In today’s rapidly changing world of content creation, there are few greater authorities on harnessing AI technology to perfect the written word than these two creative powerhouses. Sarah Skidd, Product Marketing Manager from Arizona, and Kashish Barot, Editor from Gujarat, India, are addressing the challenges that businesses face with generative AI. Moreover, they are demonstrating creative approaches to move enterprises through these challenges more efficiently. Both women have been able to build extremely successful businesses on improving AI-generated copy to make sure it connects better with human audiences.
Even though the apps are still nascent, Skidd has already built a healthy business helping tech and startup companies rewrite website content generated by AI tools. Just the other month, she clocked 20+ hours writing and rewriting website copy for one hospitality client. For all of her expertise, that was $100 an hour. She understands the power of AI to speed up the process of developing first drafts. She emphasizes that a human touch is very important for the end product.
As a result, Barot has experienced an increasing demand for her services. Clients are beginning to feel the pain of implementing AI without a long-term plan and holistic approach. Operating out of the Indian state of Gujarat, Barot mostly serves US-based startups that are too busy dealing with half-baked AI content to realize they need him. She now uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT as part of her editing process to take AI outputs from adequate to excellent.
AI sets unrealistic expectations by making individuals think that work can be done in mere minutes, noted Barot. We discussed this prevalent myth that businesses fall into when they view AI as a silver bullet. Most of her clients come to her after their first results don’t meet expectations. This is frequently due to not having a clear plan of action and not having a strong grasp of the technology’s limitations.
Though coming from very different backgrounds, Skidd and Barot share a deep conviction. In principle, they concur that indeed AI should augment human work, not replace it. Skidd appreciates AI’s capacity to generate ideas but remains firm that “if you are very good, you won’t have trouble” in producing quality content. She highlights the fact that more writers are profiting off the mistakes businesses are making as they search for their own iterations to implement AI.
Barot echoes this sentiment, stating that “we are spending more time educating clients on the consequences of using AI.” She’s seen that too many organizations dive into AI without fully understanding their data infrastructure or governance practices. “Companies must assess whether they have the right data infrastructure, governance processes, and in-house capabilities to support AI use,” she explained, emphasizing that poor implementation can lead to significant liabilities.
The need for human oversight is particularly acute when you consider the quality of content churned out by generative AI models. Barot has faced all of these types of failure, where vendors produced terrible boilerplate website content or executed broken code that derailed essential services. These issues lead to reputational harm and unforeseen expenditures for companies.
“Each of our models has different capabilities for completing different tasks,” OpenAI has stated regarding the variability in performance among AI tools. Even sophisticated users of AI find it hard to navigate. If they fail to craft high-quality prompts, the results could be disastrous.
As Skidd and Barot continue to navigate this landscape, they are not only improving AI-generated texts but addressing the broader implications of its use. Skidd reflects on her connection to her family, noting, “My husband and son are dyslexic and writing for them is very difficult—anything to help somebody to write; it can be lifechanging.”
Their work highlights a crucial lesson: while AI can assist in content creation, it cannot replicate the nuanced understanding and expertise that human editors provide. “While AI can be a helpful tool, it simply cannot replace the value of human expertise and context in our industry,” said Sophie Warner, reinforcing the importance of professional input in content refinement.