As a growing web and software development company offering extensive marketing services, we carry the heavy burden of perpetual content creation. At Idea Maker, we have a small team of exceptionally talented writers; however, the sheer volume of necessary content is still challenging to manage.
On average, it takes between five and ten hours to write a thousand-word article. Once you consider revisions and proofreading, you can see how content creation is a time-consuming process. As a result, we invested in an AI content writer to assist our team by streamlining the creative process. How did it go? Keep reading to find out five things we learned after using an AI content generator.
What Is AIGenerated Content?
In simple terms, AI-generated content is content produced by intelligent computer algorithms based on brief and selected keywords. It is used to swiftly create blog posts, web copy, social media captions, headlines and even meta descriptions. Using what’s called natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG), these algorithms take your inputted data and create content that mimics similar online media.
What Is NLP/NLG?
Natural language generation (NLG) is a type of artificial intelligence that uses data inputs and machine learning to generate understandable text that appears human. The natural language processing (NLP) algorithm then builds the bridge between computer language and human language, allowing complex data structures–like that of the English language–to be autonomously transformed into readable text.
5 Things We Learned After Using an AI Content Generator
If you’re reading this article, you’re likely considering using an AI content generator yourself. We learned many lessons related to AI-generated content that may help you decide whether it’s worth the investment.
1. No Replacement for Human Tone
While AI content generators produce an impressive alternative to the human written voice, it remains noticeably robotic, riddled with inconsistencies and repetitive. We noticed a regular change of tenses and tones and recycled content. For instance, two listicle points may provide the same information in slightly different words. Ultimately, a robot trying to sound like a human comes across as, unsurprisingly, robotic. This became especially apparent when editing AI-generated articles.
Often, our content generator would provide a solid basis for an article, but they would require a rework. As our writers updated the articles, the robot remnants became evermore noticeable. This was not just a result of mixing two tones but a consequence of the AI’s lack of conventional writing knowledge like the creative use of grammar and phrases. Overall, this meant reduced readability and, thus, engagement levels.
2. Grammatical Struggles
Even professional writers make occasional grammatical mistakes and discover gaps in their knowledge. Yet, this was not an issue we considered when using AI content generators. Surely, this advanced machine learning technology would be capable of extracting basic grammatical rules from the world wide web and its wealth of available literature. We soon learned that was not the case.
Some pieces were generated with no grammatical usage whatsoever –no capital letters,periods or commas. However, our chosen content generator had a propensity toward the excessive use of exclamation marks. (A silver lining!?!!) This meant that while we did save time on content production, more energy was dedicated to proofreading and fixing the permeating errors of the AI’s ways.
3. Excellent Research Tool
Though our AI generation tool has issues with grammar and tone, it did prove to be an excellent way to conduct swift research. Thanks to its access to large databases and the entire Internet, we could feed it a complex topic and have it retrieve essential information in an instant. After doing so, we could relay this research to our writers, giving them a starting point and, ultimately, saving time on research.
The trouble is, this research came largely unstructured and lacking in references, making some of it unusable unless we were prepared to ignore citations, which is obviously not a good practice. Nonetheless, this research could at least inspire further content and additional research. In this sense, AI-generated content acted as an effective blog topic generator.
4. Quantity Over Quality
AI content generators are superb at producing vast quantities of content. In fact, you can acquire an entire article in less than ten minutes, excluding edits. So, for blogs concerned only with SEO-focused content, AI generation is a worthwhile choice. However, if you want your content to represent and reflect the high quality of your business, you’ll need to reconsider your options.
Readability is a substantial factor in securing high search engine rankings and increasing visitor dwell time, which makes gaining leads more likely. If lead generation is your marketing end goal, then investing in a professional content writer may be worth the cost.
5. Best Used as a Writing Assistant
The main lesson we learned from using an AI blog writer is that they are best used as a writing assistant. Even for short pieces of copy like social media captions, it’s best to have a real human presiding over the content. But if you find yourself struggling to outline a post, needing to reword a sentence or collect research, an AI tool can be of great help.
So, like most things in life, AI content generators should be used in moderation unless your goal is simply to populate a blog. Using them as an assistant will help to ease the writing process along but will never replace the cognition of a dedicated human writer.
Ai Writing Assistant Options
There are many AI content generators available to assist your writing endeavors. Here are our preferred three, as well as their benefits and drawbacks.
Jarvis.ai
Jarvis.ai, recently rebranded as Jasper, is one of the most advanced content generation platforms currently available. It offers various features and writing templates, enabling users to generate solid content primarily for marketing purposes. While you’ll generally need a small amount of content to get started, full blog posts can be created using Jarvis’ paragraph generator and content editor.
Pros
- Create complete articles
- Many templates
- User-friendly content editor
- Excellent marketing copy
Cons
- Expensive (starts at $29 per month, based on word usage)
- Grammatical issues
Simplified
Simplified is a graphic design platform that also offers AI writing capabilities, allowing users to design unique content without worrying about producing original copy. As its primary focus is not writing, it should come as no surprise that its AI writing assistant features are not as extensive as Jarvis’. Having said that, it does come with valuable functionality, such as caption generation and keyword incorporation.
Pros
- Integrated with graphic design suite
- Extensive free version
- Perfect for creating social media posts
Cons
- Difficult to generate full articles
- Challenging user interface
PepperType.ai
PepperType.ai is focused on generating content that converts web users to customers. In other words, its primary aim is marketing and lead generation. As a result, it’s best used for short pieces of copy, such as social media captions and Amazon product descriptions.
Pros
- Fast content generation
- User-friendly dashboard
Cons
- Inconsistent content quality
- Poor grammar
Websites with Content Written by Humans from Idea Maker
If you want to develop a website with quality content, look no further than Idea Maker. We have a team of experienced content creators and website developers that can provide web development with expert SEO blog post marketing services. Schedule a free consultation with us today to learn more.
