Will AI become your new colleague on the web editorial team?

The rise of AI is impacting the creative sector and our role as an agency. This can sometimes feel like a threat. However, we prefer to see artificial intelligence as a tool to work more efficiently—for ourselves and our clients. After all, how great is it to not have to rewrite hundreds of web pages manually?

It makes developing a new website much more manageable, both financially and in terms of required manpower. Using a real-world example, we’d love to show you how we can help you leverage AI.

Threat or opportunity?

Opinions on AI are quite divided. Some people fear losing their jobs, while others envision the rise of Skynet (for the Terminator fans among us 🤖). On top of that, the relentless pace of developments can feel intimidating.

At TD, we acknowledge these concerns but also see the clear advantages of AI. In fact, we use artificial intelligence in our daily work—but never as an end in itself, nor as a replacement for our creativity, and always in moderation. For example, when we need to write a regex for a secure password, Copilot assists us with coding. If we require a note-taker, Krisp transcribes our Teams calls and creates summaries. To check an English email for proper spelling, Grammarly reviews it with us. And when we receive a landscape photo but need a portrait version, Photoshop’s AI Generative Fill provides a quick solution.

Making websites more accessible with AI

But we also make AI work for our clients. For example, we recently implemented an AI tool in the CMS of a website, which saved the client a tremendous amount of work. The reason for this was, among other things, the accessibility requirements that organizations like housing corporations, municipalities, and government bodies must comply with.

In the digital world, this often leads to the mention of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). These are guidelines for designing, building, and maintaining websites and apps, which we apply regularly. In addition to functional guidelines, there are also guidelines for language use. If you need to rewrite all web content based on these guidelines, it can quickly become a daunting task. This was the case for one of our clients—a housing corporation for which we also created a new website after a rebranding. Thanks to the implementation of an AI tool and the formulation of the right prompts, we were able to make a significant difference. This client now had everything in hand to address the issue. The tool in question checks whether the texts meet the required B1 language level, considering word choice, sentence structure, and even the avoidance of metaphors. This saved them from hiring an external accessibility expert or tying up their own web editors or communicators.

AI writes alongside the web editor and hits the right note

But in addition to creating accessible language, this AI tool also helped convey the brand voice. During the rebranding process, we developed a new tone-of-voice, and implementing it across more than 400 web pages was nearly impossible. That’s why we had the AI tool rework the old texts into a fresh format, based on specific prompts, allowing us to retain full control. And while you’re at it, you can also ask the AI tool to perform an SEO optimization, such as improving the structure with logical subheadings and bullet points. All of this while maintaining semantic HTML. That way, everything is perfectly ready for the website launch!

Does AI make communication professionals and copywriters redundant?

The answer is NO! But the nature of the work does shift. And it’s not just about implementing AI tools in websites. Writing masterful prompts is a skill in itself. The more complete and clear the prompt you give to the AI, the more accurate the result. It is also crucial to have the AI output reviewed and fine-tuned by a human, as odd results or missing information are not out of the question. But even with these extra checks, the time savings are substantial. For example, if it usually takes you an hour to rewrite a web page, compared to just 15 minutes to check the AI’s revisions, for a website with 400 pages, you’d save 300 hours of a web editor’s time!

In conclusion

Our experiences with the AI editor have certainly left us wanting more. We are exploring ways to make it even easier for our clients. For example, we are currently working on the development of a before/after view, allowing you to compare the output with the input and also make iterations on the input if you’re not completely happy with the result.

In short, AI gives us—and you—superpowers to get work done faster, more efficiently, and (perhaps most importantly) better. This means more time to deliver top-quality work in other areas. But we also believe in boundaries. The goal is not for AI to do all the work for us. We use it where it provides an advantage, so we have more time to focus on the work where we can add the most value. After all, it should still be fun!

….and the AI version of this?
Curious to see what the tool does with this text, the AI version can be read here.