Can AI writing tools and human writers coexist?
The demand for content is as high as ever in today’s digital world, with businesses, individuals, and marketers seeking fresh, engaging content to connect with their audiences. This increasing demand has resulted in the rise of AI-powered content writing tools, raising concerns from human writers about their future in this market. Can AI tools and human writers coexist in the online space? Could they complement each other? The answer is yes, if humans embrace AI’s strengths and counteract its inherent weaknesses.
Efficiency and productivity
As someone who has worked in the content industry for over a decade, I have been taken aback by AI’s ability to streamline the content creation process. AI can quickly produce large swathes of content based on predefined parameters such as keyword density, readability, and tone. The speed at which AI-powered writing tools perform is staggering, making them perfect for creating large volumes of content, such as blog posts, product descriptions, and even social media updates.
However, AI-generated content often lacks the creativity and depth that only human writers bring to the table. For example, an AI tool like Google’s Gemini or ChatGPT could easily write a detailed review of the online sportsbook MyBookie filled with details. Yet it would be impossible for those tools to give a personalised anecdote about their interaction with customer support, the ease of depositing and withdrawing, or similar. People want facts, but they also want a personal touch, which makes content engaging and relatable.
Idea generation and research
All AI-powered tools excel at analysing huge amounts of data and identifying opportunities, trends, and patterns, which makes AI writing tools an invaluable asset for idea generation and research. I lean on AI for help in this area because although I specialise in gaming-related content, many of my clients request articles about unfamiliar subjects.
Last week, I wrote an article about NASCAR racing despite only knowing these stock cars race around an oval track. I asked ChatGPT for several ideas for NASCAR-related articles and to provide statistics from some of the best-known drivers and teams. The tool almost instantly came back with several potential topics and a plethora of data, which I then delved deeper into while bringing originality to my article that AI cannot replicate.
Customisation and personalisation
AI-powered writing tools also shine when it comes to producing content from user data, enabling a business to create and publish content with tailored messages to different segments of an audience. For example, an e-commerce site can use AI to create personalised product descriptions or social media posts that appeal to specific demographics.
However, as mentioned in our previous paragraphs, while AI can personalise content based on data, it lacks the authenticity and emotional connection human writers provide. Humans can add personal touches to make the content feel genuine or adjust the tone to reflect the brand’s tone of voice. Such intricacies and finishing touches help to create an authentic and consistent experience for the reader.
Quality control and editing
I said earlier that I often use AI-powered tools for idea generation and research, but I also use AI during quality control and editing. You may write an article packed with stellar content that you are proud of, only to discover upon publishing that it is strewn with spelling and grammatical errors.
Grammarly Premium costs me approximately $150 annually, but it is worth its weight in gold. This powerful editing tool analyses my text for grammatical errors, sentence structure, and readability while providing easy-to-understand suggestions for improvement. Such a tool helps me to produce cleaner and more polished content without the need for extensive editing.
However, although Grammarly is perfect for handling basic quality control, my human touch is still essential for the final review. This is especially true when writing an article with technical terms, jargon, or slang because the AI tool is often unaware of such words or phrases and incorrectly flags them as mistakes.
Combining AI and human editing ensures my content is coherent, correct, and engaging.
Scalability
AI can quickly and efficiently produce hundreds or thousands of pieces of content in a short period of time. This incredible scalability makes AI writing tools valuable for e-commerce sites, marketing agencies, or even new outlets that demand a constant flow of fresh content. However, while AI can easily scale production, human writers must ensure that AI-generated content is high quality and creative.
AI-generated content can quickly become formulaic, generic, and repetitive without human input. One only needs to scour the internet for a few minutes before stumbling across a website where AI has mass-produced the site’s content. Every article starts similarly, has the same structure, and has content drier than the Gobi Desert! Such websites probably enjoy plenty of traffic from new visitors. Still, I would be willing to bet my bottom dollar that their returning visitors figures are rock bottom because the content lacks engagement and is boring; you can’t put a price on a returning customer’s loyalty.
Conclusion
It is clear that AI-powered writing tools are not going away. Indeed, they will become more prevalent, if anything. While human writers have valid reasons to be concerned about their future in the content creation industry, they should learn to leverage the power of AI to improve their content.
Human writers can let AI handle the heavy lifting of data processing, research, and even content generation (to some degree), freeing up priceless time for them to be creative and to add elements of flair and personality to the AI-generated work.
In its current guise, AI is a human writer’s powerful and efficient ally; it is not a legitimate threat. Humans and AI can coexist in the content creation world until AI develops the ability to make up believable stories or think like only a human can. Such a time will likely never happen during our lifetimes.
