Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a hot topic in the content marketing industry. Its ability to quickly produce large amounts of content that is both accurate and grammatically correct is impressive. It’s also been used to automate certain business processes in order to save time and money. Many companies rely on AI to generate high quality content while eliminating the need for manual labor.
But is using AI really worth it?
In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at the pros and cons of using an AI writer.
What is an AI writer and how does it work?
Before we jump into the advantages and potential drawbacks of using this technology, we need to understand how it works.
An AI writer is artificial intelligence software that has been programmed to generate content that mimics what a human could create. It’s taught to replicate human-like text through natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. This way, it can interpret what you are trying to say based on your prompts, and generate content that suits your needs.
These tools have the ability to produce short-form content, whether it’s product descriptions, Tweets or blog introductions, and long-form content such as full blog posts. This gives it the potential to be an invaluable addition to many companies who aim to generate large quantities of content with a limited budget.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the technology behind AI writers, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using one in your content creation process.
The pros of using an AI Writer
1. It saves time
AI writers ensure efficiency and scalability. When it comes to small businesses, people tend to take on multiple roles. Using these tools will free up valuable time that can instead be spent focusing on bigger tasks. It can take the average person over 4 hours to create a good quality blog post of around 1300 words, considering the time it takes to carefully research the chosen topic and plan its execution. With this technology, you can generate accurate long-form copy with the click of a button. Remember, time is money in the corporate world.
2. It saves money
Rather than spending money on content marketing services, or having to pay the salary of a content marketer, it may be beneficial to use an AI writer to generate your content on a regular basis. In fact, it was found that 39% of marketers that participated in a survey said that 31 to 50% of their marketing budget goes to content marketing.
With just a few prompts, you’ll be able to create anything from social media captions to detailed step-by-step guides. This can be a huge advantage for small businesses with smaller budgets who still want to provide value to their readers. While some platforms still require you to pay a fee to use their features, this is only a fraction of the cost of hiring inhouse content marketers.
3. It helps with idea generation
If you have ever sat down and spoken to a content marketer, they will tell you that writer’s block can be a real problem. It’s difficult to consistently generate new, unique and creative content that will be able to compete with everything else on the Internet. Your goal is to generate interest and create conversions with high-quality content, and it can be very stressful when those creative juices aren’t flowing.
The best AI writers can be incredibly helpful when it comes to idea generation, with its ability to create blog post outlines, headings, talking points and more. With the option to generate even blog post intros, they can help simply kickstart your creativity by pointing you in a new direction.
4. It maintains SEO standards
This advantage depends on the tool that you choose to use. Some AI writers include SEO reports and features, while others don’t. These features may include things along the lines of meta descriptions and meta tags. For people who are not interested in or don’t have the time to learn the skills of incorporating SEO trends, this is an easy way to still make sure that your content shows up on the SERPs. In this way, AI writers help businesses develop their online presence, bringing their brand and value to the attention of wider audiences.
5. Breach the language gap
Many AI writers have the ability to write content in multiple different languages. This helps companies produce high quality content that will reach a new audience. For example, if an American business wanted to break into the German market, this technology could be a fast and efficient way to achieve this without the need for a translator. Some platforms will even let you translate entire blog posts with just the click of a button! There is even the added advantage of location-specific content, where the AI can recognize a user’s location and alter the content accordingly. This can go as far as using a particular country’s lingo and colloquialism.
6. It can help most industries
The amazing thing about artificial intelligence is that it can be taught to apply its programming to almost every industry. It’s already changing the eCommerce industry and its future. If you are looking to produce content about anything, from homestyle cooking tips to DIY projects, or from travel advice to what it takes to own your own business, AI can handle it all. Its capabilities are somewhat limited when it comes to highly specialized fields such as medicine, but for the most part it can deliver just about anything you ask of it. Much of the software contains machine learning that enables the AI to continue learning as it goes. This means that it can gather new information and adapt its outcomes accordingly.
7. It helps create your social media presence
Social media management can be an intimidating concept for many business owners, especially when it comes to platforms that they are unfamiliar with. Integrating this form of marketing needs to be carefully considered and planned for if you want to see the best possible results. While some companies opt for bringing a social media manager into their team, many companies are already relying on AI to fulfill this role.
AI writers can be used to generate unique and witty social media captions that will catch the attention of your audience. It can even create Tweets, and video captions and ideas, making it a valuable tool for any company to have in their back pocket.
The cons of using an AI Writer
1. It still requires human interference
While artificial intelligence has progressed in leaps and bounds over the years and continues to evolve, it’s important to note that it still needs human assistance. It is not a flawless system, and there are a few grammatical errors that may occur from time to time. The AI also requires input guidance to give it some form of direction. By prompting the AI, you ensure that it’ll produce content that is relevant to your needs. Even selecting things such as the tone of voice will help you get the most out of the AI writer.
2. It lacks personality
This is a feature of AI that could still use some tweaking. AI writers are not yet capable of producing content that suits your brand’s specific tone and style exactly. They are programmed to make use of the most common tones, along the lines of excited, professional, funny, sarcastic and so on. While this does help users get closer to their way of writing, it is difficult to get the AI to match your unique writing style. Again, this means that you will have to take a close look at the output generated and alter it to suit your preferences. Inserting a bit of your company’s personality into the content will help make it more unique and relatable for your audience.
3. Accuracy is unreliable
Again, this is dependent on the specific tool you are using. Some AI writers produce facts that are more reliable than others, and some will need to be cross checked with a reliable source in order to ensure their accuracy. Providing reliable and valuable information to readers is the number one goal of content writers. So, while AI can be a very useful tool in your overall marketing strategy, you should also cross-reference the facts and details laid out in any piece of content that you receive. The composition of the content will also need to be checked to make sure that the information flows well and to ensure fluency.
Many AI writers include a plagiarism checker in their features; a very helpful tool for many users as this will help you make sure that the content generated by the AI is unique.
4. Poor EAT signals
We have established that many AI writers have been programmed to write with SEO standards in mind. However, when it comes to achieving adequate EAT signals, they can leave much to be desired. A company’s expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness are very important factors to consider when looking to create high quality content. These factors will play a vital role in search engine ranking for many years to come. Businesses should aim to enhance these signals wherever and whenever possible. This is ultimately what will help Google tell whether or not your content provides valuable information to readers.
Take Away…
AI writers are quickly becoming popular among content writers to speed up the creative process. They can produce large quantities of content in a fraction of the time that humans can, and can help save companies valuable time and money.
However, while AI writers can be a huge advantage for content marketers, it’s important to note that it is better to use them with moderation rather than relying on them completely for your content creation. Integrating this technology into your overall marketing strategy will help you achieve your goals and reach new heights that would have otherwise been impossible. The future will only see more and more of its involvement in businesses, and in various different industries.
If you are currently using AI writers to enhance your content marketing, let us know how in the comments! We would love to hear about your experiences.
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