I'm curious about your experiences with different generative AI platforms (more specifically Writer and Jasper). What platforms have your teams used and liked or disliked? Any quick wins or major challenges to note?

Both Writer and Jasper have their strengths, depending on your team’s needs.

Writer is ideal for teams that prioritize brand consistency, offering tools to align content with style guidelines and integrate into enterprise workflows. It excels at creating highly customized, on-brand content, but setup and training can take time.

Jasper is more user-friendly and versatile, with prebuilt templates for everything from blog posts to ads. It’s great for teams needing quick, general content but can lack the depth of customization that Writer provides.

If you need enterprise-level control, go with Writer. For faster, plug-and-play content creation, Jasper is a solid choice.

I use WriterAI extensively for:
1. Summarizing analyst and vendor reports for consumption by others. It does a pretty good job of this using 'document mode'. 
2. Helping to draft content. I've created 800 word blog posts in a matter of a few hours, using WriterAI to build the framework and help build out content. It's useful for creating flow, choosing between ideas and content versions and simplifying content. I rarely am able to use its output as final - I'm always having to make tweaks. Do not ask it to create content from start to finish or you'll end up with vanilla mediocrity. You have to supply the core ideas for it to work from if you want to create something meaningful.
3. Creating self-assessments for annual reviews. Massive time saver.
4. Creating punchy short-form content - think ledes. It's not always about getting final product than it is getting inspiration.

The bad:
You sometimes have to tell it to stop adding extraneous ideas that are either some element of what's being hyped in the moment, conventional wisdom, or just simply random ideas. This is all possible to manage through prompts, although those commands do not survive between sessions. 

The takeaway:
I get far better results than many of my peers, but as I tell them, you're only as good as your prompts

** Real-world example **

My review having running it through Writer:

I use WriterAI extensively for several tasks:

Summarizing Analyst and Vendor Reports: It does a great job of condensing these reports for easy consumption by others using 'document mode.'

Drafting Content: I can create 800-word blog posts in just a few hours by leveraging WriterAI to build the framework and assist with content development. It helps with creating flow, choosing between ideas and content versions, and simplifying the text. However, I rarely use its output as-is; I usually need to make tweaks. Asking it to create content from start to finish often results in generic, mediocre content. To get meaningful results, you need to provide the core ideas.

Creating Self-Assessments for Annual Reviews: This is a massive time-saver.

Generating Punchy Short-Form Content: Think of it as a tool for inspiration rather than a final product. It's great for crafting compelling ledes and other brief, impactful content.

The Bad:

Sometimes, WriterAI adds extraneous ideas that are either trendy, based on conventional wisdom, or just random. While you can manage this through prompts, the commands don't carry over between sessions.

The Takeaway:

I achieve better results than many of my peers, but as I often tell them, your success with WriterAI is directly tied to the quality of your prompts.

It really depends on what you're looking to achieve.

I've been using generative AI since before it gained mainstream popularity, and a few years ago, Jasper stood out as a leader in the space. Its features, like a private knowledge base, pre-built templates, and seamless SEO integration for web content creation, made it a standout tool—especially for marketing-focused tasks.

Today, I still rely on Jasper and particularly love the Chrome extension. It’s incredibly handy for refining rough drafts, whether it’s an email or a piece of text, with Jasper’s help to polish it up, but I also use a few others like Perplexity, Gemini and Chat GPT to through round rough ideas and take the best outputs forward for final edits. I still use Jasper most for my final edits as it seems to have learned my style quite well, so I do less final editing.

I briefly explored Writer but didn’t find enough to warrant switching for my personal needs. However, it did seem like it could be a better option for larger teams.

I have not used either of these AI companion solutions but have found success with a mix of GPT solutions like: Chat GPT 4.0 or 1.0/Meta Lama/ etc.