Are AI Content Writers Worth It in 2024?

We’ve always been vocal about treating any website like a virtual storefront; a place where customers actually buy products and services.

Like real business ventures, websites thrive on a commodity that also fuels their very existence – web content. Your website needs fresh, steaming, scrumptious content served to your loyal audience on a regular basis. 

But “regular” in the world of content is not an easy thing to achieve. Not when you’re stuffed with management and problem-solving duties as the business owner or content manager.

AI content writers promise a quick, decisive victory over your content creation hurdles. But how good are they? 

Are AI writing tools worth it? Should you trust them with your content writing process? Or should you double down on strengthening your team’s writing muscle? Find out more in this article.

What is an AI Content Generator?

AI content generators are software programs that use artificial intelligence to create content around a specific user input, usually in text form.

For the less tech-savvy reader, an AI content generator belongs to a class of generative AI technologies that produce written and visual content. These technologies use neural networks to identify patterns in existing data, which happens to be billions of text and web pages.

Marketers and businesses use AI content generators to generate all kinds of content including video, text, images, speech, and even functional code.

AI content writers fall in the generative AI technologies category.

Lately, AI writing tools such as Writesonic and Frase have become so important in content marketing perspective. 

So important that:

• 64% of B2B marketers find AI valuable in their marketing strategy.
• Nearly half (44.4%) of marketers admit having used AI for content creation.
• 88% of marketers believe they must increase AI adoption to meet customer expectations and stay competitive.

[Sources: Mailchimp, Semrush, Influencer Marketing Hub]

AI content creators can generate:

• Engaging blog posts
• Deep, long-form web articles
• Irresistible product descriptions
• Catchy company tag lines
• Informative use cases and studies
• Compelling calls to action
• Comprehensive reports for driving informed decisions.

As such, it’s clear that the value of AI-powered content writing assistants in content marketing cannot be underestimated.

Benefits of AI Content Writers

Early users of artificial intelligence have credited the technology for its benefits in speed, accuracy, and cost savings.

In this section, we’ll determine the benefits of an AI content writer in web content creation:

1. Cost Savings

Cost savings is one of the most important goals that really matter to business leaders.

AI can save conversion costs by up to 20% by boosting workplace productivity. 

[Source: Inc Africa]

AI writing tools boost productivity by taking manual and repetitive content creation tasks out of the equation. With an AI content writer, you no longer have to spend hours crafting the perfect blog post from the ground up.

Tools like Frase do the entire research for you. And yes, you can oversee the entire research process, because the algorithm analyzes the top results for relevant keywords and topic ideas.

2. Decent Content Quality

AI content writers can write decent content that's ready to publish without extensive editing. In some cases, they can produce better content than an average human writer.

Provided your AI tool has been fed with the right prompt and instructions, you can expect decent content. What’s more, most of the content generated is void of grammar issues – AI tools can avoid typos and misplaced sentences just as good as professional writers.

3. The Versatility of Tasks AI Writers Can Accomplish

`If an ordinary content writer, editor, proofreader, and researcher could all be merged into one thing, it would be an AI content generator.

AI content generators play several roles simultaneously; they:

• Research content by analyzing billions of articles and web pages.
• Write content by piecing together relevant and related information.
• Add necessary information to satisfy user prompts.

Human writers can also achieve this.

However, the level to which they do it is limited to their expertise, knowledge, and niche, among other factors.

Another huge reason why some companies choose AI over human content writers is for their ability to create large volumes of content in seconds, where human writers would take hours.

But despite the incredible reputation they’ve built, AI tools are far from flawless.

The Dark Side of AI Content Generators

Despite major improvements in automated AI content generators, the technology is in its early stages.

As expected, there exists some downsides to watch out for. 

AI should be viewed as an assistant, not a replacement for human content writers.

1. Subpar Content for Professional Audiences

Without supervision, AI technology does not meet the content quality standards for a professional audience. Wrong stats, excessive repetition, misrepresented facts, and non-existent quotes are all issues that plague AI technology today.

A professional audience (e.g. B2B SaaS managers) value high-quality content that’s aimed at solving problems that they may be facing. As such, there can be no room for error in your content.

Everything needs to look flawless factually, before industry leaders can learn to trust your content.

Unfortunately, free AI writing tools are yet to achieve this level of professional quality. For better results, you would need a premium AI content generator supervised by a human writer/editor.

2. Looming Issues Over the Use of AI Content

New challenges bring new opportunities.

For the AI software companies, this meant the creation of other AI-powered programs that could identify and mark down content that has been generated by artificial intelligence.

The reasons behind the creation of such technology were legitimate.

For starters, Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller had specifically warned that content generated with AI would be considered spam. [Source: Search Engine Journal]. Since then, this rule has been reversed:

Our focus on the quality of content, rather than how content is produced, is a useful guide that has helped us deliver reliable, high quality results to users for years. ~ Google Search Central]

Secondly, the prevalence of AI in content creation threatened the sanctity of college examinations. It meant students could easily get good grades with an effort that’s not their own – technically, it’s cheating with AI.

Additionally, OpenAI (ChatGPT creator) and Google, among other software giants, have been urged to regulate AI content to prevent its use for “disruptive purposes”. 

These companies seek to watermark AI-generated content, which would make it easier to identify with an AI detector.

Marking and disclosing AI-generated content is a problem for companies that rely on AI content. That’s because 75% of consumers are concerned about misinformation from AI. [Source: Forbes].

In another study, ChatGPT has been speculated to provide “dumb” or vague answers. The study suggests that the language model degrades over time.

To avoid getting caught up in such happenings, business owners and content managers are advised to leverage human input in content creation.

Are AI Content Writers Worth It?

Weighing the benefits and disadvantages of AI content writers, it’s safe to say that whether the technology is truly worth it or not depends on your needs and marketing budget.

AI content writers are worth it if you’re looking for a fast, cost-effective way to create content at scale for your business. The high volume of content, efficiency, and cost-cutting factors make AI a worthy investment for companies that rely on content for driving business operations.

Despite this, AI tools should not be viewed as a complete replacement for human creativity, expertise, and critical thinking.

Conclusion

The best way to benefit from AI content is by collaborating with human writers and ensuring that AI-generated content undergoes human review and editing to maintain its quality.

Erick M. is a content-focused marketing services provider helping businesses turn their websites into virtual storefronts.