Not every existing page deserves a rewrite. Select based on clear criteria:

• Outdated information: Statistics, products or processes that are no longer accurate
• Weak performance: Pages sitting at positions 10-20 that could rise with adjustments
• Style inconsistency: Texts that do not fit the current tone of voice
• Conversion problem: Content that attracts many visitors but converts few
• Repurposing: Long texts you want to split into multiple shorter pieces

An audit of your content archive helps identify these opportunities. AI can support that audit process as well.

AI is effective at a number of specific rewriting tasks:

• Adjusting tone: Making a formal text more conversational, or vice versa
• Shortening: Reducing a long piece without losing the core
• Expanding: Supplementing a thin text with relevant information
• Restructuring: Reorganising a text with better headings and sequence
• SEO optimisation: Integrating keywords more effectively into existing text
• Translating and localising: Adapting content for a different language market

For all these tasks: give the model the original text, a clear instruction and relevant context about purpose and audience.

A poor instruction produces a generic rewrite that loses the original nuance. Good instructions are specific:

• "Rewrite this text in a more direct tone, remove jargon and make the CTA at the end more inviting"
• "Add a paragraph about [specific topic] and include the keyword [keyword] twice in a natural way"
• "Shorten this text to a maximum of 300 words without losing the three main arguments"

Ideally also provide a style guide or example text, so the model understands what your brand considers "good text".

AI cannot assess what the editorial choices behind a text were. If a paragraph is deliberately vague for legal reasons, AI will likely make it more concrete. If an anecdote is intentionally subjective, AI may neutralise it.

Domain knowledge is also absent. A rewritten text about a complex technical product may look good but be factually incorrect. Human review by a subject matter expert remains necessary.

For organisations with large content volumes, a structured approach is needed:

1. Audit your existing content based on performance and priority
2. Categorise by type of rewrite action (tone, SEO, shortening, expanding)
3. Develop prompts per category, tested on a small set
4. Process in batches: Send multiple texts through the pipeline at once
5. Review per category: Focused attention on specific quality aspects

Mach8 builds rewriting pipelines like this for organisations that want to upgrade their content archive without every text requiring manual editorial work.

At higher volumes, automated quality checks are essential. Consider checks on:

• Minimum and maximum length
• Presence of required elements (such as a CTA or keyword mention)
• Readability scores
• Tone consistency via trained classification models

Random human review remains necessary on top of all this.

AI makes rewriting existing content faster and more scalable. The key lies in specific instructions, good quality assurance and human review at the points where AI falls short.

Want to set up a rewriting process for your content archive? View our content production services or schedule a conversation with Mach8.