AI Updates for the Average Writer
By Heather Robson

Can you believe it’s been more than a year since Chat-GPT crashed in on the scene and was all that anyone could talk about for months on end?

It’s true. A year has passed, and now that some of the dust has settled, it’s time to do a little reflecting on what average writers need to know about using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their business.

Keep reading to discover helpful tips and use cases, so you can put AI to work in a productive way … one that boosts your creativity, saves you time, and doesn’t compromise the quality of your work.

Let’s dive in …

TIP #1 – Take Time to Fool Around

Remember when you were a kid, and Lego didn’t come in the fancy assortments they do now? I might be dating myself here, but when I was a kid, most of the Lego I had wasn’t designed for building a specific thing shown on the box …

It was to build something of your own invention.

And the more you played with your Lego, the more different things you’d come up with to build …

Houses … cars … castles … trees … rocket ships … really big walls (hey, not every day was a creative masterpiece).

AI is a lot like that.

If the only time you use AI is when you have to get something done and you’re feeling stuck, then the only tasks you’ll probably put to it are to help you brainstorm and outline and maybe craft some SEO tags.

If you take the time to fool around with it when you’re not under a deadline and not trying to accomplish anything specific, you’ll have the chance to try things you might not come up with otherwise.

Think about different things you do (or would like to do) and then think about creative ways you could ask AI to help you.

For example, imagine you want to write more case studies … you might use AI to help you come up with good interview questions to ask an expert in a particular industry.

Or, if you’re writing sales copy, you might ask AI to summarize common objections to the product you want to sell.

If you’re launching a Money-Making Website, you could ask it to suggest domain names …

The sky’s the limit.

So, here’s the thing. To figure out how AI might work for you, you have to get in there and tinker around with it. Not in an “I have a task to complete” kind of way, but in more of an “I wonder what I can do with this next?” kind of way.

TIP #2 – Don’t Offload What You Love

No matter how you use AI, make it a point sometimes NOT to use it for certain tasks.

Everything that goes into writing — from brainstorming to outlining to drafting to editing to distribution — it all requires practice to be good at it.

If you want to keep your edge as a writer, you need to spend your time doing all these things unassisted. That doesn’t mean you can never ask AI for help. But I do recommend you sometimes abstain from using AI on a project.

That will keep your brainstorming abilities sharp … it will make sure you stay adept at organizing information … and it will help you keep your edge when it comes to editing.

As for the actual writing? Some people are having AI do that. But as one writer to another … is that something you want to offload?

Writing is what I love. I’m not going to hand that off to AI. Even if it’s faster, it’s not better. And even if it were better, I still want my work to be mine.

TIP #3 – A Human Touch Is Required

So much of what drives human behavior is a need to connect and belong.

People might not care if AI writes a Wikipedia page or step-by-step instructional text on how to use something.

But when people read emails, articles, and yes, sales copy, part of what they’re doing is deciding if they want to connect with the brand in question.

If they realize what they’re reading was spit out of an algorithm rather than crafted by a person, that creates a disconnect. And then, I can’t guarantee you’ll lose every reader … but you will lose a lot of them.

Good content and good copy need to entertain, to inform, to inspire, and to persuade.

These are all very human things, driven by human emotions and insights.

If you want to succeed at moving your reader, your copy needs a human touch.

It needs to contain personal stories that demonstrate key points.

It needs to show empathy for the reader.

And it needs to resonate with the reader’s emotions.

Even if AI somehow manages to create a facsimile of humanness … a portion of your readers will still feel betrayed when they realize the text was AI-generated.

So, put yourself into your copy and content. And, if you’re writing for a client, make sure their voice and experiences are shining through.

Now that you have some guidelines for making good use of AI without dulling your skills or misleading your readers, let’s explore a few use-case scenarios you might find fun to try.

Use Case #1 – Create an Editorial Calendar

AI can help you streamline some of the tasks that are critical to your success, but that might not be your favorite thing to do.

One use case for AI is to help you generate an editorial calendar. You can make sure you’re covering a range of topics, targeting a breadth of long-tail SEO keywords, answering questions for your audience, and planning seasonal content when appropriate.

If you’ve thought about creating a weekly blog for your business, but you hesitate because you’re worried you’ll run out of topics, try working with an AI tool to see if you can plan a calendar you’re excited about.

Use Case #2 – Generate FAQs

One way to strengthen your content, make it more useful, and increase your SEO rankings is to include an FAQ at the end of each article (when it makes sense, anyway).

Once you have a topic and outline for an article, you can ask AI to give you the five or 10 most common questions asked about the topic and then include those in an FAQ at the end.

You’ll improve the user experience and probably see a decent boost in your search engine rankings.

Use Case #3 – Research Summaries

A lot of people tout AI as a great research tool, but if you rely solely on AI for your research, you’ll miss things. And you might get some erroneous information to boot. Not good.

But there is a useful way to employ AI as a research assistant.

You can feed it text or links from trusted sources and ask it to summarize the key points of each one.

By doing that, you can have faith that the information you’re getting is accurate, you’ll be able to provide helpful citations to your readers, and you’ll be able to do your research faster.

The summaries can also guide you into deeper, more specific research, which will help you write richer, more useful content.

If you haven’t started experimenting with AI, I recommend that you do. It’s becoming a part of the landscape … and knowing when to use it, how to use it, and when to rely on your own skills is going to be key to your future success.

This article, AI Updates for the Average Writer, was originally published by Digital Copywriter.