When it comes to copywriting, AI is both underleveraged and overused. Ignoring AI leaves you behind, but overreliance fuels the slopification of the web. 

When applied strategically, AI can help you research faster, write more efficiently, and improve output without diluting what makes your content human. 

In this article, I’ll show you how to strike that balance through my battle-tested AI content writing process.

When writing with AI, the key is to use it at the edges and protect the middle step — the actual writing — ensuring it stays entirely human and keeps its jagged shape.

Here’s what the process looks like at a glance:

• Conduct research, using AI to accelerate learning when needed
• Use AI to create an outline and content brief
• Write freely without assistance
• Use AI to edit and enhance the draft
• Format for scannability with AI support

Sting once said that the element of surprise is part of writing a great song. We’ll keep that spirit intact in our work by preserving the quirks, nuances, and idiosyncrasies that make writing human.

This framework adapts easily to home pages, service pages, and product pages with minor adjustments. For clarity, I’ll apply it here to a blog post since it offers the most straightforward example.

First, let’s pick a topic: how to make my dog less clingy. 
Run your idea through Moz’s Keyword Research > Explore by Keyword to see if there’s any search interest. 

11 volume with a 35 difficulty — we can do better.

Go to Keyword Suggestions > Similar SERPs > By Keyword to highlight related keywords.

Here, I found “Why is my dog so clingy all of a sudden.” 

546 volume with a 30 difficulty, much better!

Before creating an outline, it’s important to spend time learning about the topic so you can portray some expertise. You need a system to extract and apply subject matter expertise in a way that improves content quality.

AI tools like NotebookLM can help you quickly ramp up, but they don’t replace expert-led content.

Here’s how to use it for focused learning:

• Start a new notebook
• Click Add sources
• Paste your topic
• Vet and add relevant sources

Within seconds, NotebookLM surfaces up to 10 sources. For many users, this becomes an immediate favorite feature. 

Select all sources and click import.

On the right side, go to Reports and generate a ‘Briefing Doc.’ 

Read the brief to quickly get an overarching sense of the topic.
You can prompt further if needed, and NotebookLM remains grounded in the sources you’ve added.

To reinforce your understanding, use the Quiz feature to test your knowledge.

If you score below 90%, do a little more studying and prompting. Confidence in the source material dramatically accelerates the writing phase.

Next, enter your topic into Moz’s AI Content Brief. Choose Blog Post as your content type and click Generate.

The first thing I see is an overview of the target audience, which helps me understand who I’m writing for. I also appreciate the sample summary that provides a high-level topic overview.

Next, review the suggested content structure. You’ll see the major sections Moz is recommending, with up to 3 subsections. You can also personalize the brief by adding or removing subheadings to make the brief stand out.

Pay close attention to Keywords to Focus On and What’s Already Ranking. For this topic, you might notice the term “velcro dog.” Aside from being memorable, it’s a valuable term to incorporate strategically.

The Interesting Facts to Consider section surfaces supporting ideas that strengthen depth and authority.

Export a PDF or Docx, and you’re ready to rock.

If you want maximum efficiency without sacrificing quality, use the Claude mobile app to record yourself:

• Have the content brief handy, focusing on the suggested structure
• Tell Claude you’re about to dictate a blog post
• Work through each section of the content outline
• Ask Claude to format the dictation once complete

You can record up to 10 minutes at a time. If you reach the limit mid-outline, pause and resume as you would with an assistant. 

Continue working through the remaining sections until the draft is complete.

Another tip is to take the outline you generated with Moz AI Content Brief and ask Claude to reformat each section header into an interview-style question. 

Many writers find they produce stronger insights in a Q&A format.

Regardless of your method, let the ideas flow naturally. Keep brand guidelines nearby to ensure tone, voice, and positioning stay aligned.

Let’s make sure we didn’t go rogue and hallucinate. For this step, use NotebookLM again.

First, verify accuracy on the topic:

• Return to your learning notebook
• Add your draft as a source (it’s usually too long for the prompt field), and give it an obvious name
• Tell NotebookLM you’ve added your draft and ask it to check the draft for accuracy against the rest of your source material

Here’s what it looks like within the tool:

Next, verify accuracy and alignment against client information.

At Sixth City Marketing, we build Client Notebooks that house onboarding materials, website copy, brand guidelines, and more.

If you don’t already do this, I highly recommend it because it pays off immediately in quality control.

Add your draft as a source, name it, and then request an alignment check against the client info.

These checks save time on quality assurance and keep clients happier.

Retention, anyone?

For editing, I recommend using a Claude Project.

The goal is to generate suggestions you can realistically implement in one sitting. If you don’t specify this constraint, the tool will suggest additions like “include case studies.” 

Thanks, Claude, but that can take days or weeks for some clients.

Here’s a free prompt to create an AI content editor in Claude Project:

After creating your project, drop your draft in and hit Enter.

This prompt consistently delivers practical recommendations that you or a copywriter can implement to give the writing a final lift. Use it as a baseline and adapt it to your workflow.

When writing, you’ll notice the prompt references brand guidelines. So, add your brand guidelines directly to your prompt. 

Now we're going to make this pretty. 

Formatting matters because humans need content they can scan quickly to find information. Also, autonomous users such as search engine bots and large language models need a clean structure for efficient parsing and interpretation.

You can satisfy both with good formatting. 

We’ll use a Claude Project again, focusing on two elements:

• A detailed, structured prompt
• Explicit instruction to use the DOCX formatting capability

Drafts often contain dense paragraphs or feel visually flat. Running them through a structured formatter transforms them into something more dynamic, scannable, and strategically organized.

Expect elements like:

• Key takeaways with visual emphasis
• Bolded callouts
• Structured lists
• Tables where appropriate

Here’s an example of formatting I did with Claude.

Remember, it's best to think of the output as a list of suggestions. You can modify things or add ideas, but Claude gives you a head start. Use emojis sparingly and only when they align with the client’s voice.

Here’s a link to create your AI Content Formatter with Claude Projects.

There is ONE more step I’ve been applying to my writing more recently, and I wanted to share it because it has been getting amazing results.

It makes the writing so much more engaging and is best applied before the editing step.

I created this workflow by compiling YouTube transcripts of Mr. Beast’s best advice on making content as engaging as possible and turning them into a system prompt.

Here’s a free prompt to get Beastly Feedback with Claude Projects.

I know it’s a little cheesy, but I think you’ll be surprised at how thoughtful the suggestions are. 

Use tools like Claude Projects and Moz’s AI Content Brief to streamline research, outlining, editing, and formatting.

You’ll save time on the most important part of the process — the middle, where human expertise, judgment, and quirkiness live.