Human magic determines the success of AI content

The quality of the prompt and creativity in the brand voice matter. AI can help you to get your input and basis for 80%; the other 20% needs to be done by you.

Over the past week, A LOT has been written, commented and podcasted about ChatGPT. It's hard to keep up.

Yes, AI is BIG, in capitals. And a huge leap forward for the (lazy) marketers and content producers. Yet, don't get too excited, don't wipe out the human touch that creates the magic. It's like following a recipe; if you stick to what is written, you'll make the same as everyone else. If you give it your own touch, play, and tune the ingredients, you'll get your signature ever-so-delicious dish.

Please note that this goes for brand-building content and where you have your brand personality shining through. Or the engaging, provoking captions, short and microcopy. The more (boring and functional) marketing automation copy can be perfectly generated by AI.

Human input determines AI output. Yes, the AI is self-learning and adapts on the spot. Two things where human interference is key

Quality of the prompt
Creativity for brand voice and distinctiveness

Quality of the prompt

'The prompt' is a fancy word for the search query. The better your prompt, the better AIs answer.

Shit in is shit out.

This doesn't immediately go for a simple imperative query such as "how to make a cappuccino." The quality of your prompt matters if you have a more detailed and specific search, such as "how to make the best-frothed oat milk foam for a cappuccino at home."

The same goes for AI-generated visuals by a DALL•E. The prompt "visual with a cappuccino" is different from "visual of a cappuccino" or "visual with several cappuccinos."

This also goes for using AI to create a brief or a blog, e.g., with LEX, Frase, or Jasper. It all starts with the input. The better your headline, the better the AI can create the copy for you.

Your input determines the AI output. Learning how to write a good prompt is learning by doing, by you, and by the AI.

Speaking from experience. The AI can craft great copy, yet you'll always need to rewrite, tune and tweak the text to make it yours.

That brings me to the second part of the human touch to create the magic.

Great AI content needs creativity for brand voice and distinctiveness

There's so much content out there. In fact, AI uses all that content to give you your answer. Meaning: the AI indexes, weights, and evaluates that content, combines it, and creates your copy or visual. Roughly said, AI scraps, hustles, and provides you with the answer in a natural conversational language. Over and over again, without judgment, sarcasm, humor, and personality. Useful for everyone and everywhere.

Nobody wants more of the same content.

There's a chance that the search engines learn to recognize the standardized AI-generated content and will push it down in the algorithm.

So, if you want your content to stand out, you need to be distinctive and show your personality.

The AI isn't there yet. It can't copy-paste your tone of voice based on your other content -- barring the privacy regulations to give the AI access to your other content.

Compare it with using Grammarly Pro for writing. Yes, it's great and pulls out lots of grammar mistakes and typos. However, it also produces quite boring copy. Taking out the fun and personality by taking out the conversational tone and slang.

So if you want your AI-generated content to stand out and be distinctive, you need to rework, rewrite, reshuffle, tune, tweak and polish it a bit. The human touch creates the personality and brings in creativity.

Your brand voice

I recommend brand voice by John Long: read and learn.

“All the recent discussion about AI writing ad copy has missed a key point: too many brands today already sound exactly the same. A distinct, memorable voice gives a brand a competitive advantage--and I outline three ways of creating one.”

In summary

Don't get me wrong; I'm stoked about AI and all of this. Yet, don't forget that the human touch creates magic. AI can help you to get your input and basis for 80%; the other 20% needs to be done by you.

What do you think?

Last but not least a few words on AI and search

Is ChatGPT a competition for Google? Some say it does; others say it doesn't. Some numbers and data on search (source and more details).

40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, go to TikTok or IG instead of Google Maps. Google's answer is to index both channels and is using AI to jump to the relevant part of the video.
55% of product searches start on Amazon
30% of Google searches are voice-driven (in some countries)

ChatGPT is a fierce competitor, yet it's still a tool and not a platform (yet).

"In short, ChatGPT is a cool tool, but it’s not going to disrupt Google. It may enhance or augment certain aspects of Google’s products and services, but it’s not going to replace or disrupt them in any meaningful way. Google’s position as a dominant player in the tech industry is safe folks. You can take that to the bank." (Mark Ritson AI)

The future is the unpredictable magical future.

What we do know is that ChatGPT is fulfilling a need for more conversational and natural answers to your search. The AI technology is pretty mind-blowing and getting better with the minute.