How I use artificial intelligence to write for clients

AI is an advanced search engine. It’s not a writer.

I began experimenting with AI when ChatGPT was released in November 2022. Since then, I’ve invested in (and cancelled) the paid version of Perplexity.ai and ChatGPT. I also use Otter.ai to conduct interviews and generate transcripts for them.

Despite ongoing experimentation with AI, I’ve never been able to yield more than two or three consecutive sentences that meet my standards for my clients—but I still use AI as a search engine that I verify. Here’s what you can expect behind the scenes when you hire me:

I use AI for basic definitions.

As my clients shift away from old-school SEO practices, I’m going after Google snippets less these days. That being said, I’ll use AI to generate the basis for a definition that would rank for one—but I always need to edit to get it exactly right.

I use AI for FAQs.

If your piece requires an FAQ, I’ll write the piece in my own words then ask AI to summarize those words for concise answers. But I often need to edit these heavily, too.

I generate headlines with AI.

When I’m finished writing a piece in my own words, I’ll populate AI with samples from that piece and ask it to generate several headlines with a specific goal in mind. I need to remind the AI that I prefer editorial headlines over SEO ones, but alas, it often can’t comply to my standards.