It’s a brave new world out there in content marketing. We’re in our AI era, an era where robots don’t just vacuum floors—they create content.

But like any tool, the effectiveness of generative AI is all about the human wielding it. In this guide, we’ll demystify AI blogging by showing you how to harness its potential and know its limits.

Ahead, we’ve got AI blogging strategies and specific tool recommendations to incorporate into your blogging process.

Ready to turn your content development into a well-oiled, AI-assisted machine? Let’s go.

AI blogging involves using generative AI tools to streamline and enhance your content creation process. It’s not about replacing human writers, but rather augmenting their work. Think of genAI as a mecha suit for your writers. 🤖

When it comes to blogging, AI can help with generating ideas, optimizing for search—and lots in between.

Generative AI is amazing — but we’ve all seen firsthand that there is a limit to what it can do well. (Has AI figured out hands yet?) Like any tool, it has strengths and weaknesses. And before you start using AI for blogging, you should have a good understanding of both. Let’s break it down.

These are the gold-star use cases we’ve found for blogging with AI.

• Brainstorming. AI excels at generating lots of ideas in a few seconds. Even creatives with tons of ideas can have trouble laying them out clearly for evaluation. Using AI to brainstorm can help you overcome writer’s block and explore new angles.
• Ideation and variation. Need another way to express the same concept? Can’t quite grasp that perfect metaphor in the back of your mind? AI can list some options out.
• Search optimization. The right AI tools can analyze search trends and suggest optimizations to help your content climb to the top of the search engine results page.
• Content repurposing. Transform your existing content into new formats for different channels in a matter of minutes.
• Keyword research. Identify the keywords and phrases relevant to your audience for future content development.

AI shines in all these areas, acting as a tireless assistant. It’s like having a creative partner who never runs out of ideas.

Like hands and salmon swimming upstream, there are some things that are still beyond AI’s comprehension. Here are a few cautionary notes on generating content with AI.

• AI output always needs to be fact-checked. Don’t take information generated by AI at face value. Always verify facts and figures.
• AI can’t write the whole thing. Readability typically isn’t great in AI’s first draft of a blog post. Always plan for deep human review.
• AI often misses facts and data. In today’s 24-hour news cycle, you’ll miss opportunities to include the latest developments if you rely solely on AI’s information.
• AI can hallucinate. Sometimes, AI confidently presents made-up information as fact.
• AI blogs start to sound very similar. And that’s just boring. Without incorporating your brand’s tone and unique voice, your blog is just another page on the internet.

When incorporating AI into your blogging workflow, your best bet is to think of it as a powerful but imperfect tool. It’s your super-intern who can churn out drafts at the speed of light — but needs an editor to polish the final product.

A few best practices have emerged around creating with the help of AI. We discussed these with several AI experts during our AI Summit.

If you’re going to incorporate AI into your blogging, here are a few ethical considerations to watch for.

• Transparency. Disclose how you used AI in content creation.
• Originality. Make sure your content avoids plagiarism and copyright infringement. Pro tip: Avoid using artist and brand names in your prompts.
• Accuracy. Fact check everything. Then check it again.
• Bias awareness. Biases are inherent in large language models. Build processes that aim to reduce these as much as possible.

By sticking to these ethical guidelines, you can get the benefits of AI while keeping your hard-earned trust with your audience.

Start getting real value out of AI. Watch the AI Summit expert roundtables now.

Now let’s talk specifics. To make the most of AI in your blogging efforts, here are six key strategies to help you use its strengths without sacrificing quality.

Simply using the most popular tool (*cough* ChatGPT *cough*) often won’t help you meet the searcher’s specific goals for a piece of content. Identify your objectives and choose AI marketing tools in alignment. For example, if SEO is your main focus, look for a tool specializing in keyword research and content optimization.

Crafting effective AI writing prompts is an art. Be specific, give context, and include as much detail as possible. For example, instead of “Write a blog post about marketing,” try “Write an attention-grabbing introduction for a blog post about influencer marketing trends in B2B tech, targeting CMOs of mid-sized companies.”

Specialized tools like Goldcast’s Content Lab allow you to be even more specific with your content creation prompts.

For complex tasks like crafting a complete blog post, you’ll get the best results by giving AI step-by-step guidance. Goldcast CTO Aashish Srinivas shared an example in our webinar, The Art of AI Prompting for B2B Marketers.

If your goal is a 400-word blog post, instead of asking AI to write 400 words, try this: Ask AI to write a 1,000-word post and then edit it down to 400 words. This helps the model process the task step by step to produce comprehensive, high-quality content. It also enables you to give your professional blog writer a quality draft they can actually use to jumpstart their writing process, rather than a tautological blurb based on broad “takeaways.”

AI can be a springboard for creative ideas. Use it to generate outlines, suggest unconventional angles, or craft metaphors to explain complex concepts. And remember—AI is the kindling, not the flame. As founder of Designing with AI and CEO of Design Department Mia Blume says, “Our creativity is what defines us, not our tools.” Your human creativity will always guide the final product.

No one knows your brand voice like you do. Give AI clear guidelines and examples of your brand tone in your prompt—and always plan to infuse AI-generated drafts with your brand’s personality during the editing process.

Specific AI tools can be used for keyword research, as well as to shape fact-checked content for search, but remember to edit for readability. AI can suggest optimal keyword placement and density, but it’s up to you to make sure the content is optimized first and foremost for human readers.

Have you noticed a theme in our AI-related content yet? AI can generate content quickly and help marketers think outside the box. But for the foreseeable future, it simply can’t replace people. Those who adopt new AI tools with an open mind while understanding when, where and how to keep a human touch will come out ahead.

While AI is a useful tool for bloggers, not all tools are made equal. And any tool is only as good as how it’s used. Below are some of the best AI writing tools out there right now.

Goldcast’s Content Lab is a suite of tools centered on repurposing event content for other channels. It lets marketers take the valuable insights unearthed during marketing events and repackage them for a variety of use cases, like blog content and social media.

ChatGPT is a versatile large language model that can help with many different aspects of blogging, from ideation to drafting to editing. Users can refine and steer the conversation toward desired outcomes like length, format, style, and more.

Claude is, like GPT, a multipurpose AI assistant that can help with a variety of tasks during the blogging process — brainstorming, drafting, and editing. It can adapt to different writing styles, conduct research, and maintain consistency throughout a conversation.

Jasper is an AI writing assistant designed specifically for marketing content. It offers AI blog writing, copywriting, SEO, social media, and more for integrated marketing campaigns. Its central company knowledge bank ensures content is created with consistent information at its core.

Copy.ai focuses on helping marketing teams automate processes, including creating content. It’s positioned as an “AI marketing operating system,” and also offers an integrated sales tool to tackle your whole pipeline.

RightBlogger specializes in SEO optimization support, helping marketers find keywords for blog posts, brainstorm content ideas, and generate post content with AI. Many of its tools are geared toward blogging, like the post title and meta description generators.

GrowthBar is positioned as an end-to-end content writing tool and shares many features with RightBlogger. It helps with conducting keyword research and automating SEO content generation, as well as producing other marketing content like product descriptions and press releases.

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that can help with topic research. In its responses, it cites sources front-and-center — an area where other language models still fall short. This makes it easy for marketers to drill down to original sources and fact-check AI-generated content.

AI blogging is the practice of using artificial intelligence tools to help with various aspects of blog content creation, from ideation and research to writing and optimization.

Generative AI tools using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to generate human-like content based on prompts provided by the user.

AI’s efficiency and scalability make it a valuable addition to the content creation process. As the technology continues to improve, its presence in blogging and marketing as a whole will be even more prevalent.

In short, not yet. While AI can produce content quickly, it often lacks the nuance and creativity that human writers bring. The best results come from a hybrid approach including AI assistance and human expertise.

At the moment, AI can’t replace human content writers because of the reasons above. AI simply lacks real-world experience and emotional intelligence—that’s where we humans shine. ✨

Without a thoughtful human touch, readers can encounter a variety of issues with AI-generated blogs. These include factual inaccuracies, lack of original insights, repetitive or generic content, and unchecked biases.

By now, savvy marketers understand that using AI in content creation isn’t about replacing human creativity, but enhancing it. By understanding these tools’ capabilities and limitations, you can streamline your blogging process and unlock new levels of productivity.

The key lies in striking the perfect balance between AI efficiency and human expertise. One of the best ways to find that balance is to keep your audience’s needs front and center, always.

Content Lab helps marketers repurpose videos to create blog content that speaks directly to their audience’s goals, challenges, and burning questions.

To see how it works, sign up for a free trial of Content Lab today.