Best practices for using AI in content creation

Navigating this brand new AI-driven world is much like landing in a place where the map is still being drawn. It’s fast, unfamiliar and honestly, a bit overwhelming. 
 

The truth is, AI is a force to be reckoned with, and it’s definitely here to stay – so why not make the best of it? Why not shape it into something that works for us, a creative co-pilot that helps us do our jobs better and faster? 
 

Of course, all this uncharted territory comes with its own set of rules. Think of them as guidelines, signposts or best practices which can guide your journey with AI, map out the wisest routes and the most common pitfalls, so that you don’t end up having a bumpy ride.
 

So, if you’ve been looking for a full-on AI-world travel guide – look no further. Keep on reading to discover the best practices of teaming up with AI tech to bring your content creation to the next level.

Why use AI for content creation?

For some, embracing AI feels like a no-brainer – a natural step in their creative journey. For others, this step takes a bit more warming up. If you’re still on the fence about whether AI has a place in your content creation process, it might be time to start weighing your options.

Here are a few reasons why you might consider giving AI a shot for content creation: 

Speed and scalability

The pace at which you create and share content depends entirely on the size of your team and the amount of time they have available to allocate to each task. Smaller teams (or solo creators) can only do so much before their calendar starts feeling like a treadmill. 
 

AI offers an alternative path. As your business grows and the need for fresh content increases, you can use AI tools to essentially do everything faster and with less manpower. For instance, a marketing agency might use AI to create 30 Facebook ad variations in a single sitting using ChatGPT, instead of staring for hours at a blank screen figuring out where to start.
 

Not to get too poetic here, but it helps to think of AI as the wind beneath your wings, helping you soar without replacing your skill or unique voice. 

Faster brainstorming 

Coming up with new content ideas can quickly become a marketer’s worst nightmare. It’s all fun and games in the beginning, but once content fatigue sets in (yes, that’s a real thing), it gets harder and harder to produce fresh content on demand.
 

In this case, AI can act as your brainstorming buddy, helping you come up with new ideas or organize your existing thoughts. Tools like Claude AI can easily pull unique ideas from massive datasets and get you out of your creative rut. 
 

A quick way to check how well you’d be collaborating with an AI assistant is to use it for a small task – say, brainstorming episode titles for a new YouTube series or even mapping out the talking points of a video. 

Amplified SEO efforts 

Climbing the search rankings should always be a top priority, regardless of the type of content you’re creating or the size of your business. This is your key to getting noticed, and becoming memorable for your prospective clients. 
 

The good news is that you’re not losing any SEO ground by handing over the wheel to an AI tool when creating content – on the contrary, you stand to conquer more. Many AI software like Surfer SEO have SEO suggestions and rules baked into the product itself, and are designed to help do more than chase keywords – they help you align your content  with real user intent, as well as voice and AI search behaviors.

For example, you can drop your blog draft into one of these tools and instantly get recommendations on what keywords to add, which internal links to include, and several other on-page SEO tweaks to boost your visibility, with no pro-level SEO knowledge required.

Photo by FreeBoilerGrants 

Best use cases for AI in content workflows

Making space for AI in your content workflow doesn’t have to be a big leap or a struggle – in many cases, it’s simply the next natural step. Sometimes, AI is that last piece of the puzzle – the one you’ve been searching for and the one that you can pull to bring order to your scattered ideas, push through creative blocks, or tidy up that draft that’s been collecting (virtual) dust.

There are some content creation scenarios in which the impact of AI is really tangible, and we’re going to take a look at a few situations where you’ll really notice the difference it can make.

Blog content creation 

Let’s kick it off with a big ticket item – blog posts. Writing a blog can feel like a pretty heavy, intimidating lift, even if you’re a seasoned writer who’s done it a thousand times before. There’s serious research to do, SEO boxes to tick, and, of course, you’ve got to find that spark of inspiration to bring it all to life. Given all that, it’s no wonder more and more content creators are looking for ways to lighten the load.
 

The truth is, AI can essentially be a behind-the-scenes assistant that “holds your hand” through every step of the blog writing process – from research, brainstorming and generating outlines to optimizing your text for SEO. 
 

Of course, you should never use AI to generate, then copy-paste and share entire blogs – always trim, tweak and tailor the content to make it truly yours. That being said, you can use it to:
 

• Write or rephrase intro paragraphs or meta descriptions
• Generate topics ideas based on current trends or popular keywords
• Rewrite or expand on existing text to increase your SEO standing

Social media copywriting 

You might not expect it, but social media is one of the most popular uses for AI copywriting tools. Why is that, you may ask. It’s because social media never sleeps, it’s always up and hungry for fresh, engaging content. Keeping up with that kind of demand is a major struggle for most copywriters. 
 

Plus, with so many platforms to keep track of , there can’t be a one-size-fits-all type of recipe for content – your message has to match the tone, style and audience of each channel. In this context, it makes sense to use AI to: 
 

• Create original, platform-specific captions in a just a few seconds
• Repurpose the same idea into multiple formats for different platforms
• Discover hashtags and generate call-to-action ideas

Email campaigns

Let’s be honest – very few things are more humbling (or downright discouraging) than writing emails that hardly ever get opened. Not to mention that it also hits your business where it hurts. 

Email marketing is an important marketing channel, but you can only experience its impact if people actually read what you send. Whether it’s a sales campaign, a newsletter, or just a quick product update, your message needs to be clear, compelling, and actually worth the readers’ time.

In this content, AI can give you a clear edge and help you to:
 

• Create catchy, attention-grabbing subjects that help your email get noticed
• Reword long texts to increase clarity and engagement 
• A/B test different tones of voice or CTAs to see which resonate best with your audience

Product descriptions

When it comes to product descriptions, small words have the biggest impact. At the end of the day, it’s not just about describing a product, it’s about making it sell with as few words as possible.
 

Easier said than done. This process gets a little tricky when you’re writing descriptions for dozens if not hundreds of items, trying to make sure they are as informative as they are SEO-friendly. In this context, AI can help e-commerce teams handling large inventories save a lot of time and automate key parts of their process, such as: 
 

• Create multiple description versions for A/B testing
• Suggest and/or automatically include relevant keywords 
• Localize or translate product copy for global audiences

Content repurposing 

The act of content repurposing is not born out of laziness or the desire to take shortcuts – it’s based on the simple realization that you don’t always need to start from scratch. With a little help from AI, this concept can easily turn into one of the go-to marketing strategies.
 

The beauty of repurposing content is that the possibilities are endless. You’ve got a blog post that’s performing really well? Don’t let it expire by sticking to only one format. Transform it into a video script, newsletter or social media post. 
 

Just to give you a few starting points, with AI, you can:
 

• Pull key quotes or snippets from long articles to share as social posts or use as scripts for Reels 
• Rewrite and adapt your content for different platforms

Common pitfalls to avoid when using AI for content

As we mentioned in the beginning, the map of this new AI-driven world is still being drawn, which leaves a lot of room for trial and error. Much like any other powerful tool, there are right and wrong ways to use it. 
 

The truth is, it’s easy to take a wrong turn with AI – whether it's by leaning too heavily on automation, producing content that doesn’t feel authentic for your audience or doesn’t reflect your own voice.
 

With that in mind, it’s best to explore the most common pitfalls of using AI for content, so you know what to look out and learn what it takes to sidestep them: 

Relying fully on AI without editing

You might have seen this one coming. It’s tempting to just copy and paste whatever ChatGPT or your AI tool of choice feeds you. Sometimes, it might sound better than what you think you’d come up with in a rush. But I’m here to tell you, it’s a bit of a trap. 
 

By relying fully on AI-generated you lose the one thing that makes your brand truly yours – your unique voice. What you gain in convenience, you lose in authenticity, personality and that human touch that inspires people to connect with your content. 
 

And let’s not forget, taking credit for content that’s completely AI-generated is more than just a missed opportunity for creativity, it’s also an ethical issue that goes against most AI best practices.

Ignoring factual verification

Another common pitfall of using AI is mistaking (claimed) accuracy and confident-sounding output for truth. As Chester Avey from GlobalSign points out: “ChatGPT and other globally recognized tools like Bard, Bing Chat, Claude, Perplexity regularly experience ‘hallucinations’. In simple terms, this is when the language tool dispenses content that is not rooted in factual evidence, but rather, conjecture. It often boils down to the specific tool simply satisfying the user’s prompt or request as closely and as quickly as possible, completely ignoring context and factual accuracy”.

In other words, generative AI platforms might offer information that seems entirely plausible but it’s factually incorrect or nonsensical. Just because AI sounds sure of itself doesn’t automatically mean it’s right.

The best way to stay on the safe side is to double-check any and all information generated by such a tool, especially when it comes to sensitive topics, statistics, or anything related to new or ongoing events that the AI might not have in its training data.

Photo by Agence Olloweb 

Overusing generic or repetitive phrasing

Since AI has made its way into our jobs and daily routines, some new terms have also made their way into our vocabulary. One of those is prompting. Another is AI-sounding. Care to guess what that last one describes? Simply put, it refers to content that feels like it was written and generated by AI.
 

You might have seen it already – that kind of text that’s overly polished, weirdly repetitive, somewhat lifeless and stuffed with vague overused AI buzzwords like “leverage,” “robust,” or “synergy,”.
 

My honest (unsurprising) advice? Stay as far as you can from that kind of AI output. Use AI to brainstorm, create outlines, reword paragraphs that sound off, but don’t settle for content that sounds like it came from a template factory. 
 

Generic writing doesn’t just lack any kind of personality, it feels foreign and detached, missing that magic human touch that ultimately draws people in. 

Ethical guidelines and content authenticity

When we talk about AI best practices, the conversation often circles back to one big topic: ethics. Questions like “What’s okay to do with AI?”, “Where should we draw the line?” and “How do we define content authenticity in this context?” are popping up more and more each day. 

The truth is – the dilemma is less about what AI can do, but what it should do, how much control we give it, how transparent we are about using it, and how we make sure our content stays honest, respectful, and in line with our values.
 

Photo by Markus Winkler

Being transparent about AI usage

When it comes to using AI in content creation, creators have to walk a fine line between embracing the benefits of AI and staying transparent about its usage. A little touch-up here, a reworded paragraph there – these instances are usually fine to leave unlabeled. 
 

But whenever AI plays a major role in shaping the content you’re sharing, it’s only fair (and often expected) to let your audience know.

Avoiding plagiarism and copyright infringement

While AI tools don’t intend to plagiarize, the content they produce can sometimes resemble existing content – enough to raise red flags. To avoid this type of awkward situations, make sure to revise paraphrase any AI-generated text where needed, cite original sources when applicable, and when in doubt, run your content through a plagiarism checker just to be safe.

When it comes to copyright infringement, things are a bit more tricky, because the legal landscape surrounding AI copyright law and intellectual property is still evolving. A good rule of thumb is to just use AI as a helper, not a crutch. Add plenty of your own (human) input, creative edits, and original ideas to make sure your content is truly unlikely to cross any legal lines.

Respecting privacy and data use

I’m going to let you in on a little secret – any data you input into an AI platform (including personal or sensitive information) will likely be stored and processed. That is why it’s so important to be mindful of what you’re sharing. Protecting your own sensitive data and respecting the privacy of others isn’t just good practice – it’s ethical. 
 

To play it safe, aim to never share confidential or otherwise sensitive data (like names, addresses or even emails) until you’re 100% certain the AI tool you’re using won’t use your input to train their models. 

Blending AI efficiency with human creativity

The conversation surrounding AI best practices is long and ever changing. As new technologies make their way to the surface and people find new ways to incorporate AI into their creative processes – more challenges will arise, and new ways will be found to keep everything in check.
 

But if there’s one key takeaway from all this, is that human creativity and AI efficiency can co-exist. There is space for both. Neither one has to replace the other. AI tools excel at being quick and concise, humans excel at being.. human. Their creativity, their life experiences, their unique perspective and voice – these factors will always shape content in a way AI just can’t replicate.