Adding Heart to AI: Cheril Clarke on Crafting Compelling Content with Technology

Note: Joe and I were introduced to Cheril Clarke on Felicity Barber’s excellent podcast, The Friendly Ghost. We later heard Cheril speak as the “for” side of a for/against AI discussion at the 2023 Professional Speechwriters Association conference. Here, we share Cheril’s guest essay on how she uses AI in her work in executive and professional communications. —Chris Edmonds, N2 COO

I’ve spent over a decade helping executives and companies communicate effectively. As AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude become more common, many of my clients have asked what AI can do for content and where human writers still play a critical role. Here’s the advice I give them: AI can generate content at lightning speed but lacks the emotional intelligence and cultural nuance that human writers bring. The real magic happens when we blend AI’s efficiency with human creativity, crafting content that informs and deeply resonates with its audience.

Infusing Soul into AI Copy
AI can produce a decent draft—depending on the quality of the initial prompt—but I transform it. For instance, AI might generate a bland statement like “The meeting was a success.” But when I work with clients, we elevate this to something more vivid and engaging: “After weeks of late-night preparations, the team celebrated their hard-earned victory.” The AI draft was straightforward but lacked depth and emotional appeal. By adding specific details like “weeks of late-night preparations,” my version shows the effort and dedication behind the success. Including the human reaction to that triumph—a celebration!—added emotional weight, making the content more relatable and memorable for the audience. As a longtime storyteller, I always use sensory details to create gripping reading experiences.

I bring a multifaceted writing career’s grasp of language subtleties, emotional cues, and cultural insights that strike the right chords. My cultural awareness ensures that messages are appropriate for diverse audiences, which is essential for effective global communication. This human touch bridges gaps that AI alone cannot. It gives content heart and soul. Spirit. Depth. Grit—an understanding of emotions like joy, pain, grief, ecstasy, faith, and distrust. A guiding human hand gives AI-generated content a chance to have a uniqueness and authenticity that it could never obtain alone.

Shaping Your AI to Have a Personality in Line with Your Brand
If a retail brand wanted to create a friendly and approachable AI assistant, I’d start by feeding it content that reflects their writing style, vision, and goals. I’d ask the AI to analyze and summarize the style and principals, find if there were any weak spots in the current content, and then assess whether it needs updating. Based on the output, I may need to feed it specific examples (such as specifying, “For instance, instead of saying ‘improve customer service,’ use a more concrete phrase like ‘respond to customer inquiries within two hours.’” This level of specificity provides a clear, measurable goal and helps employees understand exactly what is expected.)

From there, I’d have the AI create a new “writing style guide” unique to this brand that writes in a progressive way to realize the company’s goals. This leaps over generic first drafts the AI might initially output, saving even more time in the long run.

Outputs still need editing because AI sometimes skips instructions, but generally, it follows about 80% of it, in my experience. This approach repurposes the AI from a chatbot to a genuine writing partner and extension of the brand.

Building Credibility and Addressing Hallucination and Bias
AI can “hallucinate,” generating factually incorrect or misleading content. It can also reflect biases from its training data. To combat this, I always ask it for the source of any data or statistics it generates. Then, I manually crosscheck those sources to ensure accuracy. My job as the human includes checking for accuracy and coherence, correcting errors, and providing accountability. I also check for sensitivity, other contextual nuances, and discern subtle differences in reliability that AI might miss.

For AI startups, integrating human expertise into your communication strategies is crucial for making your message stand out in a crowded market. When launching a new product, for example, I might have AI handle data-driven marketing while I craft compelling stories about the team’s journey and the challenges they overcame, creating an emotionally resonant narrative. For enterprise organizations, balancing technological advancements with human insight helps maintain clarity and relevance in messaging. Imagine a global campaign where AI segments the audience by region, and I tailor messages to resonate with cultural nuances, ensuring that every communication lands with impact.

There’s one view of the world where AI replaces creatives. There’s another view where AI never comes close. The future is yet to reveal itself, but in reality, there are ways that AI can help save time and effort, providing insight into what the future very well may look like. If you’re ready to amplify your content strategy, let’s explore how blending AI with a human touch can level-up your communications.

Feature image prompt (with help from GPT-4o): Create an image of a writer at their desk being infused with the power of AI while they type on their computer. The image should show the writer standing out from the many other writers in the room who are at their computers but do not have the same power of AI.