Using AI for content editing: Dos and don'ts

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you AI tools that look like they're going to steal your marketing job, scream and run for the hills.

Lol, just kidding.

Instead, you've got to change that thinking. Sure, AI is coming for some of your marketing tasks... but only the sh*tty ones. AI should be seen as an enabler to marketers like us; making our lives easier and our jobs way more fun and efficient.

In fact, AI can be used across the content lifecycle (which is exactly why we created a whole content series on just that). Here are the dos and don'ts of using AI for content editing:

✅ Dos: How to use AI for content editing

1. Grammar and style refinement

   
   AI is great at polishing up pieces of content and identifying those subtle opportunities for improvement. Watch it catch those grammatical errors that—all-too-easily—slip past our human eyes, and help with more nuanced suggestions for enhancing your content. Magic. ✨
   
   Example prompt: "Review this text for grammatical accuracy, sentence structure, and stylistic consistency. Provide specific suggestions for improvement that maintain the original voice"
   
   

2. Better readability

   
   Another one of AI's strengths is assessing and improving content readability. We can probably all relate to moments we get very 'in our own heads' when it comes to content, and it's moments like those when AI can swoop in and help break things down; simplifying any complex language and WTF-do-you-mean-by-that copy. All while maintaining your original tone of voice (if you ask politely).
   
   Example prompt: "Analyze this text for readability. Suggest ways to make the language more clear and engaging without losing the original meaning or tone. Provide a readability score and specific recommendations"
   
   

3. Consistency checks

   
   Used (and trained up on your unique company info) efficiently, AI can be an exceptional tool to ensure brand voice and messaging consistency and adherence to style guidelines. It can detect any potential tonal shifts in your writing, as well as help to maintain a uniform writing style across different pieces of content to help build that brand recognition... and ultimately, brand omnipresence.
   

   Looking for the perfect AI tool for the job? Shameless plug: Optimizely Opal speaks your brand's language fluently, and is embedded throughout your entire content workflow, ensuring everything (literally, everything) is on brand and consistent.

   
   Example prompt: "Compare this text against our brand style guide. Highlight any deviations in tone, terminology, or style. Suggest corrections that align with our brand voice"

4. Structural editing

   
   Especially useful for those that aren't content writers or marketers, AI can offer valuable insights into your content structure. With the right prompt, you can use it to identify opportunities to reorganize sentences and paragraphs to flow more naturally for your readers, or highlight potential gaps in argumentation.
   
   Example prompt: "Review the structure of this document. Suggest potential reorganizations that could improve logical flow, identify any argumentative gaps, and recommend ways to strengthen the overall structure"

❌ Don'ts: Where AI falls short for content editing

1. Unique voice preservation

   
   Risk: Over-editing and losing the original writing style, resulting in generic, AI-sanitized, already-been-done language (which is boring, and not very engaging).
   
   

   Solution: Always review AI suggestions... we beg you. Use AI as a suggestions tool, not a replacement for human creativity. Manually review and retain the unique voice and personal nuances of the original text.

2. Factual accuracy and context

   
   Risk: AI tools aren't always necessarily up-to-date with their facts, meaning they don't provide entirely accurate information—not to mention the fact they are often victim to misinterpretation. No disrespect to your prompts (hopefully).
   
   

   Solution: Cross-reference AI suggestions with current sources and always, ALWAYS verify critical information manually.

3. Rigid sentence restructuring

   
   Risk: The thing is, AI has been brought up on pretty strict sentence and paragraph structures; a lot of the time, AI's output is repetitive and sticking to specific lengths. This means its suggestions for your content could sound robotic and quite unnatural too.
   
   

   Solution: Train your AI interaction to prioritize readability and authenticity over pure grammatical perfection (even though that sounds great), and keep working on those detailed, context-aware prompts for a more natural language flow.

4. Ethical considerations

   
   Risk: Relying too heavily on AI for content editing (and general content needs) could compromise your own and your brand's intellectual integrity and transparency, as well as your authority in the field you are writing about.
   
   

   Solution: Don't get lazy just because AI is around! Be transparent about when it's used, and avoid complete AI-driven rewrites.

AI for content editing best practices: Quick-fire round

• Develop an effective human-AI editing workflow: It's all about collaboration, so create a structured approach to your content process that integrates AI suggestions with human expertise and oversight along the way.
• Train teams to use AI editing tools effectively: If everyone is using AI differently, it might get lil bit messy—invest time in training your team to use AI tools effectively throughout the content lifecycle.
• Maintain creative balance: Always prioritize human creativity and critical thinking over AI suggestions; that's what people want to read and that's what will make your content stand out.

Using AI in content editing: What's next?

Now, we don't know if you've got the gist yet but... the future of content and AI lies in collaboration—not replacement.

Sure, AI technologies are continuing to evolve at a pretty fast rate, but instead of being scared of our jobs being taken over, we should be educating ourselves and adopting the tools so we work smarter, not harder.

Embrace an AI tool like Optimizely Opal, totally embedded into your content workflow, but don't lose sight of the unique human elements that make writing truly compelling to your audience.

Learn more about Opal here.