AI's Challenges and Limitations Writing Content
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Second in a miniseries on how businesses can leverage AI writing software in their marketing departments. In this article, we learn about AI's limitations.
AI writing software has more capabilities and use cases than ever before — especially when it comes to auto-generating content. As such, marketing departments and content writers have started using these tools to automate production and reach their digital marketing goals.
However, even with the progression of these tools, they are not a flawless solution.
For that reason, this article covers the challenges associated with this technology as the second installment of our miniseries on AI writing software for marketing. This way, you get a clearer understanding of these tools and what to expect when using them. We covered the basics of AI writing in Part 1 of the series.
AI writing is a polarizing topic — especially among the digital marketing and writing industries. One of the biggest concerns in these communities is the threat AI writing software poses to writing-focused professions.
If businesses can cut costs by replacing human writers with AI, what’s stopping them? Alexander Lewis, freelance writer and founder of Lewis Commercial Writing, comments:
“What I discovered is that AI writers are decent aids when it comes to outlining articles or coming up with one-off headline alternatives... But if you're looking for AI to capture what people love about good writing and copywriting — stories, big original ideas, and so on — then these tools fall short.”
Let’s discuss four reasons why these AI writing tools fall short:
While AI writing software accesses billions of webpages to deliver relevant content, it cannot form original opinions, insights or conclusions.
Robert Zeglinski, managing editor and researcher at BreakingMuscle, says, "AI copywriting tools are impressive, but they're not innovative. It's a machine. They eat human-written articles and content to create something fresh. AI tools create fantastic copy, but new doesn't mean original.”
So, it might be best to step away from the AI writing tool if you’re working on thought-leadership pieces, niche content, technical articles or if you have expertise in a subject. This way, you can craft high-quality, original content full of examples, expert advice, data and more.
These tools tend to struggle with complex and technical long-form content — often leading to repetitive or factually wrong articles. Pooja Seshadri, marketing associate at Narrato, explains:
“There are still limitations to AI writing tools, especially when it comes to creating long-form content… There are times when your AI writing tool will produce nonsensical and repetitive content. For this reason, it’s important for a writer to edit and improve the natural flow of writing in the content.”
Instead of auto-generating your entire long-form post, try going paragraph by paragraph, as this gives you more control over the direction of the tool. Or, simply use the AI tool to fill in any gaps after you’ve written the article.
It’s important to note that not all AI writing software is up-to-date on current events. For instance, Jasper’s AI model completed its data training at the end of 2019. According to the company, “That means Jasper doesn't know about current events from January 2020 and beyond. Jasper doesn't know COVID-19 happened.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean these applications are useless to those covering cutting-edge topics. But, you’ll have to do extra work to make sure your piece is relevant and accurate. This means either including up-to-date information and a summary on the topic when you give the software direction. Or, adding and editing the AI’s finished piece — which could lead to longer production time.
Related Article: The Case for Artificial Intelligence in Content Marketing Use Cases
AI writing tools help craft articles that appeal to your target audience in terms of tone of voice. However, this software cannot replicate content that targets your customer’s specific pain points, needs, preferences and behaviors — as these details are unique to every business.
As a result, the AI is not capable of truly understanding your audience like you are. So, instead of generating content that converts, it will likely produce content that leads to a high bounce rate.
As you can see, AI writing is constantly progressing. But as of now, the technology is not sophisticated enough to fully replace human writers. And most of these tools aren’t created with the purpose of fully replacing copywriters. Instead, use both these resources to achieve your marketing goals and scale your digital marketing efforts.
Want to see it in action? The next article in this series will give you practical examples and tips straight from marketers and business leaders.
