Recently, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered writing tool slates have made headlines as a new and more effective way to create content. Most tech companies have even implemented AI into their own tools, as they did when they launched AI assistants earlier this year.
I wrote about my conflicting feelings about this very AI authoring tool, but I’m working to overcome my hesitation and add AI to the articles I write on the Buffer blog. Hopefully doing so will speed up my writing.
So, despite initial resistance, I continued to use AI to outline and draft blog posts. Here’s a look at 2 weeks of integrating AI and how it changed my thinking about AI writing tools.
When choosing which AI tool to use, I chose convenience. I constantly work in Notion and use it to outline my blog posts, so incorporating the recently released tool Notion AI into my plans was a breeze.
Since recently adding Buffer’s AI assistant to the product, I’ve been experimenting with this feature more, and I usually leave the tool open during work hours so I can easily switch to the Ideas section and write. I haven’t used other popular tools like ChatGPT. Rather than learning how to use a new product, we wanted something that could be seamlessly incorporated into our existing tools.
I have only used this tool for outlining and brainstorming purposes. I didn’t ask the AI to write an entire blog post for me, instead I asked questions to help generate ideas and write articles. Over the course of two weeks, I’ve been using AI to:
- gist
- interview questions
- Suggestions for a title
- Introduction to brainstorming
Right away, the AI was able to quickly summarize various topics. While I was still writing my own outline, I was able to write much faster than usual. To be clear, I never told the AI to “write an outline”. Instead, I asked questions about my subject to see what key points it would generate. This really helped. Because sometimes when you start a new post, you can take a look at writer’s block and use AI to essentially fix it.
For example, for my article on LinkedIn Analytics, I used AI to assist with post order and some highlights in each section. I did the same thing when refreshing one of my old posts in the Instagram Story template, updating the intro and running another version using AI.
I’ve also found these writing tools to be a great way to be more productive when things fall behind. One day in particular was bad weather, so we spent half a day there. The next morning, I was scheduled to do an interview with TikToker about a brand deal and the AI was able to generate a list of 10 thoughtful questions in seconds. It was a huge help when I really needed it while editing and customizing the questions to better fit the interviewee.
Overall, it felt like AI made brainstorming easier. Writing is often a solitary act for me, so it was nice to have a sounding board to get my ideas out.
As I started using AI writing tools more, I started acknowledging that AI can actually produce pretty decent content. However, one major problem I still have is that the writing isn’t always accurate. Like if you asked how to turn on LinkedIn Creator Mode and then provided an incorrect list of steps.
Likewise, when I used it for my article on Instagram’s collaborative post feature, the AI kept confusing the feature with the actual act of collaboration. So instead, I gave an answer about how people can collaborate with each other on Instagram, but that wasn’t the actual subject of the piece. Tried to redirect a few times with no luck. But I may need to hone my prompting skills. My colleagues Tami and Phil wrote about the importance of good AI prompts and why you need to add context when asking the AI to create tasks.
Even when I got it right, the final copy wasn’t always satisfactory. As a content writer, I personally felt that the writing quality of these tools was good, but not great and needed to be edited or polished.
Another issue I have is that often copies feel quite repetitive. Whether it’s the AI saying the same words over and over or just a sentiment, this is a reminder that the AI is simply regurgitating everything previously written. Sometimes it can be a decent copy, but it’s not original and groundbreaking work. This is why true writers and their efforts should still be valued.
Ultimately, these tools didn’t save that much time in the end. It was very helpful before the interview, but mostly I found that I needed to fix the AI or rewrite the work.
Having said that, I still find AI useful. Two weeks ago, I wasn’t very comfortable integrating these tools into my daily work, but now I plan to use them occasionally. Personally, I don’t feel I need these tools on a day-to-day basis, but I know there are benefits to using them, especially on days when I’m in the way.
If you’re also interested in experimenting with AI, join Buffer for free and try out our AI assistant today!