Sterling partner QBD is advising businesses not to get too carried away with the growth of AI tools like ChatGPT, arguing that human-created content will always have the edge.
The Evesham-based digital marketing agency says that while AI is amazing and has lots of uses that can help enhance efficiency and productivity, they can’t create truly engaging, nuanced writing in the same way as human writers can.
And it warns that while using AI to create lots of online content can achieve some quick SEO wins, longer term, the search engines are still going to favour original, engaging, expert-led content from trustworthy and authoritative sources.
QBD says that while AI can generate reasonably good first drafts, it lacks the creativity, strategic thinking and empathy of a human writer.
Enhance your workflow
That said, AI has made astounding advances. Tools like ChatGPT can produce very natural sounding content on certain topics and styles. AI particularly excels at writing formulaic content like product descriptions, news briefs and straightforward how-to guides.
However, while AI tools like ChatGPT can synthesise information and produce well-structured writing, human writers have a deeper understanding of language and storytelling. They intentionally employ techniques like metaphor, irony, rhetoric and humour to craft content that resonates.
AI lacks nuanced comprehension of these sentiments. It can’t deliberately invoke specific emotions (yet), or know instinctively which tone and style will appeal to a target audience.
Human writers draw from real-world experiences to intentionally write with empathy, personality and wit.
The value of human creativity
Humans are also far better at developing creative concepts and writing insightfully on abstract or emerging topics. Strategic thinking is another differentiator – writers determine what narrative or angles will achieve business goals.
QBD says that while AI has strengths in automating simpler writing tasks, when it comes to impactful writing that meaningfully connects with readers, stirs emotions or tells compelling stories, the human touch remains indispensable.
This view is echoed by Google.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison said that, currently at least, Google is fine with AI-generated content as long as it’s useful and written for people.
He said: “We’d encourage publishers, however they produce content, to ensure they’re making it for people-first. Producing a lot of content with the primary purpose of ranking in search, rather than for people, should be avoided. Sites producing a lot of unhelpful content not intended for people-first may find all their content less likely to be successful with search.”
So, if your business wants to produce writing that deeply resonates with your audience, while AI can aid the process, quality writing starts and ends with human creativity.
