The short answer
To write a blog post with AI, start with a brief (reader, question, your angle), research with a tool that shows sources, such as Gemini's Deep Research, which is on Google's free plan, and agree an outline before any drafting. Then draft section by section in Anthropic's Claude, whose Docs template is free and exports to Word, PDF, Markdown or Google Docs, or in Copilot in Word with Microsoft 365. Add your own examples and check every fact before publishing.
What you need before you start
- A reader and a question. "Finance managers at small firms wondering whether to automate invoice matching" is a reader and a question. "Automation" is a topic.
- Your angle. What do you know, have done or have measured that a generic article will not have? A customer story, a mistake, a number from your own work. Write it down in a few bullet points.
- Two or three examples of your best writing, so the AI can match your voice.
- A research tool that shows sources. Gemini's free plan includes Deep Research; ChatGPT lists deep research on its plans with plan-dependent limits; Claude's Research feature starts on Pro.
- A drafting tool. Claude Free (the Docs template is on every plan), ChatGPT Free, or Copilot in Word with a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium or Pro subscription or a work licence.
- An hour. A good AI-assisted post still takes time; the time just moves from typing to thinking and checking.
How to write a blog post with AI, step by step
- Write the brief. One paragraph: reader, question, your angle, the one thing the reader should do afterwards, and the length. Paste it at the top of every chat.
- Research with sources. Ask a research tool for the current facts on the question, with a link for each. Open the links. Keep only facts you have seen on a reliable page, and note the date of each.
- Agree an outline. Ask for three different outlines, pick one, then edit it yourself. Headings should be the questions your reader would type.
- Draft section by section. In Claude, select Output in the message box and choose the Docs template, or pick it from the Artifacts tab, then ask for one section at a time with your notes for that section. In Word, open Copilot in the bottom-right corner, describe the section, type / to pick a source file, and select Generate. Microsoft notes Copilot in Word can also add citations to referenced sources.
- Add what only you know. Put your example, your number or your opinion into every section. This is the part that makes the post worth reading and worth linking to.
- Fact-check and cut. Check every claim against your notes. Cut the opening paragraph (it is almost always throat-clearing) and any sentence that would fit in any article on the subject.
- Polish and package. Ask for five title options and a meta description, read the post aloud, then run a final grammar check. Claude's Docs export to Word, PDF, Markdown and Google Docs, which makes moving into your blog editor easier.
A worked example: a post for a small accounting firm
Rafael runs a five-person bookkeeping firm and wants a post titled around "should a small business automate invoice matching?".
- His brief: readers are owners of businesses with 5 to 50 staff; the question is whether automating invoice matching is worth it; his angle is that his firm moved four clients to automated matching this year and two of them went back to manual for good reasons.
- He runs Deep Research in Gemini for current information on how invoice matching works and what accounting software offers. He opens the sources and keeps five points with links.
- Claude suggests three outlines. He picks the one built around "when it works, when it does not, how to test it in a month" and renames the headings as reader questions.
- He drafts each section in a Claude Doc, pasting his notes from the four client moves. The section "when it does not work" uses his real example: a client with many small suppliers who send handwritten invoices.
- Claude's draft says automation "saves up to 80% of processing time". Rafael has no source for that, so he replaces it with his own figure: one client cut the monthly matching session from about six hours to about two.
- He cuts the first paragraph, asks for five titles, picks "Should your small business automate invoice matching? What happened when we tried it with four clients", and exports to Word for his website editor.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Asking for a whole post in one prompt. You get a generic essay. Fix: brief, outline, then one section at a time.
- Invented statistics and quotes. Models produce plausible numbers with no source. Fix: tell it to use only facts you supply, and delete any number you cannot trace to a page you opened.
- Old facts. A model's memory can be a year or more out of date. Fix: research current facts with a tool that searches and shows dates.
- A voice that sounds like everyone. Fix: paste examples of your writing and ban the phrases you hate.
- No experience in the post. Fix: add at least one real example, number or opinion per section.
- Publishing without reading it aloud. Fix: read it once out loud; you will hear the filler.
- Feeding client details into a personal account. Fix: anonymise, and switch off training (ChatGPT: Settings, Data controls, Improve the model for everyone; Claude: Settings, Privacy, Help Improve our AI models).
Which AI tool to use for blog posts
| Stage | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Research | Gemini Deep Research (free) or ChatGPT deep research | Reports with links you can open and check |
| Outline and drafting | Claude | Strong long-form writing; Docs template on every plan |
| Drafting inside Word | Copilot in Word | Drafts from your files and can add citations |
| Final polish | Grammarly | Spelling, grammar and tone; Free has 100 AI prompts a month |
Our opinion: Claude is the best drafting partner for most writers because it follows a brief and a voice well, but the tool matters less than the brief and your own material. Grammarly's training on your writing is on by default for Free and single-user Pro accounts; switch off Product Improvement and Training if that matters to you. See also the best AI for copywriting, the best AI for SEO, Claude prompts for writing, prompts for SEO and how to make AI sound like you. Tool guides: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Grammarly. Comparing them? Read ChatGPT vs Claude or Grammarly vs Claude.
What makes an AI-assisted post worth reading
The posts that get read, linked and quoted by AI answer engines tend to answer a real question directly and add something specific. In practice that means the answer in the first two sentences, headings that match how people ask, dates and numbers in the text, sources linked, and at least one thing the reader cannot get from a generic article. AI is excellent at structure, clarity and speed. It cannot supply your experience, so the post is only as good as what you bring to it.
Prompts to copy
Turn notes into a brief
Here are my notes for a blog post: [notes]. Turn them into a one-paragraph brief: the reader, the question they are asking, my angle based on my own experience, the one action they should take after reading, and a target length of [words] words. Ask me if anything is missing.
You get: A sharp brief to paste into every chat
Three outlines to choose from
Using this brief, suggest three different outlines for the post. Each heading should be a question the reader would actually type. Put my own experience in at least two sections. Tell me which outline you would pick and why.
You get: Structure options before any drafting
Draft one section
Write the section "[heading]" in about [words] words, using only these facts and my notes: [paste]. Match the voice of the writing samples I gave you. No invented statistics or quotes. Answer the heading in the first sentence.
You get: One tight, sourced section at a time
Find unsupported claims
Read this draft and list every factual claim, number, date and quote. For each, say whether it is supported by the sources and notes I gave you, and mark the unsupported ones for me to check or delete.
You get: A fact-check list
Cut the filler
Edit this post to be 20% shorter without losing any fact or example. Remove throat-clearing openings, repeated points and sentences that would fit in any article on this topic. Show me the cuts.
You get: A tighter post and a record of what changed
Titles and meta description
Suggest five titles for this post under 60 characters that promise exactly what it delivers, and a meta description of 140 to 160 characters that contains the main question and the answer.
You get: Honest titles and a search snippet