3 ways you can add a human touch to AI-generated content
Unless you’re new here, you’ve probably heard us bang on about the importance of creating and sharing real human content a lot, especially when it comes to B2C. And it’s for good reason, I promise. Especially when you know how human content performs compared to AI.
But how do you actually do it? And do it well? While keeping up with the robots?
Because while we’re pro-human content at Stellar Content, we’re also realists.
With almost everyone using AI to churn out more content than ever, creating content from scratch yourself is increasingly becoming a concept that isn’t just foreign but also time-wasting.
Why would you spend two hours writing an article from the ground up, when you can get a below-average article in a matter of seconds and then spend about half an hour editing it?
Well, we know the answer, and that’s because the quality of AI’s content still isn’t there (yet). We’re not ruling it out completely that it’s not on its way, but it’s definitely not here now.
AI doesn’t just lack that nuance of human emotion we need for storytelling, but it sucks in a lot of other areas, too. From seemingly harmless repetitive phrases and structures, to more severe misinformation issues and cultural insensitivity, AI should be used with careful discretion, and extra-careful editing.
But even when you do apply a heavy edit, there’s something about AI’s content that feels: 1. Boring and 2. Rigid. It doesn’t take long until you become blind to those meaningless sentences AI loves to fill your word count with, or even worse, accepting of them.
Using AI to create your first draft is sort of like being stuck on the wrong train without realising: it’s heading in (seemingly) the right direction, but then it misses your destination completely, and all of a sudden you’re in an even bigger scramble to meet deadline while travelling on the totally wrong track.
Another reason why we’re holding AI at arms length is because of its inherent passion for regurgitating information that’s already out there online.
Everyone wants to read something new, so when what we’re reading starts to feel a bit beige, we’re bound to tune out and seek the thought-leaders, influencers, and brands who actually manage to make us feel something instead.
But while AI struggles to deliver emotional stories that are new and fresh, it obviously has us beat when it comes to speed and output. This study by NP Digital found it takes the average human writer about 69 minutes to write a blog and get it live online, while AI slices that time down to a mere 16 minutes.
So as someone in the content marketing industry who believes in the value of producing meaningful content, but also loves (and needs) to meet deadlines: I’m here to share three of Stellar Content’s secrets when it comes to adding a human touch to AI generated content, if you’re absolutely in a pinch and unable to write it yourself.
1. Don’t rely on AI to create all of your content
I know it can be tempting to use AI to generate your entire piece of content, whether it's an article, LinkedIn post, or email. But, depending on the topic, the results will likely be sub-par and it’ll take more editing than it’s worth to check that it’s cohesive, let alone factually correct.
It’s also worth mentioning the harms of publishing AI content out to the web and claiming it as your own, especially as a brand aiming to establish credibility. If we know that AI uses existing content to train its outputs, then not only are you trusting your reputation in the creepy little hands of artificial intelligence, but you’re feeding the machine with the same low-quality content it just spat out at you in the process.
This article by Nature about what happens when AI is trained on too much AI-generated data shows us that the whole model can collapse if we keep settling for AI’s dull (and often misinformed) content and publishing it on the internet. When we do that, we’re recycling content with filler words, misinformation and beige-ness while the quality of content out there continues to diminish - and it really is as bleak as it sounds.
So instead of getting AI to do all of the work, it might be better to use it as an assistant in your own writing process instead. Whether that means letting AI take care of the research, content ideas, proofing what you’ve written, or all of the above. Using AI to assist you, and not letting it replace you, is the first but most important step in creating quality content with that irreplaceable human touch.
2. Edit thoroughly with your tone of voice and experience
If you decide to use AI to generate large chunks of your copy, or even full pieces of content, you’ve bitten off a lot to chew, but editing it to be more human is not impossible. Here are some tips to edit AI’s content to make it seem like it was written by a human i.e better:
Review and incorporate your brand’s tone of voice
You can prompt AI all you want, but there’s something about tone that goes over that robot’s head. In most cases, the tone is too professional and proud or too exaggerated and obscure. Depending on the AI tool you’re using, you can train it to be better but it never ends up perfect.
Your brand’s tone of voice is an invaluable piece of your brand identity. People flock to brands for their tone of voice. It’s part of what makes people loyal readers of blogs, active social media followers, and excited consumers over a campaign that relies on a single line of copy.
Source: Nike
The best way to edit your brand’s tone accurately is to whip out your brand’s tone of voice document and ensure each sentence aligns with the guidelines while wiping away any of AI’s fingerprints. If you don’t have one of those, it’s always safe to stick to a conversational and friendly tone - the way you’d speak to a friend. But if you’d like a tone of voice guidelines that is truly unique and relevant to your brand, get in touch with us and we’ll help you out.
Integrate (and prioritise) your personal experience and opinion
AI is great at making generic and evergreen content, and if you weren’t fully experienced in an area or topic, you might be pretty satisfied with an article generated by AI.
But the fact is that your readers love nuance, surprise, and insight, and AI’s content severely lacks in all three of those departments. It’s also in AI’s programming to stay as neutral as possible, giving you, the human, a special opportunity to use your personal experience in your specific area to engage your readers.
As humans, we love and need to connect with other humans. Your expertise, personal opinions, and past experiences are far more likely to pique interest and initiate conversation than evergreen AI “slop”. So add in an anecdote or three, get rid of the third-person narration, and don’t be afraid to express emotion, your readers will eat it up.
3. Make sure your content includes extras that are uniquely human
While there’s a long list of things AI can generate, automate, and manage, there’s a longer list of things it can’t do for us (like going to your friend’s kid’s first birthday party). Depending on the topic, there is a whole host of uniquely human content extras that your AI-generated content is probably thirsty for:
Quotes
Statistics and facts backed by research
Case studies
Video and images
Graphics and data visualisations
Interactive polls, quizzes, etc
All of these not only make it more difficult to detect AI’s stench, but it also supercharges the value, meaning and credibility of whatever it is you’re putting out there. These features in our content are uniquely human and make it more engaging. And once we’ve got brand engagement, then we can start building a brand community of die-hard fans.
Adding a human touch to AI-generated content isn’t just about trying to get away with using AI (we’ve already written that blog). It’s about taking something that’s beige, and making it colourful with the right amount of tone, stories, opinion, and everything else that makes us uniquely human. It’s about being willing to step away from generic content and offer your readers something of value, something they couldn’t access themselves, even if they had the same AI prompt.
If you’re done with editing AI-generated content, and you’d like some quality, human content, reach out at admin@stellarcontent.com or book in a chat with us below.
