I've been using AI writing software for a year—Here's what I've learned

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The internet is abuzz with the implications of AI writing. College professors are tearing their hair out over how this will affect essay plagiarism, and AI experts are trying to decide if we should be freaking out.

AI writing has plenty of philosophical implications, but fortunately, as marketers, we don't need to worry about those. Instead, we should be concerned about how best to use AI copywriting for content marketing.

Some companies are having a lot of success with adding AI content to their business. Buzzfeed saw their stocks jump 150% after announcing they were going to start using ChatGPT to produce personalized content. 

However, CNET didn’t share that success when it was outed for publishing AI-generated news stories that were riddled with errors.

People First Content started using AI writing tools about a year ago after we wrote a blog post on their strengths and weaknesses. To clarify, absolutely none of our posts are 100% AI written. In fact, we only use AI for a select few types of writing. For those pieces, AI content makes up, on average, 10% of written content. In this article, all AI-generated content is in purple letters.

In that year, we’ve established some best practices for working with AI copywriting tools. We’ll walk you through finding the best AI copywriting tool for your business and becoming an expert in AI editing.

In This Article:

Why Use AI Copywriting

So what are the actual benefits of AI copywriters? 

I’ll let the computer take this question.

“AI copywriting is becoming increasingly popular as it offers a variety of benefits for content writers. Using AI copywriting tools, content writers can produce high-quality content faster and with fewer resources. 

AI copywriting tools are also helpful for generating ideas, producing personalized content, and optimizing existing content. With the help of AI copywriters, businesses can ensure that their content remains relevant and up-to-date in an ever-changing digital landscape.”-Rytr.

So there you are, straight from the horse’s mouth. 

If you’ve ever spent hours and hours laboring over that “bad first draft,” you will experience euphoria on seeing the same content generated in literally seconds. For the most part, writers who use AI writing software can focus on editing, structure, and ideas instead of filling in the necessary busywork of writing. 

And why you shouldn’t expect too much

But this comes with the huge disclaimer that you need to see the content AI produces as a bad first draft rather than something to send off to the presses. As we emphasized in our first post on AI copywriting, the content AI writing software produces often has a tone problem. Plenty of the text lies squarely in the uncanny valley of sounding almost right but not saying all that much.

And you'll likely have to generate more text than you'll use. I generally have to pick through about four times the amount of AI writing to Frankenstein together a workable draft. 

Does it save as much time as AI writing tools promise? Yes and no. Sometimes I will input a prompt and cry happy tears as the AI generates beautiful, fluid, intelligent text. And sometimes I look at the product and go, well, I’m on my own for this one.

Using AI copy is a lot like working with a car. Most of the time, it's cheaper to repair what's wrong with it. But sometimes, you have to call the whole thing a loss and start from scratch.

Snippet with a conversation with ChatGPT

(Spoken like someone who has never been to a party with freshman philosophy majors)

So are AI content generators worth it?

I can't say definitively whether an AI copywriter is the right choice for everyone and every situation. They won't always speed things up, and they won't always provide something workable.

But depending on the use case, subject, and how you use them, AI copywriters can supplement good old-fashioned thinking.

Choosing the Best AI Copywriting Tool

The first step to taking advantage of AI writing is to choose a good AI copywriting tool for your workflow. This department has less variety than many companies would like you to believe since most programs use the same base technology. 

I wouldn't say there is a best AI copywriting software. Really, the best AI writing software is the one that fits your budget and has the most useful bells and whistles.

For the most part, AI copywriting software is based on GPT-3. However, you may be more familiar with ChatGPT. ChatGPT is the free and limited version of GPT-3 optimized for conversation. 

GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) is an artificial intelligence language model developed by OpenAI. It is the latest version of the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) family of models and has been trained on a massive amount of data from web sources.

Companies train GPT's output for specific use cases and add other quality-of-life features (keyword research, editing, etc.) to produce copywriting AI.

This is a list of the dominant AI copywriting software. Instead of writing a blurb for each of them, I let them sell themselves. 

I asked each AI writing tool (that had a free trial) what made them stand out from the competition. And the answers will give you some insight into what they're capable of and show off their tonal capabilities.

*Note: I used my program of choice, Rytr, to generate the descriptions for the ones that wanted my credit card information before I could do a free trial. These are all unedited, but I chose the phrases for clarity and succinctness and added paragraph breaks for readability.

Rytr

Rytr stands out from other copywriting tools due to its ability to generate high-quality content quickly and efficiently. It uses natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning algorithms to understand the context of the content and generate relevant copy.

Rytr also offers a range of features that make it easier for copywriters to create engaging content. For example, it has an AI-powered suggestion engine that suggests relevant topics and keywords, as well as a library of ready-made templates that can be used as a starting point for creating new content.

Moreover, Rytr has an intuitive user interface which makes it easy for users to navigate and use the tool effectively. This means that even those who are not tech savvy can benefit from using Rytr's powerful capabilities.

Smart Copy (AKA Snazzy AI)

What sets Smart Copy apart from other AI writers is its advanced understanding of human language. Smart Copy understands the context, structure, and meaning of your text and is able to craft content that reads naturally and is free of errors. 

It also has a wide range of features, including the ability to automatically generate titles, summaries, and outlines for your content. In addition, Smart Copy can be used to optimize existing content for search engines, making it easy to increase traffic to your website. 

Jasper AI (AKA Jarvis AI)*:

Jarvis AI is a powerful and innovative AI copywriting software that helps content writers to create high-quality content quickly and efficiently. It stands out from other AI writing tools due to its easy-to-use interface, advanced natural language processing capabilities, and ability to generate content in multiple languages.

Jarvis AI also offers an array of features such as automated research, keyword optimization, and real-time feedback that make it a great choice for any copywriter looking to streamline their workflow. It also provides the ability to integrate with third-party services like Salesforce, Slack, and Google Calendar. 

Copysmith AI

Copysmith offers a number of unique features that set it apart from other AI writing tools. Firstly, Copysmith uses natural language processing and machine learning to generate unique, well-written content with minimal human intervention. This enables users to generate high-quality content in a fraction of the time it would take to create manually. 

Additionally, Copysmith is designed with SEO and ranking factors in mind, which ensures that the generated content meets the standards of the target audience. 

Furthermore, Copysmith's built-in analytics dashboard allows users to track the performance of their content and make adjustments based on the data. 

Finally, Copysmith offers real-time collaboration and feedback, allowing multiple users to work on content faster and with greater accuracy.

Writesonic AI

Writesonic's AI is highly customizable. You can adjust parameters like the tone, syntax, and complexity of the content you want produced. This allows you to tailor the output to meet your exact needs. Writesonic's AI is also trained on a large corpus of data, so it can produce content that is both on-brand and accurate. 

One of the most unique features of Writesonic is its ability to understand context. This means that the AI can take into account the context of a sentence or paragraph to produce content that is more coherent and natural. For example, if you're writing an article about the benefits of a certain product, the AI will be able to identify the topic and produce content that is relevant and accurate. 

Furthermore, Writesonic can also generate content in multiple languages, so you can reach out to a larger audience. 

Copy AI

What makes Copy AI stand out from the competition?

The answer is simple: it's not just an AI copywriter. It's an AI copywriter that learns from you and your customers. That's right, Copy AI is a self-learning algorithm that builds on your past successes and failures to create better, more engaging content over time.

Copy AIs unique approach to customer-driven content allows you to focus on what matters most — getting results for your business — while leaving behind the tedious work of creating strong content. It's like having a team of highly skilled writers working on your behalf 24/7, 365 days a year!

Article Forge*

Article Forge stands out from other AI copywriting software because it offers a comprehensive suite of features that make it easier for content creators and copywriters to generate high-quality content quickly and efficiently. 

It offers a wide range of templates, an AI-powered writing assistant, and a library of pre-written articles that can be used as references. It also has the ability to detect plagiarism, which helps ensure the integrity of the content created. With its powerful features, Article Forge is one of the leading AI copywriting software solutions available today.

Shortly AI

There are a lot of different AI-related products on the market today, but what separates Shortly AI from the competition?

It's an excellent question, and one we're thrilled to answer! Primarily, Shortly AI is unique because it has been developed with a whole new type of machine learning algorithm. This algorithm is specifically designed to operate on short inputs so that users can create as many sentences as they like with just one word. 

It's also been designed to improve over time, which means creating new sentences with Shortly AI is getting faster, easier, and more accurate. Finally, this new type of algorithm makes it possible for the technology to be a lot greener than other forms of AI.

5 Best Practices for Using AI Writing

Once you've chosen your program, it's time to start writing. If you're looking for more information on best practices for blogging in general, read this post. But these are the best practices for integrating AI writing into your content.

1. Think short and specific

   If you expect to be able to plug in your title and generate 1,000 plus words, you will be very disappointed. The longer the text you generate without inputting information, the more likely the AI will repeat itself or go off on a tangent. 

   Input the prompt for a paragraph at max, then move on to the next micro topic. 

2. Create variants

   Most AI copywriting software will allow you to create variants of your output, and you should take advantage of that feature. I get the best content from stitching sentences from the different variants that phrase things the best.

3. Use AI for the appropriate mediums

   AI writing excels with 

   • Web copy

   • Product descriptions

   • Email marketing

   • Facebook or Google ads

   • Meta-descriptions

   • Social media captions

   • And anything else factual, logical, and brief

   It's also great as a supplement within longer pieces for conveying background information.

   Remember, the more creative and non-linear your content, the less suited AI will be.

4. Avoid chunks of AI writing

   A little goes a long way to break up AI writing. Much of the text AI produces uses repetitive sentence structure that makes reading boring after a while.

   Make sure you’re peppering in analysis and logical segues.

5. Edit, edit, edit

   When a paragraph comes out with almost exactly what you want, it’s tempting to cut and paste and move along. Don’t do this! 

   AI excels at making something look right at first glance that doesn't hold up under examination. If you've seen the very lifelike AI-generated images of people with the wrong number of fingers, you know what I mean.

   Read through the text to ensure that everything makes as much sense as it seems. 

6. Verify everything

   Along the same lines as editing for flow and meaning, and even more importantly, make sure you don’t trust any of the research AI puts in front of you.

   Take this text, for example.

Seems very fair and above board until you realize that this don’t actually link to any real study. And while it’s possible it is, in fact, referencing a real study, I couldn’t find any that explicitly backed it up.

That’s just one example. I’ve had an AI copywriter give me three different dates for a company’s founding, mottos that didn’t exist, and random names for its president. And most unsettling of all, quotes that would have fit the text beautifully if they had actually been spoken by someone.

I’ve yet to have the AI tell me it can’t actually find the information it needs–it’s always very happy to give me something that could be correct but isn’t.

And while running a plagiarism check is always important before you publish something, AI makes it essential. Every so often, that “generated” text is actually lifted wholesale from some other source. So don’t skip that Grammarly check!

See if Your Text Passes the Turing Test

With the rise of AI copywriting, people (and search engines) have been producing more tools to detect AI writing. 

Google's algorithm can't quite nail down GPT-3 generated content yet, but they are working hard to nail it down.

There's nothing wrong with using AI writing if you've added value (analysis, framing, etc.). But if you're not sure you've done enough of that, an MIT student created a tool to detect AI-generated writing.

GPTZero is a very rudimentary tool, but it's a great final test to ensure your writing is human enough.

It goes through your text and tests it for "perplexity" (randomness) and "burstiness" (how often your text is random). Then, using these metrics, it makes an educated guess at whether or not the text was human-generated.

Scores for 100% original writing

To show you the difference in scores, here is how I scored on the parts of this blog post that I wrote entirely by myself.

As you can see, lots of my sentences didn't score crazy high on perplexity, which is good because that means my writing made sense. But every so often, a sentence scored way off the chart.

Scores for 100% AI-generated writing

And for the parts that were entirely AI-generated, this was how it came out.

The perplexity of the AI writing was less than half of the original writing.

There isn’t much variety in the sentences. The most random sentence only scored 120 as opposed to 600+.

It ended up with a score of roughly 1/5th likelihood of being written by a human.

Scores for 25% AI-generated writing

This final test shows results for a blog post I wrote that used about 25% AI content. Of course, it's not a fair comparison because the writing for this sample was generally more formal and factual. But it's still a good litmus test for using AI generation alongside original content.

The perplexity of the text is similar to the AI-generated text.

But the graph looks much more like the 100% original text with more hills and valleys in the randomness.

And this ends up in a score that's only 1/2 as original as the 100% original text but is still scored as likely human.

AI Writing: A Helpful Supplement

If you’re wondering if you can get away with 100% AI writing and still end up with quality content, you’re out of luck. AI still can’t entirely mimic human writing with all its infinite complexity and randomness.

But AI writing software is a handy tool for writers and businesses looking for ways to cut some of the busy work out of writing to focus more on the creative and analytical side of content writing. 

If your business needs writers who can keep up with technology and produce content that both humans and robots love, People First Content is here to help. Our small team of writers is excited to inject the human element into your content so you can stand out from the crowd. Contact us today to get started! 

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