Why AI Couldn’t Write Our Client’s Blog Post—and What That Taught Us
At ConiferCo, we pride ourselves on using the best tools available to craft compelling, high-quality content for our partners. We’re no strangers to AI—after all, it can be a useful assistant in marketing workflows. But when our client asked us to generate a blog post from a recent webinar transcript using AI, we got a firsthand reminder of why human expertise is irreplaceable.
The Experiment: Letting AI Take the First Draft
The task seemed straightforward. Our client asked us to take the transcript from their latest webinar, input it into AI to generate a blog post, and do some light editing. The goal of the blog post was to capture the key themes, highlight the most compelling takeaways, and translate an hour-long discussion into a digestible, engaging piece. This would go much faster than writing a new piece from scratch, they thought, and would allow them to get a summary piece out to their community quickly.
What the AI tool shared with us was not usable.
The AI-generated blog post lacked structure, buried or completely missed critical insights, and failed to reflect the depth of discussion that took place. The key takeaways—arguably the most important part—were vague at best, and missing at worst. Instead of producing something that truly encapsulated the value of the webinar, the result felt generic, flat, and detached from the conversation.
What Went Wrong?
AI is great at summarizing large chunks of text, but it struggles with:
Identifying what’s actually important – It can pull out words and phrases, but it doesn’t grasp nuance, emphasis, or which points resonated most with the audience.
Structuring content for readability – AI often creates content that lacks logical flow, making it harder for readers to follow along.
Maintaining voice and tone – Our client has a clear and intentional way of communicating which the AI didn’t capture.
Contextual understanding – AI doesn’t know what happened before or after the webinar, how it fits into our client's broader strategy, or why certain points matter more than others.
The Human Touch: Rewriting It from Scratch
After realizing AI’s version wouldn’t cut it, we did what we do best: we rolled up our sleeves and created the post manually. We went through the full transcript, identified the most important insights, and structured them into a clear, engaging, and informative blog post that actually reflected the depth of the webinar.
Yes, it took us longer than 20 seconds to write.
But the difference? Night and day. The final post captured our client expertise, highlighted key takeaways in a way that mattered to their audience, and told a compelling story—something AI just wasn’t able to do.
Where AI Helps—And Where It Doesn’t
AI can be useful in marketing. It can assist with brainstorming, organizing raw data, or generating outlines. But when it comes to crafting high-value content—especially for organizations like our client that rely on thoughtful, nuanced communication—AI alone won’t get the job done. It still takes human expertise to analyze, structure, and refine content in a way that truly resonates.
For our client, this experiment reinforced the importance of human-driven storytelling. And for us at ConiferCo, it was a solid reminder that while AI has its place, it’s no substitute for strategic, intentional content creation.
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