ChatGPT vs Jamie Beebe: How AI Output Compares to the Work of a Content Writer

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for writing has exploded in recent years (as of this writing, there are 646 AI writing assistants available!). From emails and memos to blogs, website content, and ads, businesses are beginning to swap out human-created content for AI-generated content. 

There’s no question that AI is faster than a human writer. But is AI content effective? Can it actually accomplish what human-written content can?

I admit that, as a content writer myself, I’m biased. As far as I can see, in a contest of AI vs content writers, content writers win hands-down. There’s just no way AI can achieve everything a human writer can with a piece of writing.

To test that theory, I asked ChatGPT to generate a blog on the same topic as one I wrote a while back. Here’s:

• My version: Business Storytelling for Your Website: How To Write an Effective About Us Page
  and
• ChatGPT’s version: The Power of Business Storytelling: Why It Matters and How to Use It on Your "About Us" Page

Now let’s dig into these blogs and see how they rate for four of the main goals of a blog: connection, education, tips/advice, and performance/SEO.

1. Connection: Which Creates More Connection With the Audience?

Connection is, arguably, one of the biggest flexes a human writer has over an AI writer. AI just can’t create the kind of human connection a…well, human can.

For example, let’s look at the opening section of each blog. 

ChatGPT’s opening is fine. It’s concise, informative, and does an o.k. job transitioning to the next section. However, it doesn’t really inspire a connection (even though it states that consumers are looking for connections 😏). It’s generic and, honestly, kind of boring.

Mine, on the other hand (it’s so weird to talk about my own work like this…) starts out with a highly relatable statement. It goes on to explain what consumers are looking for when they visit your About page, and how important it is to use that page to build trust. (Also, bonus points for a relevant, funny GIF.)

When it comes to empathy and emotional connection, AI fails big time. Its tone is often stiff and formal (even when you prompt it for tone)…which is the opposite of what you need to create an emotional connection! 

According to research by Gallup, 70% of a consumer’s decisions are based on emotional factors. SEVENTY PERCENT…that’s huge! If you want a potential customer to pick you over the competition, your content needs to connect with their emotions. In this respect, AI isn’t the best choice.

2. Education: Which Provides the Most Helpful Information?

This concept is, admittedly, a bit subjective. Whether you find a blog helpful will depend a lot on what information you’re looking for.

The AI version of this blog gives a brief overview of what business storytelling is and why it’s important. It’s concise and gives you the basics…but it doesn’t really give you an idea of what information to include in your story. So while it may help you understand the concept of business storytelling, it may leave you a little lost when it comes to putting it into action.

In my opinion, offering a definition and a few bullet points about why something is important doesn’t actually teach someone how to do the thing. So in my version, in addition to those basics, I included a list of questions to ask yourself when you write your company’s story, as well as questions your potential customers might be asking when they visit your About page.

This is another area where AI doesn’t quite hit the mark. It answers the main questions well enough, but it doesn’t tell you how to apply those answers in real life. In general, human writers do a much better job of making those connections and helping their readers understand and apply their content more effectively. 

It’s also worth mentioning that AI can’t always be relied upon for accurate information. And since it’s trained on content written by others, there’s a possibility you could run into plagiarism issues. In other words, if you’re going to use AI to write content, make sure you fact check everything and do some rewriting before you hit “publish”!

3. Advice: Which Gives the Best Tips?

Again, this one’s a little subjective: Depending on what kind of advice you’re looking for, you may find the AI version or my version more helpful. Let’s compare.

(Note: I didn’t include screen shots of the entire sections for each blog, because they’re too long. Feel free to use the links at the top of this article to click over to each blog if you want to see the whole list of tips.)

ChatGPT’s version focuses mainly on the different parts of a story: the hook, the characters, the journey, and the problem you’re solving. It also includes a couple of points with writing suggestions, such as keeping it authentic and including a call-to-action (CTA). 

One thing ChatGPT included that I really like is examples. For each point, it included an example sentence or two showing how that part of your story might look. If I had to write mine over again, I’d probably borrow that idea, because I can see how it would be really helpful to my readers.

In my version, I focused primarily on what information to include in your story: how you got started, your values and vision, how you help your customers, team member bios, and direction for next steps (a.k.a., a CTA). I also included a point about keeping your language conversational (to help build that connection we were talking about earlier 😉). 

Personally, I think most people innately understand the basic structure of a story, so I thought it would be more helpful to focus on the details to include in a story, rather than on structure. But, like I said, depending on what aspect of telling your story you need help with, you may find either the AI version or mine more helpful. 

(Though, in my humble opinion, when it comes to including funny, relevant images and GIFs, AI can’t touch me.)

4. Performance and SEO

Because the AI-written version of this blog hasn’t actually been published, it’s tough to compare the two blogs for performance and SEO. So we’ll have to look at this point more generally. And generally speaking, so far AI-written blogs have not performed nearly as well as human-written ones.

Neil Patel, the brains behind NP Digital and Ubersuggest, did an experiment where he and his team published more than 700 articles across dozens of websites to see whether readers responded better to AI content or human content. They tracked the average traffic per post over the course of five months and found that traffic for the AI-generated content varied from month to month, whereas the human-written content showed a steady increase. 

But even more impressive, by the end of the five month period the human-created content had more than 5x the traffic of the AI-generated content! His conclusion was that, while AI content has some time-saving benefits, human-created content has a much bigger payoff in terms of traffic and engagement.

Long story short: When it comes to performance and SEO, don’t rely on AI to get you the results you want!

AI vs Content Writers: Who’s the Winner?

Ok, based on the information I’ve given you in this blog, I’ll let you be the judge. AI vs content writers: Who do you think is the winner?

This meme sums up my opinion perfectly:

If you’d like to learn more about the pros and cons of using AI to write content, here are a couple of great articles to check out:

• AI Is Generative, Not Creative by Alex Reisner
• Pros and Cons of Using AI To Write Content [+ 5 Ways To Use It Effectively] by yours truly😉

And if you’re looking for a real human to write content for your business that actually gets you results, the Wild Fig team would love to help! Our content writers can create everything from blogs and website content to emails, social media posts, and more! Schedule an exploratory call with our fearless leader, Kari Switala, to learn more and get started.