Generative AI has made it easier than ever to create content. But let’s be honest: a lot of that content sounds like it was written by… well, a robot.
Generic blogs. Flimsy LinkedIn posts. Forgettable copy.
So how can B2B businesses use AI to create better content, not just more content? And what are the pitfalls to avoid?
We spoke to two of our Fractional Marketing Directors, Pete Jakob and Stephen Rumbelow, to hear how they’re using AI to create better content, where it adds the most value, and why the real competitive advantage is still human.
Human + AI + Human
The biggest mistake people make with AI is thinking it can replace people entirely. But as Stephen puts it, success lies in a “human then AI then human” approach. That means using AI as a tool within a clearly defined workflow, not as a replacement for expertise.
At the start, that involves feeding the AI with the right inputs—customer personas, pain points, tone of voice, and business objectives. “I’ve built custom GPTs for my clients that know their ICP, brand guidelines, and messaging,” Stephen explains. “It means we can generate useful content that’s detailed, relevant and closer to the mark on the first draft.
But even with that groundwork, AI still can’t do the job alone. As Pete explains, “You still need someone who understands good marketing to review the work. You don’t just hand it over and expect brilliance. You have to train it just like you would a marketing intern.”
For both, the goal is to enhance and scale human creativity, not replace it.
The value is in the workflow, not the tool
One of the clearest takeaways from our conversation was that the tools themselves aren’t the differentiator. Everyone has access to the same tools. The advantage lies in how you use them.
Stephen has built a small ‘team’ of custom GPTs to handle everything from ideation and content briefs to performance analysis and workshop design. “They help me be more strategic,” he says. “I can direct them, combine their outputs, and deliver insights to clients faster. I can stay focused on strategy, they tackle the details.”
Pete uses AI as an content editor. “It’s great for reviewing content, including content that it has written. I’ll regularly prompt it to score a piece out of ten for a specific audience and suggest how to improve it. For me, this is one of the most useful applications and can be used on just about everything, from blog posts to emails to landing pages.”
He’s also found it useful for challenging assumptions. “I’ve had ChatGPT analyse a client’s website and tell me who it thinks their ICP is. When you show that to a client and they say, ‘That’s not what we were aiming for,’ that’s a great way to start a more strategic conversation with them about how they’re positioning themselves.”
Avoiding the “digital junk food” trap
AI has made it easier to create new content. But not to have new ideas. “We’re creating a sea of bland,” Pete warns. “The equivalent of drive-through burgers: low nutrition, totally unmemorable. That’s not what B2B buyers want.”
Stephen puts it in even starker terms: “I always talk about ‘digital junk food’. If your AI strategy is just to copy what your competitors are doing, faster, then everyone’s fishing in the same shallow pool. It’s a race to the bottom.”
The best use cases are rarely the obvious ones
Here are just a few ways Pete and Stephen are using it in their day-to-day client work.
Content brief generation
“I use it to create detailed briefs for agencies, based on our strategy, audience, and funnel stage,” says Stephen. “Then the subject matter experts review it before we brief the writer.”
Audience-first editing
“I work with a team where English isn’t their first language,” he adds. “I use AI to review tone, clarity and audience relevance. It’s not the best writer, but it’s an excellent editor of other people’s work.”
Performance-driven ideation
“I had AI analyse blog and ad performance across Google and LinkedIn,” says Stephen. “It spotted high-performing topics we’d missed - like bispecifics in biotech - which helped us prioritise new content.”
Knowledge sharing
Pete recently created a custom GPT trained on 10 years of his own strategy tools and webinars. “It’s a living version of my legacy,” he says. “That idea of a reusable knowledge base could work for any business.”
Where to start
The potential is huge—but only if you apply it deliberately. So, where should you begin?
Pete and Stephen recommend starting small and focusing on structure before scale:
- Get a paid AI account with proper privacy controls (e.g. ChatGPT for Business or Microsoft Copilot)
- Create one custom GPT using your tone of voice, ICP and typical use cases
- Start with low-risk applications like repurposing, editing or summarising
- Use AI to save time on admin, not to replace human insight
And most importantly: don’t forget what makes content good in the first place. “Marketing is still about humans,” Stephen says. “It’s about understanding their emotions, their problems, and how you can help. There’s lots AI can help with, but empathy isn’t one of them.”
Pete sums it up simply. “The mediocre stuff won’t cut it. If you want to stand out, put the human front and centre—and use AI to make the hard bits easier, not the easy bits worse.”
Final word
AI can make your content faster. But it’s your people that make it matter.
If you’re experimenting with AI in your marketing and want to do it the right way, our fractional CMOs can help. Get in touch to see how we’re helping businesses use AI to deliver better marketing performance.
