The Intersection of AI and Content Strategy: What You Need to Know in 2025
- Katie Simpson
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
Artificial intelligence (AI) is here and already changing the game for content strategy. Whether you're a content strategist, UX writer, or digital product leader, AI is no longer optional to understand. It's essential.
Beyond the buzz and fear, there are 5 things you need to know in 2025.
1. AI Isn’t Replacing Strategists—It’s Empowering Them
I know so many in this field have wondered, “Is AI going to take my job?” Instead, I’m asking, “what part of my work is AI making easier?”
AI is shifting the role of content professionals. We’re evolving from crafting every single word to something larger. We’re becoming orchestrators of content systems, design patterns, and scalable experiences.
ChatGPT or Jasper can generate first drafts, summarize research, or personalize content. But they still need human oversight, contextual judgment, and strategy. They don’t understand nuance, empathy, or voice and tone like we do.
The win: AI frees up time so you can focus on higher-order tasks—like designing systems, or aligning content to user needs.
2. Structured Content Is the Foundation
AI thrives on patterns and predictability. That’s where structured content comes in.
When content is built with reusable components, like tagged fields, metadata, and modular templates, it becomes more searchable and AI-ready. This help omnichannel publishing and enables AI to pull the right content for the right context.
Structured content can be the blueprint that ensures your AI works for you.
The win: If your content is structured well, AI can help automate delivery, suggest improvements, and even localize at scale.
3. Taxonomy is Your New Best Friend
AI needs more than patterns. It needs context—and taxonomy provides it. By using controlled vocabularies, AI can understand the relationships and themes of your content. If your structured content is a blueprint, taxonomy gives AI the guidance for how to navigate it.
Imagine a support site that uses AI to surface relevant answers. Without a well-governed taxonomy, even the smartest model won’t know what to show and when to show it.
The win: Taxonomy helps AI serve up the right content to the right person at the right time. This improves discoverability and customer satisfaction.
4. Content Governance is Critical
AI doesn’t inherently know what’s on-brand or legally sound. If AI is helping you create more content than ever before, governance must scale with it.
Content strategists and content operations are uniquely positioned to lead here. They’re critical as you create in an AI-augmented environment. It will impact various policies and frameworks including:
Style guides
Voice and tone frameworks
Documentation processes
Review workflows
Usage policies
The win: Content governance ensures AI-generated content reflects your brand. It can keep AI aligned to your voice, stay consistent, and reduce risk.
5. Ethical AI Requires Human-Led Strategy
We’ve seen the ways AI can perpetuate bias and misinformation when left unchecked. If we want better outcomes for everyone, content strategists must remain involved.
Content strategists can define how AI is implemented, trained, and monitored. This expertise is critical throughout the process including:
Deciding what datasets to use
Validating outputs
Setting ethical guardrails.
The win: Content strategy doesn’t just help AI go faster and scale. It also ensures that AI supports inclusion, transparency, and trust.
Final Thoughts
The intersection of AI and content strategy isn’t a clash of automation vs. artistry: It’s about evolution. AI opens doors to deeper personalization, smarter delivery, and faster iteration. But it’s content strategists who lay the groundwork for these systems to succeed.
The next stage of great digital experiences is here. It's led by those who see AI as a collaborative tool, not a competitor.
Want help future-proofing your content strategy or making your systems AI-ready? Word Nerds LLC is ready to support your journey.
Comments