AI is transforming how businesses create content, from blog posts and product descriptions to ad copy and email campaigns. If used wisely, AI tools can save time, boost productivity, and help you to create better content.
But they also come with limitations that marketers should be aware of to ensure quality, authenticity, and effectiveness.
In this guide, we’ll explore how AI can speed up content creation, the benefits and drawbacks, and when it’s appropriate to use AI-generated content.
How AI speeds up content writing
Faster drafting
AI can generate entire drafts of blog posts, articles, or social media posts in minutes. These drafts provide a structured foundation to build on, cutting down on the brainstorming and planning phase.
Quick edits and summaries
AI can automatically edit and proofread content, catching grammatical errors and improving readability. For long-form content, AI tools can summarise key points, making it easier to extract insights or create digestible snippets for different platforms.
Optimising for search engines
AI tools can quickly suggest keyword-rich headings, meta descriptions, and content outlines optimised for search engines. By analysing keyword data, AI can help ensure your content aligns with SEO goals, giving it a higher chance of ranking well.
Content personalisation
AI can generate personalised messages and content for different segments of your audience. Based on data, it can tweak the tone, style, and wording to appeal to specific buyer personas or customer journeys.
Enhanced content ideation
When you’re stuck on what to write, AI tools can suggest topics based on trending themes, industry keywords, or even customer behavior insights. This helps overcome creative blocks and ensures your content remains relevant to your audience.
What to be wary of when using AI for content writing
Lack of originality
AI tools rely heavily on the data they’re trained on, which means they often generate generic content or reuse common phrases found online. This can lead to repetitive, unoriginal copy that fails to stand out. Competition is stiff in the world of ecommerce, and we’re bombarded with a sea of content all day, every day. It’s harder to stand out from the crowd, and AI-generated content is just going to blend into the background. You need to ensure that every piece of content you produce offers something original or useful.
Contextual errors
While AI excels in grammar and structure, it struggles with understanding nuanced context, tone, or cultural relevance. Content generated without human oversight may contain factual errors, misinterpretations, or inappropriate tone, especially regarding sensitive topics.
Over-reliance on templates
Many AI copywriting tools work by using predefined templates, which can result in formulaic and robotic writing. If overused, this can make your brand voice feel impersonal or disconnected from your target audience.
SEO misfires
Although AI can optimise content for SEO, it may prioritise keywords in a way that sacrifices natural flow or readability. The balance between human-friendly and search engine-friendly content may be lost, leading to keyword stuffing or awkward phrasing.
Google’s ranking systems aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates qualities referred to as E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Search engines now prioritise human-first content, which means the copy has been created with human readers in mind, not purely for ranking purposes. This is why AI-generated content can cause problems and damage your site’s organic visibility— there is no replacement for lived experience and human expertise.
Plagiarism concerns
AI-generated content is not immune to plagiarism. Since these tools scrape the internet for data, there’s a risk that some content will be too close to its original source, raising ethical and legal concerns.
AI content creation: ideal usage cases
Bulk content creation
If you’re managing multiple campaigns or websites and need to scale content production, AI tools can help generate large volumes of content, such as product descriptions, meta titles, or meta descriptions. Typesmith is a great tool for creating this type of content in bulk, without having to sacrifice quality. Developed by SEO experts, it can take into account your brand’s tone of voice to generate hundreds of unique, high-quality product descriptions within minutes.
Generating simple or data-driven content
For content types that are formulaic or heavily data-driven, such as financial reports, sports scores, or weather updates, AI can efficiently produce accurate and concise content.
Brainstorming and outlining
AI can be highly effective at generating content ideas, outlines, or first drafts. You can then refine and personalise the content to ensure it aligns with your brand voice and messaging.
Multilingual content
AI-powered translation tools allow you to create multilingual versions of your content with relative ease, expanding your reach to global markets. However, human review is still necessary for nuance and cultural adaptation.
When you shouldn’t rely on AI
Brand voice and creative copy
AI struggles to capture the essence of a unique brand voice or the emotional depth required for creative writing. For catchy slogans, campaign copy, or any content that needs to evoke strong emotions, human creativity is still essential.
Sensitive or complex topics
AI may lack the understanding needed to handle sensitive topics such as mental health, diversity, or legal issues. In these cases, the human experience ia needed to craft thoughtful, empathetic, and accurate content.
High-stakes content
For content like thought leadership articles, white papers, or any material that positions your brand as an expert in a field, AI will not provide the deep insight or originality needed to maintain credibility and demonstrate the level of expertise that Google is looking for.
Engagement and storytelling
Good storytelling requires emotional intelligence, character development, and a clear narrative arc—skills that AI hasn’t mastered. If your content needs to build a strong connection with your audience, human input is indispensable.
AI as a co-writer, not a replacement
Think of AI as a helpful assistant rather than a complete substitute for human writers. It can help speed up the creation process but shouldn’t replace the critical thinking and creativity humans bring.
No matter how advanced the AI tool, human review is essential. Always read through the generated content to correct any errors, add personal touches, and ensure it aligns with your brand’s values. Consider AI content the first draft, and a tool for helping you overcome writer’s block when you’re struggling to get something down on the page.
AI can be used for data-driven aspects of content creation, but leave the storytelling, emotional appeal, and creative strategy to humans. This blend can maximise efficiency without compromising quality.
Flow specialises in helping ecommerce brands utilise AI to power productivity and boost conversions. Our SEO and content experts can equip your team with the best AI tools to improve the quality and rankability of your website content while still meeting Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. Fill out this form to get started.
