When we hear “AI writing,” we tend to think big: a futuristic computer handling all our written reports, emails, and documents for us in a matter of seconds. While the technology is not at that point yet, there are still lots of tasks that generative AI like ChatGPT and Grammarly can help you with right now.
In this guide, we talk all about AI-generated content and how it can help with your writing or copywriting. We’ll explain which types of AI writing work best and what prompts to use to get the results you want. We’ll even discuss AI marketing tools and functions for businesses. But first, let’s talk a little about what this new technology is—and isn’t.
What is AI writing?
AI writing is when a human user asks a program built with artificial intelligence (AI) to generate text based on specific details. For example, we asked Grammarly to write an introduction to a blog article about AI writing, and here’s what it came up with:
In today’s digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool that can revolutionize the way we write. From idea generation to polished final drafts, AI has the potential to transform the writing process and improve the quality of our work. But using AI for writing tasks can be daunting, especially if you’re new to the technology. In this blog post, we’ll explore the world of AI-powered writing and discuss how you can use it to improve your writing skills. We’ll cover everything from what AI-generated text is to why prompts are crucial to the process.
How do AI prompts work?
When you want an AI tool to perform a task like composing an email, the user writes what’s called a prompt. The prompt gives the AI all the information it needs to perform the task. For example, if you want to use AI to write a birthday card for your friend, your prompt might include the friend’s name, birthday, and age.
Prompts can be as simple or complex as you need. If you want precision in the final result, you might need to write a longer prompt that includes all the parameters you require, like the piece’s ideal word count, tone, or outline. If the task is more open-ended, you can write a quick prompt and let the AI fill in the rest.
19 writing tasks you can do using AI
Now let’s move on to specifics: What exactly can modern-day AI help you write? Below, we list nineteen time-saving tasks AI can perform for you. For convenience, we’ve broken down the tasks into these categories:
- Life AI writing tasks
- Job search AI writing tasks
- Marketing AI writing tasks
- Creative AI writing tasks
Life AI writing tasks
1 Email
Concise email writing is crucial for communication, but it can also be a chore. Instead of writing the email yourself, you can have an AI writing assistant compose it for you—just make sure to include all the information you want mentioned in your prompt. Also, specify how long you want it; AI writing assistants can be a little “wordy” when they generate text.
2 Itineraries
If you’re planning a big week or month, it can be hard to keep track of all your appointments and duties. By entering everything into an AI writing prompt, you can have the AI writing assistant organize and condense your entire schedule for you. You can even request the information as a chart or graph if you prefer.
3 Social media text posts
Whether you use social media for business or personal reasons, you can take advantage of AI writing tools to generate some basic posts for you, including Instagram captions. You can even tell the AI assistant which hashtags to use or ask it to generate some suggestions.
4 Recipes
Although you should be cautious of taking cooking advice from something without taste buds, if you’re feeling adventurous you can ask an AI assistant to recommend recipes. Enter the ingredients you have available, and it can produce a recipe for you based on existing recipes it finds online.
5 Thank-you notes
Although handwritten thank-you notes are a nice gesture, AI-generated thank-you notes are effective for formal business settings or situations where you need to write a lot of them. You can always mention the reasons you feel grateful in your prompt to add a personal touch, while AI drafts the message. Using AI to write thank-you notes after a job interview is especially useful, as you may have to write a few of them until you land a job.
Job search AI writing tasks
6 Cover letters
Most jobs will ask you to write a cover letter, but you may not always know what to say. If you’re feeling tongue-tied or shy, you can use an AI writing assistant to create the cover letter for you. Be sure to include all the information the job posting requires in addition to your work experience, as different jobs want to know different things.
7 Résumés and CVs
Knowing how to customize your résumé or CV is just as important as writing a cover letter, and it’s also just as difficult. If you’re having trouble deciding what to say, you can tell an AI product about your job experience and skills and have it generate a résumé for you. Just be prepared to reformat it yourself, as most AI writing software will generate plain text.
8 Job descriptions
On the other side of the fence, what if you want to post a listing about a job you’re offering? In no time at all, an AI writing assistant can generate a job description that’s enticing and fits the format of the job forum. As always, make sure to include the necessary information in the prompt, such as the salary or work hours.
9 Letter of recommendation (reference letter)
Another daunting writing task that’s all too common is writing a letter of recommendation, also known as a reference letter. If a colleague requests one, you can tell all of their positive traits to an AI writing assistant and have it handle the wording for you.
Marketing AI writing tasks
10 Web page copy
Web page copy is trickier than it seems. It must explain the advantages of an organization or a product, speak in a tone that resonates with its target audience, and also include relevant SEO keywords—all at the same time. For those who don’t want to hire a professional writer, accomplishing all this can seem impossible.
For this, AI writing software can be a help. Although the resulting web page copy may not have the nuance or natural sound of text written by a professional copywriter, it’s a good starting point. Just like with emails, specify how long you want the web page copy to be to prevent the writing assistant from producing too much text.
11 Ad copy
In the same vein as web page copy, if you don’t want to pay a professional, you can “hire” an AI writing assistant to generate your ad copy for you. Again, AI writing tools can account for SEO keywords while producing writing in a style that clicks with your target audience.
12 Blog article ideas
Although people can use AI writing assistants to create entire blog articles, at this stage of the technology, longer AI-generated texts like articles can still sound clunky or unnatural. However, you can ask AI to help you brainstorm article ideas—simply explain the criteria, such as subjects, past topics that worked well, and the interests of your readers, then ask for a list of however many ideas you want.
13 Blog titles and headlines with SEO
Short passages are a lot easier for AI writing assistants than long passages. You can request multiple samples and then choose the ones that sound more natural and less auto-generated. This is particularly useful for blog titles and headlines, which hold more weight in SEO than body text. Just tell the AI assistant your SEO keywords and ask for a short list of examples.
14 Product descriptions
Like other web page copy, product descriptions are necessary for online business, but they can be problematic for inexperienced writers. By telling an AI assistant your product’s main selling points and benefits, it can compose an alluring product description that you can copy and paste wherever you need.
15 Repurposing existing content
One key strategy in content marketing is repurposing content, which means reusing existing content in a new way or new location. Typically, this involves rewriting, or at least rewording, content that’s already written. Because this is more mechanical than writing something original from scratch, it’s an ideal task for an AI writing assistant like Grammarly or ChatGPT.
Just like with paraphrasing tasks, you can paste your existing content in the window of an AI assistant and ask it to reword it. This is a lot more effective than asking AI to produce something new because the necessary information is already present. You can even ask the AI to alter the tone, such as rewording the same article for a younger audience, to help you segment your content for true optimization.
16 Press releases
Press releases are still a popular way for companies and brands to publicize information, such as new product launches, new leadership, and event announcements. But small companies and personal brands may not have access to professional writers, so AI-generated press releases are the next best thing. Most AI text generators understand the basics of press release writing and can deliver something ready to post or send to journalists.
Creative AI writing tasks
17 Short stories
You might be surprised at the creative writing that AI writing tools can produce. While you can’t expect the true innovation of a seasoned human author, for fun or to pass the time you can ask AI assistants like ChatGPT to create stories on whatever topics you like: your friend group, your favorite hobbies, or even your pets.
18 Book outlines
If you’re working on your own lengthy writing project, AI assistants can help you with certain tasks. In particular, you can use them to outline and structure long works like novels or dissertations. This can help you find a logical sequence of plot events or topics, which you might have trouble seeing if you’re too focused on the details.
19 Poems and song lyrics
One thing AI writing tools have already mastered is rhyming. Writing assistants like Grammarly are more than capable of generating poems and song lyrics, even those that include advanced techniques like internal rhyming or middle rhyming. While you shouldn’t expect anything Shakespearean, AI-generated poems and lyrics can still help inspire ideas or provide a rough first draft to build on.
AI writing FAQs
What is AI-generated text?
AI-generated text is text produced by artificial intelligence (AI). Users can ask AI programs to generate things like emails, web page copy, or even poems with whatever criteria they mention. Although AI-generated text tends to lack the nuance and natural qualities of text written by humans, it can nevertheless be composed in a few seconds and for free, giving it some advantages.
What are AI writing prompts?
In AI writing, prompts are what the user says to the AI writing tool to create the content they want. Prompts are essentially commands, which specify the parameters of the assignment such as the topic, length, style, and which words to use.
What kind of writing tasks can AI help with?
Basically, AI writing assistants can create anything. However, given the limitations of the technology at this point (it’s still pretty new), longer and more complicated writing tasks can be problematic. For now, stick with short and easy tasks like emails, social media posts, cover letters, and marketing copy for web pages, ads, and product descriptions.
