AI Writing Tools: Pros & Cons (Are AI Writers Worth It?)

Last Updated on June 10, 2023 by Jordan Alexo

The increasing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools has revolutionized the way content is produced.

These programs offer various features, from simple spelling and grammar checks to advanced copywriting and content generation.

One of the main advantages of using AI for writing is speed. The more content you create, the faster your business grows.

However, what other pros and cons should we consider when deciding if AI writers are worth it?

In this guide, you’ll discover how AI writing tools can reduce production time and effort, enhance content quality, translate, and even generate content. But all of that comes with some potential drawbacks.

So let’s get started!

Key Takeaways

1. Writing Efficiency and Scalability: AI writing tools can significantly increase writing speed. This helps you create more content in less time. Also, this can be especially beneficial for businesses looking to grow quickly.
2. Cost-Effectiveness: AI writing tools can reduce the costs associated with hiring human writers. They offer a more affordable alternative. Allowing companies to generate content at a lower expense.
3. Overcoming Writer’s Block: These tools can help you generate content ideas, overcome writer’s block, and give suggestions for outlines and titles. 
4. Translation Capabilities: You can use them to translate content from other languages. This helps businesses to reach a global audience more easily.
5. Improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO): You can use these tools to help optimize content for search engines. For instance, Neuronwriter analyzes top-ranking pages and provides suggestions for keywords, phrases, article length, and linking opportunities.

Quick Overview: What’s the Hype About AI Writing Tools?

As you can see above, the hype is real! And there’s a good reason for it. These tools use advanced algorithms to analyze writing patterns and create content that can be hard to distinguish from human-written text.

The most popular artificial intelligence chatbot is GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). This technology was designed by Open AI and has been widely used for content generation purposes.

Their ChatGPT tools let you converse with an AI like you would have with a person. But there’s more to AI writing tools than just chatbots.

For instance, you can ask ChatGPT to write product descriptions, blog posts, emails, and even an ebook.

And the best part is that AI writing tools can work 24/7 without ever getting tired or taking a break.

Pros Of AI Writers

1 – Writing Efficiency and Scalability

One of the biggest reasons to use AI writing tools is the speed you can pump out content.

You can generate articles, product descriptions, social media posts, you name it, in a matter of minutes.

Whether you have a blog, run ads, or write books, these tools can drastically reduce your writing time.

In my case, I use it for blogging, and it has been a relief. Before, I used to publish about two posts a week. Now, I can publish up to five or more.

Also, I don’t feel so exhausted after writing because I don’t need to think about every detail.

Here’s an example of a post I wrote with Writesonic:

Writesonic has become increasingly sophisticated. You currently have a feature called “AI Article Writer 5.0.” You add a particular keyword (post topic), and it analyzes the results ranking on Google.

Afterward, you can pick the best-ranking posts, and it will use their content to generate a unique article for you quickly. I use this as a first draft. I still add some adjustments and uniqueness to the content.

However, this saves me about an hour of work.

2 – Cost-Effectiveness

Hiring a quality human writer can cost between $10 to $100 an hour. Just imagine needing a team of writers to produce content for your business regularly.

We’re talking about thousands of dollars in expenses every month.

However, AI writing tools can reduce these costs significantly. If you’re a solo blogger, you can write twice as much content in the same amount of time.

Also, companies only need half or fewer writers who can use AI writing tools proficiently. And they can do the same work as twice as many human writers.

So, as you may imagine, this saves companies buttloads of money.

Besides, many of these AI tools are affordable. Often they come with a monthly subscription fee that is much lower than hiring a human writer.

For example, ChatGPT Plus only costs $20 per month. You get access to all their latest features and can create unlimited content.

The same thing goes for Writesonic. For $20 a month, you can generate up to 100.000 words and have access to all their features.

3 – Idea Generation and Overcoming Writer’s Block

One of the main problems I had with blogging was writer’s block. When you write day in and day out, you soon feel mentally fatigued. 

It’s like your ideas don’t flow as easily, and writing becomes a chore. However, AI writing tools can help you overcome this problem. You can instruct them to write outlines, generate titles, and even come up with content ideas for you.

For example, I’m using Jenni AI, which has a feature called “AI autosuggestions.”

This option suggests what I may want to write next in my sentence. It isn’t always perfect, but it does help me to keep the flow going when I’m stuck.

4 – Translate Your Content

These tools can help you translate content from other languages. You don’t need to look at something you don’t understand and wonder, “What the heck does this mean?”

Instead, you can head to ChatGPT and ask it to translate into English. For instance:

I translated this text from Portuguese to English in a few seconds. Before AI writing tools, this would have taken me hours manually. Or, for professional reasons, I would probably need to hire a translator.

Also, this means you can expand your business more easily to reach a global audience. For instance, you can pass your English content through AI translation tools to create content in multiple languages quickly and efficiently.

However, I still suggest having someone fluent in the target language review and edit the translated content.

5 – Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A few years ago, you couldn’t just blog without thinking about search engine optimization if you wanted to gain organic traffic. Both things worked side by side.

Often you’d had to take an online course, read books, or spend hours watching videos on YouTube.

However, AI writing tools have made it much easier to improve SEO. For instance, you have tools like Neuronwriter that can help you optimize your content for search engines.

This tool analyzes the top-ranking pages for a specific search term. And it gives you suggestions on improving your content to rank higher.

For instance, it tells you keywords and phrases to include in your content and even suggests the ideal length for your article.

Another advantage is that these tools can give you an idea of internal and external links you can add to your content to improve its SEO.

6 – Content Suggestions and Topic Ideas

Often coming up with topic ideas and catchy headlines to get your readers to click and read your content isn’t easy.

But you can use ChatGPT or other tools to crack this up and get inspiration. All you need is to provide the right prompts and let AI do the rest. For example:

Another I enjoy is using these tools to craft enticing headlines. Although I know a bit about copywriting, I’m definitely not an expert.

So, I can tell the AI to suggest several headlines for a post and choose the one that sounds the best.

In a way, this helps you maintain your writing consistency; Because even on bad days, you can always rely on AI tools to give you ideas and inspiration for new content.

Cons of AI Writing Tools

1 – Quality Concerns and Plagiarism

The fact is AI writers don’t create new content.

Usually, they use existing content to generate new text. In a way, they re-word that content to make it look different. Sometimes this may lead to plagiarism problems.

For this reason, you should check your AI content through Copyscape to see if it passes originality tests. I commonly use Grammarly to check for plagiarism, as shown below:

But the other issue is the quality of the generated content. Often you end up with another generic piece that offers nothing new.

So, don’t use these tools straight off the box.

Always review the content and add your personal touch to it. You may share your stories, experiences, or insights to make the content more unique.

2 – Risk of Google Penalties

Google has stated they don’t have problems with AI-generated content. However, they don’t want low-quality content that offers no value to readers.

Over the past few months, many sites that built their content only with AI writing have significantly dropped traffic and rankings.

This is because AI-generated content alone often lacks quality and in-depth information.

Hence, you shouldn’t be scared to use AI writing tools. But you should use them as an assistant rather than completely replacing you or a writer.

3 – Inaccuracy and Misinformation

I’ve used these tools for the past year, and sometimes they spit some absurd info. Other times, especially if you don’t know the topic well, you may not realize the inaccuracy of the generated content.

I found myself sometimes spending more time fact-checking the AI content than I would spend on writing it from scratch.

However, with the latest model, GPT-4, the accuracy of AI-generated content is improving rapidly.

But still, you shouldn’t publish anything without first ensuring its accuracy.

4 – Devoid of Emotion and Creativity

Artificial intelligence doesn’t have a personality. Therefore, the content created can sometimes sound monotonous and overall robotic.

In fact, after you spend some time using these tools, you’ll start noticing a pattern in the content they generate.

So, if you don’t add your personal touch, the content will lack creativity and originality.

It’s funny because if you start browsing online, you’ll notice that many pieces of content share the same tone and voice. That’s because they might have been AI-generated.

You want to avoid having similar content as your competitors. Otherwise, why would anyone choose your content over theirs?

5 – Repetitive Content

One thing that annoys me is these tools seem to suffer from amnesia. Often, they repeat similar content from one section of the article to another.

So, you must carefully read through each section and remove any repetitive info before publishing.

I noticed a good improvement with the latest models of AI writing tools, but it’s still not perfect.

6 – Bias

AI doesn’t have its own opinion. So, they reflect the opinions and biases of their creators or the data they were trained on.

As a result, you end up with content based on someone’s perspective rather than yours.

One of the main aspects of providing unique content often has to do with sharing your personal opinion.

Either it can be controversial or not, but you don’t want to publish content with another person’s opinion.

Although AI content has helped me and other content creators, it still needs your refinement.

Last Thoughts

So AI writing tools come with pros and cons. They can help you save time, boost your content production, and avoid writer’s block.

But at the same time, you shouldn’t completely rely on them. Often AI writers give you accurate and repetitive content devoid of emotions and creativity.

The best way to use AI writing tools is to view them as an extra tool in your toolbox. Combining these tools with your creativity, writing skills, and critical thinking can help you produce high-quality content much faster.

If you have any questions, leave them below, and I’ll be happy to help!

I suggest you read “15 Must-Know Pros And Cons Of Blogging (2023)” to help your blogging journey.