Generative AI is everywhere. It’s writing blog posts, creating human-sounding audio ads in seconds, and spitting out videos faster than your marketing team can brainstorm a headline. The question isn’t if you’ll use AI in your work, but how.
Here’s the good news: AI isn’t here to replace you, unless you’re really phoning it in. Think of this as the iPhone moment for marketing—suddenly the tools are in your pocket, but it’s still on you to make something worth remembering.
While I don’t love the idea of AI taking writing gigs from real writers like yours truly, I’ve realized that it’s a tool. Like any tool, how you use it matters. Several years after ChatGPT hit the airwaves and changed the face of marketing, writing, and everything in between, here’s my take on how to use AI for content without losing your humanity.
What AI can’t (and shouldn’t) do
As a content writer, you think I’d take a hardline approach to AI, but this hot-button topic has a lot of nuance. I love using AI for generating blog topics from keyword lists, identifying internal linking opportunities within content, and quickly identifying blind spots in competitors’ content.
AI can do so much, like:
- Speed up video editing, add captions, and repurpose clips into snackable content
- Summarize research and highlight trends so you’re not sifting through 50 open tabs
- Generate outlines or filler text to help you beat writer’s block
- Create variations of ad copy, hooks, or CTAs for A/B testing
But here’s the catch: people give computers the benefit of the doubt, and that’s dangerous. AI isn’t infallible. It sounds smart, but it’s just remixing old patterns of known information. That means you still have to fact-check, edit, and, most importantly, add your own perspective.
Honestly, AI will never win your audience’s trust. If you try to let it do all the work, you’ll end up with bland, forgettable content, and Google hates junk. What people want is your originality, your stories, your take. So treat AI like an assistant, not a ghostwriter. Feed it prompts, examples, and context just like you’d brief a creative agency. Then refine, cut the fluff, and add your voice back in.
Practical ways to use AI without losing your edge
Everybody has a different level of comfort with AI, and that’s okay. Personally, I don’t think AI is a good replacement for human writers, but it does offer value in other ways. Here are just a few ways to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT without turning off your audience.
First of all, be original
The marketers who fear AI the most are the ones churning out forgettable content. Remember, AI is a multiplier: it amplifies whatever you’re already doing. If your brand is boring, AI will just make it boring faster. However, if your brand stands for something tangible, AI helps you amplify that message. Your real job is to make a product (or story) worth talking about, and AI can’t give you that. However, it can help you package, polish, and share that story faster than ever.
Don’t copy-paste whatever the AI spits out. Always personalize or refine its outputs based on your expertise and voice. The fastest way to stand out is to insert your own stories, case studies, or client experiences into AI-generated drafts. Machines can’t replicate your lived experience, so share it! That’s the X factor that all successful content has to include, especially when it’s so easy for your competitors to generate lots of low-quality content with AI.
Practice prompting
When it comes to AI, you get out what you put in. Some brands struggle to leverage this awesome technology because they aren’t familiar with how to prompt AI chatbots. While you can pay for a course that tells you how to do this, the scrappy (and free) way to learn is through practice.
Work with a free version of ChatGPT to generate keyword ideas, blog topics, or email templates for you to customize. If the output isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, don’t give up. Refine your instructions and tell the chatbot to try again. Over time, you’ll realize what information it needs from the start to generate an output that’s actually usable.
Pro tip: once you find a prompt that works, save it. Create a Notion note, Excel sheet, or Google Doc to remember these prompts for later.
Experiment with repurposing
AI shines when you ask it to reformat or repurpose content you’ve already created. This not only saves you time but also ensures your voice stays intact since the starting point is already you.
For example, do you already have a webinar, podcast, or long-form article? Feed the transcript into AI and ask it to summarize the key points for social media captions, newsletter blurbs, or even video scripts. This approach saves time without sacrificing your voice.
Use AI as your brainstorming buddy
Instead of staring at a blank page, use AI to get unstuck. Ask for 10 interesting video script hooks, or three different angles for an article. The magic isn’t in the AI’s output itself, but how it jogs your creativity and sparks ideas you can run with. Think of it as having a junior copywriter who never complains about late-night brainstorms.
Fact-check relentlessly
AI sometimes “hallucinates” details that sound real but aren’t. To avoid publishing misinformation, treat AI’s suggestions as a first draft. Verify claims, double-check statistics, and layer in your own expertise before publishing.
In my experience, chatbots like ChatGPT are the worst offenders here. When accuracy matters, use a tool like Perplexity, which backs up all of its claims with sources that are easy to double-check and cite.
Let AI handle the grunt work
Captions, transcripts, keyword lists—AI eats this stuff for breakfast. Offload the repetitive, time-sucking tasks so you can spend your energy on higher-level strategy and creativity. Just remember to review and polish the results before sharing or publishing them.
The bottom line on using AI for content
AI is an accelerant that, used well, can give you back precious hours, clear mental clutter, and help you take action on ideas that matter. Still, speed without substance is just noise.
That’s why the brands that will thrive in this AI moment are the ones that pair machine efficiency with human originality. So, yes, lean on AI for outlines, captions, research, or testing. Let it handle the busywork. But when it comes to trust, storytelling, and the spark that makes people care, that’s still your domain. In the end, AI won’t replace great marketers, writers, or creators. It’ll just make the great ones even better and the mediocre ones easier to ignore.
