AI-Generated VS Human-Made Content: Which is Best for My Brand?

Hoshi Rae Garratt
Jun 1
4 min read

Split graphic comparing human written and AI-generated: person, brain, circuit brain, and chatbot icons on yellow and black backgrounds.

“Let’s just ask Chat to do it!”

Unless you’re living totally off-grid (if so, power to you!), it's very likely you've heard, or even said this statement yourself. From product descriptions, blog posts, and social copy (we see you, LinkedIn-fluencers…), to pictures, videos, and even entire e-books, if you can think it, there’s probably a generative-AI tool that can create it for you.

Chatbots like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini have made content creation easier than ever. With a simple prompt and click of your cursor, you can have some pretty convincing content ready in a matter of minutes.

It’s no surprise, then, that so many brands and businesses are doing just that.

From a logical standpoint, this seems to make sense! It’s certainly cheaper than hiring a professional copywriter or production company (like us! hello!), gives brands more creative control, and can be done in a fraction of the time. But surely, this new

magical tool can’t be all sunshine and rainbows? Is there a catch?

In the opinion of the Butter Popcorn team- yes, many in fact. But, of course, we’re biased, so don’t just take our word for it. In this post, we source some staggering stats to back up our claim, and compare AI-generated to human-made content, to help you decide which avenue is best for your business.

Ready? Let's go!

Traffic Jams?

AI is generally touted as a revolutionary new tech, designed to streamline our lives and effortlessly benefit our businesses. But how beneficial is it actually? Neil Patel conducted a comprehensive experiment that explores exactly that.

In his study, he posted 744 articles across 68 different websites. Half were written by a dedicated human team, and half by our ‘friendly’, water-chugging LLM, ChatGPT. The goal? To see how audiences responded differently to each. The experiment came back with some very interesting (but not entirely surprising) data.

As you can see from this handy bar chart, traffic to the AI-generated content fluctuated, though one thing remained the same: it was consistently outperformed by human-written content. The human posts saw a steady month-over-month increase and, by month 5, had almost 6x more traffic than the AI alternative.

Bar chart comparing AI Content and Human Content traffic per post over Months 1-5; human bars are higher, NP Digital infographic.

Time is of the Essence!

But of course, there are other factors to weigh up when deciding whether to use human or AI-generated content. Time is a key one.

In an age where 7.5 million new blog posts and 1.1 billion videos are shared across all social platforms DAILY, it can feel daunting to keep up. In this situation, many brands understandably turn to AI to speed up the process and get their content out before it feels stale. Here, undoubtedly, AI has the edge.

Patel’s study found that a blog post that took a human 69 minutes to write took an AI model just 16. So if time is your biggest concern, AI may be the right decision for you.

However, let’s not confuse speed with efficiency! Despite it taking longer to produce, human-written content attracted 4.10 visitors per minute spent writing. Meanwhile, AI-generated content fell short, only drawing in 3.25 visitors per minute.

Ummm… is that Right?

Okay, so human writing draws in more potential clients to your business, but is that the only upside? Is it a strong enough reason to hire a company like Butter Popcorn, instead of using a quick, reliable AI software to write your copy? Well, while we’re on the topic, let’s focus on one word there: reliable.

It’s a common misconception that AI-sourced information is error-proof, with 58% of people viewing AI systems as trustworthy, according to a global study conducted by The University of Melbourne. It’s an understandable thought. We’re taught that tech is empirical, and that AI especially is an impartial, ever-intelligent agent. However, in many cases, this couldn't be further from the truth.

To test whether ChatGPT could accurately answer questions, Canadian researchers posed more than 1,200 different statements to the chatbot: everything from facts, conspiracy theories and controversial statements, to misconceptions, stereotypes, and fiction. The results? AI “agreed with incorrect statements between 4.8% and 26% of the time.” Yikes.

Dan Brown, a computer science professor at the University of Waterloo, stated that:

“National stereotypes or racial stereotypes came up as well: ‘Asians are hard working’, ‘Italians are passionate, loud, and love pasta’, ‘Hispanics are living in poverty’, and ‘Native Americans are superstitious’.” to name just a few. "

PSA: Misinformation and racism (even unintentionally!) are never a good look for your brand.

Quality over Q-Learning AI-Generated VS Human-Made Content

So, if we’re talking purely statistically, human content takes the crown. However, there are more important considerations than just rational thought. Research from Gallup indicates that 70% of decisions, including brand preference, are actually based on emotion.

The most successful work connects with its audience, and the most successful creators, brands, and production companies use their own experience to do this.

In fact, let's look at E-A-T, a set of guidelines Google uses to assess the overall quality of web content (following them is key to better rankings!). It stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, but in late 2022, Google added an E for Experience. Why the extra letter? Because authentic, human experience matters now more than ever.

So, how does AI stack up in this category? Poorly.

Does anyone remember that slightly uncanny, AI-generated Coca-Cola Christmas ad? If you do, it’s probably not a fond memory. The ‘AI slop’ received 10,000 likes and 160,000 dislikes. The top comment on Coca-Cola’s official YouTube read,

“The most profitable commercial in Pepsi’s history,”

It's currently standing at 33,000 likes (yes, more than the video itself). AI-Generated VS Human-Made Content

The public’s reaction isn’t just a one-off: 52% of people disengage with marketing content completely the moment they realise, or even suspect, it was created with AI.

Let’s Wrap it Up

In conclusion, while it’s true that AI has shifted the game, here at Butter Popcorn, we aren't convinced that this shift is entirely positive. When it comes to content that builds trust, ranks competitively, and connects with real people, the human touch just cannot be beat.

While AI screws up your online traffic, immediately erodes trust with 52% of potential customers, and ruins your brand's reputation with cancellable copy, you miss out on a dedicated, professional production team adding value to your business.

You need more than just content. You need content that performs. With countless happy clients and boatloads of that precious experience under our belts, Butter Popcorn Productions would love to help you with all your marketing needs.

Get In Touch!