There is an obvious explosion of AI content writing tools that promise a golden age of limitless, dirt-cheap blogs, PRs, social media content, and web copy alike.
Businesses and not-so-due-diligent marketers are looking for a shortcut to online visibility.
On the surface, it seemed like an undeniable win: faster production, lower costs, and less human effort.
But as with most things that sound too good to be true, this efficiency often hides a darker truth – a truth that many brands are only now beginning to uncover.
The truth is that the hidden costs of over-relying on AI for content can quietly ruin your search rankings, damage a brand's reputation, and ultimately hurt your bottom line.
Surface-Level Content Hurts More Than It Helps
Many of the current AI-based content writing tools are essentially sophisticatedly repurposing already existing content.
They crawl the internet, analyzing existing articles on a given topic, and then attempt to rephrase or rewrite that information into something new and original.
The problem? This often results in zero value, repetitive, and ultimately unhelpful content that sounds like a broken record of wordiness.
You would be sharing articles and having people ask questions online, these people would consistently find articles that basically echo each other, offering no fresh insights, unique perspectives, or genuine solutions.
This is the problem of poorly utilized AI content. It rarely delves deep enough, answers nuanced questions, or provides truly valuable information.
Readers, seeking real answers and original thought, quickly grow frustrated and click away. And when readers leave fast, Google takes notice.
Google’s Getting Smarter - and Harsher
We no longer have the solid yet simple SEO tactics of simply stuffing keywords and pumping out articles to guarantee top search rankings.
Google's algorithms, specifically the Helpful Content Updates, are becoming incredibly sophisticated.
They now regard and reward originality, experience, and expertise, and prioritize content that genuinely helps users.
Sites that heavily use tools like ChatGPT or Gemini tend to lean on generic, rehashed AI content and are increasingly being penalized or buried in search results.
The bottom line now is Google prefers quoting real experts and real value.
If your content lacks the human touch and insights, updated and relevant information, or a unique voice, it’s not likely to achieve the visibility that you are hoping for.
Google has one goal, and that is to provide the best possible answers to user queries, and content that lacks originality simply doesn't meet that standard.
LLMs Aren’t Quoting You If You’re Not Helpful
Many businesses and marketers alike think that by pumping out massive amounts of content, they'll inevitably gain more visibility.
The logic seems to make sense, right? More content equals more chances to rank higher or reach the coveted top 10.
However, this often is not how it plays out.
Large Language Models (LLMs), which are powering ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI tools, are designed to pull from high-quality, well-structured, and genuinely helpful answers.
If content reads like it was quote-unquote created by a robot, lacks genuine insight, or doesn't feel human, these AI systems will simply skip over it.
Again, I can't stress enough that Google prioritizes information that is clear, authoritative, and provides real value to users.
So, while you might be producing a high volume of content, if it's not truly helpful or doesn't have a unique voice, you won't be quoted, referenced, or gain the visibility you need.
Remember this always when it comes to high-performance content - it's not about quantity, it’s about quality.
Real Examples: What AI-Written Content Gets Wrong
Now, look and listen… Typing a prompt, even a solidly written prompt, into ChatGPT may produce a long, detailed article or short web copy to fit a design. But those outputs come with consequences.
Let's take a look at where AI-written content drops the ball.
The Missed Nuance
A financial services company uses AI to generate an article about recent tax law changes. While the AI correctly pulls basic information, it completely misses the subtle implications for business owners – a critical nuance that a human expert would have highlighted. Readers searching for specific advice are left with incomplete information, turning them away from the brand.
Real-world connection - AI models in finance have been known to "hallucinate" or provide incomplete advice due to their training data limitations and lack of real-world understanding. For example, reports have highlighted instances where AI struggled with complex financial forecasting or failed to account for nuanced regulatory changes.
The Outdated Advice
A travel blog uses AI to generate content about popular destinations. An article about "Best Beaches in Thailand" confidently recommends a once-pristine bay that has, in reality, been closed to tourists for environmental rehabilitation for years. This not only frustrates readers but also undermines the blog's credibility.
Real-world connection - AI's training data can easily become outdated, leading to factual errors, especially in fast-changing sectors like travel. There have been documented cases of AI-generated travel content recommending closed attractions or giving incorrect logistical advice.
These examples show how AI-generated content, without human oversight, can easily miss critical context, provide outdated information, or fail to grasp the specific needs of an audience, leading to content that is unhelpful and misleading at best and completely ignored by Google and other search engines at worst.
The Hidden Cost: Damaging Your Brand Reputation
Beyond search rankings, perhaps the most cancerous hidden cost of AI content is the damage it can cause a business's brand and reputation.
The reality is that many, if not most, people globally now use AI daily. People are literally using ChatGPT and Gemini as a form of therapy to explore their thoughts and dreams. From business plans to grocery lists, AI is being increasingly utilized.
These users are familiar with what AI-generated content looks and sounds like. What happens when a potential customer lands on your page and instantly recognizes that the content is bland, generic, or written by AI?
They lose trust.
They perceive your brand as unoriginal, perhaps even lazy. Credibility takes a hit. If your content sounds robotic or lacks a distinct brand voice, it suggests a lack of care or expertise.
This directly impacts conversions because people are less likely to buy from or engage with a brand they don't trust or perceive as genuinely helpful.
Content is often the first interaction a customer has with a brand, if that interaction feels inauthentic, you have lost an opportunity before it even began.
Time Saved, Quality Lost: The Productivity Trap
I mentioned this above in a smaller context, but it is indeed true…The allure of AI lies in its promise of incredible efficiency.
It's tempting to think about the hours saved by letting an AI tool produce draft after draft. But this initial time-saving can be a classic productivity trap.
The time saved upfront often leads to a much greater time investment later, trying to fix or salvage underperforming content -insert cry face now!
It's quick, it's convenient, but it doesn't offer long-term benefits.
AI-generated content might fill a quota quickly, but it rarely will sustain your brand's long-term growth or build a loyal audience. Businesses end up with a high volume of content that does not perform, requiring significant human overhaul to revise, optimize, or even scrap entirely and restart.
What AI Can’t Replace: Your Brand's Voice, Perspective, Experience & Expertise
While AI is incredibly powerful, there are fundamental aspects of content creation that it simply cannot replicate. AI cannot:
- Share your unique point of view - Your brand's voice, values, and distinct perspective are what set you apart. AI can mimic tones but can't authentically convey your brand's soul.
- Tell a story from your lived experience - Personal anecdotes, case studies from your clients, or insights gained from years in your industry are invaluable. AI can't generate genuine personal experience.
- Respond with nuance and empathy: Complex topics, sensitive subjects, or highly specialized advice require a human touch, an understanding of the audience's emotional state, and the ability to convey empathy.
Ivana Poposka, an expert copywriter, offered one of the most original explanations of AI's role in content writing: Would Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea still make you ache for love, loss, and the quiet beauty of the ocean if AI wrote it? Maybe you’d get cleaner sentences. But you’d lose the soul. The same goes for marketing writing.
As Ivana wisely reflects, when she first started using Large Language Models (LLMs) to support her writing, she was both blown away and, frankly, a little terrified. There were moments she thought, "Wait... is this better than me?" Her spoiler? It's not.
Even the most skilled writers can get trapped or distracted in the AI content writing game. Ivana went on to explain that working with AI and not relying on it is where one needs to put focus, not all of one's eggs in the basket.
These elements are what truly resonate with readers and build lasting connections. Marketers and businesses alike need to encourage content creators to build and create content based on real information given by experts and research with real-world examples, links, quotes, etc…that's where true value lies.
So, Should You Stop Using AI? Not Exactly
This isn't an anti-AI article. Far from it…I did some research and used AI to check the grammar for this article.
AI is a powerful tool, but it's just one part of a comprehensive content strategy. The key isn't to abandon AI altogether, but rather to understand its limitations and integrate it strategically into your workflow.
When used with a clear strategy that involves significant human editing, layering in unique insights, and fact-checking, AI can indeed speed up certain aspects of content creation.
The biggest mistake is to hit "publish" without a thorough human review and enhancement.
How to Use AI the Right Way (Without Losing Your Brand)
Here are a few smart ways to use AI for content writing without falling into the convenience trap.
- Brainstorming and Outlining - Use AI to generate initial ideas, expand on core concepts, or create a comprehensive outline for a blog post. This can significantly reduce the time spent on the initial conceptualization phase.
- Summarizing Research - Feed AI tools lengthy articles or reports and ask them to summarize key points. This can be a huge time-saver for research, allowing your human writers to grasp the essence of complex topics quickly.
- Rewriting and Refining - If you have a sentence or paragraph that feels clunky or needs a fresh perspective, AI can offer alternative phrasing. It can also help to humanize AI content writing tips by suggesting more natural language or varied sentence structures.
- Keyword Research Support - AI tools can assist in identifying relevant keywords and topics, complementing traditional keyword research methods.
- Draft a Basic Copy - For purely informational or repetitive content (like product descriptions based on specifications), AI can generate first drafts that human editors can then refine and infuse with the brand voice.
In the end, the best and most cost-effective content will always be when strategy, structure, and quality must remain firmly in human hands. Use AI as an assistant to help boost creativity, mundane writing tasks, research, and more.
Let’s Collaborate!
If you want to learn more about impactful content that speaks to your target audience and ranks higher on Google, you should explore Veza Digital’s SEO and content strategy optimization solutions. Contact Veza today!
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