How We Use AI for Blogging (Without Losing the Human Touch)

We didn’t write this blog post with AI, but it does contain some AI touches, which is exactly the point of this content.

This article explores how to combine AI and human expertise in your content creation workflow to create high-quality, search-intent-driven content.

We will share with you how we use AI in our content workflow:

• Ideation and topic research
• Competitor analysis
• Brief and outline creation
• Editing, etc.

Also, we have interviewed SEO experts, they will share their best practices and challenges.

As Oliver Palmer, Principal at Haystack Earth, points out:

“I find the big problem with AI content is that it’s still really easy to generate lots of words that do a great job at APPEARING like they’re saying something, but which, upon close reading and interrogation, are absolutely meaningless.

My big challenge is finding all these beautiful puffy clouds of cream that look impressive and actually taking the time to interrogate them and make sure there’s something useful inside.”

If you’ve also faced challenges using AI for blogging, this article will help.

Read on to learn how to use AI effectively without falling into the trap of creating “puffy clouds” of meaningless content.

Finding Content Ideas With AI

We rely heavily on keywords as the pillar of our content structure.

These keywords are content ideas extracted from different platforms but mainly from Google Search Console (GSC).

We use Regex filters on our Google Search Console account to get long-tail keywords and questions our audience seeks and cluster them with the thruuu topic clustering tool to get more topics.

For example, this Regex pattern ^(who|what|where|when|why|how)[” “] shows us all question queries in our Search Console. 

You can read our guide on how we find content ideas on Google Search Console for more tips.

Later, we experimented with a new approach to generating content ideas and saw mind-blowing results.

We combined AI and Google Search data.

To be more precise, we created our content plans using AI, People Also Ask, and Related Searches sections of Google SERPs.

Here’s how to do the same:

Combine AI and Google SERP data

1 – Extract Text From Your Product Feature Page

If you are yet to identify your seed keywords (short, foundational search terms that define your niche and serve as the starting point for keyword research), you can do so with thruuu’s website text extractor and ChatGPT. 

Enter your product page’s URL in the tool search bar while it automatically extracts the main body text.

2 – Use ChatGPT to Identify Seed Keywords

Use this prompt on ChatGPT alongside the extracted text to identify your seed keywords.

Ensure you verify the result to delete irrelevant keywords.

3 – Generate People Also Asked and Related Searches With Your Seed Keywords

Upload your seed keywords into thruuu keyword clustering tool. This tool analyzes SERPs and generates tens to hundreds of questions and related searches around the seed keywords in one minute.

4 – Cluster Your Keywords and Get Hundreds of Content Ideas

By this time, you’ll have hundreds of “raw” keywords. 

Use thruuu’s Keyword Clustering tool to cluster the keywords by SERP similarity and create hundreds of result-driven content ideas.

Most importantly, you’ll get a group of clusters across the entire buyer stage (top-of-the-funnel, middle-of-the-funnel, and bottom-of-the-funnel topics).

With one click, you get hundreds of content ideas.

You can watch this video or continue reading this article to get all the details.

However, content idea generation isn’t limited to this strategy. Here are a few other ways to use AI to generate more content ideas for your site:

Summarize Webinars to Extract Key Ideas

You can upload a webinar URL to an LLM like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity and request that it extract key content ideas.

For instance, if we want to generate content ideas on topic clusters, instead of spending hours on keyword research tools, we can use a prompt alongside our webinar URL on “How to Create an SEO Topic Cluster.”

AI will give us tens of seed keywords and content ideas.

The prompt:

Bonus Tip: You can upload the seed keywords into thruuu Topic Clustering Tool and get hundreds to thousands of questions and related searches for more content ideas.

Analyze Community Forums

Question-and-answer forums like Reddit and Quora are the best platforms for generating content ideas.

However, it can be daunting to swipe through endless questions and answers.

To automate the process with AI, copy your preferred subreddit URL and upload it to a keyword research tool to extract the top keywords.

For example, we pasted “reddit.com/r/LeadGeneration/” into SEMRush organic research tool and discovered over 1000 top keywords for content ideas.

Secondly, you can paste a subreddit URL or Quora space URL into your preferred LLM and extract key ideas from the discussion.

Lastly, maximize Perplexity’s social source. 

Go to the sources icon in the search bar and turn on the option for social.

Put in your query, and Perplexity will search Reddit for relevant results. You can even click the threads link to verify each result. 

The results also feature “Related Searches,” which are often rich content ideas.

Transcribe Customer Interviews

Conduct video or audio interviews with your customers alongside a transcription software. The software will record and transcribe the call for offline analysis.

You can analyze the transcript manually or automatically with AI to identify your customer’s pain points, product uniqueness, or whatever you discussed.

And there, you have access to rich customer-focused content ideas.

Pro Tip: Prepare a list of your questions before the call for effectiveness

Analyzing Competitors With AI

Competitor analysis helps us discover topic and idea gaps.

We identify topics not yet covered by our competitors and find new ideas in topics already available on SERPs.

It also helps us identify the main topics under a seed keyword so that we can include them on our site.

Interestingly, we automate this process with thruuu SERP Analyzer. 

This tool analyzes SERPs and helps you discover previously available topics, new ideas, and the most frequent headings used by your competitors.

You can run a SERP analysis with the tool by entering your primary keyword, target location, and other details and clicking “Analyze the SERP.”

In a minute or less, you’ll see an overview of the search result page featuring your competitors’ average word count, average image used, site rankings, topics, questions, and more.

You can take a step further and analyze the headings (H2s and H3s) used by your competitors. Scroll down, navigate to the right side of your dashboard, and click “Generate Headings Analysis.”  

The result compares headings and their percentage usage on all pages.

Click “Content” at the right side of the page for a deeper competitive analysis. This feature is only available for pro and agency plans.

Its first sub-feature, “Explore Frequent Content,” shows you frequent information on top-ranking pages and their percentage usage. 

The other sub-feature, “Explore New Ideas,” provides new angles to challenge the norm, satisfy the search intent, and make your content unique.

Start your free trial and perform a competitor analysis for your keyword.

Pat yourself at the back for coming this far. But there’s much more to learn.

What’s next?

Creating Meta Titles and Descriptions With AI

Quick one: We don’t use AI to generate our blog post titles.

As stated earlier, we analyze the SERP with the thruuu SERP analyzer and develop a title that captures a new angle and satisfies search intent.

However, we use thruuu content brief generator to write our meta descriptions. The tool also generates AI meta titles and has an AI headline generator.

If you click “Create Description” under Article Summary, thruuu will show you the meta descriptions of ranking pages on SERPs for you to get inspiration.  

You can also click “AI Examples” and “Generate” to see unique meta descriptions from AI and live search data.

You should have something like this…

You can repeat a similar process to create your title. Click “Create Titles” and the  “AI Examples” for inspiration. 

Watch this video to see how we create our meta titles and descriptions with thruuu.

Crafting a Content Outline with AI

We collaborate seamlessly with our freelance writers because of the quality of our content briefs.

However, we also allow room for creativity from the writer’s end. (We’ll discuss this aspect more soon.)

Our briefs (created with thruuu content brief generator) feature an outline which is the content framework. 

For instance, see the outline of the article you are reading.

There’s a picture of what the article should look like with subheadings and notes about unique angles to add to it.

We automate everything with thruuu content brief generator. The tool creates a detailed outline using a combination of AI examples, SERP analysis, frequently used headings and questions.

To create yours:

• Sign in to your thruuu dashboard and click Content Brief.
• Enter your primary keyword or choose any of your saved SERP analysis. 
• Click the Outline menu by the sidebar and press “Open Outline Editor” to create your outline.

Explore the available options and finetune your outline to your taste. 

You can add your competitor’s URL, and the tool will use the data from their outline to create a new one. thruuu content brief generator generates AI outlines solely with your keyword or from SERP competitors.

Pro tip: To achieve the best result, involve your human creativity in the process. You can add notes where needed or include new subheadings. 

Further Reading:

• 8 Examples of Content Briefs
• Creating an Effective SEO Content Brief

Writing Blog Posts With AI

AI alone can’t create perfect content; all you get is a wall of text, like regurgitated junk.

That’s why we implement the Cyborg Method for making our blog posts: a human brain for creativity and context and an AI brain for speed and pattern recognition.

We use a human copywriter to write our blog posts.

He receives a brief created with AI (human input included) and uses his skillsets with AI as an assistant to make content like this that glues you to your screen.

However, whenever I create a blog post (by myself), I rely more on AI.

My process is the following:

• I write a first draft
• I use AI to review my sentences, grammar and style.

Don’t be quick to judge me; I’m not a native English speaker. Tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT help me refine my writing. But does that mean I’m writing with AI?

Some might argue that true writing requires starting from scratch, but shaping AI-generated content is also a skill. As Katya Firyan, co-founder of Writitude, puts it:

“There are great writers who write themselves. And there are great writers who feed a multitude of texts, articles, and guidelines to LLMs (usually they opt for ChatGPT) and ‘mold’ their first draft with prompts. I see that this second type of writers are also quick and amazing editors themselves. Because for many, molding content with prompts and editing AI-generated drafts just takes longer. Period. And time is money.“

Her perspective highlights a crucial point: AI-assisted writing isn’t about taking shortcuts; it’s about efficiency and refinement.

Those who master prompting and editing become just as skilled as traditional writers, if not faster.

But not everyone agrees.

Some argue that relying on AI for the first draft can be a disadvantage rather than an advantage. Matt Jenko, Director of Vivaellipsis, challenges this approach:

“Lots of people talk about using AI to generate a first draft, but this can lock you into a structure from the outset. Plus, you lose a lot of time fact-checking and correcting. A first draft written by a top-class copywriter will beat a generated one any day. More often than not, our first drafts are so good that clients are happy to publish them pretty much as they are.

At the end of the day, we believe that if you expect humans to take the time to read your content, you should take the time to actually write it.”

This raises an important debate. Is AI a tool for efficiency, or does it risk lowering content quality?

While some writers leverage AI to speed up the creative process, others see it as a constraint that demands extra effort in editing and verification.

In the end, what truly matters is how efficiently you can balance both approaches, whether starting with human writing and refining with AI or generating an AI draft and elevating it with human expertise.

The key isn’t choosing one side but finding a content workflow that maximizes both speed and quality.

Why Not Use AI to Write Blog Posts?

I created a blog post with AI but later spent more time reviewing than writing the content myself. The tone of the content was off and lacked originality.

Right now, I work with a writer or write the article while AI reviews it, which is one of the perks of using AI as an assistant tool not a replacement.

Lucy Greenaway, SEO Manager at Heavyweight Digital, shares a similar perspective:

“Human input is essential at every stage of the content creation process. AI-generated content isn’t ready to go straight out of the box—it needs careful editing and refinement to ensure it’s high-quality, engaging, and on-brand. AI should support a well-researched content strategy, not take the lead.

When it comes to SEO, AI often overdoes it, stuffing keywords in ways that feel unnatural and forced. But with Google’s latest updates, striking the right balance between readability and SEO has never been more important. The best content is written for people first, with search engines in mind—not the other way around.

As a writer, my biggest challenge is trying to reduce the fluff I add unnecessarily. AI has been a game changer in helping strip back my content to keep it concise and high-quality while saving me a lot of time.”

Her insight highlights an important reality: AI isn’t a magic button for great content.

It can streamline the process, improve readability, and help eliminate unnecessary fluff, but it still needs human guidance, whether to fact-check, refine tone, or inject originality.

That’s why I see AI as a tool, not a replacement. It works best when used to enhance human creativity, not replace it.

Does Google Like AI Content?

Google doesn’t like AI-generated or human-generated content; instead, it loves quality and helpful content.

In its guidance about AI-generated content, Google mentioned, “Our focus on the quality of content, rather than how content is produced, is a useful guide that has helped us deliver reliable, high-quality results to users for years.”

In its helpful content update, Google also stated that “its automated ranking systems are designed to present helpful, reliable information that’s primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings in the top Search results.”

The takeaway?

Google demands that your content satisfies search intent and provides valuable insights with new angles.

This is why expertise is crucial in AI-assisted content creation.

AI can help with drafting and structuring, but subject-matter expertise and human validation are non-negotiable. As Alexandra, Manager of Marketing & Communications at eXXcellent solutions, advises:

“Read the reviewed article again after a couple of hours, searching with a critical eye for ’empty’ sentences that only sound good but have no real meaning that contributes to the content.

Always double-check with in-house experts on the topic—since, in my case, individual software development is not my expertise. Sometimes, I even Google wordings to see where they come from.”

Her insight highlights the importance of EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

Content should not just sound good but provide real value.

Whether AI helps in the process or not, fact-checking, expert input, and thorough review ensure that your content remains credible, useful, and aligned with Google’s expectations.

Which AI Tools Are Best for Content Generation?

We are not the best at advising you on the best AI tools.

However, several AI tools stand out for blogging, including Jasper, Writesonic, and Copy.

Each tool offers unique features tailored for content creation, like templates, prompts, and editing assistance.

Generating Images With AI

A few AI tools generate visually appealing images when given detailed prompts.

Software like Midjourney, DALL-E, Leonardo AI, and more are major AI image generators in many marketers’ toolboxes.  

For instance, Piktochart creates stunning infographics and presentations in seconds. Just upload your article document; the tool will generate captivating visuals in your style. 

We don’t use AI images in thruuu because we have a professional designer that handles that task.

But we don’t deny the power of AI image generators when used by an experienced design expert.

Pro tip: Prioritize the use of visuals in your content. They increase engagement by grabbing attention, making information easier to understand, and improving information retention.

Best Practices to Write With AI and Keep the Human Touch

AI can set the pace, but YOU make the content exceptional.

Simply use it for your efficiency, but use your brain to bring creativity, empathy, and new insights for impact. 

At thruuu, we apply an 80-20% approach to blog post creation:

• 80% of the content is optimized with AI and based on trends and topics covered by competitors.
• 20% of the content must be unique and provide a fresh angle.

And it’s within the 20% of unique content that you should spend your time.

Use your human intelligence to add thought-provoking, problem-solving, and memorable insights that keep your readers coming for more. 

AI + human = first-class productivity.

Let’s wrap up with a guiding principle that every content creator should keep in mind.

Michael Rübcke, Digital Growth Marketer, puts it perfectly:

“This is our golden rule. Think of AI as a super-powered assistant, not your ghostwriter. It can be fantastic for: Brainstorming topics, Research & data gathering, Improving SEO, Grammar & editing.

So far, however, it does not replace the experience and expertise of an industry expert.”