Everything You Need to Know About ChatGPT (And Other A.I.) for Your Business

Is AI worth it for business writing?

Hey there small biz owners! Have you heard about the latest tech sensation taking the digital world by storm? It's called ChatGPT and let me tell you, this AI chatbot is changing the game! 

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Another tech thingy that I need to learn about? I just want to run my business, not become a tech expert." But hold on a sec, because ChatGPT is different. 

It's like having a virtual assistant that never calls in sick, always gives you accurate information and can handle multiple tasks at once. And best of all, it's super easy to use! So, whether you're a solopreneur or leading a team, here's what you need to know about ChatGPT for your small business. Let's jump right in!

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The three paragraphs you just read—despite being analyzed as 100% original writing, a strong segue to the topic, and an all-around solid intro—were not written by a human. 

They were created by the newly released ‘Research Preview’ of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot released by OpenAI.

ChatGPT is an incredible innovation, but it’s only just the beginning. With improved models of AI around the corner (and sometimes already available for a fee), this is no longer just an interesting field of research, but a huge, impending change facing any part of our lives that involves writing.

As a business owner, great copy and content writing are absolutely vital. And if you don’t have the skills yourself, it’s common to hire professionals to handle the task for you. With AI like ChatGPT, however, you can theoretically have 100% of your writing—from blog posts to Insta captions—created on-demand, for free, from a robot.

So what’s the deal with AI and business writing anyway? Is it time to fire every copywriter you work with and embrace the machines? Is it a hopeless task for an AI’s creativity to match a human’s? Does it make sense to use AI for your business—now or in the future? Let’s discuss. 

Here’s everything you need to know about AI for your professional writing needs…

1. AI is Here to Stay

First and foremost, it’s time to accept the fact that artificial intelligence is about to shake things up in a major way. 

AI models like ChatGPT are just the first of many powerful innovations that will irreversibly change our lives. For better or for worse, the cat is definitely out of the bag on this one. This means that it’s time to seriously start considering if AI is worth it for you and your business in its current form. 

2. AI Costs Less Than A Writer 

Depending on your writing needs, quality, professional content and copy can become pretty pricey. Current models of AI chatbots are very inexpensive (ChatGPT is currently free for unlimited use), and many paid options offer free trials. 

For small businesses, every dollar counts. If you’re just starting out or simply need to keep expenses down, AI can be a cheap, simple, and surprisingly capable solution for a small-to-average amount of pro writing. 

So yes, if you’re able to handle AI’s current downsides (more on those later), it can be a great way to save costs on professional writing services for a human.

3. ChatGPT Can Help You Generate Ideas

One way to use ChatGPT is as a research and outlining tool. It uses near-infinite sources from all over the internet to learn its information—and it usually does a pretty good job in interpreting that info into organized research.

Suppose you’re looking to write a blog post on the benefits of physiotherapy, for instance. In that case, you could simply punch that title into ChatGPT for a bulleted list of significant points to hit while writing, saving you lots of time in research and formatting. 

One important thing to note: ChatGPT doesn’t always get it right, but it’s a good bluffer. It’s not uncommon for the chatbot to spit out some incorrect information that looks correct, so always fact-check its claims.

4. AI Chatbots Have Downsides (For Now)

Since a human being is writing this post (pinky promise), we’d be remiss to not mention the downsides of AI—in its current state. 

With Pandora’s box wide open on this one, AI language and chat models will only get better. Within a few years, ChatGPT will probably look downright quaint compared to more advanced versions. As it stands, however, there are some major disadvantages of AI chatbots compared to fleshy, human writers:

Creative intuition — AI can do a pretty good job of imitating human writers. ChatGPT’s Research Preview writes like a B-level high school student, and there’s nothing wrong with that for some scenarios. However, for anything that needs some spontaneity or creative flair, AI tends to come off as a little rigid. Ensuring your creativity and personality shine through is huge when writing anything, especially when it comes to your business. And for now, AI simply isn’t at the same level.  

Consistency — A clear, consistent brand voice is essential for your business. And unless you know how to fine-tune your own language model, it’s going to struggle to keep a consistent tone of voice across multiple pieces (or even in the same response). This might be alright for blog posts and email newsletters, but the lack of contextual understanding (easily communicated to a person) can be a big hassle for social media captions or other frequent tasks.

Complexity — Most AI chatbots currently can’t handle more complex writing tasks. Compelling marketing copy, engaging narratives, and detailed writing all tend to fall short when created by artificial intelligence.

Final Thoughts

The world can be a strange place, and 2023’s development of widespread, mainstream use of AI is certainly an interesting one. 

At the moment, AI is not an essential business writing tool by any means. It can do some tasks very well, like research (with proper fact-checking), outlining, and as a starting point for further creation. However, it lacks the creativity and innate human love for storytelling that great writing needs—for now. 

If you’re looking for a 100% human-based team of writers and marketing experts, BNL is here to help. Our copywriting team has spent years perfecting their craft and learning the ins and outs of the field. AI might make fewer typos, but it doesn’t hold a candle to our team’s creative, context-driven approach to writing projects of all shapes and sizes. We’re here to find, identify, and refine your brand voice into something that feels aligned, consistent, and downright unmistakable—something even the best AI platforms aren’t yet equipped to handle.

For all of your human-written copywriting needs, the BNL team is here to help.

Get in touch to learn more about our approach and our work today!