3 questions to ask before publishing AI-generated content

AI can help comms teams work faster and more cohesively, but it also makes it easier to publish content that has no clear purpose.

Karen Freberg, professor of strategic communications at the University of Louisville, said a clear content strategy still needs to guide what teams produce, regardless of which tool helps you get there.

“If you don’t have a strategy that kind of ties everything together, it’s just viewed as AI slop,” Freberg said during Ragan’s Writing Certificate Course for Communicators. “There’s no purpose, there’s no goal, there’s no audience in mind.”

Before publishing AI-assisted content, teams should answer three questions, she said.

Avoid writing for a broad or undefined audience, Freberg said. Identify the specific employees, customers, media or other stakeholders who need the information. Then adjust the examples, level of detail and language for that group.

“If everyone’s using AI, we’re all sounding the same,” Freberg said. “How do we distinguish our voice compared to everyone else that’s potentially using AI?”