AI Writing Tools: What You Need to Know
Jan 2, 2024
Here’s a question for you: Are you still relying on outdated writing methods? Whether you’re a business owner who doubles as the content writer, a marketing manager with an in-house marketing team, or a Senior Content Manager who hires freelance writers, there’s one thing you need to know: The manual content creation is one tool of pure inefficiency.
Some unwanted results of manual content writing include slower content production, writer’s fatigue, less content variety, and difficulty optimizing content.
But here’s the scoop: AI writing tools are now a big thing in the content world. They’re an upgrade of the inefficient writing style that we have become used to. In a survey by Forbes, the majority (54%) agree that AI can improve published content—implying that such tools can enhance writing and create high-quality content efficiency.
Are you curious about how artificial intelligence content writing improves content production? Keep reading to see how an AI writing assistant can improve your organization’s content game.
The writing revolution
Before AI, writing was a largely manual and time-consuming process. It’s more about just the writer’s process: gathering ideas, doing tedious research, producing drafts, editing, revising, and publishing.
Research was done by scouring the internet for reliable sources or by conducting surveys and personal interviews. The actual drafting can take weeks, and getting feedback took longer. This process, while bearable, was limited by the writer’s knowledge, time, and resources. Sometimes, the process from concept to the final piece is even uncertain.
But gone are those days. Again, this was before the era of AI-powered writing assistants. Now, the writing process has become much more efficient. For example, the time bloggers spend writing a blog post with quality content has gone down by 30% when they use AI. This is just one benefit that an AI content generator or AI writer tool provides.
AI: today’s trustworthy writing assistant
Today, the whole Internet has already witnessed how AI writes. AI writing tools have become reliable assistants in the writing process—like a second virtual brain, a second pair of eyes, and a helping hand that makes your final content better. In fact, a survey proves that 50% or half of writers using AI review now their own work instead of relying on editors.
Now, let’s talk about the brains behind these AI-powered writing assistants: natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the feature that lets AI understand, interpret, and respond to human language. It’s what enables these AI writing tools to read and make sense of your writing—much like a human would, but faster and sometimes even more accurately.
On the other hand, machine learning is AI getting smarter over time. The more you use an AI writing tool—or any AI-powered tool, for that matter—the better it gets at predicting what you need. Then it adapts to your writing style, enabling you to generate content like blogs faster than you would have if you wrote everything from scratch.
6 things AI writing tools can help with
Let’s look at how AI writing tools can exactly help. Here are six of them:
Avoiding writer’s block
Creating content at scale
Repurposing content
Saving time
Enhancing quality of output
Assisting with research
Avoiding writer’s block
Writer’s block—the nemesis of writers. It’s also what takes up a lot of the time in the entire writing process. With an AI writing assistant, there’s no more staring at a blinking cursor on a blank document.
You’ll always have a starting point because you pretty much have a brainstorming partner that offers suggestions when you don’t have ideas. The AI tools can even suggest different angles or viewpoints you might not have considered.
Creating content at scale
With artificial intelligence as your writing companion, you can produce more content in less time. They’re especially useful for repetitive, long form content, or formulaic writing for businesses publishing consistent content across multiple platforms. Content written by an AI can remain varied since every output is based on your prompts, so they just adapt to your formats, like blog posts, newsletters, marketing materials, or social media updates.
Repurposing content
AI writing makes repurposing easy. AI can analyze and suggest how to update outdated information, rephrase for a new audience, or even change the format for a different platform. It extracts key information from a single post and generates new versions in a variety of ways. HubSpot’s survey revealed that 25% of marketing pros sum up content with AI. When repurposed, this extends the life and value of your existing content, ensuring it continues to engage and attract readers.
Saving time
Leveraging the technology that AI writes, you drastically save time and reduce the time spent on brainstorming to writing to editing, and proofreading. Content creation can be sped up by 50% using an AI tool, which automates content creation and rewords articles. There are many available AI writing tools that can be used for instant headline generation, SEO optimization, email subject line generation, or keyword research. The speed at which AI tools work is a significant time-saver, so you produce and publish content faster.
Enhancing quality
Yes, you can enhance your writing with AI. Content writing artificial intelligence tools make sure you’re delivering a high standard of writing. They’re programmed to adhere to the rules of grammar and apply them consistently across your work. In 2023, a survey of US authors found that of those using AI in their writing, 47 percent used it for grammar checks. Some are specifically built to suggest ways to make your writing clearer and more compelling, helping you get your message across.
Assisting with research
Some AI writing tools are best in assisting with research. These tools quickly gather and summarize information on any topic, They can scan through vast amounts of data, identify the most relevant information, and present it in an easy-to-understand format. This saves you hours of research time.
10 AI writing tools we recommend
1. Jasper AI (Paid plans start at $39/month/seat when billed annually; free trial available)
A marketer’s favorite, Jasper, is an AI copilot that not only writes quality content for you, but also optimizes your content output. Whether it’s emails, captions, blogs, or any marketing content, Jasper has your back. You can also set your brand’s tone and style for creating consistent and engaging content.
In addition, Jasper is incredibly user-friendly and requires minimal setup time. It’s very easy to get started, and there isn’t much of a learning curve.
2. Grammarly (Paid plans start at $12/month; free version available)
Grammarly is the trusted AI sidekick for writers worldwide, especially for non-native English speakers. It’s a free and very efficient grammar and punctuation checker that also enhances the clarity and tone of your writing.
With personalized suggestions and real-time corrections, it’s like having a dedicated editor at your side, totally committed to polishing and perfecting whatever you write. Bonus feature: It comes with a browser extension for the ultimate ease.
3. Writesonic (Starts at $13/month when paid annually; free version available)
Writesonic is an AI writing tool that helps marketers and writers generate hyper-personalized content based on brand guidelines. It’s known for its one-click article generation which produces ready-to-publish material in seconds—and optimized for search engines, too!
Writers facing tight deadlines or trying to double their output will find this tool a breath of fresh air. For those looking for inspiration, the quick generation of content ideas and drafts can be a significant advantage.
4. Copy.ai (Pro plans start at $49/month; free version available)
Copy.ai is a simple-to-use AI writing assistant that quickly generates on-brand content that resonates with your target audience. Many sales teams use this platform for personalized emails that hit home, cold outreach sequences with catchy headlines, website copy that converts, and blog and social media content.
It has many templates to choose from so you can get started quickly. Copy.ai‘s intuitive interface also makes it possible to tweak and enhance AI-generated material.
5. Rytr (Plans start at $9/month; free plan available)
If you no longer want to spend hours writing and editing content, Rytr is the AI assistant you’re looking for. First, it creates content faster than doing it on your own—not to mention that Rytr has a lot of templates you can use for business pitches, landing page copy, blog writing, email, cover letters, and social media ads.
Also, it has a built-in editor, and the multi-language support makes it a popular choice for writers around the world. Bonus features include an SEO analyzer and built-in plagiarism checker.
6. SurferSEO (Starts at $119/month)
Surfer is a great AI tool for those who want to maximize their SEO game. Its keyword research tool is comprehensive and provides great tips and steps that marketers can follow to improve their website’s ranking. Meanwhile, the content editor and AI writer both show the writers the content score of the ongoing draft. That way, you can tweak and adjust the content piece in real-time. Also, if you purchase AI credits, SurferSEO actually generate blogs from scratch.
7. ClosersCopy (Starts at $49.99/month)
One of the first tools to produce AI-written output, ClosersCopy is known to be tailored for copywriters. Some of its best features include sentiment analysis, SEO planning and scheduling, spam scoring, density and grades of the content.
It’s a powerhouse for sales and marketing material, as it helps generate text and drive conversions through compelling narratives. The platform’s emphasis on emotional triggers and persuasive techniques ensures your copy performs.
8. Quillbot (Starts at $224.99/month; free plan available)
Quillbot is an advanced paraphrasing writing AI for all types of content. Its sentence rephrasing capabilities are extremely useful for users who want to enhance writing clarity and style.
With its focus on improving readability and avoiding plagiarism, Quillbot is definitely an essential tool to add to writers’ tech stacks. Aside from paraphrasing, it also involves the use of the synonym slider, recommended rewrites, and plagiarism checker!
9. Scalenut (Starts at $18/month for individuals; custom plans available for enterprises)
Scalenut is an AI-powered SEO and content marketing tool that can be leveraged to supercharge your content output and create it at scale. It’s definitely a must-have tool for anyone serious about optimizing their content in a fun and effective way while increasing online visibility. Features include keyword rank checker, keyword finder, SEO analyzer, and keyword clustering tool among others.
10. Simplified (Paid plans start at $11/month; free plan available)
With Simplified, a simple prompt understands the context and intent behind your writing and results in generated content which is both relevant and professional. It has 80+ templates, which you can use for pages, ads, product descriptions, YouTube descriptions, and the works! It also has an AI Rewriter tool and a social media scheduler.
Best practices and reminders for using AI writing tools
When using AI writing tools, you make the most of these innovative tools if you know the best practices and important considerations involved. Here’s a compilation of them:
Always fact-check. While AI-powered writing assistants are powerful, they might not always give accurate information. So it’s a must to always verify facts, statistics, and data from reliable sources to ensure the credibility and correctness of your content. Don’t forget to cross-reference the information you get from AI with trusted references. You can also use Perplexity.ai but it’s still important to verify all data and statistics.
Customize the tool’s settings. Customization is what lets you define your writing style, tone, and content requirements. This ensures that the AI tool aligns with your unique voice. You have to adjust the tool’s settings to your specific needs and preferences so as to enhance its performance and accuracy.
Supervise and tweak. Always review the AI’s work. While AI can provide valuable suggestions, human supervision is essential to maintain authenticity and accuracy. It allows you to review and adjust the AI-written content to better fit your context. It might not catch complex contexts, so your final touch is crucial.
Use AI ethically. Ethical use of AI writing tools involves transparency, honesty, and responsible content creation. Always be transparent about using AI, especially in professional or academic contexts. Furthermore, ethical use includes ensuring that AI-generated content avoids plagiarism and doesn’t spread misinformation. Actually, 70% expressed the same concern.
Balance with human insight. Combine AI’s efficiency with your creative and analytical skills for the best content. Even though these tools are powerful, they lack the in-depth understanding and creativity humans bring to the writing process. Human insight is critical for making judgment calls, understanding the context, and ensuring the content aligns with the writer’s unique style and brand voice.
Be aware of limitations. Understanding your AI tool’s capabilities is crucial to effective usage. Recognize where human intervention is necessary, like when handling sensitive topics. Balancing AI’s efficiency with your judgment ensures that the final content aligns with your goals and expectations. It’s about leveraging AI as a powerful assistant while acknowledging the specifics only humans can capture.
Leverage AI tools as your writing assistant
Indeed, an AI writer is a game-changing asset for businesses and content creators. They bring efficiency and even consistency to the writing process, so you produce high-quality content at scale.
Yet, the best advice we can give is to not only invest in AI writing tools but to fully harness their power across all your business functions—yes, including human resources and sales.
Take the next step in your AI writing journey by reaching out to a team that specializes in crafting custom AI prompts—AI Operator’s expertise. With tailored prompts, you can tap into the true potential of AI writing assistants. Contact AI Operator today to experience the seamless, efficient, and effective transformation AI-based tools can bring to your writing process and overall business growth.