AI tools for creatives are nothing new—but the ones we have access to today are better than ever. Recent developments in artificial intelligence have revolutionized the way graphic designers and copywriters work, providing them with powerful tools to generate ideas, designs, and copy.
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Copywriting & Digital Content Writing
Copywriting & Digital Content Writing
by Digital Content Writer Elizabeth Williams Contreras
I’ve been a digital content writer for nearly 6 years now—and in that time I’ve seen AI tech go from “wow, that’s cool” to “oooh..should I be scared?”
I like to remain in awe of these tools, rather than in fear. They’re here whether I like it or not—so how can they help me?
The Quick Evolution of AI
I remember pitching in when my dev team was using chatbots like Intercom in 2019, making use of the conversational AI capacities the tool had (specifically with Natural Language Programming or NLP, a subset of machine learning). Today, Intercom has its very own AI assistant, Fin.
Only a year or two later, I began incorporating tools like frase and jarvis.ai (now jasper.ai). Tools that could write for me. GPT-4 didn’t exist yet—so they were understandably limited. The tools often wrote content that was inaccurate and sometimes nonsensical. Every year, they got better.
The Limits of AI
Ultimately, no matter how well you structure your prompt or how many samples you give of your style, AI writing will always lack a human touch. It was true then, and it’s true now. And search algorithms will only get better at recognizing AI-generated content with each passing day.
As a creative:
AI is a starting point, not your destination.
2 AI Tools For Writers
To help you optimize for SEO
Before we get into SEO tools, it’s necessary to address the elephant in the room: is SEO even relevant anymore?
With ChatGPT and Google bard, we see search engines being impacted by AI as much as the rest of the digital world. Users prefer a succinct answer to having to scroll through pages of links to find the right fit. Enter AEO.
What is AEO?
Optimizing for the future of search may very well mean going the way of AEO (Answer Engine optimization), which means optimizing for AI answers.
This term only started gaining traction recently, after NoGood mentioned it in the SXSW search panel.
frase.io published a detailed blog post about it back in 2019, and Search Engine Watch wrote about it as early as Febrary 2018. Back then, featured snippets on google and voice activations were the most common channels impacted by AEO. Today, the same AI powering those mechanisms has advanced, and more than that, users understand AI and its capacity far more.
Luckily, the mechanisms don’t change too much from SEO to AEO, as “the trajectory of search has already been moving towards taking a more intent-based, human-first approach to content optimization” (nogood.io)
1. Using frase.io to optimize
Frase is my favorite tool of the bunch. It’s an all-in-one tool that guides you through researching, outlining, writing, and optimizing. It has its own AI built-in and has for years—though it wasn’t nearly as effective as it is now 2 years ago. I still use Bard & ChatGPT for commands sometimes; it’s fun to switch it up.
That’s not why it’s my favorite, though. As much as researching in the frase document is convenient, any good researcher knows you have to venture out sometimes to track down the meaty stuff.
frase.io provides an AI-generated, full-length, optimized content brief in just 6 seconds. It kickstarts your process once you’ve used a tool like SEMrush or AHrefs to pin down your keyword.
What I love even more is their optimize tool. Let’s say you’ve used the AI command tool and outline builder. Maybe you’ve dived into the SERP results and made that a well-researched outline. Next, you begin drafting your blog post. As you draft, the optimize tool helps you include keywords in the topic web that your keyword belongs too.
But they explain it best:
Our intuitive text editor uses a topic model to assess your content compared to competitors–providing a list of related topics and their recommended mention frequencies–to help you craft content Google will love.
2. Using jasper.ai for speed
I use jasper less and less these days. But that’s more about me being a control freak than it has anything to do with the tool’s efficacy. It’s truly a marvel—especially good for small teams that need to produce a lot of content.
Train it with some information on the topic. Even start the writing process—giving it some H2s and intro paragraphs to get an understanding of your topic. Then, the AI tool writes for you.
Make sure you edit and check the facts before you publish an article written by AI—even partially. Ideally, when using jasper, you want to toggle between writing yourself and letting jasper write for you—always performing a little copy editing for accuracy or style when jasper does the writing.
If SEO is your priority, go for frase. If writing fast and on-brand is your priority, go for jasper.
Graphic Design
by Art Director Dayanna Rodriguez
AI-powered tools have become increasingly important in the design process. Many graphic designers are afraid AI will replace them, but I think it’s best to try to work with these creative tools. They aren’t going anywhere.
If you ask me, AI is simply an evolution of digital art. It’s one that enables more people to be creative.
People were also scared of digital art in its inception. Eventually, they realized it was just a new medium. And this is the same: it’s a medium with results determined by you. You either lean into it and learn, or you get scared and avoid it. And that’s when your job is in danger. Being adaptable is key.
2 AI Tools for Designers
Here are some graphic design tools I use regularly to speed up my process and create amazing designs.
1. Using firefly’s Generative Fill: the game-changer
Adobe firefly is currently in beta, rolling out fully in the second half of this year. They announced it as a “family of creative generative AI tools.”
Other examples of generative AI tools are ChatGPT, Wave, and DALLE. They create, or generate, new content by learning from an existing data set. By what we’ve seen so far, it’s a whole new world.
Firstly, they’re being fully transparent about the data sets that train these tools. And while the current beta tool is only available online, firefly will eventually integrate with apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere. That means it’ll seamlessly enter the existing toolbox of most digital creatives.
They’ve already enabled generative fill, which Adobe describes as “a magical new experience that enables you to add, extend, or remove content from your images non-destructively, using simple text prompts to achieve realistic results that will surprise, delight, and astound you.”
2. Using Midjourney for inspiration
Midjourney lets everyone be a creative. You don’t need formal design experience to venture into your design dreams—which is what makes it special. Like firefly, Midjourney is a generative AI tool that generates custom images. While I would never use it to create a final product, it’s absolutely wonderful for drawing inspiration.
It’s the perfect tool for design ideas.
Say you’re on the 4th social media post of the day. When you’re creating day in and day out, it’s easy to run out of creative juice.
In moments like these, Midjourney to the rescue! It manages to reinvigorate my creativity on those blah days
I start with a general prompt about what I’m working on, refining it a few times to see different variations. I might ask for the same art in a different design style. Sometimes I switch up the color palette. Any design elements can be tweaked, any range of parameters can be manipulated in no time. The design concepts are endless.
Midjourney always sparks a new idea—even if its one completely different from any of the results!
Conclusion
AI-powered tools have become essential for digitally savvy creatives. Artificial intelligence is being used to help boost human creativity. These tools give creative professionals new and powerful ways to generate a wide range of ideas, designs, and copy.
Interested in powering-up your brand with designers and creatives who constantly adapt and evolve? Reach out to THE 3RD EYE here to learn more.
Still have AI on the mind? Check out related post: The Importance of Diversity in AI and the Consequences of Ignoring it.
