"AI can't generate great content"

AI feels like the never-ending hot potato of the hour (weird phrase, but you get it) 🥔. While I’ve been using AI tools for a few years now - and I stand by the idea that, at this stage, only the likes of OpenAI, DeepSeek, Gemini, Perplexity etc. can truly call themselves AI experts - I do feel ready to share my take on the very binary "AI is good vs. bad" debate that’s filling our newsfeeds. Read on for more. 👀

"AI can’t generate great content."

That’s not necessarily true. The issue isn’t AI - it’s how people use it as a writing and strategy tool.

If you expect a generic AI tool to magically produce perfect, nuanced, audience-specific content without any direction, you’d be right to call it dustbin fodder 🗑️.

The key is ensuring you - the human - embed yourself into the process, rather than expecting AI writing tools to do the work for you. You can absolutely tell when someone doesn’t.

I don’t use AI to write or execute everything. But I’m also not going to pretend I’m always better than it. AI is evolving at an exponential rate, and when used strategically, it’s incredibly effective. When it’s customised, aligned with strategy, and fed the right inputs, AI can deliver results that genuinely move the needle.

I’ve been incorporating AI writing tools into my workflows since 2022, and the speed at which they’ve evolved is remarkable. The first writing tool I ever tried was Wordtune, which at the time, was mind-blowing. I’ve seen AI produce LinkedIn posts that engage, newsletters that convert, and campaigns that actually resonate. It’s not perfect, but neither is any tool without the right strategy behind it. Used correctly, AI can become a powerful support system - especially when content teams are, rather unfairly, being asked to do more with a lot less:

• Custom GPTs (via a paid plan) can be trained on your specific voice, market, audience, and goals, creating targeted, relevant content when paired with the right prompt engineering. You can also pay for a private instance, meaning OpenAI won’t use your workspace data to train its models.

• AI supports ideation, refines drafts, and eliminates repetitive tasks, freeing up more time to focus on creativity and strategy.

• There is an AI tool for almost anything: from writing and copywriting tools (Claude, Wordtune, ChatGPT, Jasper) to creatives generation (Midjourney, Blaze) to process automations (Brevo, Drip). These ultimately help you tailor your tech stack to your individual needs and develop repeatable processes that help you focus more on creative ideation and less on implementation.

So when we look at the binary debate about AI, I would take a step back and think, like with any new tool, about the process. Lazy inputs lead to lazy outputs - and you can see it all over your feed: templated posts that read like carbon copies of each other; blog intros that always start with ‘In this fast-paced digital landscape...’ 

Instead of dismissing the tool outright, set a clear strategy before even touching an AI tool, and then use well-informed prompt engineering and rigorous fact-checking when you do. These should be non-negotiable to your process. Because AI models are built to feed you back data that aligns with your prompts - it’s ‘tell me what I want to hear’ on steroids.

It always comes back to who is using the tool - and how.

I did my MA in Creative Writing. I love the craft of writing and I truly value human ingenuity and creativity. You can’t beat the originality of a true human thought or the inventiveness of a great story born from lived experience. Some things can only be truly communicated through the lens of real-world insight (and can you imagine AI writing a novel the way Murakami or Emily Brontë could?? Perhaps not yet).

At least for now, AI isn’t an inherent danger to creativity and growth in content and marketing industries. As with any piece of content, it comes down to the goals of the piece and the implementation.

It’s helpful to think about it in another context: for example, productivity tools.

Asana is a world-class automated productivity tool. But if you don’t input the correct project information into your Kanban board, it’s pretty much useless. However, if you’re a great project manager, chances are your Asana boards and automations are incredible.

The same goes for AI writing and strategy tools. If you’re a great writer, you’ll likely be a fantastic AI prompt engineer. You have the brain to know how to frame a piece of content and how to strategically influence the model and critically, when NOT to use AI at all. The content you generate will be miles ahead of competitors who either write poorly and use AI badly, or write well but refuse to use AI at all.

Here’s a clip of me talking about this a bit more (to prove AI didn’t generate my opinion).

And what does using AI well - or badly - even mean? 🤯

In March, I’m delivering a talk to Hive Social’s community on how to integrate AI into marketing - covering how to build your own marketing companion, how to prompt like a pro, and when not to use AI.

After the session, I’ll be sharing an AI workbook with attendees and anyone on the waitlist. The session is for a closed community, but if you want actionable strategies to use AI effectively without losing your authentic voice(!) you can still get the workbook. It covers the key insights from my talk - click below to grab your copy when it’s live! 📚

Until next week,

Tania 🙂

Add me to the AI workbook waitlist 🙋🏽‍♀️

PS. Like I said, I genuinely don’t believe anyone other than those building AI products can truly call themselves an expert. Everything I’m sharing comes from using AI practically every day as a marketer.

I truly believe AI won’t replace the work of truly strategic content marketers - but content marketers and copywriters who don’t at least try to understand their AI-powered counterparts will struggle to keep up.

But what do YOU think. Hit reply and let me know. (Oh, and if you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it on!) 💌