A struggle to find practical applications for using AI in my work, coupled with fear, led to a lot of scepticism about the technology. I love writing and don’t ever want it to replace that, but reading about how others in a similar position were using it for other things inspired me to experiment.
So here I’m sharing some of the ways I use AI as a freelance content writer and trainer, in case it’s helpful to others in a similar position.
Help with sorting through interview transcripts: Otter.ai
I’ve been using Otter to transcribe interviews for 6/7 years, but it now has an in-built AI chat function.
It means I can ask questions like ‘what did Jane Smith say about knitting with blue wool?’. It will summarise all the mentions with the time stamps so I can verify and pull out relevant quotes and particular phrasing.
If a bit of time has passed between doing the interview and sitting down to write, I might ask it to give me a summary of the key points as a refresher so I can sketch out my structure.
Technical topic research: Perplexity.ai
Perplexity is great for helping with research on technical topics. It comes up with legitimate business sources and the relevant links, so it’s easy to check the information.
I was updating a 7-year-old report on a construction-related topic for a client and wanted to find out what the Labour Government’s stance was.
Perplexity found me the Hansard transcript from a House of Lords debate on the topic.
It was several thousand words long, and I only wanted a couple of sentences to reference the nub of the debate. So, I popped the transcript into Co-Pilot or Gemini, can’t remember which now, and asked for a summary based on a specific question.
Data analysis and ideas generation: Gemini
I downloaded my LinkedIn archive, which includes every post I’ve written formatted into a spreadsheet. I transferred that content archive into a Google doc and cleaned it up so it only contained posts from the last 6 years when I started using the platform properly.
1. Summer newsletter ideas
From the clean Google doc, I was able to locate and pull out just my ‘Quick Monday tips’ posts into a separate document. I asked Gemini to group this subset of content into main themes.
(I’ve found that Google/Gemini is better at working with larger data sets than Excel/Co-Pilot.)Â
Those themes gave me newsletter content ideas. I wrote each newsletter from scratch, based on the suggestions and adding fresh thoughts and ideas.
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2. Moderator masterclass promotion
From the same cleaned-up LinkedIn content archive, I located and extracted all the posts mentioning moderating/chairing panels and round tables and put them in a Google text doc with all the blog posts I’ve written on the topic.
I hate writing promotional content, but I needed to ‘advertise’ my moderator masterclass. I asked Gemini to come up with ideas for short LinkedIn posts that were useful as well as promotional.
The result was a list of ideas, each with a basic outline drawing on what I’d already written.
That meant I just needed to flesh out each post in my own words. It saved me from scrolling for inspiration and gave me promotional angles I could use.
3. Repurposing content
During the quieter summer months, I used AI to help repurpose older content into Quick Monday tips.
IÂ scrolled back 2-3 years in the LinkedIn archive to before I started the QMT series, and found old posts that offered advice and tips. Using Co-Pilot or Gemini, I asked for a rewritten version in the style of a QMT.
What AI provided was never close to being usable, but it gave me a structure and angle to work with. I’d rewrite 80% to better suit my tone of voice, but it got me started, which is half the battle.
I’ve got more experimenting to do with my LinkedIn content archive, as it’s such a rich source of data. Just having it in one easy-to-search place makes a difference.
General bits and bobs: ChatGPT
ChatGPT is my AI bits and bobs tool. I use it for basic stuff like writing alt text for images – a use I’ve only recently discovered.
Like all AI, it has to be checked as it invents stuff like describing 5 people in a picture when there are 4.
I’ll also ask ChatGPT basic questions like what a technical phrase means or the difference between two different terms, and then cross-reference the result to check.
I’ve also asked it questions about me to see what it came up with, which was illuminating – and gave me some marketing ideas.
How I find AI useful
My main use of AI can be summed up as a means of saving time and an inspiration kick starter for my own content.
I’m cautious about the info I plug in because of confidentiality, preferring in-built tools to ones that are generally available.
What are you finding AI useful for?
You might also enjoy reading these posts:
How to write B2B content with purpose
4 B2B content lessons from a stand up comedian
3 common B2B content mistakes to avoid
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