Artificial intelligence has taken the marketing world by storm.
Understatement of the century? Maybe.
Just under half of marketers say they have used AI in content production, and that number will only grow as AI continues to become more ubiquitous.
Marketers stand to benefit from AI in so many ways. AI can save us time during brainstorming, help us identify keywords to target, create outlines to serve as a jumping-off point for content creation, and more.
But AI simply can’t replace human expertise.
The problem? Knowing that hasn’t stopped marketers from trying to fully rely on AI to write content for their content marketing strategy.
To illustrate why AI alone just won’t cut it, we’ve created two articles on the same topic — one created by humans and the other created by AI.
Intero Digital COO Kelsey Raymond lent her expertise to the human-generated article, and a human writer and editor created the content.
For the AI-generated article, a human member of our team trained ChatGPT and then prompted it to write an article on the same topic.
Can You Tell Which Article Was Written by AI?
(Click below to view each article.)
Humans Are Stronger Than AI
Which article was written by AI?
That’s right! Article 2.
(If you’re curious to see how we created the AI-generated article with the help of ChatGPT, you can review the chat here.)
So what are some key differences between these articles? And what makes the human-generated article stronger?
1. Fact-checking
The human-generated article was created by humans who searched for relevant datapoints and examples to include and checked them for accuracy.
On the other hand, the AI-generated article included a disclaimer at the bottom:
Note: The “recent research” added in the introduction is a hypothetical data point. It would be ideal to replace it with a genuine, up-to-date statistic from a credible source for a more accurate representation.
So even though ChatGPT followed my guidance to “add timely research to the introduction,” it only included a hypothetical data point that would need to be fact-checked by a human or replaced altogether with a real data point.
What’s more, ChatGPT’s data hasn’t been updated since September 2021, so there’s a good chance that at least some of the content that ChatGPT creates on your behalf will be based on out-of-date information.
2. Flow
Different readers are going to prefer different article structures, but from where I’m sitting, the AI-generated article lacks flow.
The human-generated article carries the reader from section to section, providing valuable information and engaging prose along the way. The AI-generated article, on the other hand, is choppy.
3. Voice and personality
The best content is infused with the writer’s voice and personality. Content like this screams authenticity and makes readers feel like they can trust that what you’re saying is coming from firsthand experience and knowledge — and they feel like they’re getting to know you on a more personal level.
The human-generated article does a much better job of portraying the subject matter expert’s voice and personality, while the AI-generated article is more dry and to-the-point.
4. Capabilities
Probably one of the most compelling reasons not to rely fully on AI to write your articles is that ChatGPT says you shouldn’t.
I’m sure there are more differences between the human- and AI-generated articles above, but I hope this brief comparison sheds some light on why human involvement in content creation is so valuable, even with the prevalence of AI. To create content that strategically works toward your content marketing goals and engages your audience — while working as efficiently as possible — marketers must strike a balance between leveraging AI tools and human input. Doing so will allow you to create the strongest content possible.
