The exact number of websites using AI is unquantifiable, but some industry studies have predicted that about 74% of newly created web pages contain AI-generated content. Not to mention that AI adoption concerning content creation is approaching a near-universal 97% among content marketers.
What this means is that more people and businesses are using AI because it can do more than many can imagine content-wise, including inventing a customer story, a company detail, or even an authoritative-sounding statistic in seconds. However, purely AI-generated content is far from original and is often hugely unverifiable on its own. That’s why a blend of human and AI writing and editing remains the most effective approach for originality.
In content marketing, originality comes from adding something authentic and useful to AI content creation. At Better Content Matters, its writers provide the human input that makes a page specific to one company and its audience, which AI cannot independently deliver. With this in mind, it’s important to learn how writers can inject originality into AIO content to improve its performance, and you may be surprised by how significant the human role still is.
Google’s Standpoint on Originality
Google’s own guidelines point out that creating expert-led and unique content that offers readers value beyond common knowledge is paramount, even with AI content. Google recommends this over publishing material that feels interchangeable with what is already present online.
So, Google opts for originality, and its guidance on generative AI search can be interpreted as seemingly giving writers an important role even when AI is being used for the content creation. This reinforces the idea that writers are needed to provide the originality that pages need to stand out, even when AI is being used.
These Are the 5 Originality Factors Humans Inject Into Content
Every word written by AI is from a variety of different sources written by humans and, frankly, other AI generative tools. In fact, more than half of new articles are created by AI to create something that feels original but is not. This, in and of itself, indicates why human oversight is a necessity.
With this in mind, here is a look at the five things humans do to inject originality into content that machines can’t quite achieve yet.
- Verifiable First-Hand Experience
AI can imitate the language of experience, and it can describe the frustration of managing a delayed project or the relief a customer feels after solving a long-running problem. However, what it cannot do is turn those descriptions into events that truly happened. In contrast, a human writer can work with real experiences supplied through briefs, approved client materials, professional knowledge, or subject-matter input.
These details and real experiences, which can include everything from recurring customer concerns and lessons from previous campaigns to repeated service delivery issues, can change the substance of a page for the better. Essentially, writers can use verifiable first-hand experience to say something concrete rather than regurgitating yet another summary of what people in the industry are already saying across numerous pages.
- Campaign Clarity in the Beginning
If there is one thing AI often fails at spectacularly, it’s coming up with original ideas. These ideas are gold at the beginning of content campaigns during the brainstorming stage, and they often form the basis of what comes next.
Usually, AI cannot add to a conversation at the start of a campaign, nor can you truly use it to bounce ideas off of, like you could with a writer. A writer can offer original concepts, processes, ideas, thoughts, or insights that AI cannot, bringing the clarity necessary for better-performing campaigns and greater success.
Basically, a writer can think outside of the box and come up with ingenious concepts that AI cannot replicate because AI generative tools like ChatGPT don’t have their own lived experience, intentions, personal judgment, independent ideas, or unique perspectives. It’s as simple as that.
- Adding True Emotion
AI cannot feel emotions like joy, happiness, sadness, excitement, or any other human sentiment (it would be scary if it could). For example, if you ask AI to write a brand story, it might do a good job putting together the structure, but it often feels generic even when the right ‘emotional’ wording is used. This is because AI cannot understand or capture the brand’s true emotion needed to promote it.
It may be biased, as a fellow human writing this, but only a human can write from the heart and craft appealing storytelling that engages potential customers. Of course, AI can be prompted to produce better results, but there is typically a human behind the prompt guiding the AI to produce a more impactful message. Either way you look at it, a human writer is needed for that emotional originality.
- Interpreting Nuance
It’s true that AI may be able to produce the facts it finds elsewhere on the internet, but what it struggles to do is interpret those truths to make a point in the same way a writer can. Often, AI fails to see the nuance, never mind interpret it, which means there’s no color to what it writes.
This means there’s no personality and little critical thinking in how it uses the data it has gathered to make an argument, unlike a human writer. If you’re lucky, it can give you a broad overview and an impressive foundation, but it’s incapable of adding your context, nuance, expertise, and unique perspectives.
- Accountability for the Finished Page
AI can suggest your page’s structure or produce entire blogs, case studies, or any other piece of content you need, but it can’t take responsibility for what reaches the reader. Additionally, a human writer still needs to evaluate the page to determine whether it truly aligns with brand tone and voice, as well as style parameters and nuances specific to a company.
That means that someone still needs to read the content, edit it, and decide whether the claims are accurate and whether the examples given fit. This person must take responsibility for the content to give a client peace of mind that their brand reputation will remain intact and continue to reflect their ethos and image. That’s something no AI can do.
Human Input Gives AIO Content a Reason to Exist
AI can help content move through pipelines faster, and it can be helpful with research, structuring, and even writing with the correct prompts, but it doesn’t create genuine experience, nor can it replace human oversight. On its own, AI cannot decide the entire emotional narrative to portray, nor can it accurately hone in on the details that matter most to a particular reader. That’s why human writers are needed to inject originality into content and take accountability.
At Better Content Matters, the team combines professional writing and editorial oversight with thoughtful AI assistance when a project calls for it. The team knows how to use AI and human judgement, talent, skill, and insight to create content that matters and resonates. Contact Better Content Matters to discuss SEO and AIO-friendly content that gives readers something specific and worthwhile enough to keep them interested and potentially convert them into new clients.
