In November of 2022, the artificial intelligence (AI) writing tool called ChatGPT was launched by OpenAI. Almost immediately, people began using it for writing content of all types, for research purposes, and even for drafting legal documents. ChatGPT had over a million users in just five days. But what, if any, are the ramifications of using an AI tool for writing business content? Can ChatGPT write business content well? 

This article explains some of the risks and benefits of using AI tools like ChatGPT and other chatbots to write business content. First, let’s cover the benefits.

Can ChatGPT Write Business Content? 2 Clear Benefits 

AI tools are a human’s answer to writer’s block. They’re like a writer’s assistant, if you will.

While you can search online for ideas about what  to write, an AI tool can respond to your prompts in a way that makes writing a little easier. When prompting ChatGPT for ideas, for example, it will not only present topics but it will get the draft started for you.  Additionally, ChatGPT can create the entire draft of a document for you, if you need it to. However, you’re not done with writing at that point (editing is still needed; more on that later).

1. Eliminate Your Writer’s Block

Stumped on how to start an internal communication about your new vacation policy? Looking to write a social media post about an event your company sponsored? Trying to come up with a catchy title for a webinar presentation?

ChatGPT could be your new best friend for brainstorming. For example, I asked ChatGPT to help me come up with some title ideas for a new webinar I’m thinking of doing about content marketing. Here are the ideas I was presented with in mere seconds:

While none of these titles are exactly perfect for the slide content I’m developing, they do help provide a framework that I can work from to land on my perfect title.  

2. Get Help With Research 

When writing documents or content, how many times do you turn to an online resource to look something up? ChatGPT may be a threat to search engines like Google because it permits a query for information, in addition to content creation.

For example, I queried ChatGPT to find out the first person who coined the term, “content marketing”. Here is the result I was presented with:

Like any search result from the web, however, be wary of its validity. When I made the same query on Google, I was presented with a different result at the top of the results page as seen below.

3 Risks and Downsides of Using ChatGPT and Other AI Tools to Write Business Content

1. The Need for Query Time + Editing Time

I used ChatGPT to prompt for various things when writing this blog post. Because of SEO credibility concerns (more on that in a minute), I spent time editing the content ChatGPT provided and customized it for 11outof11. In total, I spent one hour and twenty-five minutes on this blog post.

The process helped make writing the blog post mentally easier, because it provided ideas and examples. But all-in-all, the time it took to write this blog post was only five minutes shorter than the average blog I write from scratch. From a cognitive standpoint, it was easier, but not from a time standpoint. Additionally, our editor and our proofreader will still review this blog post. It will take them the same amount of time to review it as any other blog post I write.

When I prompted ChatGPT about whether I should bother editing its AI-generated content, even the AI tool itself recommended the process I’m following:

2. The Impact on SEO Remains Unclear

Similar to academic institutions that wonder if the college essay is dead, marketers and scientists are curious about the impact of AI on search engine optimization (SEO) and Google, specifically.

We must ponder the difference between getting content to rank on search engines and getting good content to rank. For instance, can  ChatCPT write a college essay? To find out, Inside Higher Ed writer Jim Jump examined a college essay written by a teen versus an essay answering the same prompt in ChatGPT.

Jim was asked about the convincing nature of the ChatGPT essay and whether it would help the likelihood of someone’s admission. “My answer was that I probably couldn’t detect the AI authorship, but that I also wouldn’t label the essays as convincing,” he said.

The same is true for SEO. If your content is all AI, then what happens when a prospective customer clicks through and reads it? Is it convincing them that your business is the thought leader on the topic of their query? Or is that content going to have a high bounce rate because of its generic, lackluster nature?

3. The Factual Accuracy of AI is Still Questionable

Consider my earlier example of who coined the term, “content marketing”. The fact remains that relying on AI tools – or search engines for that matter – for research accuracy is still questionable.. While AI tools give writers a great starting point, they are not the end point. Meaning, you must still fact-check your research and cite resources accurately..

Don’t believe there could be consequences if you skip this part? A recent CNN headline reads, “Google shares lose $100 billion after company’s AI chatbot makes an error during demo.”

Apparently, someone asked Bard, the new AI tool still in development at Google’s parent company Alphabet, to call out new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) so a nine-year-old would understand them. One of Bard’s answers was, “JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.”

Wrong. It was actually the Very Large Telescope at European Southern Observatory that took the first picture back in 2004, according to NASA. After Bard’s inaccuracy was reported by Reuters, Alphabet shares fell big time, decreasing the company’s market value by $100 billion. Oops.

People Really Do Want To Hear From Your Business

AI content can only source data and information that already exists in the internet world. If your information isn’t out there online, AI cannot find it when generating responses to queries. It’s akin to a vacuum running in a circle.

Your thought leadership is really integral for our society to grow. If your business has a unique perspective, a different way of doing things versus your competitors, or if you’re the first to accomplish something, you’ve got to get that intelligence out there. Not only for better results from search engines and AI tools, but to provide solutions for everyone who’s searching for answers! 

11outof11 Knows Content Marketing

If you’re a bit daunted by using ChatGPT for content or if you think AI tools might be the answer to all your business’s content challenges, let’s talk. 11outof11 can help. Request a complimentary call with an 11outof11 expert. Contact us to learn more.