Powerful, automated, cost-effective. What’s not to like about AI? Since shooting to prominence, AI has been heralded as a game changer for businesses’ written content, equally at home processing data sets as it is writing annual reports.
But while AI’s ability to produce written content might seem all conquering, the reality isn’t so clear. While it can provide a boost in momentum, relying on AI for strategic content that captures attention and wins business can leave businesses exposed to risks.
Getting strategic about AI adoption
There’s a common misconception that AI’s main value in content strategy lies in writing. We think that’s a mistake.
While AI can generate content quickly, the real value lies elsewhere—in the tasks that happen before and after the writing. Think research. Structure. Repurposing existing content. SEO analysis. Formatting for different platforms. These are areas where AI tools can genuinely enhance your efficiency and output.
But even more important than speed is strategy. Great content doesn’t start with a blank page—it starts with a deep understanding of your brand, your customers, your products, and your market. That kind of insight can’t be generated by AI. It simply can’t replace the creative and strategic thinking that brings your brand to life. That’s still very much a human job. But AI can certainly add value at steps in the process.
Where does AI fit into your content strategy
Let’s take a look at an ideal content strategy process and see where it makes sense to add AI – and importantly, where it doesn’t.
1. Content Blueprint
An effective content strategy doesn’t just materialise fully formed out of nowhere. It needs to be built on strong foundations, such as a distinctive tone of voice, style guide, messaging house and content pillars.
AI can help with:
- Developing ideas for content pillars and topic clusters
- -Suggesting initial messaging ideas based on stakeholder interviews or workshops
- Analysing competitors’ language for tone and style insights
- Reformatting or applying an existing style guide to drafts
- Ensuring language inclusivity based on pre-set rules
But AI falls short when it comes to:
- Defining a truly unique tone of voice rooted in your brand identity
- Crafting messaging that aligns with business goals and customer pain points
- Building a style guide from scratch with real-world context
- Understanding cultural nuances, emotional resonance or inclusive language standards that are not based on pre-set rules
- Uncovering what makes your brand distinctively different
2. SEO Audit
Content is the backbone of SEO. Search algorithms exist to find and serve the most relevant content—so if your strategy isn’t built around that, you’re already behind.
AI can definitely help you with:
- Keyword research and clustering
- Identifying content gaps based on search trends
- Analysing competitors’ SEO performance
- Suggesting meta descriptions, page titles and internal links
- Running technical SEO checks and recommendations
But the limitations are:
- Making strategic decisions about keyword priority and business impact
- Interpreting search intent with nuance
- Balancing SEO with brand voice and messaging
- Understanding the role of SEO within a broader customer journey
- Creating a roadmap that connects SEO insight to real-world business goals
3. Content Plan
This stage is where you put in place the actions that are going to make your strategy happen.
AI tools shine when it comes to:
- Generating content calendars
- Suggesting formats or titles based on trends
- Repurposing long-form content into shorter pieces
- Automating outlines or briefing documents
Still, planning isn’t just about logistics. It’s about:
- Prioritising content based on commercial objectives
- Aligning content plans with product launches or business cycles
- Deciding on the right mix of formats and channels
- Identifying content opportunities from stakeholder input or market shifts
- Keeping up momentum through team alignment and change management
4. Channel Plan
There is no point creating great content if no one will ever see it. An effective strategy keeps it visible, shareable, and flowing, so your teams stay aligned and your message stays strong.
AI is useful for:
- Suggesting which formats perform best on which platforms
- Repurposing content for specific channels (e.g. LinkedIn posts from blogs)
- Scheduling and posting content automatically
- Analysing platform engagement metrics
- Flagging content trends or audience shifts
But effective channel planning also needs:
- Choosing channels based on your audience’s preferences and journey
- Navigating tone and positioning differences across channels
- Adjusting plans in real time based on business or market events
- Creating campaigns that resonate emotionally and strategically
There’s no doubt AI will keep getting better at content strategy tasks. It’s already speeding up research, writing, and planning. But the most important parts—the thinking, the understanding, the experience—still rest with humans.
At Stratton Craig, we match outstanding thinking with exceptional writing. We work closely with you to uncover what makes your business unique and help you bring that to life across every channel.
So yes—use AI. But when it comes to building a content strategy that drives real results, you’ll still want people who know what they’re doing.
Humans should always be at the centre
AI is an increasingly important tool in a content strategists’ arsenal but shouldn’t be relied upon as the main driver of strategic work.
It can help to refine, research and enhance. But it doesn’t have the expertise, industry knowledge or big picture thinking that truly effective strategic content needs. It can mimic creativity by summarising the latest communication trends, but it lacks the years of client meetings to know what information your stakeholders need to know.
AI might be able to summarize data and highlight trends, but what happens next needs to be decided by those that know your products, markets and customers inside out.
AI is a tool – not a decision maker
AI holds great potential for businesses. On the one hand, it can provide a welcome boost to your content creation lifecycle. Marketing team stretched thin? With a well-crafted prompt, the right AI tool can quickly analyse stakeholder interviews for key themes for your team to review and send live in just a fraction of the time.
But this doesn’t make the human expertise and insight of your content strategists any less important. In fact, we would argue it makes them more important than ever.
At Stratton Craig, our content strategists know just what makes a successful content strategy – and how AI can help bring it to life. Talk to us today about how we’re using AI to boost our content services and how we can help you make content that counts.
