What this playbook does

This is a simple, auditable way to ship AI‑assisted content without risking bad facts, biased phrasing, or legal trouble. It fits into existing workflows for blogs, landing pages, emails, ads, and social posts, so output scales without losing trust.

The problem to avoid

AI can draft fast, but speed without guardrails invites hallucinations, subtle bias, and compliance issues. If content scales, the risk scales with it. A playbook makes every draft traceable, reviewable, and defensible—so teams publish faster with less anxiety.

Pillar 1: Source and cite every claim

Ground drafts in real material—brand docs, product pages, briefs, customer research, credible sources—and require citations next to facts. Keep a "citation map" that shows which source backs which sentence. If a claim has no source, it doesn't ship. Track three things: percent of claims with citations, source quality, and uncited claims per draft.

Practical tip: for social and ads, keep citations in the brief and QA log, not the post copy; the rule still stands—no source, no claim.

Pillar 2: Verify facts before publishing

Run a quick pass to confirm names, numbers, timelines, and quotes against trusted references. Flag anything contested and route it to a human for resolution. For long‑form pieces, add structured claim notes to make future updates easier. Log every check, whether accepted or overridden.

Practical tip: publish a short "what we verify" note in editorial standards; it trains contributors and sets the bar with stakeholders.

Pillar 3: Scan for bias and tone

Even true statements can alienate readers. Use inclusive language and toxicity checks to catch loaded terms, sweeping generalizations, or careless demographic references. A human makes the final call, and the override is recorded—track flags per article, percent overridden, and severity. Over time, patterns will point to training needs or phrasing to avoid.

Practical tip: maintain a living "Do/Don't” tone list with before/after examples—faster than debating from scratch each time.

Pillar 4: Legal and compliance gates

Add a lightweight legal checklist to protect the brand, especially for health, finance, claims, and competitor comparisons. Review for defamation risk, copyright, disclosures, and required disclaimers. High‑risk pieces escalate; everything else gets a quick sign‑off. Measure review volume, turnaround time, and common objections to streamline future passes.

Practical tip: Label statements as claims vs. opinions in the draft to speed legal review and sharpen the copy.

Pillar 5: Pre‑publish checks that catch the small stuff

Do a final sweep: links, image licenses, alt text, metadata, internal links, and a last look at the citation map against the final copy. If something breaks, park the post and fix it—then log the defect so it doesn't repeat.

Practical tip: keep a one‑page launch checklist in the CMS; no tab‑hunting, no missed steps.

Continuous feedback that improves quality

Dashboards don't need to be fancy. Track citation coverage, contested claims and overrides, bias flags and severity, legal escalations and backlog, and post‑publish corrections. Sample a few pieces each month for a deeper audit. Use the findings to tweak thresholds, update source libraries, and refine prompts and briefs.

Where this helps—and where it trips up

Benefits are clear: traceable decisions, safer scale, faster publishing, and stronger brand protection. The snags are real too: finding trustworthy sources, handling breaking news, blind spots in bias tools, and legal becoming a bottleneck. Solve it with better source lists, clear "don't publish yet" rules, periodic human red‑teaming, and a triage lane for truly risky topics.

Start small: the MVP

• Enforce citations in every AI draft and keep a simple citation map.

• Run a fact pass; escalate contested items to a human.

• Scan for bias and tone; log overrides with one‑line reasons.

• Use a minimal legal checklist for risky content.

• Track a handful of metrics monthly and hold a 20‑minute retro.

• Expand only after this baseline feels routine.

Make it feel human, not machine

Lead with the takeaway, not a preamble. Keep paragraphs short. Use specific examples and numbers. Cut filler and corporate phrasing. Add one trade‑off or constraint per section. Read aloud once before publishing. These small habits do more to "de‑AI" a draft than any tool swap.

Closing note

Trust is the moat. A clear QA playbook lets teams move fast without gambling on facts, tone, or compliance. If recent posts feel long, technical, or generic, run this playbook on one high‑stakes piece this week—then ship the cleaner, sharper version and use it as the new bar for everything that follows.

For more information, you can contact us at Interact Digital.