7 Types of Content That AI Can’t Replicate (Yet)
It’s amazing how much and how fast AI has impacted content websites like blogs and niche websites. Informational content targeting low-competition keywords used to be a legit strategy for building a site through SEO, but that’s getting harder and harder.
Today’s AI writers are pretty good at creating certain types of content, but not capable of creating other types (or at least, they can’t do it as well as a human). Rather than creating thousands of AI-generated articles to keep up, I prefer to focus on the types of content that AI doesn’t do well. Here are some of the options.
1. Personal stories
Yes, AI writers can create content written in the first person, but it can’t replicate real, genuine experiences. Personal stories allow human writers to stand out in unique ways while also connecting with readers in a way that low-quality AI content cannot.
2. Reviews with first-hand experience
Product reviews are extremely popular with affiliate websites and blogs, and a review that ranks at the top of a Google search can generate a lot of money. Some AI writers can create product reviews that fake first-hand experience, but there’s no substitute for real experience with a product. Quality, in-depth reviews can take a lot of time to write, but they’ll stand out from AI reviews if they’re done well.
3. Product comparisons with first-hand experience
I’ve always had better results with comparison articles (product one vs. product two) than reviews. Comparison keywords typically have much less competition, and if there are several similar products to compare, you can create a lot of these posts.
Just like reviews, comparison articles are drastically better if the writer has genuine firsthand experience with the products.
4. Interviews
You can interview experts or anyone with interesting insight and experience. This approach works in just about any niche or industry. This is the strategy I’m focusing on the most in 2024 with my sites Founder Reports and Flip My Site.
5. In-depth content that requires a high level of expertise
AI is good for creating informative content on simple topics, like how to plant grass seeds or the benefits of regular exercise, but it’s not (yet) great at writing in-depth articles on more complex subjects.
Sure, AI can create these articles, but they won’t be very good. If you have expertise in a particular field, you can dig deep and create content that AI currently can’t touch.
6. Opinion pieces
AI often has a mind of its own, but human-written opinion pieces are still much better than what can be generated with AI. And well-written opinion articles are also great for sharing through social media and attracting links.
7. User-Generated Content
Google currently loves user-generated content like forums, partly because of the firsthand experiences shared through some of the content. I’m not aware of any AI tool that can create content to fill out a forum and resemble user-generated content (I’ve looked for a tool like this out of curiosity but haven’t found anything).
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Basically anything involving your personal voice
100% i think personal stories and insights from your experiences is a big one. That's why I think manual copywriting cannot be replaced for unaware products/services
Hmmm the same thought going in my mind also
Great take on the interviews, Marc. That can set you apart in the short term.
Thanks David. Yes, interviews are a great option, IMO. Pretty much any site can incorporate an interview series.
Agree Marc! Even more on personal experiences. UGC have to gain presence currently. Thanks for sharing
While I agree that AI can't do some of these things, I'd also add that it can help improve them. Even personal stories.
This week I started working on my Linkedin presence by sharing more about my startup journey and the team. Normally, the post of this length would take me 1-2 hours to create, as I would write, and re-write. So what I tried, is a brain dump of what I want to say, not caring for right wording, grammar or style, gave AI instructions to organise by highlighting specific message and apply a friendly tone. The result was WOW!
And now, before we start arguing about lack of authenticity, I did replace some words and deleted sentences I wouldn't have said. I think I am actually learning from this to write in better style. The best part? The post took me 10 mins!
This is a great point. Thanks for commenting. I don't think there's any lack of authenticity here. You're starting with your own thoughts, editing the output, and just leveraging the technology.
Did you use ChatGPT for this, or something else?
Even when I'm writing articles manually I still sometimes use AI for certain aspects. For example, I often struggle with intros so I might use AI to generate some intros and then use those ideas to create something that works.
We use Clickup for our product organization (and I also use it a lot for my personal work planning) and they recently introduced an AI feature (which is much more than just writing, but for what I mentioned, I used "write with AI" functionality).
I find the quality much higher than I would have had with ChatGPT. Of course it has limitations, but it really surpassed my expectations. I recommend you check it out for yourself!
My view on AI is that it can really help us to level up on many things, not compete with us (at least not at this stage). As busy founders, I think we can really use it to help us focus on more meaningful work.
Even what you mention @marc2242 for intros - I pre-generate those into templates and just replace with personalized parts where applicable. So much time saved!
I mean AI should not replicate some of these. Would rather a unique perspective that is more quality than automated. Opinionated is some of the best content types especially entertainment wise.
I think all of these can be automatable, and my team are working on something that can automate this -> getsalemaker.com
AI can already clone your voice and face enough so that an average viewer won't notice enough to scroll away.
Product reviews are especially easy, you just get an AI browsing agent to go off and click through the app and scrape a couple of pages to then create a script, a few prompt engineering things here and there and you have a thing you can reuse to make 1000s of product reviews.
If anyone wants this automated for their channel hit me up, we can do a few for free for you to try out.
And if I won't be able to, my AI clone will eat a shoe.
I agree that it's easy to write a product review with AI, and I know there are tools specifically for that purpose (I've tried a few), but I don't agree that it's easy to create a product review with AI that's as good as something written by a human with firsthand experience using the product. You're talking about creating thousands of reviews with no human imput. They're not going to be very good.
I'll generate one later today, I'd be pretty keen to get your feedback. I'll use https://flipmysite.com/ as an example, can I DM you on Twitter as well?
Yes, you can reach out on Twitter. I don't always see it right away but I'll respond.
The majority of my company's content strategy mostly revolves around aggressive content marketing that requires expertise using the Rust programming language and it's worked quite well for us so far!
Personal stories have also worked quite well too.
Yesterday, I tested an AI driven app called Verble, to write a wedding speech. It has other use cases, but I have a wedding coming up in Brqazil in March and may not have weeks to deidcate to writing a heart felt speech.
In a pinch, Verble does a great job of understanding the tone and audience I wish to speak to, asked me key questions to flesh out the speech, and offered standard etiquette language any would-be toast giver would need. Much appreciated.
However, to your #1 point, the result copy didn't share how I felt, what I smelled, what I tasted, or what I heard in the micromoment I was describing. These sensory descriptions are key to activating ' mirror neurons' in the audience. This way, they can imagine 'being there' too.
Well done for concentrating on what makes you different! Your 2024 plan seems well-thought out!
i tend to disagree with a lot of what your saying here
if it were true, writing would be very profitable...yet opinion writers make $150-300 an article, it's not priced as a high-valued product
interviewing people is tough too, even if you have a niche. people who are successful are at it for years building their foundation and even then struggle financially...
There's nothing wrong with disagreeing, and thanks for sharing your thoughts. Writing can be very profitable (although what counts as "very profitable" is relative). There are plenty of writers that make a lot more than $150-$300 an article.
As far as the interviews are concerned, I think they can be very useful as party of a larger content strategy. For example, I ran a landscape photography blog for a few years (I sold it in 2018) and I published a series of interviews on the site. The interviews accounted for maybe 10% of all the content on the site, but those articles generated a lot of views, shares, and links. Plus they were great for connecting with people in the industry.
AI meeting assistance :)
Btw we’ve launched Huudle AI on Product Hunt! 🥳
We would greatly appreciate your support and feedback on our product! 😻
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/huudle-ai-project-assistant
Thank you so much 🙏
I think the problem here is your definition of these terms.
What makes a personal story?
You write a narrative and it's on your ability to convince the reader that it's your personal story.
Ai can do this as well.
Everything you said is based on your ability to convince readers. Which Ai can do as well and even better.
I was a freelance writer on fiverr a few years back. I've written personal reviews for products I've never used in my life. Tons of them.
Of course, readers would be convinced that it's "personal story" but it's not.
Same with opinions and the other stuffs. All you need is a convincing piece. Not human touch.
In the end, readers don't really care about "human touch".
They want information. Once the source is readable and without grammatical errors and the information is good. No one cares about whether it's Ai or human.
And I think Google understands this so well, reason why it doesn't punish Ai content unless it's trashy.
Sometimes readers do want a personal touch. Not all content is about giving and getting information. For basic informational articles, I agree that readers don't care. But I think there are plenty of situations where readers do care.
You mention that people don't care about a personal touch as long as it's readable, without errors, and the information is good. I think the vast majority of readers do care about the author's personal experience if they're reading a product review for any product that's costly or could have a significant impact on their lives.
I think the door is narrowing on #5 - in-depth articles. These days you can pass on reference materials to agents and they can extract key concepts, and write based on insights extracted from others.
The AI writers are definitely getting better.
Curious if there would be an AI that can:
2-5 years, and I bet we are going to see this happening :D
In 2-5 years I think we'll be shocked at what AI can do. The progress in the past 14 months or whatever it's been since ChaptGPT was released has been incredible.
That's why I think Twitter still rocks.
It's people talking to people. It's very easy to recognize AI content there.
I agree, but I also want to have valuable content on my own sites rather than just on social platforms.
Of course.
And what platforms do you use to promote yourself?
It depends on the site and the target audience. I use LinkedIn more for networking and connecting than promoting. I've used Pinterest with several of my sites in the past, but it's not a great fit for everything. With my new site Founder Reports, I've been active here at Indie Hackers and also promoted in subreddits where it's within the rules. We're also planning to launch on Product Hunt in about a month.
That sounds awesome!
Are you walking alone, or do you have a team?
For Founder Reports, there's 3 of us working on it, all part-time.