From emails to social posts, there’s so much to write in so little time – even if your job title isn’t ‘writer’. Here are some strategies for using AI to save time while maintaining the human touch.

Are you wrestling mounting content demands and tight deadlines? We get it. As a writing agency juggling a pile of content pieces each month, we’ve discovered how to make AI our greatest ally in content creation. And no, it hasn’t replaced our writers. 

With the right approach, you too can unlock your creativity and deliver high quality content faster. Let’s look at practical strategies to help you boost your productivity with AI tools.

A writer’s companion

At Writers, we see Generative AI (GenAI) as a sidekick – one who does all the grunt work. You know, the repetitive tasks you’ve been dreaming of outsourcing? Get AI onto them. By incorporating the tech in our workflow, we’ve freed up our time to focus on what we do best – strategic writing with empathy. This is how we do it:

So long, blank page

We’ve found GenAI useful for both thought-starters to spark our creativity and repetitive tasks. That includes:

• Information gathering
• Meeting summary notes
• Brainstorming topic ideas/angles
• Headline ideas
• Tweaking sentences
• Creative briefs

Think about the type of content you create. How can you use GenAI to support you throughout the content creation process? This can range from creative briefs and content outlines to editing. You can download our free AI use case mapping worksheet to help you identify opportunities to transform your current processes.

Making AI BAU

To get the most out of GenAI tools, it helps to embed them into your workflow. Treating AI as an afterthought or add-on once you’ve been scratching your head for a while can be a time waster. That’s not ideal when the deadlines are looming.

Inspired by copywriting genius Ed Gandia, here are some steps we follow to work with AI:

1. Notice when you’re feeling stuck. 
2. Find out why.
3. Define the results you want from your writing.
4. Write an AI prompt with detail (persona, context, question) to help you get those results.
5. Review the AI’s output and reflect with questions like: What works well? What could improve? Is anything missing? What questions could I ask to make this better?
6. Refine your prompt based on these reflections to get better results.

Guiding principles for using AI

As you aim to create content more efficiently, it can be tempting to rely heavily on AI to get the work done. But a ‘copy, paste, publish’ approach is highly unlikely to generate value. Your analytical and creative thinking, seen as the most important skills for workers, are vital for high-quality content that gets results. AI is no match for the strategy, angles and stories you can create by tapping into your creative, human mind. 

Here’s a checklist of guiding principles you can use:

• Maintain the human touch: Only outsource the non-thinking parts of your work. 
• Make it original: Use AI to inspire ideas and build efficiencies into the writing process while striving to create unique, original content.
• Maintain high quality: Don’t sacrifice quality content for speed or convenience.
• Always fact check: AI tends to make stuff up, so check for accuracy. Use search engines to validate data or statements, and scan the source to check the data exists in the cited document. 
• Review and edit: Use AI as your editor to help replace words, tweak sentences and cut the fluff.
• Keep it private: Make sure sensitive, personal and confidential data isn’t included in any prompts or fed into AI tools.

Try the tools

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about the volume of GenAI tools and platforms to navigate, you’re not alone. According to Mercer’s 2024 Global Talent Trends survey, 37% of employees feel the same way. To help you kick off your AI content creation journey, here are three tools we like to use in the Writers studio.

Working with AI might seem a bit intimidating but the more you use it, the more you can get out of it. Stay curious and keep learning. Download our AI use case mapping tool to get started today.