Will Generative AI End My Writing Career As I Know It?
When I opened ChatGPT in December 2022, I thought, "I have to pivot."
A looming disruption that could fundamentally change my career is a familiar experience. My first job was in the newspaper business, and I know what a struggling industry looks and feels like. And ChatGPT feels like a threat in the same way dwindling ad dollars felt a decade ago.
But is it?
What It's Like to Work in a Dying Industry
As a journalist, the first thing I saw was a staff reduction. When I started as an intern, our small-town newspaper had a publisher, managing editor, designer, four salespeople, five writers, and three admins. By the time I hired as a full-time employee after graduation, the designer and managing editor were gone, with no plans to replace them.
We were down to two writers and three salespeople when I to freelance a few years later. Today, the paper has even fewer people, and the Claremore Daily Progress is no longer daily. I often wonder if they've redesigned the inside. Or maybe they walk into a ghost town of cubicles as a constant reminder of what was.
The saddest part is that the paper is lucky to be open. The Edmond Daily Sun, one of the oldest newspapers in Oklahoma., wasn’t so lucky and it closed its doors forever after 130 years. It was devastating to be honest. Maybe in part because I was a contractor for them for a few years, but I wasn’t grieving the loss of jobs (because that happens all the time). It felt like the end of something good for the community. I wonder what stories go untold and what history will be lost to time and memory.
But did the news die? No. It's different.
Newspapers were hard to change. The ones that didn't move to more digital productions or lean into social media to promote stories were left behind. Will ChatGPT eventually do the same to the content marketers? I'm not sure.
It's Not a Budget Crisis; It's a Time Crisis
ChatGPT (and every other new AI that follows) will change writing, just like social media and the internet changed journalism. I am confident that is true because it already alters my approach.
Business leaders sometimes predict it will save time and "time is money." And if it takes half the time to write an informational blog, you should have double the output for the same price. Or, maybe if one person can do the job of two, we'll start seeing those early signs of staff reductions. If I am honest with myself, it’s already happening.
Will this change cost me what I love? Instead of hand-weaving sentences together, will I become a factory worker pushing a button to mass produce a product in a way that would impress Henry Ford?
But we all know that mass-produced art isn't as impressive or as interesting. We might decorate our homes in cute prints we pick up at TJ Maxx, but we don't talk about it the same way we would a hand-painted piece we curated because it moved us in some way.
So who's going to be a mass producer, and who will have the privilege of being an artist (without starving)?
The reality is I can absolutely do more (or at least think better) with generative AI. But the big question is, “Can AI just do better without me holding its hand and taking just as much time?” Right now, the answer isn't always yes.
Writing as a New Mixed Media Art
When I was in college, I worked part-time at an art store. I often found myself enamored with the mixed media section. I like it because it's all about pushing boundaries and using unexpected materials in unexpected ways.
While AI-generated content often feels sterile and mechanical, maybe it's only one piece of the final output. Or at least that's how I am using it today.
I heavily lean on my intuition and experience, but at the same time, I utilize AI tools as part of my creative process. My goal is to use it to work better (which doesn’t always mean faster) and to avoid sacrificing the originality and voice. I believe (hopefully not naively) that I can still practice my art without becoming a factory worker who churns out mass-produced blog posts devoid of original human experience.
Storytelling as a New Gold Standard
I am most concerned about the concept of informational or technical writing. The heartbeat of content marketing for the last decade was, "They ask, you answer."
It's based on the premise anyone trying to understand a topic, product, or service will go to Google and type in a question. The goal is to be #1 on a search engine results page (or #2 or #3 after all the paid ads). The purpose is to build a "know, like, and trust" factor. If someone is searching for a new hot tub, and your brand just so happens to have all the information about hot tubs AND sells hot tubs, the buyer may be more inclined to purchase from you because your company is the expert in all things hot tubs.
These types of pages usually serve an SEO purpose for businesses, but it's possible this type of content won't perform as well as people begin using AI for answers to common questions. It could become, "They ask. AI answers." And where does that leave us?
People might prefer AI to do basic research because it feels less biased than a company blog. Where will we put all of our call to actions? Where will we meet our buyers and build awareness?
I think the answer is we will see an increase in the value of storytelling by individuals rather than brands. Business web pages can feel a bit … anonymous. Of course, your brand has a voice, but does it have a face? The answer is usually no. A face is always risky. But what if you diversified your risk? We could build a type of internal influencer marketing.
In other words, what if dozens of micro-influencers talked about hot tubs, and they just so happen to love yours the most and they told everyone why? Sure that could be previous customers, but it should also be your employees. Are they ready to start telling their stories in captivating ways? Are companies ready for the risk that comes from handing over control?
Content Marketing Isn't Dead (And Neither is SEO … yet)
I wish I could go back in time and beg small-town newspapers to quickly adopt user-friendly websites that make the news sharable rather than leveraging a paywall model. Paywalls work for big outlets like the Atlantic or New York Times, but a paywall is annoying when you are just trying to see what events are happening this week or whether or not an ordinance passed the city council. Now there are few print subscriptions and just as few online subscriptions.
They let their writers go even though subscribers showed up for stories. No one buys a paper or reads a website for the ads it places, but they will buy a paper or read a website because it talks about their kid's school or their community.
I wish I begged them to focus heavily on the news that matters to their audience rather than trying to compete with state and national news that’s available everywhere. I wish I could encourage them to quickly adopt social strategies that would push more traffic to their website and, as a result, increase the value of their digital ad space.
Honestly, I don't know if that would have saved the industry in small towns, and I am not pretending I knew all the answers then or now, but maybe it would have given many papers that I love a fighting chance.
I hear the rumblings of the same story outside my content marketing window. We have to adapt. And we have to adopt new technologies before they devour our industries and leave us all wondering what happened.
Right now, we get to make the rules. We still get to make art.
Where AI Makes Sense for Writers
I keep experimenting with the amount of AI to include. Sometimes, I take it too far, and there is a noticeable drop in quality (just ask my editors).
Currently, AI saves me about 30% of my time and effort, which is an increase from 20% earlier this year (this is not a hard science; it’s my general observation). P.S. I wrote this a year ago, and I’m not so sure it’s true anymore. It’s actually less about time now.
At times, I would argue AI doesn’t save me any time at all. Rather, it just changes where I focus my time. In other words, I have better inputs and better outputs, but the time between starting and finishing is about the same.
The AI offers raw material to use in narratives. For research and fact-finding, AI provides efficiency especially when it comes to digging into academic databases or just getting started. Most impressively, it’s a better search engine.
Tasks Worthy of AI:
Research (especially finding studies in clunky academic databases)
Editing
Keyword research
Experimenting with tone
Eliminating the blank page syndrome
Finding synonyms
Designing analogies
Competitive research
How I Write with AI
I think many people imagine writing with AI looks something like:
Write an outline about___
Write an introduction for a topic on ___
Rewrite this sentence:
It can look like that at times, but that’s not the most valuable way to use it, and it’s not where I find interesting ideas.
Before AI, I built worlds in my brain, imagining the experiences of the person I was writing for or to. The work would depend on interviews and research. The goal is that the audience would leave with a new way of thinking, understanding of a new concept, or simply feeling like the author “gets them.”
Let’s Play a Game
It’s hard to explain how I use AI exactly, so let me just show you how I might build a scenario/world in a writing project.
First, I give AI context
I pasted in the buyer persona, which was built on data and after focus groups with the company. This was information I received when I started writing for the company, not something I created separately.
I provide a narrative about the persona I’m writing to. I’m not sure it’s needed at this point, but it does provide a different angle to the same information for context. Basically, it’s all the raw data and facts and repackages them into a story. It’s easier to consume…at least as a human. I do this once, and it exists for all future projects.
Finally, I give the creative brief for the project and anything else already done for it (drafted intro, existing outlines, and research).
Next, I built mini-scenarios to taste test my understanding:
Tell me what Phil’s (Persona A) morning might look like (6 a.m. - 10 a.m.) on an average day, on a bad day, and on a great day. (I’m looking for ideas on entry points for connection. )
Why might Phil even care about speed? What could be some of his motivations?
Imagine the problem is correctly identified, why might the solutions be wrong? (e.g., what if culture is affecting tool adoption, not skill?)
What if the problem is incorrect? (e.g,. What if slow was a symptom of uncertainty, not the problem? What if competitors aren’t doing as well as he imagines?)
Where might Persona A and Persona B agree and disagree?
Give me sources to people who are in these spaces who’ve written about it on LinkedIn, Medium, or on personal blogs. (I’m looking for external examples that these ideas aren’t too far off from reality.)
The ideas I take with me to the next step: Phil might care about speed because he is using it as a metric of relevance. He might fear stagnation because it represents the risk of decline and failure.
Main Scenario
The prompt is actually a series and looks something like this:
Step 1: Create a fictitious company for Phil. I want industry, company profile, core offering, current company culture and challenges, when Phil joined, what Phil values, and what his main goals are. (Later, I will change all these variables in different ways to understand how the concept might change in different contexts).
Step 2: How does Phil think about ____, or what is the event that leads to Phil experiencing ____? (This is where I layer in the topic I’m working on.)
Step 3: What is happening that makes Phil feel ___ or fear___? (So it might be what’s happening that makes Phil feel so urgent, or fear of stagnation? What is he consuming that fuels these feelings and fears?)
Step 4: What kind of decisions might Phil have to make in this situation? (In this step, I might look closer at a specific decision or decision type and find outside sources of thought leaders in the space talking about it.)
Step 5: Create an interaction between Persona A and Persona B where they agree on something and where they disagree and why.
Why does any of this matter?
The best writing will come from a place of understanding. The work should make the audience feel like they’re the star of The Truman Show, and you’ve watched every episode.
When I broaden the research, I go back to the game and adapt variables. What organizational culture is best for people like Phil who are trying to achieve things Phil is trying to achieve? I look at academic studies and plug a fictional example into real research to better understand or evaluate the idea.
But most importantly, everything should be in part supported by evidence in the wild of people saying the things Phil might say. If it doesn’t exist, then the narrative loses its relevance along the way.
I might spend maybe 30 or 40 minutes just trying to understand how my topic might show up in the actual world the target audience experiences.
Yes, I use AI while writing in the more expected ways (albeit less often than you might think). Mostly, this example is what I mean.
An Open Letter to Businesses From a Content Marketer
I urge you not to replace your human content creators. Instead, consult us and give us space to learn and experiment. Trust that we will thoughtfully direct new technologies in ways that will create value. Don’t stop believing that creativity is a uniquely human skill that has a meaningful relationship with strategic messaging.
Fight the urge to view AI as a way to produce mass content at scale, because the highest-performing marketing speaks to audiences in a relatable voice, and it builds connections through shared experiences.
Instead, leverage our talents to craft stories and insights that are much more authentic than an AI-generated piece can be at this time.
Embrace new efficiencies, but remember that quality requires human discernment. Allow us time to evaluate AI outputs and refine them to suit your brand voice and values. Understand that the human touch remains your competitive advantage.
This is a chance to augment our skillsets, not automate our roles. With the right balance, we can produce content that informs, inspires, and delights.