I love AI, but not in the way you think. As a writer, I see a lot of fear surrounding using Artificial Intelligence via programs such as ChatGPT. Many see it as spelling the end of their career in creating written content for clients, and I understand where the anxiety comes from.
But I started by stating I love AI, so let me explain.
What I love about AI is the opportunity it has provided to me as a writer.
AI, no matter the program you use, has allowed me, as a writer, to provide my clients with something that AI cannot offer: the personal touch.
Sure, the likes of ChatGPT can throw together an article on any topic you want and do so in seconds. Yet, is that all you want for your website or social media? It may seem good on the surface, but I see the work produced by AI as lacking in several key areas. What is the outcome for your website? Well, it’s the production of low-quality content that fails to engage correctly with your audience.
Yet it’s not only low-quality content that’s the problem with AI.
It Lacks Personality
For me, AI lacks personality. It’s pretty good at being factual (but let’s not forget ChatGPT only covers facts up to 2021), but just throwing out those facts in a concise manner is not enough.
Look, I love facts, but the last thing I want when reading content that’s supposed to be engaging is a list of details and no meat in between.
To me, content written by AI tends to come across as flat. That’s not good for your target market, who will quickly become bored and not even absorb the message you had hoped to portray.
Honestly, it comes across as slightly robotic, which makes sense, and that’s great if robotic is the style you are after. However, I doubt that’s the case.
Instead, AI is often lacking in these critical areas that remove any sense of personality from the content it produces.
Tone
Tone counts for so much in your content. With AI, there are clearly times when its content comes across as the written version of monosyllabic grunting. Is that what you want your audience to experience when they land on your page?
Tone helps to push across thoughts and feelings on subject matters. It engages emotions in the individual reading whatever they see before them. The tone influences the attitude of the person reading the piece directly.
Without tone, the reader doesn’t know what to think or feel about an article. They are left feeling puzzled or exhausted at having to work out what they are supposed to take from the article.
The result? A disappointed audience that’s hardly likely to hang around and check out whatever you have to offer.
Nuance
A good content writer knows the power of nuances and how they work within an article. Again, that’s something AI misses.
Nuance refers to those subtle differences between words that can completely change the meaning or understanding of a sentence. This point regarding it being a subtle difference is important for your content.
Misuse this, and it will lead to people getting the wrong impression of your content. Used correctly, it will boost the message you want to get across.
Both nuance and tone are closely related. Nuances change the tone, and it all results in altering the potential reaction of the reader. The inability to use this language tool correctly will have a profound negative impact on your content.
Cultural Differences
I’ve already stated how content produced by AI is somewhat robotic. While it may reach a point where the technology can play around a bit more with the tone, I cannot see how it will ever be able to pick out cultural differences.
I want you to look at things from this particular perspective.
Content should be directly linked to your target market and audience. However, it should also take into account cultural differences. Cultural norms profoundly impact how we communicate, and this extends to the written word.
We are all influenced by our own culture. The way we understand language, those subtle nuances I mentioned earlier, and even how we process that information can all be affected by our culture.
Cultural differences can lead to an individual misunderstanding what an article says. This misunderstanding makes it almost impossible to influence the individual as you had hoped. Really, this point manages to Segway into another critical issue that AI misses out on, and it’s understanding your audience.
Understanding Your Audience/Market
You understand your business. You know your target market fits into specific brackets and what they expect from you. Trying to get AI-generated content that understands all of this is impossible.
Take an article about DIY tools as an example of what I mean.
I could easily use some AI software to write a 1000-word post on choosing the best sander, and it would do it in seconds. Yet, there’s a problem.
Sure, the post would probably give me several points that would be great, but it doesn’t consider the target market. In this example, it fails to grasp that the target market is perhaps males between 24 and 44 years of age with some disposable income that allows them to buy tools.
Also, it fails to understand why they are reading the post in the first place.
As a writer, I cover this topic by writing directly to the reader. I would cover different bases to ensure an individual new to using a sander gets something positive out of the post. Also, I wouldn’t forget an individual with a lot of experience looking for the biggest and best brand-new product.
I would explicitly address each market sector’s key issues regarding buying a new sander. I would empathize with them and make them feel I was talking to them and them alone to get a connection.
AI won’t do that. It’s generic and doesn’t pull in those differences and nuances I mentioned earlier.
The result? Your audience or market feels left out of the equation, which isn’t good for engagement.
Conclusion
AI is here to stay, but its inability to incorporate feeling, emotion and personality into its content is where a writer can win. The failure to engage directly with your audience is where AI repeatedly falls, leading to that low-quality content hated by Google.
Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of believing AI is here to save the world. At this point, it can easily do more harm than good.
