There’s been a lot ado about AI these days, particularly since ChatGPT was launched to the general public in November 2022. Since then, we’ve seen an inflow of ideas and instruments across the matter and the usage of AI.
We like AI right here at Buffer – we’ve even launched an AI Assistant to assist our viewers create content material higher and sooner. Nevertheless, we perceive its limitations, particularly in the case of creation, higher than most. We additionally perceive the (legitimate) considerations that many creatives and entrepreneurs have in regards to the influence of AI on the standard of content material.
So though we use AI in our processes on Buffer’s Content material crew (there are solely three of us, and it helps us work extra effectively), we wished to make clear precisely how and the place we use AI in our work.
Our historical past with AI
We’ve been enjoying round with totally different AI instruments for a number of months, and it reveals in our content material archive from the previous yr.
The primary article from Buffer about AI went stay in Could 2022 to reply the query, “Must you be utilizing AI for content material creation?” Reflecting on this text is fascinating as a result of our stance then and now is similar – let it deal with the small stuff, so you’ll be able to higher deal with the large, artistic work.
Our curiosity in AI has solely grown since then, as ChatGPT went public, we revealed a number of articles mentioning AI on the weblog, and we launched an AI Assistant.
Spending time with the totally different instruments powered by AI has allowed us to outline our boundaries higher. In consequence, we have already got unwritten guidelines round AI in content material. Nevertheless, a sample emerged in two latest occasions that prompted us to ask ourselves: how can we let folks know our stance on AI?
The primary was our newest (now closed) hiring run for a Content material Author. This text goes into extra element, however a stunning quantity of purposes had been accomplished utilizing AI. Our understanding of the standard AI-generated content material helped us determine these purposes, nevertheless it was prevalent sufficient to focus on.
The second occasion is ongoing – our just lately launched Visitor Put up Program. The concept of this system is to open up the Buffer weblog to information tales from creators and small enterprise homeowners. We wish expert writing that feels private and leaves our viewers feeling like they’ve discovered one thing invaluable. However, once more, many pitches that come by means of are AI-generated with little to no modifying. All of them adopted the identical construction we’ve recognised from AI-generated solutions, particularly these created in ChatGPT.
Regardless of the hypothesis that AI is a ticking time bomb for folks in artistic industries, we beg to vary. No device can substitute the human thoughts and its capability to create artwork that connects deeply. Additionally, it’s value remembering that AI is simply an intensive language-learning mannequin. It makes inferences from what you inform it and its restricted financial institution of knowledge to carry out what a number of folks have referred to as “spicy autocomplete”. It’s a device – solely pretty much as good as the one that wields it.
So, sure, we needed to take the time to make clear our stance as a result of whereas it’s nice, it’s not changing any of us any time quickly.
Our method to AI in content material
Listed here are the 4 statements that cowl 90 p.c of how we consider using AI in content material.
- AI assists however doesn’t substitute
- AI by no means writes full drafts or paragraphs with out being edited by a human
- AI content material is at all times reviewed for accuracy
- We don’t consider AI can substitute artistic work in any sense
The Content material crew’s expertise with AI
Buffer’s Content material crew contains three individuals who handle the crew’s blogs, social media, PR, and different content material and communication-related wants. The dimensions of our crew versus our tasks usually means we should flip down sure initiatives and alternatives. We have to prioritize, however on the finish of the day, content material and social are high priorities for our crew, to allow them to’t be put apart.
Adopting AI instruments has allowed us to liberate extra time to discover these alternatives and collaborate with different groups extra successfully. For instance, the primary edits are completed with Grammarly as an alternative of certainly one of us to catch essentially the most seen errors in grammar and punctuation. This enables us to concentrate on deeper-level construction, voice, and tone modifying. I take advantage of Otter quite a bit to report interviews. It joins my Zoom calls and makes tough notes – which means I don’t have to start out listening and transcribing from scratch. It even provides a abstract of every name.
Outdoors of AI-heavy instruments, a few of our different sources have AI included into them like
- Threads, which we use for inner communication
- Notion, which we use for information administration
- Canva, for designing social media posts and weblog graphics
- and even Buffer.
AI’s an inevitable a part of our course of, and whereas we may select to not use these instruments, we’d all be much less efficient for it.
What we use AI for
We use AI for necessary, time-consuming duties {that a} nonhuman can do.
- To proofread writing and examine for grammatical errors
- To unlock inspiration earlier than attending to the analysis course of
- To assist with outlines
- For creating templates
- For developing with interview questions
- For suggesting title concepts
- For the primary draft of social posts
- To repurpose present content material for a number of channels
- To make our content material extra related for a hyper-specific viewers
What we’re not utilizing AI for
We don’t and can by no means use AI to
- Analysis as a result of it’s unsuitable as a rule
- Totally draft articles or write full paragraphs inside our drafts – we use AI purely as a companion in brainstorming and writing
- Create closing posts for social media
- Develop any visible content material – we solely use actual photographs from small companies and creators they submit themselves or from Unsplash.
Actual methods we’ve been utilizing AI
The Content material and broader Advertising and marketing groups view AI as a companion – and we’ve initiatives as proof. For a bit of extra of the sensible aspect of how we method AI, listed here are a few of the public methods we’ve been utilizing it.
The social posts experiment
Our social media supervisor, Mitra, shared the outcomes of her experiment of writing social posts with AI.
Mitra highlighted that AI didn’t make a distinction within the efficiency of the content material and even used phrases that she would by no means use. Nevertheless, Mitra gave the concept an A-plus for creating captions on days with out inspiration.
Lunch and study
I offered a lunch and study on AI for the broad Advertising and marketing crew at Buffer, sharing how I’ve been utilizing it in my work.
Social media glossary
We just lately launched a Social Media Glossary that resulted from months of arduous work and cross-functional collaboration on the Advertising and marketing crew.
It may need taken us longer to finish, however utilizing AI lower the time we spent determining what to write down underneath every time period and how one can write it in half. We developed a immediate that helped us fill out the fundamental define of every time period inside our Glossary that we used as the inspiration for every phrase.
We additionally thought of the influence of AI-only content material on the efficiency of the web page and its effectiveness for the reader. So, we spent plenty of time modifying and including further sources to extend the worth searchers would get from spending time on every web page.
Localizing the whole Buffer web site
We’ve been engaged on a mission to localize the Buffer web site to different languages, beginning with Spanish – and AI has helped us understand most of it.
In fact, we’re utilizing a human translator to double-check our work, however we had been in a position to do the majority of the preliminary translation due to AI.
What’s subsequent for AI on Buffer’s Content material crew
The place can we go from right here? To be sincere, not a lot else goes to vary for us. Largely we’ll maintain making an attempt new instruments and implementing them once they make sense. We’ve been utilizing AI instruments in our course of for months, and it’s helped us do our work higher and higher.
In sharing this we hope to assist content material groups and content material creators who’re fascinated with defining the place AI has or ought to have of their artistic course of. Tell us the way it goes!
