Although it may seem like a very easy and quick fix, mindlessly generating content using content generators and AI assistants isn’t really very sustainable or even beneficial.
In content writing, AI-driven tools and software have to be used in a certain and specific way. They have to be used in such a capacity that does not efface the human element from the final content. AI tools should only augment the process, not completely take over it.
Here, we’re going to talk about some tips and best practices that you can follow when using AI in content writing to get the best out of it while avoiding the downsides.
Take help and ideas, not content
Once again, as we mentioned above, you shouldn’t use AI as a content generation machine. Rather, you should use it in an assistive capacity to take help along the writing process.
Here are some of the things that you can do with AI without it impeaching the originality and creativity of your content:
- Before creating content, you can get help from online idea generators to come up with a topic. This is usually a part that takes up a lot of time and effort since it requires creativity. With AI, however, you can quicken the pace.
- Then, after you’re done with the topic, you can use AI to create a map or outline for it. You can do this either by specific outline generators or AI assistants like ChatGPT.
- You can likewise create prompts for each of the parts in your content’s outline to help you get an idea about what to write. This is, once again, something you can easily do with AI assistants like Bard and ChatGPT.
- Always add your own touch to the AI stuff
In the heading above, we’ve talked about how you can create outlines and ideas using AI. While you can and should take help from AI tools for that, you should always remember to add your own touch to the outputs.
Since AI has a somewhat detectable and generic method of working, it is easy to see when and when not a source publishes content generated entirely by a tool. And since this is something that is being done by a lot of websites and online sources, having a human touch in the content can be a great way to make it stand out.
For example, if you generate a title using AI, you can try swapping out some of the words with synonyms, or you can try phrasing it differently, etc. You can likewise do the same thing with outlines. Instead of following the predictable and generic outline, you can cut some stuff out or add some stuff where suitable.
Use AI to improve your content
Sure, generating content from scratch using AI is something we don’t advocate but there is nothing wrong with taking help from it when it comes to improving things.
You can, in other words, write your content yourself (after following the titles and outlines generated by AI) and then use AI-driven tools to improve the quality of the write-up.
In comparison to merely generating content, using this approach can be far more beneficial since it can help you retain the human and spontaneous touch in your content, along with lending it the automated perfection associated with AI tools.
There are a number of ways in which you can improve your existing content with AI tools. We will list some of the main ones below:
- The first thing you can do to improve your content is rephrase it using an online paraphrasing tool. You can write your content yourself and then simply rephrase it afterward with a smart tool. The benefit of paraphrasing your content in this way is that imperfections like clunky phrases and sentence formations can get smoothed out.
- Another thing that you can do to improve your content is to use an online AI-based grammar checker. Just as fluency issues and readability errors can be eradicated with paraphrasing, grammatical and spelling mistakes can be fixed using a good grammar checker.
Both of the cases mentioned above are examples of how existing content can be improved using online tools.
Always check and proofread AI-assisted content
Whenever you take help from AI during the content writing process, you should check and proofread the AI-assisted parts. For example, if you have paraphrased some of your content for better quality, you should always proofread it later on.
As far as basic grammar issues and errors go, you don’t have to worry a lot about those if your content has been processed by AI. In other words, even if you just paraphrase your content using a tool, you don’t have to look at basic mistakes in it because AI doesn’t make those.
The main things that you should keep an eye out for are contextual and logical issues.
This is something that applies particularly in paraphrasing more than anything else. Even smart and intelligent paraphrasing tools can sometimes go wrong with understanding the given text, and they can make out-of-context changes to it.
If you don’t check the content later on, you may end up finalizing the content with these types of issues in it.
Conclusion
Using AI in content creation is beneficial – but as long as you adhere to the right practices.
In the post above, we have listed some tips that you can easily follow (and should follow) when utilizing AI for content creation. The main essence of the tips is that care and moderation are necessary for all the AI tools and software that you use. You should utilize them in an assistive capacity and always check the results/outputs before putting them to use.
