The human side of AI content

I've been writing blog posts for five years now and reading blog even longer. That's almost a decade of watching the content world evolve. But nothing prepared me for the gigantic shift that AI would bring to our industry. Let me take you back to the moment when I first realized everything was about to change.
It was a rainy Tuesday morning in a local coffee shop (ironic, right?). I was meeting with an old friend - we'll call him Tom - who couldn't contain his excitement about this new AI writing tool he'd discovered. "Watch this," he said, typing a few keywords into his laptop. Within seconds, a fully-formed article appeared on his screen.
My coffee went cold as I watched him generate article after article. The content wasn't amazing, but it was... decent. Like a meal from a chain restaurant - not memorable, but good enough. And the speed? Mind-blowing. In the time it would take me to outline a single article, Tom's AI had written five.

What happened next in our industry reminded me of those old gold rush stories. Everyone was scrambling to stake their claim in this new territory. Blogs that used to post thoughtful, well-researched content twice a week suddenly started pumping out multiple articles daily. It was like watching a quiet artisan bakery transform into a factory overnight.
Let me share something that still makes me shake my head. Someone I know - a small business owner who ran a gardening blog - decided to go all-in on AI. In just one month, his blog went from publishing carefully crafted gardening advice based on his 20 years of experience to pushing out 15 articles a day about everything from pet care to cryptocurrency. When I asked him why, his answer was simple: "Because we can."
The results? His website traffic initially skyrocketed. More content meant more keywords, more pages for Google to index, more potential clicks. But then something interesting happened. His longtime readers started dropping off. The comments section, once filled with engaged gardening enthusiasts sharing their own experiences, went quiet. The soul of his blog had been sacrificed on the altar of quantity.

This shift hit the blogging community hard. Really hard. I started seeing the impact everywhere I looked. A food-blogger I followed, tested recipes for a popular food blog, lost her biggest client because she insisted on actually cooking each dish before writing about it. "We can get AI to write recipes in seconds," they told her. "Why should we wait for you to test them?"
I also remember reading a story of professional blogger, who was asked to supervise AI-generated content instead of writing his own. His job changed from being a creative writer to becoming something like a content factory quality control inspector. "I feel like I'm not even writing anymore," he said in a podcast. "I'm just fixing AI's mistakes and trying to make robotic text sound more human."

I'll admit it - I wasn't immune to the temptation. For a few weeks , I decided to experiment with AI-generated content. I wanted to understand what all the fuss was about. Maybe I was just being stubborn, clinging to the "old way" of doing things?
The first week was actually exciting. The speed was intoxicating. I published more content than ever before. The articles were grammatically perfect, well-structured, and informative. On the surface, everything looked great.
But then the cracks started showing. I started reading and investing some of these posts (No need to search for them as I have deleted them) and almost all of them contained some mistakes: data that was wrong, background information was missing, one article even did cover a time management technique that didn't exist (it was a mix of a marketing term and productivity tool). The content was new, but the information was either outdated or just plain wrong.
The final straw came from my neighbor. "Your recent posts don't sound like you anymore," he said. "I used to feel like I was having coffee with a friend when I read your blog. Now it feels like I'm reading a textbook."
That hit home. Hard.

After my failed experiment, I spent a lot of time thinking about what makes content truly valuable. I realized that while AI is an incredible tool, it's just that - a tool. Like a high-end camera that can take technically perfect photos but can't choose what moments are worth capturing.
These days, I've found my balance. Yes, I use AI, but in a way that enhances rather than replaces my human touch. It's great for:
But the heart of my content - the experiences, the insights, the actual writing - that comes from me. From my morning coffee experiments, from my anecdotes, from my failures and successes.

Here's something interesting I've noticed lately: as more websites fill up with AI-generated content, readers are becoming increasingly hungry for authentic human voices. They might not immediately recognize AI-generated content, but they feel when something's missing - that human element that makes a piece of writing relatable and real.
My blog's engagement numbers tell the story. When I was publishing AI-generated content, I had more posts but fewer meaningful comments. Now, publishing less frequently but with real, personal content, the engagement has skyrocketed. People aren't just reading; they're connecting, sharing their own stories, starting conversations.

So where do we go from here? How do we move forward in a world where AI can write faster, more efficiently, and more prolifically than any human?
The answer, I believe, lies in embracing our humanity rather than trying to compete with machines. AI can write about making coffee, but it can't tell you about the time it took me three tries to get the grind size right, or how my kitchen smelled amazing even though that first batch was undrinkable.
My advice to fellow content creators is this: Use AI as a tool in your toolkit, not as a replacement for your voice. Let it handle the mundane tasks so you can focus on what machines can't replicate - your unique experiences, insights, and perspectives.
Share your real stories, even (especially) when they're messy. Take your own photos, even if they're not Instagram-perfect. Write about what you actually know and care about, not just what's trending. Be genuine, be human, be you.
Because in a world increasingly filled with AI-generated content, authenticity isn't just nice to have - it's becoming a superpower.
The future of blogging isn't about who can produce the most content the fastest. It's about who can create meaningful connections with their readers. And that, thankfully, is something AI still can't do.
So here's to all of us humans, still typing away, sharing our stories, making mistakes, and keeping it real in an increasingly artificial world. Because at the end of the day, that's what truly matters - real people connecting with other real people through authentic, genuine content.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go make another cup of coffee. Manually. Just the way I like it :-).