What you need to provide content creators (still) that AI can’t touch
By Linda Popal
Generation AI (Gen AI) exploded into the scene in late 2022, defeating the world of content marketing that we knew about. When both individuals and organizations began experimenting and using AI tools to create both written and visual content, creators began to panic. And for obvious reasons: As content marketing company Skyword tells us, “By mid-2025, 90% of marketers are expected to use it for content creation. An increase in adoption cannot affect the demand for human content creators. But even in this disruptive environment, we expect some content creators to thrive and learn to adapt and adopt Gen AI. Here’s a summary of their thoughts on the issue.
Gen AI issues
“It’s called generation for a reason,” says Anniston Ward, marketing manager at Metricool, a social media management platform. She points out that AI generals are “bound to finite rules about mass production and reproduction.” Margot Bloomstein takes this criticism a step further. “It’s more accurate to call it regurgitation than to produce,” she says. Bloomstein is a graduate-level lecturer, consultant, author and principal of the appropriate Inc., a brand and content strategy consultant. “Gen AI-fueled large-scale language models (LLMS) consume and reassemble only content that already exists. Unlike human content creators, they have no imagination to think beyond what is already published. “Through these restrictions, LLMS ultimately consumes the content they create, increasing the threat of model collapse.”
Doyle Albee, CEO of digital marketing agency Comprise, says he considers Gen AI to be “a great brainstorming partner and OK editor.” But when asked to develop a copy from scratch, he points out, “that’s not great.” Alby shares the results of his experiments and asks Gen AI to write a news release based on the spec sheet on Best Buy’s website. “The outcome was C+ for freshman PR students,” he says. “It certainly looked like a news release and I read it, but it wasn’t something I was interested in reporters.” Alby uses his own perspective to explain the value (or lack) that Gen AI tools can offer. “If I buy your car from you, we can ask the AI bot to develop a contract for us. If neither of us are lawyers, it would look pretty good,” he points out. “But if I missed some payments and you called an actual lawyer, there will be issues that could cause real collection and enforcement issues.”
“If many brands are wrong, AI Gen AI cannot verify facts or legal issues, especially copyright,” says Anniston Ward. “This not only misleads the audience, it can also affect the brand’s reputation.” Adds Ward, AI-generated content often doesn’t match the typical tone of a brand. Worse, Bloomstein argues that “it’s a sense of humility, ethics, or ethics (which doesn’t prevent AI from creating content), even if its content can perpetuate dangerous or misleading information. It proves to be a useful aid and excellent option for streamlining many content creation processes, but AI is not ready to be used without human supervision.
What a human writer can do (uniquely)
When Brooke Browne, the marketing director at digital enablement and business consulting firm Smartbridge, first began using Gen AI, she “mistaked it to replace (her) work.” However, Brown discovered that he was “creating dry, repeating, general content.” Since the early days of experiments, she has learned to become a better and faster engineer, using AI generals to support rather than creating content. “I think AI Generals are good at filling gaps, stimulating starting points and smoothing out the story,” she says.
People are not only looking for information, but also claims Jake Ward, a digital entrepreneur and online marketing expert at Kleo, a browser extension that helps users create and consume content. Content consumers are looking for “for a sense of relationships, personality, and who they are involved.” It continues to give human content creators an edge, he says. That’s also why Ward’s “I’m not too worried about AI taking over this space entirely.”
In an article in Harvard Business Review, Marc Zao-Sanders, co-founder of Filtered, an algorithmic technology company, points out several areas where AI can excel, as well as areas where humans still have an advantage. “We don’t know which domains will dominate next, but the candidates include completely autonomous … driving, surgery, writing bestselling books, developing the AI system itself, and the Holy Grail: Artificial General Information (AGI). But he says, for now, humans have an advantage over AI when it comes to emotions, complexity, physicality and creativity. People have ample opportunities to leverage these tools to generate efficiency and streamline the content creation process while ensuring the ethical use of AI technology.
How creators are responsibly using AI
According to Brown, the responsibility of content creators is to “ensure that they are not only parroting what is already there, but creating more value.” For example, when someone reads Smartbridge’s blog, Browne expects “I think it’s worth it because of personal anecdotes and experiences.”
“Currently, Gen AI is being used by its creators as an aid rather than as an alternative,” says Jake Ward. “It serves as a good starting point, but it requires much more rewrite, edit and addition to give the content a real feel. That’s the difference between posts that are scrolled to the past and posts that cause conversations. And that’s what people are looking for online.
Brown adds. “Being a good, quick engineer means setting up using Gen AI to create your own voice and perspective. For example, it’s not just asking you to summarise the report. “Did the report say something negative about the platform? Was your friend the most surprising fact that came out of the report?”
“There’s no demand for content creators to leave for the next few years. If anything, it’s going to evolve,” says Jake Ward. “As more content is generated by AI, the human stuff will actually stand out even more. We think we’ll see more creators building a community around their personal brand, using AI as an assistant, rather than as a substitute.”
“We currently use AI for part of our content creation, but we need heavy human editing to check every box on our client,” says Kaylene Grieve, managing director of SEO & Social Media at a digital marketing agency. While companies may assume that they can use these tools to create their own content without external assistance, Grieve believes this is likely to change. ”
