When AI-generated content became more accessible, questions quickly followed:
- Is this the future of content marketing?
- Can AI match the quality of a tenured writer?
- Will it impact long-term performance?
- Can it be implemented at scale?
We needed to find out.
By building a process that balances speed and structure without sacrificing quality, we’ve helped clients produce foundational content at a lower cost, in greater volume, and with faster turnaround – all while improving performance.
This approach leverages the strengths of AI.
Still, it’s important to note that AI-assisted content creation is an involved and nuanced effort, which we’ll break down in more detail below.
Six months in, the results are promising: clients who adopted this AI-assisted process saw 36% year-over-year growth, compared to 11% for those relying solely on human-generated content.
While not conclusive across every vertical, it’s a strong signal that, when applied thoughtfully, AI-assisted content can drive measurable results.
The data: How we got there
We reached this conclusion by tagging each client in our executive dashboard based on their budget bracket and whether they were receiving AI-assisted or human-only copy.
After grouping clients by similar budgets and content creation styles, we compared their year-over-year performance data.
A few important context notes about the dataset:
- These are generally smaller accounts for newer businesses, as this is the segment that needs to produce content quickly and in quantity without sacrificing quality.
- The content was less blog-focused and more service- and product-focused.
- Because AI Overviews caused fluctuations in click metrics this year, growth numbers were lower than expected in both segments.
We’re not suggesting that AI content is universally better than human content.
What matters is understanding why – and when – our AI-assisted approach delivered stronger results.
In reviewing the data, we identified specific scenarios where AI-assisted content was especially effective:
- Businesses without an existing online footprint that need to produce content faster and in greater quantities than human writing can allow.
- Smaller and/or newer businesses with more runway to grow than mature, established companies.
- Service-based, rather than ecommerce, businesses.
The process: Building content that still feels human
AI was always meant to be a collaborative tool, not a shortcut.
That’s why our process never involves dropping a single prompt into ChatGPT and copying and pasting the output.
That approach doesn’t deliver strong results, and we’ve even worked with businesses trying to recover after being deindexed by Google for using it.
Instead, our methodology centers on human intervention.
We start with strategic prompts, let AI handle the heavy lifting, then refine the output, polishing it to remove robotic language, improve performance, and ensure it aligns with the brand.
Here’s what that process looks like.
1. Train the AI to think like the client
Before generating any content, we define the style and tone.
This starts with creating customized GPTs for each client, training the model to recognize the client’s voice and brand language without needing constant reminders.
Alternatively, voice can be manually primed throughout the workflow if necessary.
In both cases, success comes from providing clear expectations and samples of existing client content.
This can take a few iterations, but the payoff is always worth it: Content that aligns perfectly with the brand and naturally fits the website.
2. Start with strategy
Every piece of content begins with an idea, but getting from concept to structure can be a hurdle.
An immediate advantage our writers have found by using AI is its ability to break through writer’s block.
We establish a foundational structure by prompting ChatGPT to generate a five-point outline based on a blog title or webpage topic.
This streamlines the writing process and ensures clarity, consistency, and a faster path to execution.
Dig deeper: The art of AI-enhanced content: 8 ways to keep human creativity front and center
3. Become a prompting expert
Get strategic when prompting, otherwise you’re wasting AI potential. You need to think about:
- Who you want to talk to (demographic/persona).
- Your constraints (business offerings/compliance).
- What you are trying to accomplish (user intent).
Asking these questions early helps generate responses that are stronger, more customized, and aligned with your goals.
Prompt engineering involves:
- Understanding the goals of your target audience.
- Making changes based on the review of AI generator outputs.
- Learning as you go and making improvements over time.
Strong output begins with stronger input.
A clear, detailed prompting strategy is essential to creating useful and adaptable AI-generated content.
Marketers need greater insights into conversational ways to prime the tool to get results that align with their end goal.
4. Generate your content in chunks
The golden rule for creating AI-assisted copy that performs well: We don’t ask the tool to write a 1,000-word blog in a single sentence prompt.
Instead, we guide ChatGPT through each section based on the content outline, moving through every paragraph one prompt at a time.
This is when you give general guidelines, word count parameters, and keyword suggestions.
Each section gets its own prompt. For example:
- Write me a 100-word introduction on (the outline). Consider the target audience and keep the bottom line of the article in mind.
- Write me a 150-word paragraph that focuses on (topic from outline). Sprinkle (keywords) throughout and remember to follow (style and tone).
- Write me a 100-word conclusion, tying up loose ends on the sections curated above.
This allows us to be consistent and tight throughout the content.
5. Polish and optimize
Once we have all sections completed, we holistically polish the content. We review each section and read the work from top to bottom. This is the heaviest human intervention:
- Remove awkward wording.
- Fix strange transitions.
- Replace repetitive phrasing.
- Reformat and optimize for search.
- Check for consistent style and tone.
AI-generated content almost always reads stale, robotic, and monotonous without human refinement.
The editorial step transforms a piece of content that signals “this was written by AI” into content that feels carefully curated and brand-aligned.
6. Fact check, edit, and complete
With structure in place and voice refined, the final editing phase begins.
This includes:
- Fact-checking for accuracy.
- Verifying that any sourced links are credible and current.
- Incorporating internal links where relevant.
These final touches reinforce brand authority while strengthening SEO and enhancing the overall user experience.
Dig deeper: 7 reasons why your AI content sucks (and how to fix it)
Use AI, but don’t skip the strategy
The real opportunity with AI lies in how it’s used – not as a replacement for content creation but rather as a productivity tool.
It speeds up the foundational work, fuses ideas together, and gives writers time to focus on what really deserves their brain power: strategy, style and tone, and credibility.
When you combine the efficiency of AI with an experienced human writer, you can still create content that:
- Performs well.
- Reads naturally.
- Meets the quality standards our clients expect.
If you go into it assuming AI can do it all, you may run into trouble.