As the Prime Minister this week announces his plans to “unleash AI” across the UK to promote growth, I reflect on my own experiences with AI.
In the last 24 months, the adoption of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft CoPilot and others has become commonplace. As a creative, generative AI had been on my radar for some time and I would be lying if I said I hadn’t had a whisper of concern about the rumours abounding that it would “steal our jobs” or make our industry redundant. Along with employees, collaborators and other business owner friends, I faced into the challenge and started using and experimenting with generative AI tools early on. Here’s what I found:
Generative AI can undoubtedly be a powerful ally.
For volume-heavy tasks with a templated approach, like structuring website copy that requires headers and body copy to grab attention and optimise SEO, it can save hours. It’s also a blessing when writer’s block rears its head or you’re working alone as you can almost have a brainstorm with an AI tool when faced with a blank page by feeding in questions or scenarios. Tools like ChatGPT are adept at churning out foundational ideas or basic outlines, making them a great jumping-off point. However, there are significant caveats.
Using generative AI on tasks that can be automated saves time for deeper, more valuable work
At Liverpool Slush’D, the tech startup event that Tuesday Media was involved with curating and promoting, the 2024 keynote speaker – investor, AI entrepreneur, and ‘LinkedIn Top AI Voice’ Piers Linney – made a point that resonated with me: “it’s not AI that’s going to steal your jobs. It’s the person next to you that’s using AI to improve their productivity that will.” Although I’m not (yet) a complete AI evangelical to the point of using it like an agony aunt as Piers confessed to being, I am always looking to find ways to create value for my clients. If I can save time by automating tasks, structures and templates then I will free up that time for deeper thinking, creativity (that uniquely human talent for coming up with killer headlines and crafting deeply resonant copy) or for meeting them for a coffee to deepen my understanding of their unique story.
But AI outputs require meticulous fact-checking
Without this step, any time saved on drafting could be lost in editing inaccuracies. Using generative AI for the rigour of journalism or press releases, for instance, is risky. You simply can’t rely on its current knowledge to be entirely up-to-date or accurate.
Here’s a recent example: for a Christmas party event I was curating for PR and Comm industry body PRCA, I created a “Big Media Quiz of 2024”. I began to try using ChatGPT to generate quiz questions, but it was an outright fail because on closer inspection, many of the questions it spat out were based on outdated information from the previous year. In the end, I had to manually research and write all of the questions using reliable sources like news sites – going back to it the old fashioned way. The quiz went down a storm.
You get out what you put in
While collaborating with senior creative, Chris Abram from Brighter Design we used a tried and tested workshop methodology and our combined skills to produce a narrative and strategic value proposition having fed the workshop outputs into Claude. The end result was pretty good, but still needed context, nuance tweaks and reordering. However, while the AI provided a framework and a way of structuring words, the end result was only viable because of our combined 40+ years of experience: the strategic input and creative output extracted from our workshop. It takes expertise, deep knowledge and insight to properly prompt these tools and ensure the output reaches the highest possible standard. Without those skills, what you’re often left with is mediocre and generic.
The AI tone of voice can be obvious
I don’t know about you, but I can often tell if a piece of content was produced by AI. The telltale signs are its overuse of tired tropes, predictable phrasing and templated approaches. Who hasn’t seen the same generic buzzwords – “elevate your brand” comes to mind – (who ever actually says that in real life?!), clichéd use of emojis in social posts, superlatives or even very vague phrases like “in today’s world”. Sorry – that’s a personal rant over my biggest pet peeves. Then there is the telltale sign of the use of American English (don’t forget to correct this, people!) and capitalised headlines. (I learned the trade under a national newspaper editor who was hardcore about this – always use one capital letter and lower case after that!!!) AI written content can feel impersonal and robotic because it is.
I would only advocate the use of generative AI for content generation after I have gone through my Storybuilding process with clients. This is where, from day one, I immerse myself in my clients’ unique, authentic narratives. Your story is the most powerful thing you own – absolutely unique to you – as are your brand characteristics and tone of voice and no AI tool can mimic it. Every piece of content I produce reflects these nuances and individual stories. That’s what makes it resonate on a human level.
How I use AI in my process
AI is helpful for producing foundational copy or adding structure to ideas, but it’s always guided by my process—my Storybuilding methodology—and my ability to strategically prompt tools to get quality results. Any AI output is fact-checked, tailored and enhanced to ensure it’s accurate, on-brand and deeply personal. While generative AI is an exciting tool, I don’t believe that it is about to replace the human element of my job at any time soon. It can’t (at the moment) provide the strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, authentic storytelling and creative spark that make content truly exceptional. Nor is it as good a laugh as I am at a client lunch or dinner!
Do you think I used AI to create this post? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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