AI Writer Review: How It Works, Features, Pricing and More
AI-Writer Review: How It Works, Features, Pricing, and More
AI-Writer is a relative newcomer to the market of AI-powered writing tools. In fact, it popped up right around the same time many other startups were jumping on the GPT3 bandwagon and promising to offer the fastest and most reliable AI content anywhere.
In AI-Writer's case, they declare their content to be the "most accurate," which is tough to ignore. In light of growing concerns over the potential errors to be found in AI-generated content, it's a big deal for a tool to promise to save you the hassle of fact-checking (and the brand damage that could come along with forgetting).
Like other AI tools, AI-Writer is also bound to reduce the hours needed to plan and create content, with the platform saying it will cut the time you spend in half. With bold statements like this, it begs the question: Does AI-Writer live up to its promises?
Key Features
Sub-Topic Discovery
Coming up with content ideas has never been easy, especially if you don't have extra hours to thumb through social media feeds and spy on your competitor's blogs. Add to the equation the importance of assessing keyword data and search trends, and content planning can easily become a full-time job.
AI-Writer seeks to simplify the content planning workflow by incorporating AI tools into the process. In the spotlight is the (Sub)Topic Discoverer, which AI-Writer touts as a powerhouse that can figure out what others in your industry are writing about and what Google searchers are looking for, and come up with the perfect topic based on that information.
If it works as intended, AI-Writer is right in saying that this tool will provide an endless stream of topics. Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of content to be found on the platform's website. The most information you can glean about this tool is found in a short video.
This shows an example where a user enters "healthy eating" into the search bar and AI-Writer quickly returns a list of "ideas," which add modifiers to the original keyword, like so:
-
"healthy eating, foods"
-
"healthy eating, whole grains"
-
"healthy eating, good nutrition"
-
"healthy eating, major food groups"
This list goes on for quite awhile in the same fashion, and the user can check boxes next to any idea, then click the "Write Articles" button to move to the "Research and Write" tool.
Turn Headlines Into Drafts
Once you have a headline generated by the (Sub)Topic Discoverer or typed in manually, you can use the Research and Write tool to generate a draft. AI-Writer is unique in that it does not ask for any information other than the prompt (like "healthy eating, foods") and the length for your article.
When viewing is on the draft, you'll notice that there are no sub-headings. However, there are citations, and that's what makes this tool unique. At the bottom, you'll find a complete list of the sources used by the AI tool and in-text citations have been included throughout so that you can see where any given statement originated from.
Another thing that's unique to AI-Writer is that it shows you a uniqueness score. In the example they give in their tutorial video, the article has a 90% uniqueness score. If you want, you can have the tool highlight the text that has been directly taken from other sources without being rewritten.
Optimization Tools
AI-Writer promises that its optimization tool gives you a 73.47% ranking advantage, but they offer no explanation for this figure (nor source, ironically). However, the SEO editor itself appears unassuming. It's not dissimilar to the concepts employed by the contextual keyword optimization tools offered by Frase or ClearScope but with a simpler interface.
After choosing your primary keyword, a document will open where you can put your article in. The top of the page will then show a list of semantic terms that should be incorporated throughout your piece to increase its relevancy. For instance, an article about "healthy eating," it suggests "healthy diet" and "healthy foods," among many others.
As you add the recommended terms, the article's score will increase. The goal is to get as many points as possible. The more points your article has, the more likely AI-Writer says it is to rank in the top spot.
Automated Rewriting
If you have a piece of content that you like, why write your own when AI-Writer can simply rephrase it for you? Content spinners have been around for decades, and they have come under much criticism for skirting plagiarism detectors, but not exactly being plagiarism free.
Spun content also poses implications for SEO as it adds absolutely no more value than the piece of content you're plugging in, and often has reduced readability as paragraphs have simply been swapped around and terms changed for synonyms.
AI-Writer's rewording tool is a content spinner, so you'll need to consider these implications. The platform suggests using this tool to rewrite your own content that might appear in multiple places throughout your site — such as your "about us" blurb that you put at the end of articles — to avoid duplicate content penalties. That's a far better use for the tool than plugging in competitors’ content and trying to produce something equal.
Pros of AI-Writer
Built-In Citations
The overarching promise that is supposed to set AI-Writer apart from the rest is the fact that there is an auditable trail of citations within the AI-generated content. Users get excited about this because it means they can instantly see where any claim or statistic comes from and ensure that it was portrayed accurately.
Fresh Data Sources
AI-Writer states that it has the freshest data sources, with an up-to-date knowledge base that ensures the most recent and accurate information for every article. They compare this to other AI writing tools, which often use static databases that may only be updated every few months. If true, this means that AI-Writer can comment on current events that some other AI tools may not have any knowledge of.
Publishing Tools
While you're in the process of streamlining your content publishing workflow with the help of AI writing tools, why not take it a step further and help yourself effortlessly get that content on your site? If your website runs on WordPress, AI-Writer makes it possible with its own WordPress publishing tool. Just connect your site and send your content right over.
Cons of AI-Writer
No Help Center
While most tech-forward tools have adopted chatbots to provide around-the-clock assistance when the actual support team is offline, AI-Writer seems to have taken the opposite approach. If you want to reach someone at AI-Writer, you will need to use the contact email provided in the footer. There is no contact form on the website.
Overall, the AI-Writer website is quite thin. Aside from the home page, the only other content to be found before signing up is the section titled "Tutorials." This is a collection of a handful of videos showing how to perform various actions within the platform, each one narrated by AI. There is no text to accompany these videos and no captions, either.
No Known Refund Policy
Adding to that "fly-by-night" feel that AI-Writer projects, there is no page to be found describing the platform's refund policy. In fact, there is only one page at all discussing terms, simply titled "Legal" in the footer. This is where you'll find the privacy policy.
The legal page also has the company's address, revealing that they're headquartered in Dubai. It's unknown where the support team is located, but if they are also in Dubai, North American customers might experience long wait times when trying to reach the support team.
Oversimplified Interface
Ignoring the basic aesthetics of the AI-Writer interface, the oversimplification of the whole toolkit can take it from user-friendly to convoluted very quickly. For instance, while many AI writing tools allow you to put in detailed prompts, AI-Writer really only lets you use a headline. They pose this as a benefit, but there aren't even controls to determine important aspects like tone.
The oversimplified interface also lends itself to user errors that could actually harm the performance of your content. For instance, in the SEO editor, the score is based merely on the number of contextual terms you include. This means that a novice user might start plugging in a bunch of terms assuming they're improving the article's rankability, while they'll actually end up penalized for keyword stuffing.
Compare that to the interface of a more advanced contextual optimization tool like ClearScope and the difference is obvious. With ClearScope, terms are grouped semantically and the tool even shows how many times it's recommended to use each one. Plus, if you hover over the term, you can see examples of how the term is used, helping you to provide more relevant content to the user instead of just adding a term without need.
Pricing
Basic Plan
AI-Writer markets its basic plan to solopreneurs, bloggers, and startups who only need a few pieces of content each month. This plan costs $29/month and offers access to everything, including the AI text generator, SEO editor, text rewording tool, sub-topic discovery tool, WordPress publishing tool, and the API.
This plan includes:
-
1 user seat
-
Up to 40 articles per month
If you use all 40 article credits each month, you'll pay an average of 72 cents per credit. You can also opt to pay annually and get two months free, bringing the yearly price to $290.
Standard Plan
AI-Writer markets its standard plan to freelance writers who produce "oodles of content" every month. This plan costs $59/month and offers access to all the same tools as the basic plan, with the added perks of:
-
1 user seat
-
Up to 150 articles per month
If you use all 150 article credits each month, you'll pay an average of 40 cents per credit. You can also opt to pay annually and get two months free, bringing the yearly price to $590.
Power Plan
AI-Writer markets its power plan to anyone with serious demands for fresh content, like marketing agencies and large companies. This plan costs $375/month and offers access to all the same tools as the basic plan, with the added perks of:
-
10 user seats
-
Up to 1,000 articles per month
If you use all 1,000 article credits each month, you'll pay an average of 37 cents per credit. As with the other plans, you can also opt to pay annually and get two months free, bringing the yearly price to $3,750.
Reviews
Being a fairly new platform, AI-Writer has only seven reviews on G2 with an average rating of 3.6 stars. Users point out the following positives about the platform:
"One of my biggest challenges was consistently producing new, engaging content at scale. AI-Writer has been a great help in solving this problem for me." - Moosin S.
"I appreciate the way it generates high-quality SEO content which fits directly with my niche." - Munyaradzi M.
"It takes seconds to churn an almost unique article with at least 70% success rate. Non plagiarized as it details every single link source, it's used. Amazing AI research skills." - Anusonia J.
With these things in mind, none of these reviewers give the platform a perfect score. The most common complaints center around the user interface, which customers say is very basic compared to competitors like Jasper AI.
One user even suggested that it looked as though AI-Writer was planning to flood the interface with ads in the future, though that's unlikely now that the platform is out of its free beta stage.
Users also complained that the SEO editor lacked features, such as an optimization score and proper search engine analysis. These are two prominent perks of more seasoned and advanced platforms like Frase. Overall, AI-Writer might have a ways to go when it comes to being a well-rounded platform.
How AI-Writer Uses AI
Unfortunately, there is no information available about how AI-Writer actually employs AI technology. Many companies in this industry brag about how they have proprietary AI models and specialized data sets to provide you with the best content possible, but that's not the case with AI-Writer.
As with many questions you may have about the service, they'll likely go unanswered. The website is basically a single page and with no help center or FAQ section, there just isn't a lot to go on.
Is AI-Writer Original and Factual?
AI-Writer claims to offer the "most accurate" AI-generated content on the internet and goes on to claim that it is 100% unique. Without a doubt, a tool that includes citations is extremely valuable. However, AI-Writer might be misleading users when they imply what these citations mean.
Promises like "100% unique" when the tool itself only rates its sample articles as about 90% unique are blatantly misleading. It also implies that maybe the team behind AI-Writer doesn't understand the nuances of plagiarism. Just because you cite your source does not mean that you can take the words out of the author's mouth.
Beyond citing a source, anti-plagiarism laws require you to put quotations around exact phrasings (which AI-Writer does not do, although it will highlight these passages for you if you ask). If you take most or all of the information from a single source, you're also required to add an original insight or perspective to the piece.
All in all, AI-Writer is on the right track with citing its sources, but it's overselling the idea that this alone will protect you from factual errors and plagiarism. You'll still want to use a plagiarism checker if you use this tool, and always read through AI-generated content in full to ensure there are no errors.
Can AI-Writer Replace a Human Writer?
AI-Writer cannot replace a human writer. It is one of the less advanced tools of its kind, which is unfortunate since it has the unique ability to cite sources. It seems the developers may have spent so much time on the citations, that they haven't really had the chance to develop the actual AI models that are responsible for producing quality, engaging content.
The biggest reasons why AI-Writer can't replace a human, and likely won't be able to any time soon, include the facts that:
-
You're limited to very basic prompts
-
There is no way to set the tone of the writing
-
The AI tool does not include sub-headings
-
The text can read as very top-level
While no AI-generated content can compare to the unique insights that a human writer offers, AI-Writer struggles to meet even the basic standards that make an article an article. In the absence of sub-headings and a tone that matches your brand, a human will definitely need to polish the content before it goes live.
How Does AI-Writer Help a Human Writer?
At Scripted, we've embraced AI tools as a form of assistive technology and many powerful tools on the market could be valuable in this sense. However, AI-Writer does not appear to be one of them. With so many other more advanced AI tools out there, this platform doesn't produce content of workable quality.
You'll likely end up needing to do substantial work to remove redundancy and make it rank-worthy, especially if it's a long-form piece of content. Additionally, without a true research tool to build an outline, you'll have to spend your own time finding the valuable sub-headings, topics, and questions that AI-Writer didn't pick up on. Working with a better tool from the get-go would likely take far less time and yield better results.
This is not to say that the platform is valueless. The SEO editor is a good start if you're trying to help your content rank, assuming you understand the best practices of keyword optimization, like keyword density, and that you will take the time to build out content around the term rather than simply plugging it in. Still, better contextual optimization platforms exist.
Overall, if you use AI-Writer, you might find yourself spending extra time reading through what it has provided and planning new content around it. Truly, the only perk of the platform is that it cites its own sources — and a human can do that with relative ease.
The First Free Platform Offering Both Human and AI Content Writing
What's Next for AI Writing Tools?
AI-Writer is on the right track because one of the biggest debates around generative AI technologies is that these tools are being built on top of millions of people's work, and those people aren't getting due credit. However, citations alone can't solve this ethical and legal dilemma on a large enough scale.
Here at Scripted, we believe that generative AI will continue to play a growing role in how people plan, research, and write their content, but we don't believe it has the power to replace the unique insights of a human, especially a subject matter expert. As such, we've introduced powerful AI technologies in select places, like with our Smart Content Brief tool for clients and Scout, our assistive AI for writers.
For content marketers, properly using AI tools can save hours of time each week and even help you narrow in on better content. For instance, the move toward conversational interfaces is will make it easier to learn about your industry, competitors, and search trends in a snap, allowing you to refine your content plans accordingly.
Still, humans will continue to have an essential role to play in the actual creative process. While AI may be able to reduce the time spent covering general and fundamental information, the subject matter experts will bring the first-hand experiences and expertise that Google — and readers at large — increasingly want to see.
How Scripted Can Help
If you're looking to utilize AI tools to reduce the time you spend on marketing and SEO, without losing the essential human touch, Scripted strikes the perfect balance.
Scripted's subject matter experts can write the in-depth content you need in a voice that perfectly matches your brand. Meanwhile, you can take advantage of AI-powered tools like our headline generator to breeze through the planning process.
When you need that basic, fundamental content, Scripted even offers AI writing tools to generate it in an instant. That means you don't have to bounce between two different platforms to get all of the content you're after, and you have industry experts on tap to step in and help whenever you need it.
If you're interested in learning more about how Scripted can help streamline your content marketing efforts and maintain the exceptional quality you expect, why not see it in action? Start your free trial today!