
The AI content writer’s approach was to introduce four apps. Or,rather, it said it was going to introduce four apps, but then didn’t.
How To Write Better Content
Based on my experience as an author and content marketer, I would like to share some tips and tricks for writing better web content. If you are someone who already practices content marketing, this article will introduce you to the 4 killer apps that can help you become a better content writer. [Sources: 14, 27]
Once you have finished typing in your content, expand the Yoast field and activate the Content Analysis section. There are some additional tips you can add to your readers on how to write quality content and what to work on before publishing. Hopefully this content writing tool is exactly what we are looking for and with it all our content – writing tasks will run smoothly. If you have more blog posts that can be written, post them in the comments below. [Sources: 0, 2, 5, 10]
Take a professional course that will help you design content better for your website and try out how to create exceptional digital content to get started. Read various books and magazines that talk about writing content and SEO and read more about it in our blog series. [Sources: 15, 23]
Use these tips to optimize your content and keep your readers engaged, and before you know it, content will come by itself. In practice, you will be better at reading content with more enjoyment, and it will work better and read better if your writing is brought straight to the point. Your blog has established itself as a credible resource and the content you write adds value to readers. [Sources: 5, 18, 20, 22]
Whether you’re trying to make your manager understand your content strategy, or you want to start guest blogging on your favorite site, finding and working with a good editor is one of the best ways to improve your writing skills. The right writing tools help you create content better and faster, and give you what you need to stay focused, find mistakes, and perfect your copy. It helps you to improve as a writer by giving you the skills to make even better copies in the future. Finding out the steps and processes before you start writing can make it much easier to write really actionable content. [Sources: 11, 17, 24, 25]
Now it’s finally time to talk about the actual content you’re going to create and how it fits with your content marketing goals. First, we look at what makes great content, and then we’ll turn to some tips and tricks for sites that produce it. [Sources: 3, 4]
Blog posts are a great place to start content marketing because they have by far the lowest entry barrier. Many professional bloggers and editors recommend this and it definitely helps to write a better headline. Now you have written a blog entry that gives you the best possible chance of success. [Sources: 3, 6, 19]
It goes without saying that writing a great headline is essential to any content marketing strategy. If you want to make a difference and produce content that reaches people, focus on writing a great piece. [Sources: 8, 12]
Every piece of content you write should explain to readers why they should spend their time listening to what you have to say. By writing engaging content that people want to read, visitors stay on your site longer and longer. Moreover, the quality assessment system means that if we write great content, we have more chance of writing ourselves and are better paid. If you have written for other pages as well as yourself, you are under even more pressure to maintain your quality. [Sources: 5, 16, 21, 26]
So save this list of tables of contents and keep it handy and scannable every time you create content for the Web. If you consider these 4 things when writing web content, you will encourage your readers to consider your medium when writing. [Sources: 5, 9]
If you want to improve your content, read it before posting it on the Internet or give it to your customers. One of the best things you can do to improve your writing is to learn to write killer titles. Use clear, direct titles: If you write content for yourself, more of your readers can focus on you. Read it aloud: Read the content aloud if you want to publish and improve it, and use a clear, direct title. [Sources: 9, 17]
If you decide to write about a blog topic and you don’t like to write about it, you can’t expect your readers to love it. Don’t write blogs that are too similar to what everyone else has already written, because “you can do better. That’s not to say that you can’t learn how to write a blog post that readers will love; you just need the right process. Not because you are not good at writing, but simply because you are doing it, and everyone is already doing it. [Sources: 1, 13]
This article is about adding skills by learning how to write truly compelling and engaging content and add value by optimizing it. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of writing a blog post that takes into account how search engines work and optimizes your readers “chances of finding your post. An author of website content is generally referred to as an SEO content writer and is a person who specializes in providing relevant content to a website. You get your knowledge about SEO from the best experts in this field, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics, etc. [Sources: 6, 7, 16]
Sources:
[0]: https://masterblogging.com/write-quality-content/
[1]: https://themeisle.com/blog/how-to-write-a-blog-post/
[2]: https://thriveagency.com/news/content-writing-tools-everyone-should-use/
[3]: https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-to-create-great-content-a-step-by-step-guide-to-content-marketing-that-delivers-real-results.html
[4]: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ingredients-of-great-content/
[5]: https://www.contentfac.com/even-more-web-content-writing-tips/
[6]: https://blogging.com/blog/how-to-write-good-blog-post/
[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_content_writer
[8]: https://press.farm/proven-strategies-writing-better-content-marketing-headlines/
[9]: https://smallbiztrends.com/2010/09/12-tips-writing-better-content.html
[10]: https://firstsiteguide.com/write-content/
[11]: https://www.postplanner.com/blog/social-media-best-practices-to-write-better-content
[12]: https://www.singlegrain.com/blog-posts/how-writing-one-piece-of-remarkable-content-can-change-your-business/
[13]: https://mythemeshop.com/blog/write-blog-post/
[14]: https://usabilla.com/blog/10-useful-tips-for-writing-better-web-content/
[15]: https://www.volusion.com/blog/learn-more-about-writing-great-content/
[16]: https://www.crowdcontent.com/blog/2019/04/04/crash-course-how-to-become-an-seo-content-writer/
[17]: https://coschedule.com/blog/content-writing-tips/
[18]: https://komarketing.com/blog/12-tips-to-write-better-seo-content/
[19]: https://bloggingwizard.com/write-better-blog-headlines/
[20]: https://blog.simplestrat.com/12-foolproof-tips-writing-better-web-content
[21]: https://www.techhelp.ca/guide-to-website-content-writing/
[22]: https://seo.co/interesting-content/
[23]: https://www.marketing91.com/web-content-top-20-tips-to-write-better-web-content/
[24]: https://zapier.com/blog/writing-editing-apps/
[25]: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/08/07/improve-writing-skills
[26]: https://copyblogger.com/good-fast-content/
[27]: https://writetodone.com/become-a-better-content-writer/
Performance statistics
AI content writer’s article:
Length: 881 words
Based on the meat of the article and not including the source links.
Flesch Reading Ease (Yoast): 37.7 Difficult
The score is based on the fact that 37.1% of the sentences contain more than 20 words and that a lot of those words are difficult. It also picked up that there are no subheadings, but these would be added later by a human editor.
Plagiarism check (Small SEO Tools): 98% plagiarism-free
My article:
Length: 2,115 words
Based on the main article and not including the promotional ending.
Flesch Reading Ease (Yoast): 71.2 Fairly easy
There was no advice for improving the reading ease.
Plagiarism check (Small SEO Tools): 100% plagiarism-free
3. The benefits of blogging for your business
My third article talks about the value of blogging and identifies 10 different ways it can benefit your business.
The article I wrote is here.
And here’s what the AI content writer wrote:
The Benefits Of Blogging For Your Business
For over a decade I have been working as a digital marketer and blogger and have been learning about the benefits of business blogging. If you’ve never thought about blogging for your small business, or have already taken a leap in today’s digital world, read on to see why your business needs one. Let’s take a look at some of the main reasons that make blogging small businesses, one by one, the best choice for their business. Blogging for corporate sites is important, even if hosting elsewhere reduces the many benefits. [Sources: 5, 15, 19, 20]
In addition to increasing traffic to your website, business blogging is a great opportunity to get leads for your business. So make sure you include blogging in your digital marketing efforts to drive online growth for you and your businesses. [Sources: 3, 17]
One of the advantages of blogging is that the more content you have out there, the more leads you have to open up. Engaging your audience through your blog will increase your online reach, increase your commitment to your brand, and help you get to know it better. Your blog can be used to create content that you want to share with your audience through their connections. [Sources: 8, 11, 22]
Whether you run a personal blog or blog for the company you work for, it will help you to be out there and connect with your customers. Being active in your business blog will also help you get feedback from your fans and customers, as mentioned in # 3. If people trust you enough to read your content on your blog, blogging can help attract more customers to the company. Blogging not only helps to get feedback, but also to get feedback from fans and customers. [Sources: 5, 13, 14]
This in turn will ensure that your content is found by your customers, that they love you and trust you and ultimately do business with you. Blogging in a business environment means providing as much value as possible, not only for your business, but also for Google. [Sources: 14]
Blogging for your company causes people to link back to your website, share your content and recommend you to their friends. Best of all, if you build a resource on your blog to teach others, you will realize that you can monetize it online by creating educational products and services. Blogging on a business website is an advantage for most visitors, because they can easily find the blog and get to know your company better. If you host a blog on the company’s website, you can reap the benefits without spending a lot of money, as you would with other marketing tools. [Sources: 0, 1, 9, 15]
Another advantage of blogging is that it can be a place to give small businesses a voice. It doesn’t matter how small your business is, it’s one of the best ways for a company to build trust and influence in your industry. Whether you are a solo renegade blogging to market yourself or a business, building relationships will help your blog grow. [Sources: 1, 4, 12]
Understanding the important role that a corporate blog can play in your own business or brand can help you develop effective blogging strategies that lead to increased engagement. Although I don’t recommend that you blog only about your business, your blog will serve as a valuable tool to have a place where you can share the history of your brand. Whenever you create a blog for your company / brand, it is equally important to define its purpose, namely to learn more about the target audience and demographic target group you want to reach. [Sources: 3, 10]
A major advantage of blogging is the possibility that it attracts new visitors to the website through close cooperation with search engine optimization and social media. As you can see, if done right, business blogging can create opportunities that will have a positive impact on increasing traffic to your company’s website. Not only to increase your company’s traffic, but also to improve your marketing strategy for inbound and improve your search engine ranking. [Sources: 3, 6, 7]
By sharing your blog posts on social media, you can increase traffic to your company’s website by finding and sharing them. Without the help of search engine optimization and social networks like Facebook and Twitter, that would have been much harder. [Sources: 2]
If your readers don’t flock to your posts to the extent you think they will, you have significant business benefits. The benefits of blogging for your business include increasing your clientele and increasing revenue by strengthening your brand identity as an industry expert. If you get more traffic, the popularity of your blog and its topics will increase, and you will understand why you blog regularly. Indeed, according to a study by the National Association of Business Bloggers (NABB), the number of business blogs in the US has increased by 25% in the past five years. [Sources: 0, 7, 18]
Another important advantage of blogging is to inform your customers about your products, services and the industry. A blog can enhance your business’s credibility in your industry by delivering compelling social media content. When consumers read about you, when they research why you are good for business, you can give everything about your business and inform people about their history, culture, personality, etc. [Sources: 16, 21]
Sources:
[0]: https://www.rebootonline.com/blog/7-benefits-of-blogging-for-business/
[1]: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-do-people-blog-the-be_b_8178624
[2]: https://bluespectra.com/the-top-10-benefits-of-blogging-on-your-website/
[3]: https://www.marion.com/top-5-benefits-business-blogging/
[4]: https://youbiquity.co.uk/articles/content-hub/blogging-benefits/
[5]: https://www.blissbranding.com/top-10-benefits-of-blogging-for-your-business/
[6]: https://www.logicdesign.co.uk/blog/big-benefits-blogging-your-business/
[7]: https://www.theleverageway.com/blog/the-benefits-of-blogging-for-your-business/
[8]: https://www.rystedtcreative.com/online-marketing/reasons-business-needs-blog-2020/
[9]: https://www.smallbizdaily.com/4-powerful-benefits-blogging-for-your-small-business/
[10]: https://diib.com/learn/small-business-blog-seo/
[11]: https://www.bkacontent.com/benefits-of-blogging-for-businesses/
[12]: https://www.cbo.me/blog/5-powerful-benefits-of-blogging-for-your-small-business
[13]: https://firstsiteguide.com/benefits-of-blogging/
[14]: https://www.magnet4blogging.net/blogging-for-your-business/
[15]: https://www.digitalcoastmarketing.com/business-blogging-seo-keywords/
[16]: https://junctioncreativestudio.com/do-i-really-need-a-blog-for-my-small-business/
[17]: https://technivorz.com/8-amazing-benefits-of-blogging-for-small-businesses/
[18]: https://www.verblio.com/blog/5-reasons-why-business-blogs-work
[19]: https://newshadesofhippy.com/2020/06/10/benefits-of-blogging-for-business/
[20]: https://www.thedigitalvibes.com/blog/benefits-blogging-small-businesses/
[21]: https://yourlistingexpert.com/the-importance-of-blogging-2/
[22]: https://snapshotinteractive.com/benefits-having-blog-on-website/
Performance statistics
AI content writer’s article:
Length: 860 words
Based on the meat of the article and not including the source links.
Flesch Reading Ease (Yoast): 31.8 Difficult
In this article, 42.6% of the sentences contain more than 20 words and a lot of those words are difficult. Again, it also picked up that there are no subheadings.
Plagiarism check (Small SEO Tools): 100% plagiarism-free
My article:
Length: 1,128 words
Based on the main article and not including the promotional ending.
Flesch Reading Ease (Yoast): 66.8 Okay
There was no advice for improving the reading ease.
Plagiarism check (Small SEO Tools): 100% plagiarism-free
My response to the AI content
I’ve been creating content for the last 16 years, so there isn’t much I don’t know about researching, writing and formatting articles. I’m not thrilled with the idea of being replaced with an AI content writer, but I’ll be fair in my assessment of it.
Let’s look at the good points first.
The good points
✅ It’s super-quick
Unfortunately, I hadn’t calculated the amount of time it took to write my articles, but I know they took hours rather than minutes.
The AI content writer, on the other hand, was almost instant. Each of these articles was banged out in less than 15 minutes.
✅ It has a process
The AI content writer knows how to find and assemble information. And it’s capable of attributing and crediting its sources. I’m not especially technical, so to me this is impressive.
However, the process does make it formulaic at times. For example, all three of the articles I commissioned are between 800 and 900 words in length, which may not be sufficiently detailed for some subjects.
✅ It has a persona
The third article starts with the line: For over a decade I have been working as a digital marketer and blogger…
Who is this person?! It sounds human.
✅ You get a lot of content for your money
When you read the AI content writer’s articles, you’ll see they’re not especially detailed. This is largely because you can only specify a main title.
However, the basic version of AI Writer costs just $19/£15 per month for between 20 and 40 pieces of content. So, in theory, you could get a more detailed article by planning out your article, inputting your subheadings as headings then forming the resulting shorter articles into one long one.
The bad points
❌ It needs a lot of help
This particular AI content writer needs a lot of help because you can’t enter any instructions apart from a heading.
For example, you’ll need to take care of the:
- Editing — it doesn’t write copy that’s easy to read
- SEO — it doesn’t do keyword research
- Headings — it doesn’t include subheadings
- Targeting — it doesn’t know who it’s talking to.
❌ It waffles
When I read an article, I expect substance — whether that’s in the form of information, statistics or advice. The AI content writer’s articles are very wordy and, when you strip them down, they don’t actually contain much meat — even when you look at all the sources.
❌ It’s badly written
Having used the Flesch Reading Ease test, we already know the AI content writer’s copy is difficult to read. In theory, this shouldn’t be a problem because we can edit it before we publish. However, there are parts of the copy that don’t make sense.
For example, in its second paragraph, the second AI article launches into this:
Once you have finished typing in your content, expand the Yoast field and activate the Content Analysis section. There are some additional tips you can add to your readers on how to write quality content and what to work on before publishing. Hopefully this content writing tool is exactly what we are looking for and with it all our content – writing tasks will run smoothly.
There’s no precursor to this paragraph, or explanation of how we got here. And even though I’m familiar with Yoast, I’m still struggling to understand what it’s trying to say.
❌ The research is one-dimensional
The research feature on this particular platform doesn’t seem particularly advanced. It basically asks my header question and compiles the answers it gets from several different websites.
Although every source is credited, there’s not much variety of information or statistics.
❌ It doesn’t explore the subject
When I’m writing a piece of content, I’ll explore the subject from all angles. This is the best way to answer all the related questions the audience is likely to have — and it will stop them from going elsewhere to find answers to the questions you haven’t covered.
The AI content writer doesn’t seem to be capable of this, so its articles are quite flat and not very multifaceted.
❌ It doesn’t vet its sources
The AI content writer doesn’t vet its sources like a human content writer would. As a content writer myself, I’m very careful to check the dates and credibility of the information I use.
For anything remotely technical or current, I wouldn’t rely on anything that’s undated or more than three years old.
And, for any kind of content, I always find and credit the original source of the information. This is usually the organisation that carried out the original study and it’s by far the most credible.
In the AI content writer’s source list for article 1, five of the sources were undated and three were more than three years old. Most of the sources credited in the articles are not from recognised websites with known credibility.
Can a bot really do it better?
And so we come to the crux. Can an AI content writer do a better job than a human?
Based on this experiment — no.
It’s not there yet, but it’s got this far. With further development and fine tuning, who knows what it will be capable of.
According to Forbes, some AI platforms are already used for collating financial reports. Some are skilled in interpreting and analysing the report data to make it more accessible for a wider audience. And others are used to write and fact-check the news.
Are AI content writers a threat?
Based on what I’ve seen in this experiment — no. I still perceive more value in what human content writers can produce.
Humans have a more comprehensive understanding of what a human audience wants. We’re able to make better connections through humour and personality. And we immerse ourselves fully in our markets, so we can adapt rapidly to changing thoughts and trends.
To an extent, an AI content writer can only do what it’s told by a human.
Could AI content writers be an ally?
Based on this experiment, no — for the time being at least.
There’s no way I’d be able to create content of my usual standard and quality using these articles as a starting point.
The research isn’t there, the substance isn’t there, and none of the written content would be usable.
What do human content writers want from AI?
AI content writers could be an indispensable allies if they were able to perform some of the more complex content writing tasks that take up so much time. Like these:
Sourcing credible information
Sourcing the right information is one thing content writers can struggle with. I’ve had to give up on several specific article ideas because I couldn’t find the information to complete them.
Having the ability to input search terms and get credible information and supplementary information would be invaluable.
Fact-checking
If the AI content writer can’t give us credible sources of information, maybe it could fact check the information we find ourselves instead.
The Forbes article I mentioned shows AI is already being used to fact-check the news, so this could be a future development.
Verifying sources
The internet is full of questionable and dated information, which makes vetting sources one of the most time consuming parts of the content writing process.
I wrote about a particular struggle I had with this in a recent LinkedIn post. And my experience shows that even Google doesn’t thoroughly vet the articles it gives the top spots to.
Would an AI content writer go to the same lengths I do to credit the original sources?
Based on what I’ve seen here — no.
Selecting SEO keywords
I enjoy doing this the manual way, but it is an involved process that takes time — and it can be frustrating.
Having an automated system to research and select the best performing SEO keywords would be a godsend for many content writers who don’t enjoy doing it themselves.
Improvement prompts
Another process content writers can struggle with is making our content the best. Ideally we want to ensure ours is the most thorough and comprehensive article out there. And we can spend a long time looking at the competition to make sure this is the case.
An AI content writer that could identify and evaluate what’s already out there, then suggest improvements based on that would be phenomenal.
But I think we’re quite a way off from that.
Conclusion: AI is one to watch
I don’t see a threat or an ally just yet, but I’m interested to see how this plays out. And I’m sure I’ll return to this article and try another experiment when the technology has evolved to the next level.
Do you need help with your content writing?
I’m Jenny Lucas, a creative copywriter specialising in optimised content for the web.
Regularly posting fresh, original content will help you connect with your target audience, by answering their questions and being a source of information and inspiration.
It can also help you improve or maintain your website’s ranking on Google.
But not everyone has the time or inclination to write their own content, which is why they hire me to do it for them.
And you can too.
On my website, you can find out more about my SEO content writing service.
You can visit my own blog to see some samples.
Or you can get in touch to see how I can help you.