At some point today, you probably read at least a few sentences written by AI. More than 80% of content marketers say they’re using AI content generation tools in 2024, compared with 65% in 2023.
That’s quite a leap! Clearly, our industry hasn’t been shy about testing and using this technology.
AI can, after all, be a powerful ally for content creation, capable of automating a range of activities, from research and brainstorming to strategic planning—not to mention getting over writer’s block.
The trouble is, AI-written copy just isn’t that great. In our experience, it usually lands somewhere between “just OK” and downright bland. Even when coached, AI tools struggle to deliver nuance, personalized examples, colour—pretty much everything that makes great writing live and breathe. They learn by scraping the Internet for “typical” responses and scenarios, so it makes sense that their output is often flat and formulaic: averaged inputs deliver average results.
So, how do you make the most of AI’s benefits, without letting it steer your content into cookie-cutter territory? Read on for our team’s best practices, and some helpful pointers we’ve developed through our work with AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini Jasper, Narrato and others.
What AI Does Well: Speeding Up Content Marketing Workflows
After two years of working with AI tools and honing our prompts, we still believe AI is at its best when working in the background. It makes a great research assistant, draft-generator and reviewer, for example—a bit like a Type A junior colleague who’s full of energy and eager to help, but also needs direction.
The biggest perks of integrating AI into your content workflow are speed and efficiency. By automating routine tasks that we previously managed manually, for instance, the Forge & Spark team has had more time to focus on the human side and quality of our content. There have been some highs and laughable lows in the process, however. You can read more about our team’s wins and flops with AI here.
Here are some areas where we think AI excels right now:
- Creating outlines and identifying gaps in research
- Analyzing data and market trends
- Curing writer’s block and speeding up first drafts
- Producing large volumes of ideas and ready-to-edit “skeleton” content efficiently
- Developing and refining project strategy
- Fleshing out audience personas and helping with customer targeting
- Catching errors and assisting with review
What AI Doesn’t Do Very Well: Creativity and Connection
As quickly as it can crank out paragraphs, AI really isn’t good at original, personalized storytelling; the backbone of great copywriting. You simply will not get genuine creativity or any kind of personal touch that helps your audience relate, or trust what you’re saying.
For that, you have to get humans involved.
AI ‘Tells’ – or Giveaways that You’re using AI for Writing Your Content
A friend of mine is a high school teacher, and when ChatGPT launched in 2022, half of his job suddenly became “AI Inspector,” looking for clues that students are writing assignments using AI. Detector tools don’t always work, so he’s developed a knack for seeing the signs. Often it’s word choice, suspicious sentence pacing or formality of tone that gets his hackles up. But as time goes on, the more he’s able to clock it.
Similarly, the more we read AI content and play with AI tools, the more our team is developing an AI spidey sense.
Perhaps you are, too? We see more and more readers becoming attuned, consciously or subconsciously, to “AI voice”—and leery of AI-written content in general. This is why it’s a good idea to monitor your AI output for common pitfalls.
Here are some examples of common “AI tells” in written content that we can’t unsee (there are many more):
- In AI-written blog posts: Overly formal introductions and conclusions, with language like “this blog post, will explore…” and “in this blog post, we’ve covered…” And: “in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world, [problem/need] has become more critical than ever.”
- In AI-written social media posts: Excessive and counterintuitive use of emoji (especially the rocket ship, for some reason 🚀🚀🚀). Plus, odd opening sentences that look like headings instead of hooks.
- In AI-written copy generally: Frequent use of terms like “dive in” “delve” and “resonate.” “Embark on a journey” and “elevate,” in a “realm” that’s “cutting-edge” and “game-changing.”These may be minor gripes, but they’re symptomatic of another issue with using AI content out of the box: it all starts to sound the same.
Our Tips for Improving and Humanizing AI-generated text
Is it possible to take advantage of AI efficiencies without producing copy that’s devoid of character, or losing your distinctive voice? We think so! While we still believe, as mentioned above, that the best way to use AI right now is in the background, as a research assistant and idea-generator, and *not* as a copywriter—we also know that many brands don’t have the resources to write all of their content from scratch.
Below we’ve compiled some tips for humanizing AI-written text, and getting better results when working with AI tools for copywriting.
Load up your AI prompts with as many specifics as possible
The more specific you can be, and the more research and context you provide, the less likely the AI will be to spit out blah copy. The garbage in, garbage out rule applies here, so be as specific as possible. Request a tone and style, if possible, and give it a rough length, noting where and how you’ll be using the copy, to make sure the tone is right for the platform. Will it become a social-post series? Serve as a basis for a thought leadership article on your website? If your brand voice is warm and down-to-earth, with a touch of humour on social channels, spell that out, too. Think of it as giving AI a personality transplant—yours.
Feed in audience personas
If you haven’t already created audience personas for your marketing plan, you can enlist AI to help you generate them, by supplying details on industry, demographics, jobs to be done, pain points, preferences and more. With these details in the mix, results come out tailored to your target audience, versus a baseline of the population.
Train AI long-term in your distinctive writing style, industry and brand
Depending on the AI tool you’re using, you may be able to create a custom bot that learns your quirks of speech, and maintains a library of knowledge specific to your brand and industry. With these (usually paid) tools, you can upload web links, company style guides, articles, competitor content, bios, personas and other content samples to refine the voice.
For example, our CEO, Shannon, recently created her own personal “ShanBot,” capturing her distinctive voice and tone (along with many lessons and tips she’s sharing in Content With Purpose, a book she’s working on about authentic marketing and messaging).
Talk back: ask the AI to edit itself
They’re called “chatbots” for a reason. If something sounds clunky or generic, ask the AI to revise, writing more conversationally or using fewer buzzwords. Another great refining technique: direct the AI to ask you questions as it composes—this can help identify gaps and surface new ideas. Keep pushing back until you’re happy, or you’re not able to get anything that’s substantially better.
Fact-check all AI-written text carefully
Large language AI models like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are evolving at a stunning rate, and the outputs are getting better all the time. But even now, in 2024, they still invent “facts” out of thin air. Experts call these “AI hallucinations,” estimating a minimum 3–5 per cent of AI output contains some kind of misinformation or invention. That’s why it’s critical to comb through all AI generated content with a sharp and skeptical eye.
Revise and add personality
Here’s where the human touch comes in: take that AI-written “skeleton” and breathe some life into it. Add personal anecdotes, quirks of speech and examples from your own experience. Trade passive language and clichés for clear and direct phrasing.
Where it makes sense, enrich descriptions with elements that appeal to human senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, scent—and add touches that communicate how you feel, or inspire emotion in the reader. Not only will this lead to better, more evocative copywriting, but it will also help satisfy Google’s EEAT guidelines (experience, expertise, authority, trustworthiness) for content quality—key if you want to rank in search results.
Here are a few helpful articles on avoiding bland prose, whether it’s written by humans or AI:
- How to Achieve a Conversational Tone in Your Writing
- How to Create more Genuine Content in this Sea of Noise
- 4 Strategies to Humanize Your Marketing Content
Writing Exercise: How We’d Improve an AI-Generated Brand Social Post
We know from experience that many brands are using AI to write their social media posts. With algorithms rewarding increased activity and post frequency, it makes sense to lighten this copywriting workload. But it can be a risky strategy, too—because your audience expects you to show up as even more human and relatable on social channels, not less.
With this in mind, let’s look at how we might improve and humanize a brand social post written by AI. To come up with the draft below, we fed ChatGPT the “About Us” copy from our website, along with our target-audience personas, and asked it to write a social post promoting this blog.
🚀 AI is powerful, but humanizing it is key to success in content marketing. 🚀 In our latest blog, we dive into how to humanize AI-generated content and make it resonate with your audience. While AI can streamline processes and enhance efficiency, there’s still an art to ensuring your content stays authentic, engaging, and true to your brand. 🔍 Key Insights: • How to balance AI’s efficiency with human creativity • The importance of voice, tone, and empathy in AI-driven content • Best practices for using AI tools to support (not replace) human storytellers At Forge & Spark, we believe that AI can be a powerful assistant—but it’s the human touch that builds trust and connection. ✨ 👉 Ready to make AI work for your content marketing strategy? Check out the full blog [here].
All in all, it’s not terrible—recognize any of the AI giveaways mentioned above, though? 🚀
Below is the AI’s second draft, after the following re-prompt: “This feels a bit too formal and generic. It shouldn’t have a heading, but rather a hook statement to get people interested in reading more. Also, please dial back the emoji and make the tone warmer and more personal.”
Ever wonder how to make AI-driven content feel more human? 🤔 AI is amazing at streamlining content creation, but the real magic happens when you combine its power with human creativity and empathy. In our latest blog, we share practical tips on how to keep your content authentic and engaging—even with AI in the mix. Some of the key takeaways: • How to blend AI’s efficiency with your unique creative voice. • Why tone, empathy, and storytelling still matter (even with AI involved). • Best practices for using AI as a supportive tool—not a replacement for human connection. At Forge & Spark, we believe in letting AI do what it does best, but it’s the human touch that builds real trust. 💛 Curious to learn more? Check out the full blog [here].
It’s a little better, but now let’s take a human pass, making it more specific, adding an emotional appeal and connecting it to our team’s hands-on experience with AI:
If your brand is using AI to write content for your blog, social channels or website, do you ever get the sinking feeling that people can tell? 🤔 Sorry, but we can—sometimes. Our team has been working with AI tools like Chat GPT and Google Gemini for a couple of years now. And while we love them for streamlining content creation and automating time-consuming tasks, we’ve learned the real magic happens when you combine its power with human creativity. In our latest blog, we share practical tips on how to keep your content authentic and engaging, even with AI in the mix. Some of the key takeaways: • How to take advantage of AI’s efficiency while retaining your unique voice. • Why tone, empathy, and storytelling still matter (even with AI involved). • Best practices for using AI as a tool and content support. At Forge & Spark, we believe that AI can be a powerful assistant—but it’s the human touch that builds trust and connection.💛 Curious to learn more? Check out the full blog [here].
There you have it. It may not be Hemingway, but now it feels more like it was written by a person, and better reflects our brand’s voice and goals. And we produced it more quickly than writing from scratch.
We added a few final touches for the real deal: see it on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
AI: Content Marketing Friend or Foe?
How are you feeling about using AI for content marketing now? Are you confident you can use this technology to the best of its capabilities, undetectably—or do you still worry about a lack of quality and creativity in your output?
If you suspect that your AI-written copy is missing the human touch it needs to stand out, engage your audience and build trust, we’d love to conduct an audit and give you our honest opinion.
Or, if you’d rather go the premium route, working with a caring team of humans who live and breathe creative copy, we want to hear from you!
