How to Use AI to Write Better, Faster, and More Authentic Content

Remember when Sarah Connor knew the machines were about to take over, and no one would listen? Or when HAL 9000 decided he knew better than the humans? Hollywood’s been warning us about AI for decades, often about robots replacing us entirely or going rogue.

But here’s the plot twist: the real AI revolution isn’t about machines taking over. It’s about learning to work with them.

As a professional writer, you might hate the idea of using AI for writing. Maybe it feels like cheating, or you’re worried it’s going to replace you, or you’ve tried it and got back some soulless garbage that reads like a robot wrote it. Maybe you’re having your own Sarah Connor moment, wondering if this is the beginning of the end for human creativity.

But AI is here whether we like it or not, and 74% of US marketers are already using it. The way we create content is changing fast. And unlike those Hollywood movies, this story doesn’t have to end with humans versus machines. You can learn to use it instead of fighting it.

The shift you need to make is in moving from being primarily a writer to being a strategic orchestrator of content creation. Instead of getting bogged down in the mechanics of writing, you become the storyteller. You’re the one setting the vision, making the editorial decisions, and ensuring your content actually connects with real people.

AI can handle the heavy lifting like research, first drafts, and even quality checks (although humans should always have the final say.). But you’re still the one who knows what story needs to be told and how to tell it in a way that matters to your audience.

Stop Feeding AI Garbage and Expecting Gold

Here’s where most people mess up with AI: they treat it like Google. They ask it to write something from scratch about their industry, then wonder why it sounds generic and boring.

You’ve probably heard “garbage in, garbage out.” That’s exactly what’s happening here.

If you want AI to sound like your brand, you need to train it on your brand. That means building what we call a Brand Resource Library, which basically entails putting every piece of authentic content your company has ever created into AI’s brain.

At TELL ME MORE®, our CEO Joel Sanders saw this challenge early on. When working with clients who had years of valuable content sitting unused, he realized: “Train AI on the information that’s authentic to this institution in their brand voice and we’ll do a better job of it than we’ve ever been able to do before because AI can look through all this vast quantity of data and help us find patterns that we’re not able to see.”

This approach matters more than you might think. 77% of marketers say AI is effective at personalizing their content, but that effectiveness depends entirely on what you’re training it with. Generic inputs produce generic outputs. Authentic brand inputs produce content that actually sounds like your organization.

What goes in your Brand Resource Library:

• Podcast transcripts
• Blog posts and articles
• Interview recordings
• Social media content
• Client testimonials
• Video transcripts
• Internal presentations
• Sales materials

What Months of Testing Taught Us

We didn’t start with a perfect system. At first, we were manually adding our resources, such as quotes from the quote library and podcast transcripts, to each project by copying and pasting content every single time. This meant we were manually searching for specific resources every time. Inefficient doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Eventually, we learned to connect our resources—quote library, podcast transcripts, existing blog posts, and interview transcripts—directly into the platforms. But that wasn’t the end of our learning curve. We’ve realized there are specific ways to organize files that make it easier for AI to search accurately. Some file formats work better than others. Some organizational structures help AI understand context better.

We’ve also created a schedule for uploading new files. Every new interview, blog post, or piece of content needs to eventually make it into the Brand Resource Library. Otherwise, you’re working with outdated information. This is a constantly evolving process and not a set-it-and-forget-it solution.

Setting up your system:

Use your AI platform’s project space to store and organize your brand materials:

• ChatGPT: Create a custom GPT or organize files in project folders where you can upload documents, transcripts, and brand materials
• Claude: Use Claude Projects to store all your brand resources, allowing the AI to reference them in every conversation
• Perplexity: Build dedicated Spaces where you can upload and organize your content library for AI-powered research
• Gemini: Upload files directly into your conversations or use Google Drive integration to access your brand materials

The Payoff:

The brand resource library makes it possible to include more authentic human content in each article. AI can produce a list of quotes and stories from years of content in seconds.

As the writer, it’s your job to review that information and select what applies. You are the storyteller. You decide if a quote or story is the right fit.

If you were trying to comb through all of that content yourself, it would feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. Now it’s like looking through just a few pieces of hay to find the needle.

Our Five-Phase AI Content Process (And Why It Needs to Be Flexible)

AI platforms aren’t consistent. ChatGPT gives different results every time. Claude has its quirks. One day they’re brilliant, the next day they’re off.

That’s why you need a step-by-step process with ready-to-use prompts for each stage. But here’s the reality: you also need to know when things aren’t working and be ready to adjust.

Sometimes AI goes completely off track. Sometimes you need to manually fix sections yourself. That’s just how it works right now. The key is having a systematic approach that can bend without breaking.

Here’s the five-phase process we’ve developed at TELL ME MORE®:

1. Research Phase

Before you write a single word, you need to gather everything that will make your content authoritative and authentic. This phase is about building your foundation with the right materials.

Start with your Brand Resource Library. This is where having that library pays off immediately. Instead of spending hours hunting through old files, you can ask your AI tool to surface relevant quotes, statistics, and stories from years of content in seconds.

Lock down your objectives. Get specific about who you’re writing for and what you want them to do after reading. This isn’t just “write an article about X”; it’s defining the exact audience segment, their concerns, and the action you want them to take.

Find your competitive benchmarks. Pull 2-3 high-quality articles on similar topics. You’re not copying them; you’re understanding what’s already out there so you can create something better and more comprehensive.

Gather current data and statistics. Use research-focused AI tools like Perplexity to find recent statistics, industry trends, and credible sources. Focus on data from the last 12-18 months from authoritative sources like government reports, academic studies, and industry research.

Mine for authentic quotes and stories. This is where your Brand Resource Library shines. Search for testimonials, interview excerpts, and podcast quotes that support your key arguments. At this stage, you’re gathering options. Later, you’ll select the best ones.

Compile everything into a content brief. Pull all of your research together: your objectives, target audience details, competitive analysis notes, statistics with sources, and potential quotes. This brief becomes the foundation for your AI prompt in the next phase.

2. Creation Phase

Now you’re ready to let AI take the first pass, but you’ll stay in control of the direction.

Build your comprehensive prompt. Take everything from your content brief and create one detailed prompt that includes your audience profiles, tone specifications, structural requirements, and all of your source materials. This systematic approach aligns with industry best practices—49% of AI users craft complex, multi-step AI prompts rather than simple requests.

Our briefs typically include:

• Target audience description with specific pain points and goals
• Tone and voice guidelines (conversational but authoritative, for example)
• Word count target (usually 1,800-3,000 words)
• Key questions to answer pulled from your research
• All statistics and sources you want referenced
• Quotes and testimonials to incorporate
• Structural preferences (comparison sections, callouts, etc.)

Always start with an outline. Never ask AI to write the full article right away. Instead, request a detailed outline first. This lets you control the direction before any actual writing begins and exercise editorial judgment. Review the outline, adjust sections, reorder points, and add or remove topics.

Once your outline is approved, you can proceed in one of two ways:

Option 1: Full draft generation. If your outline is solid, let AI generate the complete draft incorporating your brand voice, statistics, and quotes. This works well for straightforward topics.

Option 2: Section-by-section approach. For complex topics or when you need tighter control, have AI write one section at a time. Review each section before moving to the next. This takes slightly longer up front but pays off in by saving you time on the backend when editing and polishing.

Request specific enhancements. As AI generates content, ask for specific elements like comparison tables, callout boxes, or visual content suggestions. Don’t wait until later to add these; build them into the creation process.

3. Refinement Phase

This is where you transform AI-generated content into content that sounds genuinely human. Most marketers revise AI output to meet their needs; 56% make major changes to the AI-output and 38% make minor edits. This is why a refinement phase is critical.

Test against quality benchmarks. We use Winston AI to score content on two metrics: how human it sounds (target: 50+ score) and how readable it is (target: 30+ on the Flesch-Kincaid scale). This gives you objective data about where the content needs work.

Apply humanization techniques. When scores fall short, use specific prompts to improve the content. We focus on three key areas:

1. Sentence variety: AI loves consistent sentence structures. Break that up. Mix short, punchy sentences with longer, more complex ones. Vary where you place subjects and verbs. Read sections aloud. If it sounds monotonous, it needs more variety.
2. Natural language patterns: Replace formal, academic-sounding phrases with conversational alternatives. Change “utilize” to “use,” “facilitate” to “help,” “individuals” to “people.” Add contractions where they sound natural. Let the writing breathe.
3. Conversational flow: Add transitional phrases that sound like actual human speech, like “Here’s the thing,” “But here’s what matters,” “The reality is.” These small touches make content feel like a conversation rather than a lecture.

Review and retest. After making humanization changes, run the content through Winston AI again to verify improvement. If sections still score poorly, repeat the process focusing on those specific areas.

4. Assembly Phase

Now you’re building out the complete package with all of the finishing touches that make content professional and engaging.

Format for publication. Integrate your content into your publication template with proper heading hierarchy (H2s, H3s), brand-compliant formatting, and paragraph breaks that make the content scannable.

Add contextual internal links. As you read through the formatted content, identify natural opportunities to link to other relevant articles or resources. Aim for 5-8 internal links that genuinely enhance the reader’s experience. Don’t just force links for SEO. Link when readers might naturally want more depth on a topic you’re touching on.

Plan strategic image placement. Identify where images would break up text naturally and support key points. For each image location, note what type of visual would work best: screenshots, infographics, behind-the-scenes photos, or data visualizations. Write captions and alt text that add context and accessibility.

Strengthen with additional quotes. Sometimes during formatting, you’ll spot places where a testimonial or expert quote would add impact. Go back to your Brand Resource Library to find the perfect supporting quote.

5. Quality Check

This final review ensures the article is compliant and accurate before publication.

Generate optimized metadata. Create your SEO title, meta description (under 155 characters), and any other required metadata. Make sure your primary keyword appears naturally in the title and meta description without feeling forced.

Run dual compliance checks. Use both ChatGPT and Claude to review your content for any compliance issues, prohibited language, or problematic claims. Each platform catches different potential issues, so using both provides comprehensive coverage.

Verify all elements. Do a final check that:

• All external links work and go to credible sources
• All statistics have proper attribution
• All quotes are accurate and properly attributed
• Images have captions and alt text
• Internal links function correctly
• Formatting is consistent throughout

Prepare handoff documentation. Create notes for your editorial team or client about any special considerations, pending items, or strategic decisions made during creation.

The results: Our writers have reduced the time it takes to get a completed draft by 30–40%. At the same time, they’re writing longer, more in-depth articles with more personalization than traditional content creation methods. This aligns with broader industry trends showing 68% of businesses report increased content marketing ROI when using AI strategically.

Three Keys to Better AI Results

Beyond having a systematic process, these three practices separate effective AI users from those struggling with inconsistent results:

1. Stay Ready to Pivot When Tools Break

We had our process working smoothly with ChatGPT. Everything was flowing. Then ChatGPT-5 launched and broke everything overnight. Suddenly it was producing inaccurate information, rewriting quotes we’d carefully provided, and ignoring our instructions.

We faced a choice: give up on AI entirely, accept lower quality work, or find another way. We pivoted to Claude and maintained our quality standards.

That experience taught us the most important lesson about AI-assisted content: don’t commit to any single platform. Be ready to switch tools when one stops working (and be ready to switch back when it’s fixed). Organizations that adapt their AI processes quickly will outlast those waiting for “perfect” solutions or giving up after first attempts fail.

2. Define Your Objective Before You Start

This sounds obvious, but most people skip this step. They ask AI to “write an article about marketing trends” and then wonder why it’s boring and generic.

You need to be specific about:

• Who you’re writing for
• What you want them to do after reading
• What questions you’re answering
• What tone you want to strike

The clearer you are about your objective, the better AI can help you hit it.

3. Use Multiple Platforms Strategically

Don’t be afraid to use more than one AI platform. We sometimes pit the robots against each other to push them toward better content. Think Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, but instead of knocking each other’s heads off, they’re competing to give you the best output.

Here’s how this works in practice:

Let’s say Claude generates your article draft. Before calling it done, copy that draft into ChatGPT with a prompt like: “Review this article for clarity, flow, and potential gaps. What sections could be stronger? What questions does this leave unanswered?”

ChatGPT might catch that you’ve explained what a Brand Resource Library is but haven’t addressed how much time it takes to set up initially. Or it might flag that your introduction doesn’t clearly state who the article is for.

Take that feedback, make adjustments, then reverse the process. Copy your revised draft into Claude and ask: “Does this flow naturally? Are there any sections that sound too formal or robotic?”

This cross-platform review helps you find gaps or improvements you might have missed when working with just one tool.

Each platform has different strengths:

• Perplexity excels at research and current information
• Claude is great for long-form content and maintaining context
• ChatGPT works well for brainstorming and analysis
• Winston AI keeps your content sounding human

Use them strategically instead of trying to make one tool do everything.

Where We Go From Here

Technology will keep changing. New platforms will emerge, existing tools will evolve, and what works today might not work tomorrow. But the principles stay the same:

• Build your Brand Resource Library so AI has quality inputs
• Develop flexible processes that can adapt to new tools
• Keep humans in charge of strategy and storytelling
• Focus on connecting with real people, not gaming algorithms
• Stay willing to experiment and adjust

As Christina Inge, author of “Marketing Analytics: A Comprehensive Guide and Marketing Metrics,” and instructor at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s Professional & Executive Development, puts it: “Your job will not be taken by AI. It will be taken by a person who knows how to use AI.”

This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It’s a commitment to continuous improvement and adaptation—which is exactly what separates agencies getting results from those getting left behind.

Don’t Get Left Behind

Here’s the reality: your competitors are either moving fast on this or losing ground There’s no middle ground.

AI-assisted content creation is still evolving. Every week brings new challenges and new solutions. The difference between organizations that thrive and those that struggle is their willingness to adapt when things change.

At TELL ME MORE®, we’ve spent months refining our narrative-led approach through daily use. We’ve navigated platform changes, broken workflows, and made constant adjustments. That’s what keeps our clients on the forefront of content marketing while their competitors are still debating whether to use AI at all.

You can’t afford to sit back and wait until everyone else has already made the change. By then, you’re playing catch-up instead of being innovative.

Ready to get ahead of the curve instead of chasing it? Let’s talk about how our narrative-led AI content process can transform your content marketing and keep you ahead of competitors who are still figuring this out.