This week I participated in a webinar of Verblio’s content managers explaining how they experimented with a hybrid approach for their content writing services.

Here's what I learned from them:

AI-Only Pieces Rarely Work

You'll spend more time editing an AI-only piece than writing one on your own. And that's ignoring the mental distress of editing bad writing. You'll know what I mean if you've been in an editing position.

While no one can doubt that the AI writing assistants can help you power through writer's block, there's little else they can do effectively without human huidance.

Hybrid Content is The New Normal

If AI-only pieces don't work, then that means human writers and editors need to manage them, giving birth to hybrid content.

Verblio recommends a back-and-forth paragraph-per-paragraph approach towards hybrid content.

First, have the AI produce the outline. Edit it yourself.

Then, have the AI produce the first paragraph, and edit it yourself.

You'll then feed the AI the paragraph you produced, with a command specifying it to "imitate your voice", and have it produce the next paragraph.

Repeat this until you finish writing the draft, and then fact-check, add sources, and do some final tone edits.

And voilà! Your hybrid content piece is ready for publishing.

Human-Only Is Still in Demand

Despite the rise of AI, there is still a significant demand for human-generated content. The human touch brings a unique perspective and depth of emotion that AI-generated content often lacks.

Streamline your AI Content

To make your AI content creation more effective, here are some tips:

• Provide a sample of your voice to make it easier for the AI to emulate it.

• Keep your outline granular and provide bullet points to specify what it should discuss.

• Stay between 400-1000 words, as AIs start getting repetitive or vague after that.

• For local content or specific formats, you can mass-produce it easier.

• Instead of having the AI build the entire article, have it build your content one paragraph or section at a time and then edit it with a human writer's help.

What are your experiences with AI writing? Let me know in the comments!