We’re all using Ai in may forms both directly and indirectly and it’s used extensively in everything from manufacturing to healthcare. Most of the programs we use to generate copy or art in our businesses (such as Canva, Adobe, Microsoft, Google and more), have included Ai in their programs. But for us average users who just want a little help composing marketing copy or better understanding a new concept, it’s all about the Ai search engine. While Ai can generate anything from text to images to music, I’m going to assume that most of our readers are using it for text.

As a writer and marketing guru, I resisted Ai. Perhaps I even resented it. Can you relate? But I can’t deny it’s benefit. I’ve used several including ChatGPT, Jasper, Bard and Perplexity.

I categorize my usage into two types: factual data and copywriting. We’ve all heard the horror stories of incorrect data in Ai answers—cities that never existed, legal case reference to non-existing cases and more. Ai lies to us. But it’s not intentional. Ai sometimes draws incorrect conclusions from limited knowledge. If you use it for factual data, check the facts.

If you’re using Ai for copywriting, you can proceed with confidence. After all, you are editing the text right? Being a creative writer, I use it when my brain runs out of juice, or words. It’s excellent at bringing phrases and concepts to the forefront.

This is why we use Perplexity. My favorite benefit is that it sources the information in it’s answers. This allows me to easily check the facts. Perplexity prioritizes its sources for reliability (think academic and trusted news sources) and give more thorough answers.

An interesting exercise is to ask the exact same question to several Ai tools and see the difference in the answers. That’s what I did and Perplexity won. How you use Ai is a personal choice which will drive your selection. But I’d start with Perplexity. Yes, I used Perplexity to answer my questions before writing this and no, we’re not being paid to say this!