The art of letting AI handle the boring stuff.

Katie Rickson is a copywriter who works on everything from annual reports to case studies. She's also someone whose view on AI has shifted significantly. Initial scepticism has given way to working with it as a trusted collaborator.

Her story is one of a growing number where creatives are finding their own way to work with AI, without losing what makes their work theirs.

Anyone who's transcribed an interview word-for-word, or stared at an empty screen waiting for inspiration, will recognise the problem Katie was trying to solve. She used to rely on basic transcription tools that would spit out 15-20 pages of raw text for every hour-long conversation. Organising it took hours that could have gone into creative work.

Now she uses Contented across her client work. She says AI has given her the confidence to take on bigger projects. Instead of drowning in admin, she can focus on what she does best, interpreting information and adding her voice to every piece.

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AI also lets her catch the small, human moments that make stories come alive. Katie was interviewing someone for a book when a helicopter flew overhead. That random moment triggered a memory for her interviewee about growing up near rescue helicopters. Because Katie wasn't buried in note-taking, she caught it and wove it into the story.

Katie is also a mental health and neurodiversity advocate. She lives with bipolar, and Contented helps her create presentations, articulating what she wants to say and refining the details for her slides.

The lesson from Katie's experience is that AI works best when it handles the routine, mechanical parts of the process, so people can focus on the creative work only they can do. As Katie puts it:

"When technology becomes the end rather than the means, that's when it's not right."

Other Contented users tell a similar story. One communications manager admits that when people compliment his content, he sometimes hesitates to mention AI's role. Not because he's hiding anything, but because the work feels more authentically his than ever. He can finally focus on adding real value instead of getting bogged down in admin.

For solo practitioners like Katie, that's the real shift: tools that help them confidently take on bigger projects, without sacrificing their creative standards or burning out from the admin behind the scenes.

It's what AI should do. Help people do more of what they love, and less of what drains them.