#content-collab

Hey Rosie! I've been a content writer for 10 years now and I have a lot of thoughts about this. I use ChatGPT a lot as a brainstorming assistant, junior copywriter, and copyeditor. For brainstorming, I use it like an advanced thesaurus, where I'll describe a word I'm thinking of, or put in a bunch of slightly incoherent phrases and ask it to suggest a concise way to communicate my message. In the junior copywriter use case, I'll write a super detailed outline, where I've spent a lot of time making sure the arguments flow logically and cover everything I want to cover (but it's still in bullet form and the prose may be a little too casual), and I'll ask ChatGPT to take a stab at the first draft (this works best if you do it one paragraph at a time, otherwise ChatGPT makes lots of black-box decisions about what to cut from your outline). And in the copyeditor use case, I'll tell ChatGPT what I'm writing about and ask it to write headlines, meta descriptions, etc. In all of these situations, I ALWAYS have to edit it further to make it match the voice I want, and to check for accuracy, and to make it sound human.

I don't think I'm over-relying on ChatGPT because I think that for many years, content writers have been expected to do three jobs in one (writer, strategist, editor). Now ChatGPT helps cover the jobs I'm weaker at and lets me focus on my strengths. But it is definitely true that by not practicing the things I'm weaker at (the headlines, for example), I think I'm getting weaker. I would definitely feel rusty at some of these things if you took ChatGPT away from me, the same way I am rusty on calculating 13 times 8 in my head because I have been using a calculator for so long.

I don't think generative AI kills my creativity — being forced to produce too much content too fast is what kills my creativity. When I get the time to really think about an article and I know and enjoy the subject, I still have all the creative juices flowing. By giving me more time for the good parts of writing, generative AI probably helps me be more creative.

I think if you're not actively upskilling yourself to work alongside generative AI, you'll have trouble finding work in the near future, because it will be a basic computer literacy expectation — not because it does your exact old job instead of you.

If you're looking to use my name in a quote, you're welcome to and I'd love a link to my website: oliviabarrow.com.

Hi Rosie!

I am a digital content strategist for a small company called Service Direct. As the singular content writer at my company, I have a lot of experience using AI and have thoughts on your questions.

I think it can be tough to draw the line between using AI as a helpful tool and over-relying on it. For my team, AI tools have been a game changer in producing high-quality content without straining our limited resources. But, I take extra care to ensure I am using AI as an assistant rather than letting it do the majority of my work. In other words, it takes a writer that cares about the quality of their work and the relevance of that work to their audience to ensure the line isn't crossed between AI as a tool and over reliance.

To continue on that thought, I believe that AI in some ways enhances my creativity. When I can use AI to help draft a blog, for example, I can be creative improving that draft. I think many writers will agree that it's sometimes more fun to enhance a first draft through careful and creative editing, like molding clay into a work of art. Plus, when I have to spend all my time crunching keys to simply get words on a page, I find that it makes my writing less creative and more repetitive.

My number one piece of advice for making AI-generated content sound human is to read the copy out loud. I've found that AI content generators can be wordy and use tons of adjectives. In short, they often read like a student trying to hit a word count. But, if you read the piece out loud, I think most writers will find obvious places to remove and rewrite copy to make it sound more natural. To answer the second part of this question, I would say you absolutely need to make sure your content sounds human. The crux of writing is that it is another form of communication, and what is communication if not human-to-human interaction. It's important that we maintain that baseline.

I have no worries that AI is going to take our jobs. Content writers do a lot more than just splashing words on a page and hitting publish. We analyze the market, understand our audience on a personal level, edit copy for accuracy, and more. I am aligned with the 61% of small businesses who feel positive about AI in the workplace. As long as we are all careful not to rest on our laurels with AI, I think we have nothing but increased productivity in our future.

I would love it if you would check out my company's recent report on small business AI trends in 2025. If you decide to use any of my response, please include my name, Molly Weybright, and link to my company's resource: https://servicedirect.com/resources/small-business-AI-report/#feelings-vs-results:~:text=Companies%20report%20many,negative%20about%20it.

I mostly use ChatGPT to edit my piece. I never love its first churn out, so I stick to it as my editor offering suggestions after I’m done writing. I see it doing a better job than Grammarly though I incorporate Grammarly after using it. Btw, I don’t use it to edit outrightly. Basically, after I’m done writing and complete first human edit, I ask ChatGPT for thorough edit. When ChatGPT sends the edit, I don’t certify it as my final piece. I have my original piece by the side (on my system) and ChatGPT on the other side (my mobile phone). I slowly start taking in the edits and suggestions (I use a lot of its phrasing many times to phrase mine). I noticed that I have been getting better positive outcome and feedbacks on academic research, journalism and other works through its edits. It’s basically a writing assistant for me.