The dos and don'ts of using AI for copywriting

Artificial Intelligence is the buzzword of the day, and it's due to become a major part of our working lives, whether we like it or not. 

For those of us in industries where writing is paramount to what we do, how and where we use the likes of Chat GPT can be a minefield. While it might be tempting to tell AI to write your website copy or social media post, the human brain is clever enough to suss out when a computer has generated something versus when copy has been lovingly crafted with brand identity and key messages properly considered. 

However, that’s not to say that AI has no place in the journalism, PR, or content writing industries. Quite the opposite in fact, as professionals in such roles can make good use of AI tools to help with ideation. Coming up with themes or trends can be time consuming, and AI can help speed the process up by quickly searching the internet for hot topics and recent trends that tie into the news agenda.

Equally, and particularly for junior staff who are just getting started in writing-centric roles, having a basis to work from can be really useful. AI generated copy can form the foundations that allow them to edit and create their own, personalised copy without having to start from scratch.

So, when considering using AI to write your copy, do: 

• Use it as a starting point. It can be difficult to get started on a daunting piece of copy. Having something to edit and re-work can be useful. 

• Generate ideas for articles through AI. AI can quickly scan the internet for trends and relevant topics, giving you insight into relevant topics for your piece of copy.

However, both situations also come with pitfalls that must be considered.

Don't:

• Use AI for content without checking its sources. AI pulls from across the internet, and as we all know, many sources online are not fact checked. It's therefore essential to check any ideas pulled from AI; you don't want to declare something as fact when it's actually nonsense pulled from Wikipedia!

• Rely on AI to quickly write your copy. Your tone of voice, house style, and authentic content must come through - AI can never replicate those.

For help with your content writing and for advice on how to implement AI into your writing workstream, get in touch with Nathanial@orchardpr.com or arrange a meeting.