As presented in my last article, when using AI to create content, the last thing marketing teams want is for prospects, customers, or partners to notice content is generated by AI. Even the most advanced tools can leave subtle fingerprints: repetitive phrasing, generic intros, or an oddly sterile tone that savvy readers (and search engines) may recognize as AI-generated.
In addition, AI-generated marketing content often covers the <What> and the <How> but struggles with the <Why>. That’s the strategic reasoning behind a claim or recommendation. Human writers can add nuance, subtle contradictions, and real-world caveats that AI tends to gloss over.
The key to bridging this gap is to create a process to convert artificial intelligence into genuine intelligence that communicates on-target messaging and resonates with your audiences by following these key steps:
- Select the right AI engine.
- Develop prompt models for each asset type and sharpen them over time.
- Edit content to read well and remove artificial-sounding language.
- Validate messaging is on target from a marketing perspective.
- Confirm messaging is on target from a technical perspective.
- Revise content based on marketing and technical feedback.
This article focuses on the first step, selecting the right AI engine. This generally involves testing a few to find out which one produces content to your liking.
Here is a general overview of some key AI players and how they differ:
OpenAI/GPT—Industry leader in natural language generation with strong reasoning, deep tech explanations, longform clarity, and multi-turn chat.
Anthropic Claude—Excellent summarization and handles long documents well. Known for clean, structured output from research-heavy sources.
Google Gemini—Works fast through connections to Google Search and Google Workspace. Provides fact-heavy snippets, outlines, and speed drafting.
Writesonic—Geared for marketers with built-in SEO optimization tools, quick blog drafts, and headline generation.
Content at Scale—Built for long-form SEO content with minimal input. Generates blogs from keywords, podcasts, and URLs.
As you go through the process of selecting an AI engine, also consider these factors:
Requirements
Are you focused on lead generation, brand awareness, or enhancing customer engagement? Do you need to generate blogs, social media, email, e-books, data sheets, or other content formats? Depending on your mission, you might use different tools for each type.
Also identify the challenges you want AI to solve as far as the bottlenecks in your content creation process or areas where AI can add the most value, such as idea generation, outlines, content optimization, or task automation.
From there, experiment with a prompt that aligns with your exact requirements and challenges the AI engine in a way that allows true evaluation, i.e., <Write a 600-word blog post explaining the difference between edge computing and cloud computing to a non-technical audience. Use clear examples, avoid jargon, and include a short pros/cons list for each>.
Evaluation
Strategically evaluate the results of your tests:
- Content Quality – Does it generate accurate, insightful, and technically sound writing?
- Tone and Voice – Can it match your unique style and avoid sounding generic or robotic?
- Structure and SEO – Does it organize content clearly and support SEO best practices?
- Context Handling – Can it stay on-topic, remember context, and handle complex inputs?
- Workflow and Integration – Does it fit smoothly into your existing tools and writing process?
- Pricing and Value – Is the output quality worth the cost based on your specific needs?
- Ethics and Ownership – Can it provide source citations? What is the privacy/data use policy?
Testing
Once you evaluate an AI engine and narrow it down to one or two front-runners, the next step is more comprehensive real-world testing. In this phase, you can begin to insert the use of the engines into your existing writing workflow to see how they hold up under pressure.
Selecting the right AI engine is not merely a question of power and specs, but of alignment with your professional goals, workflow, and voice. When thoughtfully integrated, AI will enhance efficiency and creativity while reinforcing, not replacing, the unique value of human writers.
In my next article, I will discuss how to develop specific prompt models for each asset type and sharpen them over time.