Artificial intelligence in content wasn’t a mainstream topic before November 30, 2022. With the launch of ChatGPT, the interest in AI took the world by storm. And so did the topic of AI generated content!
One after another, SaaS platforms started launching their AI tools; multiple job descriptions included working with ChatGPT as one of their essential requirements; copywriters and marketers began pondering the future of content creation.
AI-generated content comes with undeniable advantages, but there are also various disadvantages. This article will explore five main pros and cons of AI content creation. But first, let’s see what it is and how it applies to marketing.
What is AI-Generated Content?
AI-generated content is text-based content – articles, emails, social media posts, product descriptions, etc. – created by a machine. When a person inputs a search query, the AI creates a response by compiling information found on search engines.
As you can imagine, there are countless applications for AI content.
How Can AI Generated Content Be Used in Marketing?
While AI can generate content from scratch, many marketers use it as an assisting tool that aids them in research, content ideation, or topic generation. With this, AI tools are popularly used to create:
- social media posts (including visual content)
- emails (customer service or marketing)
- video scripts
- articles and blog posts
- website pages (such as privacy policy, terms and conditions, landing pages)
Pros and Cons of AI-Generated Content
What are the Pros of AI-Generated Content?
Quick Delivery
Experienced in-house writers will need at least a couple of hours to write a well-researched article or prepare a series of social media posts for the week.
In contrast, AI tools can generate this content in a few minutes. You only need to put in a query to retrieve original content almost instantly.
Cost-Effectiveness
Paid AI tools offer monthly and yearly unlimited subscriptions for individuals and teams. The annual cost for a small team traditionally ranges between $100-200.
Working with a writer, you can easily spend more than that on a single article. This is not a surprising cost as top-notch writers spend years developing their craft and expertise.
Scalability
As AI content creation is quick and cost-effective, it offers a high ROI and is easily scalable.
Even companies that work with talented copywriters and marketers may have a hard time scaling their content due to writer’s block, time limitations, and budget constraints.
Automated content creation doesn’t face the same challenges. That’s why involving AI, even only in parts of the process, can improve scalability – for instance, by generating topic ideas or article outlines
Moreover, when AI models are provided with clear prompts, they can maintain brand voice consistency. Conversely, it can be challenging to sustain the same tone and quality across multiple digital channels when working with multiple writers.
SEO-Optimized by Default
AI tools draw upon popular preexistent content on search engines, which makes it SEO-friendly by default. If you’re not experienced with SEO optimization or have to deliver content on an unfamiliar topic, this AI capability is a game-changer.
You can use AI to analyze top SERPs and leverage this information for on-page optimization. This data-based approach can help you in various ways, for example, by assessing the average character length of articles, generating headlines and meta descriptions.
Does Google Ban AI Generated Content?
In February 2023, Google published an official statement on AI content. As a search engine, they aim to provide quality results for users, regardless of how the content was created.
What Are the Cons of AI-Generated Content?
Lack of Originality
AI-generated text is based on existing content, meaning it can re-phrase old ideas but cannot bring new ones to the table, unlike humans.
This may also raise some plagiarism concerns as you never know what original text has been used by the AI model to generate content.
But AI lacks originality not only in terms of unique thoughts but also in ways of expression. Emotions, humor, sarcasm, metaphors, and idioms are inherent characteristics of natural language that artificial models still struggle to comprehend. At the same time, they are essential to creating a story or brand message that humans can connect with.
Fact-Checking
AI pulls information from various web pages, and you have no control over the quality or credibility of the sources it’s referencing. As a result, your AI content may contain incorrect or misleading information. Publishing content with inaccuracies might have implications on consumer opinions and decisions and your brand reputation.
You can mitigate the risk by involving a human in fact-checking all claims.
Google’s E-E-A-T
While Google’s guidelines don’t discriminate against AI-generated content, in December 2022, they introduced an extra E to the E-A-T concept for evaluating helpful content. The updated acronym stands for:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
When Google decides what to rank, it looks for content that demonstrates first-hand experience. For example – a software review article that includes comments based on testing and working with all tools on the list.
Expertise also supposes the content has been created by a specialist in their field.
The E-E-A-T concept alludes that AI-only content may not fit all criteria that Google takes into consideration when assessing content quality and reliability. So while AI can be helpful in research, grammar and spell checks, you’d still need content based on personal experience and topic expertise to adhere to the best SEO practices.
Unpredictable Quality
As mentioned earlier, AI is not equally proficient in all languages. On top of that, the content it generates heavily depends on how much information is already available on a given topic.
With this, you can’t rely on consistent quality across all topics, as some will have been reviewed more in-depth than others.
The same goes for translating content in different languages – it may not sound as natural in all. A hybrid translation approach is getting more widely adopted to combine the advantages of human and AI translation while mitigating the risks.
The Necessity of Human Review
Considering the disadvantages of AI content outlined above, your best bet is to involve humans in content creation.
An experienced writer or proofreader can resolve issues with inaccuracies or stereotypes, ensure the text sounds natural and inclusive, and adapt it to the cultural context of every market.
Can AI replace Content Creators?
AI-generated content has undisputed pros – speed of delivery and cost efficiency. However, its cons, such as lack of originality and personal experience on a subject, heavily influence the quality of the final input. So AI for content shouldn’t be used as a standalone tool.
Still, artificial intelligence has tremendous potential to ease and improve the workflow of content creators. Using AI for research, idea and template generation, grammar checks, etc., can boost your team’s productivity, leaving them more time to focus on creative solutions.
Author bio
Evelina Milenova is a SaaS SEO and content specialist with experience across different niches, such as digital marketing, finance, and IT. She’s a culture-obsessed traveler who loves learning new languages, digging historical curiosities, and indulging in relaxing yoga practices.