My client suggested using an AI writer bot
“Hey, Bertilla, let’s get an AI bot to write blog posts, shall we?”
That’s something I did not expect to hear on the verge of launching my freelance writing career.
I had quit my job and was on the second-last day of my notice period, excited to start something new, but nervous about what lay ahead. And oh boy, this conversation with my client did not help.
My tryst with Jarvis, a popular AI writing tool and my then ‘nemesis’
If you’re already familiar with AI writing tools, that’s great. But as an anxious soon-to-be full-time writer, this suggestion initially did not sit well with me.
Outside, I said “Oh haha yeah…sure! We can try that..”
Inside, it was more like —
Inside, I went “Oh damn. Is this it? Is there no scope for human writers today? I quit my job to be replaced…by a bot?!”
My client was initially reluctant to bring this up, but once she did, we had an honest conversation. I was skeptical, but I was also on board to try the tool, learn everything it can do, and how we could use it best.
What I thought vs the reality
When I first heard this idea, I freaked out internally, as you saw above. Blog posts were my forte. I clearly wasn’t okay competing with a bot.
But I didn’t let this show. After three mental somersaults, I decided that I would oversee the content writing and focus on other interesting tasks, instead of spending all my hours on writing alone.
I tried to quickly wrap my mind around these reasons for my client suggesting Jarvis—
A standard, research-involved SEO article takes me a minimum of two to three hours to write. I was getting paid by the hour and it wasn’t feasible for them to pay a lot for only articles/blog posts. And my client had plenty of other tasks that required my skills apart from this.
To ultimately save time and money, my skills would be utilised elsewhere, while I still needed to edit and manage the written content.
Here’s another thing I learned later on. Jarvis or any other AI writing tool cannot be your writer itself. My client correctly recognised that it can only be a writing assistant. Jarvis provides chunks of quick content that you would then have to edit and polish as required.
After several days and trying all sorts of different content forms, I learned how to use it pretty well. Here’s what I can tell you.
🔎 Related: AI isn’t coming for your creative words
The pros and cons of Jarvis, and how to work past its flaws
I’ve generated blog posts, podcast scripts, website copy, and social media content using Jarvis on ‘Boss mode’ (unlimited words for $119/month), and so I can confidently explain the following.
Pros
If you provide the right commands, and content briefs, Jarvis will give you good content fast. Really fast.
There are content ‘recipes’ that act as templates, so Jarvis can specifically write parts of your piece, like the blog post introduction, body, conclusion, meta-description, and SEO title.
Screenshot of the Jarvis blog post recipe (Screenshot by the author)
There are several templates to choose from(blog posts, website copy, video scripts, product descriptions, etc). To sum it up, quality content can be produced quickly, as long as you lead Jarvis correctly.
Screenshot of Jarvis templates (Screenshot by the author)
Cons
It doesn’t always write great stuff. If you’re writing a fun listicle on breezy stuff like backyard parties, this will be great. If you’re writing about, say, distributed computing or medical conditions, it is not going to be a smooth ride for you. Here’s an example —
Above: Writing a blog post about Thanksgiving party ideas — The content brief on the left, the first command, and the highlighted text was provided by me. This is decent content. (Screenshot by the author)
Above: Writing a blog post about 5 SEO keyword research tools: Try 1 — Jarvis repeated the content in my brief as it was (has happened more than once). (Screenshot by author)
It can be really repetitive. Unless you constantly update the content brief or write highly specific commands, Jarvis repeats itself pretty often. You can type “***” before a section to avoid repeating anything above it. But to really direct Jarvis well, this is what I do — write a couple of sentences and then generate content, so it picks up where you left off, and follows your lead.
Above: Try 2 — This time, I added an elaborate command providing the facts, which Jarvis reframed. (Screenshot by author)
As you can see, sometimes, it takes more time to explain to Jarvis what you want, instead of which you can just write the content yourself.
Jarvis does not always produce factually correct content. The official Jarvis team themselves have made this information public and say we should always check, and better, provide our own facts to build on them, instead of going with whatever Jarvis writes.
Above: Try x — After a few tries, I finally gave a simple command, with which Jarvis generated the above content. Now, I use the keyword tool specified here and contrary to what is written, you can search for phrases/questions instead of just words. (Screenshot by author)
The team says it is mostly plagiarism-free, but that they can’t say for sure. They have a paid (additional to the ‘Boss mode’ fee) plagiarism checker. Many users argue that it shouldn’t need a plagiarism checker in the first place, especially at this fee - and I agree.
My verdict on Jarvis
As I wrote before, this can be a writing assistant, but not a writer. It initially seemed like this tool was so good, it would be better than us human writers, but that is far from the case.
Jarvis is an effective tool if used correctly to generate high-quality content through prompts and commands. And it works only if you check your facts, do your own research, edit rigorously, and polish it well.
Personally, I have used it to write lighter content. But when it comes to research-heavy pieces, I’ve found it better to write them myself. Similarly, with short captions and copy, it’s quicker for me to write them instead of writing a huge brief and updating my commands often.
[Note: If you’re having trouble figuring it out, the Jarvis team has put out several guides and tutorials explaining everything involved, which I highly recommend referring for help.]
How do you get ahead of the AI competition?
While I don’t currently fear that a computer tool is a better writer than me, I’m not complacent. These tools are getting better and better, and they’re learning a lot every single second.
Whenever I add my own inputs on the Jarvis editor, it feels kind of morbid, since I’m teaching this tool how to write like me, and eventually ‘better’ than me.
But it’s not the end for us at all. Here’s how —
There’s no better time than now to step up your game and be irreplaceable. It’s not enough for us to write mediocre content that an AI bot can replicate. So, do your best to write brilliant stuff. Stuff that can only be written by you.
Don’t run away from AI. It’s coming whether we like it or not. Instead, work with it to further your career. Use it in different ways to help you save time and energy while maximizing your profits.
But don’t get lethargic and become too dependent on these tools either. I almost did and then snapped out of it. Keep upskilling yourself and learning instead of letting AI do its thing for you.
I’m happy to say that my client loved how well-written and creative my originally written (without AI) blog posts are. And we mutually understand that we will be using Jarvis whenever required, but that Jarvis is not ‘replacing’ me.
So, at this time, when these AI writing tools are developing rapidly, I’m focused on writing words and telling stories that are truly one of a kind.
Whether it’s my personal writing or client work, I’m doing my best to produce ideas and content that can come only from me.
It’s not at all easy, given how much fabulous content is already out there today. But this is the best, if not the only, way to move forward.
Let’s start being indispensable today.
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