Prompt Horizon - Issue #5: Does AI-Assisted Content Rank on Google?

EDITOR'S NOTE ✍️

Hey there! Welcome to the fifth issue of Prompt Horizon.

Few topics in SEO generate as much debate as AI-generated content and its place in Google's search results. 

The pendulum of opinion has swung wildly, from early panic about automatic penalties to overconfident claims that AI can fully replace human writers.

The reality, as is often the case, lies somewhere in the middle. 

Google's stance has evolved significantly since 2022, shifting from emphasizing "content written by people" to the more nuanced "content created for people." 

This subtle but important change reflects a growing recognition that the method of creation matters less than the quality and value of the end result.

But what does this mean for marketers navigating the practical realities of content creation at scale? How do we separate fact from fiction when it comes to AI content and search rankings? And most importantly, how do we harness AI's efficiency without sacrificing the human elements that both readers and search engines value?

In this issue, we'll look at empirical evidence of how AI-generated content actually performs in search rankings, take a brief look at Google's E-E-A-T framework as it applies to AI content, and share practical strategies for finding the right balance between automation and authenticity.

Let’s go! 

PS: We’ve decided to change the format to make the newsletter more advice-based and a little less curated. Hit reply to let us know what you think! 😁

TL;DR 📝

• AI content performs nearly as well as human content in search rankings (57% vs. 58% in top 10 positions).

• The most successful content strategies use AI for scale and efficiency while preserving human expertise and experience.

• Google evaluates content based on its value to users, not its creation method.

• Adding proprietary data, unique insights, and personal experience significantly improves AI content performance.

INSIGHTS FROM THE HORIZON 🌅

You need to balance AI efficiency with human expertise in content creation

As AI writing tools become increasingly sophisticated, many marketers are wrestling with a fundamental question: How do we leverage automation for efficiency while maintaining the human elements that both readers and search engines value?

This tension is particularly acute in 2025, as the performance gap between AI and human content narrows. The risk of creating technically optimized but soulless content grows as capabilities advance.

The content creation dilemma is real: 94% of organizations now utilize AI in their marketing efforts. 

However, Google continues to emphasize E-E-A-T signals that pure AI struggles to deliver, particularly the "Experience" component that requires a genuine human perspective.

Let’s look at strategic approaches to AI-human content collaboration

The AI can’t do it all (if you’d let it, it would do a garbage job), so AI-assistance with plenty of human input and oversight is what the next era of content creation will look like (at least until the bots take over entirely 😉).

1. Use AI for research and first drafts, and humans for expertise and originality. 

Let AI handle competitive analysis, keyword research, and initial drafting, and reserve human effort for adding unique insights, personal experiences, and creative angles.

2. Feed AI proprietary data and insights that aren't available elsewhere. 

Train AI on your internal knowledge base and proprietary research. Use custom instructions that incorporate your unique expertise and perspective.

3. Establish clear roles: AI for scale, humans for depth. 

Use AI to expand content coverage across topics and keywords, then deploy human experts to add depth, nuance, and authority to high-priority content.

4. Create content workflows with built-in human checkpoints. 

Implement systematic review processes for fact-checking and citation verification. Establish clear guidelines for when human intervention is required.

5. Focus human effort on adding unique value rather than routine tasks. 

Automate repetitive aspects of content creation (outlines, basic research) and concentrate human creativity on differentiation factors that AI cannot replicate.

The most successful content strategies don't view AI as a replacement for human writers but as a powerful amplifier for human expertise. 

The goal isn't to automate content creation entirely but to use technology to handle the repetitive aspects while freeing human creators to focus on what they do best: adding unique insights, personal experience, and creative perspectives that no AI can truly replicate.

NEWS YOU CAN USE 📰

AI content performs nearly as well as human content in search rankings, with 57% of AI-generated text and 58% of human-written text appearing in the top 10 search positions. The difference across top positions was minimal, with human content edging out AI content by only 2.1 percentage points in the top position and just one percentage point in the top 10. [Source: Semrush Blog, 2024]

46% of marketers report higher rankings with AI-generated content, while only 10% saw a drop in rankings according to a recent industry survey. The remaining 36% observed no significant impact, suggesting that AI content is not inherently detrimental to SEO when properly implemented. [Source: HubSpot Report, 2025]

70.95% of AI-generated pages indexed within 36 days, demonstrating Google's acceptance of such content when properly optimized. Furthermore, websites utilizing AI content were observed to rank for over 1,000 keywords within a single month when following best practices. [Source: SE Ranking, 2025]

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT 🤖

Here’s this week’s prompt you can throw into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to create an AI-human workflow for content creation.

Act as a content operations strategist with expertise in hybrid AI-human workflows for content marketing. Help me design a scalable, repeatable content production system for my niche: [insert your niche]

Build a detailed workflow that includes:

1. Task Division

List which tasks should be handled by AI and which should be assigned to human team members. Include stages such as research, ideation, drafting, editing, Q&A, publishing, and repurposing.

2. Input Strategy

Recommend what proprietary data, audience insights, or brand knowledge should be fed into the AI to improve originality and relevance. Suggest how to structure this input (e.g. templates, prompts, knowledge base).

3. E-E-A-T Quality Control

Define a QA checklist to ensure the final content meets Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness standards. Include scoring guidelines or decision thresholds for when content can be published as-is, when edits are needed, and when human rewrite is required.

4. Success Metrics

Suggest performance metrics that go beyond traffic—such as AI engine citations, branded search growth, engagement signals, or editorial velocity.

5. Workflow Implementation

Provide a step-by-step breakdown of the content production process, including roles, responsibilities, tools, and timelines.

The prompt will help you build a repeatable, scalable content workflow that leverages AI for speed and humans for quality. 

Unlock the Power of AI With the Complete Marketing Automation Playbook

Discover how to scale smarter with AI-driven workflows that actually work. This playbook delivers:

• A detailed audit framework for your current marketing workflows

• Step-by-step guidance for choosing the right AI-powered automations

• Pro tips for improving personalization without losing the human touch

Built to help you automate the busy work and focus on work that actually makes an impact.

Steal the Playbook

WRAPPING UP 🌮

The debate around AI content and Google rankings often falls into a false binary: either AI content is automatically penalized, or it's a magical solution that eliminates the need for human writers. 

The reality is far more nuanced.

What's emerging in 2025 isn’t a competition between human and AI content but a new paradigm of collaboration. 

The most successful content strategies leverage AI's remarkable efficiency while preserving the human elements that both readers and search engines value, such as expertise, experience, and original thinking.

Perhaps the most important insight is that Google's evolution toward evaluating "content created for people" rather than "content written by people" isn't lowering the bar for quality; it's raising it. 

The focus has shifted from the method of creation to the value delivered to the end user, which ultimately demands the best of both worlds: AI's scale and efficiency combined with human creativity and expertise.

As we navigate this new horizon, the question isn't whether to use AI in content creation, but how to use it in ways that amplify rather than replace the human elements that make content truly valuable.

Until next time, keep exploring that horizon!

Alex Lielacher

P.S. If you need help creating content (human-only or AI-assisted) that ranks on Google and appears in AI search queries, click here to reach out to my agency, Rise Up Media.