176 How Podcasters can Use (Not Abuse) AI without Compromising their Brand’s Authenticity

If you listen to my last episode on AI and Podcasting then you know that we, the human podcast hosts, don’t have much to fear in terms of being usurped by our AI counterparts. At least as long as we keep it authentic and personal. 

That doesn’t mean we have to turn our back on AI. There are a lot of great AI tools for podcasters that can make your job a lot easier. But, if you use these tools poorly, the could have a really negative effect on your brand and even destroy all of that juicy authority you’ve been building for you and your business. 

In this episode, I share a few of the tools you might want consider and I include the gremlin-level warnings about how not to use them. And, I also reveal some of the AI tools I’ve been using for a long time (without ruining my brand). 

 

Here are some of the AI tools I use:

https://chat.openai.com/

https://revoicer.com/

https://otter.ai/

https://hikeseo.co/

https://www.kapwing.com/

 

It’s probably easiest to go through the process of producing an episode and talk about how AI can help or hurt along the way. 

 

Topic Generation

Language modeling and language processing AI like GPT-3 (Chat GPT is a popular free option) can generate a variety of topic ideas for your show. You can also use SEO AI tools to find topics that are in demand and will help your website’s SEO. The caution here is to make sure you don’t lose sight of the intention of your podcast and how it serves your listener. The most SEO friendly topics may be of no interest to your niche. You know your show and your audience better than AI. 

 

Script Development

There are so many tools you can use at this level from having AI completely write your script to simply using a voice-to-text AI to capture your thoughts the moment they come up so you can edit the script later. I use Otter.ai to capture my thoughts, it transcribes the recording instantly, and then I have something to start with when it comes to writing my script. 

Gremlin Warning – If you haven’t already discovered this, you soon will. AI can write your entire script. Do not do this. I repeat. Do. Not. Do. This.  Here’s why:

AI will never capture your voice properly AI is pulling from information that can be biased or inaccurate AI doesn’t know when to incorporate your amazing stories and anecdotes AI is regurgitating everyone else's ideas and you, my brilliant podcaster, are a thought leader who has amazing opinions and ideas of your own. Don’t fall for this AI trap!

 

Synthesized Voice

Yes, you can get AI to voice over your entire podcast (for example, Revoicer). But, is that why you got into podcasting? Isn’t your show about building trust and authority with your potential clients… how are they going to feel when they find out they’ve been listening to a robot? There is one cool option here…multiple languages. If you’re branching out globally, you could have AI translate and record your script in multiple languages. Just know that there could be mistakes and if you don’t speak the language, you might not catch them. But, your listener will. 

 

Editing and Mixing

AI editing has been around for a long time. I’ve never been a fan. It has gotten better but I’m still not a fan. Here’s why – you are editing the text document and it will suggest removing the ums, ahs, stumbles, breaths… basically everything that makes you sound human. If you want to sound like a robot use AI editing. By the way, I’ve had people tell me that they find certain podcasts hard to listen to because it makes them feel uneasy. It’s the AI editing! AI can create and add some really interesting music and sound effects. In my experience, it’s not much of a time saver but it can be fun. Make sure you’re doing it to enhance the episode for your listener not just to have some fun. 

 

Publication and Promotion

There are so many AI tools you can use to publish and promote your podcast. AI can give you a hand with an SEO title, it can write your description, help you out with show notes, and even come up with some catchy and visual social media posts. AI can also turn your podcast into a video (either the full episode or a promotional snippet). You can also use it to schedule posts, automate engagement, create and optimize ads, and analyze your promotional efforts. It’s a deep, deep hole, I mean well of possibilities. 

If you want to tap into AI for promotion, you’ll likely be combining various tools. I keep it pretty simple using Kapwing for promotional videos and I’ve started using ChatGPT for suggesting SEO titles. 

 

The Final Warning!

There are so many options it’s tempting to take the easy road and have AI do all the things. But don’t. AI is a great tool but you are still the one responsible for everything that is published on your podcast. So, never rip and read as we used to call it in radio. Don’t accept what AI generates as a finished draft. Re-write content. Re-design social posts. Check everything AI has created for you. 

 

The most important thing is to not lose sight of why you created this podcast in the first place and who you are creating it for (ahem, your listener). You don’t want to take any AI shortcuts that could compromise your integrity, your authority or their trust in you. 

Want to know how to stand out as a spectacularly human host in the age of AI? Check out my last episode to discover why AI hosts will never replace real, live, human podcasters.

 

And if you don’t believe me, check out my 100% AI podcast I recently shared as a bonus. 

 

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