Will AI Replace Writers in Creating Helpful Content?

When the ChatGPT chatbot came out last year, everyone immediately wondered if the development of generative AI would make human writers obsolete. This question is understandable, especially when you consider that computerization and automation have revolutionized many industries.

However, when you ask yourself, “Will AI replace writers?”, and look at the question carefully, you will find that the limitations of AI will keep writers in business for the foreseeable future. To understand why we say this, it’s important to discuss the limitations of generative AI, especially in the context of Google’s Helpful Content Update. Finally, we’ll talk about how you can leverage the power of AI without compromising on quality.

Google’s Helpful Content Update raised the bar for top-performing content

There’s little question that Google has put a lot of work over the last 20 years into displaying the best content to web searchers. One of the secrets to Google’s success is that its service was initially much better than its competition, and this trend has continued.

Once upon a time, searching the web to gain needed information required sifting through a lot of unhelpful, spammy content. Sometimes, a searcher would go through three or four pages of results to get the information they needed.

Why was this a problem? Simply put, it used to be easy to add a bunch of keywords to a piece of content and have it rank highly on Google. In this case, the content would be very appealing to Google’s crawler machines and algorithms, but they weren’t necessarily what customers wanted. Sometimes, they’d even be off-topic or outright spam.

Before the helpful content update, the older AI tools like Jasper could produce top-ranking content. And in that context, it was much easier to look at the ChatGPT chatbot and ask “Will AI replace writers?”. Now, it’s much easier to answer that question with a resounding no.

But, why is this?

Jasper AI, ChatGPT, and similar tools struggle to produce helpful content.

Here’s how these tools fall short

By far, the easiest way to understand the answer to “Will AI replace writers?” is to consider the shortcomings of this new technology. The drawbacks of different generative AI tools can vary, but some are the same between the ChatGPT chatbot and Jasper, or even other competitors.

AI lacks true empathy

Depending on the topic, this point can be more or less serious. In other words, for text like a dispassionate product description, it really doesn’t matter much. But if you’re writing a blog post about current events, then there’s no substitute for human empathy.

AI can’t produce anything original

One of the hallmarks of Google’s helpful content update is a focus on content that answers people’s questions. While some information that people may seek out is relatively generic, there are other topics that require some original thought and context analysis. Furthermore, depending on the niche, text that simply rehashes existing information may be far less helpful than the competition. In this case, you’re at a significant SEO disadvantage with simple AI content.

AI can make mistakes

Because AI tools like the ChatGPT chatbot pull information from the Internet and rehash it to produce content, it’s easy for the finished products to contain false, misleading, or outdated information. Even in an environment where the popularity of content marketing makes the production of cheap content at scale more appealing, having inaccuracies on your website can cause significant problems.

Similarly, because of the emphasis on helpful content, your competitors can potentially outperform you on the SERPs just because they have more accurate information.

AI writing requires human input

Finally, the biggest reason why experts can confidently answer “Will AI replace writers?” in the negative is that even the most sophisticated AI tools still require significant human input. For instance, the ChatGPT chatbot requires that users ask it questions. Then, if the user wants high-quality, longer content than the program initially produces, they’ll have to ask for more copy and edit it through a professional lens.

At the same time, there are advantages to AI content generation

Despite the drawbacks of AI content generation, tools like Jasper and the ChatGPT chatbot have some significant advantages. For example, they are an excellent way to gather information from across the web. You can also use them to create rough drafts, develop outlines, and write short-form content such as product descriptions and marketing emails.

Even with these applications, we can still conclude that AI will not replace human writers because someone must still ensure that the text is readable and compelling. In other words, we aren’t so much facing the extinction of writers as an evolution of the job. Both AI and human writers have a place in the future of web copy.

Leverage the power of AI with WriterArmy

Here at WriterArmy, we know how to use AI to your advantage. Our approach is simple — our team of experts will carefully plan your copy, and then we will use state-of-the-art AI content generation tools to produce a rough draft. This technique allows you to save money while producing content at scale for your business.

To minimize the drawbacks of AI, our skilled staff of content writers and editors will edit the AI-generated content. We will carefully check the facts, smooth out the writing, and add branded elements or humor as appropriate. This way, your AI-generated content will read and perform very similarly to anything on your website that’s written by humans. And at the same time, we will ensure that your on-page SEO, keywords, and other details will help your content perform its best on Google.

Finally, we will provide all the text that you need to post the content on your website. That includes a title, meta description, photos, a table of contents, and more. We’ll even post the content on your website for you for a small additional fee. Essentially, you can have the best of both worlds for your company with little effort beyond telling us what you need and approving the finished products.

Simple, right? Contact us for a free consultation today!