Debate: Should AI writing tools write the whole draft or just the outline?

I've been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now. A guy in a marketing Slack group told me I was leaning too heavy on AI for full drafts and that it was killing my brand voice. So I tried switching to using AI just to spit out outlines and bullet points, then I'd write everything myself. For about 3 weeks I saw better engagement on LinkedIn but my output dropped by like 60%. I was cranking out 8 posts a week before and now I'm lucky to get 3. But the quality felt more like me, you know? Then last week I went back to full AI drafts with heavy editing and got a lot more done but it felt generic again. Is there a middle ground here or do you guys pick one side and stick with it? What's your experience with letting AI control the whole voice vs just the structure?

2 comments

2 Comments

bell.taylor7d ago

Sticking with AI for full drafts is essentially outsourcing your thinking. The engagement bump you saw from writing yourself proves people can tell the difference, even if they don't say it. Your brand voice isn't just word choice, it's your actual perspective and how you connect dots that a machine never could. Cutting output in half is worth it if the half you keep actually sounds like a real person.

thomas_roberts7d ago

...and it reminds me of this time a buddy of mine ran a food blog. He was cranking out posts using AI, getting like 50 hits each. Then he got lazy one week and just wrote a rant about why pineapple belongs on pizza, basically a hot take from his own brain. That thing went viral in our little corner of the internet, like 10,000 views. It wasn't even well written, it was just him being genuinely mad about fruit on pizza. People can smell the difference between a robot making words and a real person having a dumb opinion. I bet that engagement bump you saw was from people finally hearing a person behind the brand, not a perfect paragraph.