AI can draft fast. What makes a product good is the human step in between. Here’s a workflow where AI does the heavy lifting and you keep quality, honesty and rights under control.
The pipeline
- Brief (human): audience, goal, tone, length, and what must not appear.
- Draft (AI): an outline first, then content. Ask for sources whenever there are facts.
- Edit (human): cut fluff, fix the voice, and check that it makes sense for the reader.
- Verify (human, AI-assisted): facts against sources, plus an image and rights check.
- Publish and log: keep the prompts, model and version used, and what you changed. This helps with disclosure and with fixing problems later.
By product type
Websites: AI is strong at page structure, first-draft copy and code scaffolding. The human checks are accessibility (alt text, contrast), every claim and price, broken links, and the privacy policy if you collect anything. Never ship AI-written security code without review.
Ebooks: AI helps with outlines, chapter drafts and editing passes. Check facts in every chapter, watch for repetition, and run a plagiarism check. Know the rules of your store: for example, Amazon KDP asks publishers to disclose AI-generated content when they publish.
Children’s illustrated stories:
- Text: age-appropriate vocabulary, and nothing scary or unsafe that you didn’t intend. Read it aloud.
- Illustrations: check for consistent characters, extra fingers or garbled text in images, and no lookalikes of copyrighted characters.
- Rights: in the US, the Copyright Office has said that purely AI-generated material isn’t copyrightable, while human authorship (selection, arrangement, edits) can be (USCO AI guidance). Plan around that if you want to own and license the work.
Short videos: AI helps with scripts, storyboards, voice-over and generated clips. Check for licensed music, likeness rights (never use a real person’s face or voice without consent), and on-screen text accuracy. Label synthetic media where platforms require it.
Quality-control checklist (print it)
- Every fact has a source I opened
- No invented quotes, reviews, testimonials or “I tested this” claims
- Images checked for artifacts and lookalike characters
- Reading level fits the audience
- Rights: fonts, music, images, likenesses
- AI disclosure where the platform or law requires it
- A second human (or a cold read the next day) before publishing
Private, home-hosted option
Run drafting on a local model for unpublished manuscripts (private AI assistant). Image and video generation usually needs a strong GPU locally, or a cloud service. Check its terms on commercial use and training on your uploads.
Difficulty and cost
- Difficulty: beginner to start. The skill is in the editing.
- Cost: ranges from free (local models) to subscription-based image and video tools.