What is AI Writing? – 7 Eye-opening Facts to know in 2024
Ever since ChatGPT showed up last year, everyone’s been talking about AI writing tools. They’re not taking over just yet, but they’ve become super helpful if you use them correctly. They can make your work faster and your writing sharper and more on-brand.
But remember, these AI tools still need humans to check their work. If we don’t, they might create content that’s a bit too plain or even wrong.
Now that AI tools are everywhere, people are getting better at spotting when something’s written by an AI, especially if it seems a bit off.
For almost ten years, I’ve been exploring this cool AI technology. Even though AI might be after my job, I’m still pretty curious about it. Don’t worry, though, my job’s safe for now.
These AI writers are really impressive, but they need us to guide them, not just let them do whatever.
So, if you’re looking for an AI to help you create great content, write blog posts faster, and make writing less of a drag, you’re in the right place. Let’s get started!
What is AI Writing?
AI writers are these cool tools that use artificial intelligence to guess what text you might want based on what you tell them. They’re really handy for making things like marketing stuff, website pages, blog ideas, catchy slogans, brand names, song lyrics, and even entire blog posts.
When people first hear about AI writers, they’re usually a bit doubtful. But once they try one, they often find it makes their work life a lot easier. It’s like having a creative helper that does a big chunk of the work, letting you focus on other important stuff in your job.
Not so long ago, these AI writers could only give you short bits of text. But now? They can whip up whole blog posts (like ContentBot, which does this automatically with SEO in mind).
In the past few months, there’s been a huge burst of new ideas in the AI content world. As these tools try to outdo each other, they’re coming up with new, clever ways to help people like business owners and content creators make great content more quickly and easily.
ContentBot is really leading the way with all these new ideas. They were the first to make an AI Content plugin for WordPress, send automated blog topic ideas by email, and now, they’re the first to send out automated full blog posts every few days.
How does AI Writing work?
If you Google AI writing software, you’ll find loads of choices. They all seem pretty similar, and there’s a reason for that. About 95% of these AI tools use the same big language models in the background.
Some bigger apps add their own tweaks or use other models like Claude. But mostly, they’re just built on OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4, with some extra bells and whistles—even if their ads don’t make it obvious.
You could even make your own AI writing assistant without any coding, thanks to things like Zapier’s OpenAI integrations. That’s how much they depend on GPT.
Now, that doesn’t mean these AI writing apps aren’t useful. They definitely offer a smoother way to work than just using ChatGPT or OpenAI’s playground, which also let you generate text with GPT.
The better apps let you set a style or rules for all the text you make. But the real difference between these apps isn’t the quality of their writing.
Most of the time, you’ll get pretty similar stuff from the same instructions, no matter which app you use, even if they use different language models. What makes these apps stand out is how easy they make it to fit AI writing into your regular work.
As for how these big language models work, they take what you ask and predict the best words to follow, based on tons of data like books, articles, and stuff from the internet.
They’ve digested a huge amount of human knowledge to create a complex network that’s a bit like a human brain. Yep, that’s what it takes to make a computer program that can write not-so-great poetry.
If you’re curious about the details, check out Zapier’s articles on natural language processing and how ChatGPT works. But in short: GPT and other big models are super powerful, which means these AI writing tools have a lot of potential.
What Should You Look for in an AI Writing Tool?
Most AI text generators use GPT or something very similar. So, they’re all pretty good at making human-like text. That’s a must-have to be on this list, but it’s not enough by itself.
When I was trying out these apps, here’s what I looked for:
Apps powered by GPT
Apps powered by GPTor a similar model known for working well. Most apps on this list use GPT to some extent. Many try to hide the model they use and say they’ve added something extra (it’s a marketing thing to seem unique and more powerful). But, usually, it’s GPT doing most of the work.
Well-designed interface
Well-designed interface that lets you really shape the text output. The more ways you can tweak the tone, style, language, content, and so on, the better. I didn’t want apps where you just give a headline and let the AI do everything. These apps are for collaborating, so you can write great stuff fast. The top ones also let you set a default brand voice.
Easy to use
Easy to use. You shouldn’t struggle to make the AI do what you want. Sure, there’s always a bit of tweaking and refining, but using the AI should be smooth, not like trying to control a wild horse. Good help docs and easy start-up were big pluses.
Affordable
Affordable. ChatGPT is free, and these tools are based on an API that’s really cheap. There wasn’t a strict price limit, but pricier tools needed to offer more to be worth it. After all, almost every app gives similar results, no matter the cost.
No spammy content
No spammy content. Older text generators could switch words to rip off copyrighted stuff or make low-quality content. None of that here.
With these points in mind, I had over 40 AI writing tools to check out. Building a basic app around the GPT API is pretty easy for a skilled developer, so I had to really explore each one to see if it was genuinely good or just had flashy ads.
I tested each app with different types of short and long copy. As expected, there wasn’t much difference in quality. It was more about the overall experience, range of features, and whether it was good value that decided if an app made the list.
How can I use an AI writer for my blog?
AI writers are really good at making both short and long content, especially for blogs. When you use an AI writer, you can create blog posts way faster than writing them by yourself.
Here’s what AI writers can do for you:
- “Write for me” type AI writers that create up to 150 words at a time.
- Coming up with blog topic ideas.
- Crafting the intro paragraphs for your blog.
- Making engaging questions and answers.
- Expanding bullet points into full paragraphs.
- Creating listicles.
- Writing pain-agitate-solution copy.
- Developing blog outlines with structured headings for your article.
- Changing the tone of the writing.
- Rewriting sentences.
ContentBot offers all these features and even more.
What are the benefit of AI Writing?
Using an AI content tool has some great benefits:
Saves Time:
Hiring a writer and getting a well-researched article can take weeks. AI can create content in just minutes. Sure, you’ll need a bit of time to review it, but it’s way faster than the old way.
Increases Productivity:
Since AI saves you time, you can get more done. You can create more content faster, which also helps you do better in other areas of your digital marketing.
Creates Targeted Content:
When you put information into an AI content tool, it gives you content that’s really relevant to what you need. The AI looks for the best match for your goals, making sure your content hits the mark.
Boosts SEO Efforts:
AI tools use your keywords to create content, helping you focus on SEO without the hassle of crafting the perfect content yourself. Google loves content that’s targeted, relevant, and useful, and that’s what you get with AI.
Saves Money:
AI writing saves cash, too. Think about what businesses spend on hiring writers. With AI, you don’t need to spend as much on writers, though you might want an editor to check things before publishing.
With content marketing and AI growing worldwide, it’s a smart move to start using an AI tool for your digital marketing.
10 best AI content creation tools for 2024
ClickUp
ClickUp is a do-it-all productivity platform, now with ClickUp AI, an AI content generator and assistant. It’s perfect for overcoming writer’s block, brainstorming, and making content creation smoother. It’s packed with prompts for every role, helping marketing teams, content managers, and writers make everything from briefs and case studies to awesome marketing copy and blog posts. Plus, you can write great copy and keep all your documents in one place, or use the ClickUp Notepad for quick idea capture.
Rytr
Rytr is an AI writing tool using OpenAI’s GPT-3, great for content creators, SEO pros, and copywriters. It stands out with built-in prompts and templates for over 40 uses, like Facebook Ad copy or blog post briefs, making it a handy alternative to ChatGPT.
Simplified
With a million users and lots of awards, Simplified is a top choice in AI writing and content creation. It’s not just for writing – it also handles graphic design, social media, and video editing. A real all-rounder for landing pages, product descriptions, and blog content.
Frase
Frase is a combo of SEO research and AI writing. It’s an all-in-one tool for SEO and content managers who need to quickly create briefs. It covers the whole content process, from research to optimization.
Narrato
Narrato, a newcomer in AI writing but not in content marketing, is ideal for content managers and SEO experts. It helps create and assign briefs, and manage content workflows, all in one place.
WordAI
WordAI focuses on rephrasing, rewriting, and restructuring text. Great for boosting content output, it can handle everything from web copy to sales pitches, even offering up to 1,000 SEO-friendly rewrites from one original piece.
Copy.ai
Copy.ai, another new kid on the block, is powered by ChatGPT-4. It’s good for drafting blogs and copywriting. It creates premium content fast, with templates for articles, social media, emails, and more, plus a variety of copy tools.
QuillBot
QuillBot is an AI text generator and paraphrasing tool. It won’t create new text, but it’s great for summarizing or rewording documents or articles. It helps avoid plagiarism, with color-coded changes to track alterations.
Writerly
Writerly is an AI productivity suite for marketing, customer support, and e-commerce. It includes an AI writing tool and a Chrome extension for gathering ideas from articles and creating content briefs.
Copymatic
Copymatic supports content creation in over 20 languages and even includes AI image generation. It’s versatile and user-friendly, offering templates, chat functions, smart editing, and text-to-speech features.
Conclusion
AI content generators and writing tools are getting better all the time. Right now, they’re already a big help for marketers and writers when making content.
If you want to explore beyond ChatGPT, you’ve got plenty of options. Most of these tools have similar features like templates, web-based interfaces, and the ability to create outlines. Some even offer extras like making images.
When choosing an AI writing tool, take a good look at its features, read some reviews, and understand its limits. Pick one that lets you create as much content as you need, without compromising the quality your business wants.
