Should You Use AI to Write Your Website Content?

Every business owner asks this eventually: can I just use ChatGPT to write my website content?

The honest answer is complicated. AI can help with content. It can also hurt you if used wrong. Here's what actually works, what doesn't, and how to think about AI content for your NZ business.

What AI Content Tools Can Do

Modern AI writing tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Jasper can:

Generate draft content quickly
Help overcome writer's block
Suggest structures and outlines
Research and summarise topics
Write in different tones and styles
Produce large volumes of text efficiently

For businesses without dedicated writers, this sounds appealing. And it can be genuinely useful in the right context.

What AI Content Tools Can't Do

Here's what AI struggles with:

Original insights and experience. AI can only remix existing information. It can't share what you learned from 15 years running your business or specific results you've achieved for clients.

Genuine expertise. AI writes confidently about everything, whether it knows the topic deeply or not. It can produce plausible-sounding content that's actually wrong or superficial.

Your unique voice. AI output tends toward generic, middle-of-the-road prose. It doesn't capture what makes your business different.

Current and local information. AI training data has cutoffs. It doesn't know about recent changes in NZ regulations, local market conditions, or your specific competitive landscape.

Fact accuracy. AI can and does make things up, present outdated information as current, or get details wrong. This is especially problematic for professional services where accuracy matters.

Does Google Penalise AI Content?

Google's official position: they don't penalise content simply for being AI-generated. They penalise low-quality content, regardless of how it was created.

In practice, this means:

Thin, generic AI content performs poorly
AI content that adds no value gets filtered out
Mass-produced AI content targeting keywords without substance doesn't rank

Google's helpful content update specifically targets content created primarily for search engines rather than humans. Most pure AI content falls into this category.

The pattern we see: Sites publishing large volumes of unedited AI content often see traffic drops. Sites using AI as a starting point for genuinely useful content do fine.

When AI Content Makes Sense

First Drafts and Outlines

AI is excellent for getting past blank page syndrome. Use it to generate a structure, then rewrite with your expertise.

Research Summaries

AI can quickly summarise information from multiple sources, giving you a starting point for deeper content.

Repetitive Content Variations

Product descriptions, meta descriptions, or similar content that needs minor variations can be accelerated with AI.

Internal Documents

Content that isn't public-facing (internal guides, process documentation) has lower stakes and can lean more heavily on AI.

Brainstorming

Use AI to generate ideas, angles, and questions you might not have considered.

When AI Content Doesn't Make Sense

Your Core Website Pages

Homepage, about page, service pages. These define your business and need genuine voice and expertise.

Thought Leadership Content

If you're trying to establish expertise, generic AI content undermines that goal. Expertise requires original insights.

Anything Requiring Accuracy

Legal information, medical content, financial advice, technical specifications. AI makes mistakes, and these mistakes have consequences.

Local and Current Information

NZ-specific regulations, local market conditions, recent events. AI doesn't know these well.

Anything You'd Be Embarrassed By

If a client asked "did you write this yourself?" and you'd be uncomfortable saying no, don't publish it.

How to Use AI Content Responsibly

Start With AI, Finish With Human

Use AI for the first draft. Then:

Add your specific experience and examples
Include original insights AI couldn't have
Verify all facts and statistics
Rewrite in your actual voice
Add NZ-specific context
Remove generic filler

The final content should be substantially different from what the AI produced.

Fact-Check Everything

Never assume AI is accurate. Verify:

Statistics and data points
Dates and timelines
Quotes and attributions
Technical details
Legal and regulatory information

AI confidently presents incorrect information as fact. Catch it before you publish.

Add What AI Can't

The value in your content should come from things AI can't provide:

Real examples from your work
Specific results you've achieved
Opinions and perspectives from experience
Local knowledge and context
Industry insider information
Original research or data

Maintain Quality Standards

Don't publish AI content just because it's easy. Apply the same quality standards you would to human-written content. If it's generic, thin, or doesn't add value, don't publish it.

Our Approach at Lucid Media

We use AI tools in our workflow. Here's how:

Research acceleration: AI helps us quickly understand topics and identify angles.

Outline generation: AI suggests structures we might not have considered.

First draft assistance: For certain content types, AI provides a starting point.

Never for final content: Everything we publish is substantially rewritten with genuine expertise, verified facts, and original insights.

Client content is human-written: When we create content for clients, humans do the actual writing. AI might help with research, but the words come from writers who understand the client's business.

The Bottom Line

AI content tools are useful assistants, not replacements for genuine expertise.

Use them to:

Speed up research and outlining
Overcome blank page paralysis
Generate ideas and variations

Don't use them to:

Replace expert content entirely
Mass-produce content for SEO
Write anything requiring accuracy
Create core business pages

The question isn't "should I use AI for content?" It's "how do I use AI while maintaining quality and genuine value?"

Need help creating content that actually works? Get in touch. We'll help you develop a content strategy that uses the right tools for the right purposes.