Great, another article about generative AI.

I'm sorry or you're welcome.

Even before ChatGPT made big waves, SaaS-ified versions of AI writing tools were coming to market with alarming alacrity.

One phrase consistently stood out: "It's an assistant, not a replacement."

Thought leaders and wonky wonks sang this chorus but the SaaS tools didn't seem to hear it. Their homepages make promises like:

"Generate high-quality blog posts in minutes"
"Write 10X faster"
"Go from 0-1,000 words in four minutes flat"
It seemed like generative AI's biggest proponents and its loudest vendors were at odds around how, exactly, we should be using this thing.

Yes, I get that there are some fantastic marketing use cases for ChatGPT and other AI tools. (Our Head of Ops uses it to speed up her spreadsheet work.) But that's not what this is about, for me.

It's about the overpromise of productized content services and AI content tools.

Use generative AI to create captivating blog posts and sales collateral in minutes!

I wasn't convinced.

You get what you pay for-we've all heard the phrase. If it's applicable anywhere, it's applicable in the marketing world. I wondered, "Can I really get quality output while spending next to nothing?"

But I'm biased; unfortunately or fortunately, I make my living from the written word.

So I put it to the test.