Host Brent Peterson sits down with Shaheen Samavati, co-founder and CEO of Vera Content. The conversation explores how content creation agencies navigate the challenges brought by AI tools while maintaining quality standards for multilingual content. Shaheen shares insights from her decade-long journey building a content agency that serves brands across European markets and beyond. They discuss everything from the impact of ChatGPT on the content industry to the nuances of adapting content for different Spanish-speaking markets. This episode offers valuable perspectives for anyone wondering how human creativity and AI capabilities can coexist in content marketing.
Key Takeaways
- Content creation agencies must integrate AI tools while maintaining quality standards that exceed what automated systems can produce alone
- Clients now expect faster turnaround times and lower costs, but still demand premium results that require human expertise
- Words have become cheaper due to AI, yet the demand for high-quality, curated content continues to grow
- Proper onboarding and style guide development remain critical for successful long-term content partnerships
- Localization goes beyond translation—it requires understanding cultural nuances and regional dialects to connect with audiences effectively
- The volume of content being created has exploded, creating greater need for human curation and quality control
- Optimizing content for large language models shares similarities with traditional SEO but requires specific adaptations
- Video content creation and influencer partnerships have grown as alternatives to traditional written content
About Shaheen Samavati
Shaheen comes from a background in print journalism, having worked in newspapers before relocating to Spain for an MBA program. Her career evolved through corporate communication and marketing roles at European companies, where she identified a significant gap in the market for multilingual content services. Originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area, she noticed how European businesses struggled to manage content across multiple markets effectively.
Ten years ago, Shaheen launched Vera Content to address this challenge. The agency specializes in helping brands create and manage large-scale multilingual content projects, including blogs and social media content for audiences across Europe and beyond. She participated in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Accelerator program in Barcelona, which proved instrumental in scaling her business. Shaheen’s passion for learning and sharing knowledge drives everything she does, from building her agency to creating free resources for marketers navigating the changing content landscape.
Episode Summary
Shaheen explained that her agency works primarily with brands creating content for multiple European markets. “We help brands create and manage large-scale multilingual content creation projects for audiences across Europe and beyond, which basically means we work on blogs and social media pages for different markets,” she said. The agency’s core competency lies in managing local teams who serve as eyes and ears on the ground in each market.
The conversation quickly turned to the elephant in the room—ChatGPT and its impact on the content industry. Brent shared his own experience purchasing a content company that struggled after ChatGPT’s release, as many clients believed they could handle everything themselves. Shaheen acknowledged similar challenges but noted that Vera Content continues to grow by adapting their approach.
“We’re having to integrate a lot of these AI processes into our own processes,” Shaheen explained. “Some of the types of projects we did in the past, we’re seeing less of, but we’re seeing more of other types of projects.” The agency has diversified beyond blog content into social media management, user-generated content video creation, and influencer partnerships.
However, the expectations have shifted dramatically. “They want more than what AI has to offer, so we really have to go above and beyond to match their brand voice or offer thought leadership, because they are paying for that human content, but they also want it cheaper and faster,” Shaheen noted. This creates pressure on teams to deliver exceptional results while managing client expectations about what’s realistic.
Brent raised an important point about billing models, noting that words have become cheap in the AI era. Shaheen confirmed this reality affects their business. “The amount of time that’s expected to create an article now is less because of all the tools available,” she said. While Vera Content bills by the hour rather than by word count, they’re constantly compared against per-word pricing for certain project types.
The discussion explored how managing expectations has become more challenging. Brent shared his experience with Content Basis, where clients expected AI-generated content to be perfect on the first round without understanding the need for training and refinement. Shaheen emphasized that Vera Content only takes on long-term collaborations with proper onboarding phases.
“We do only work on long-term collaboration basis, and we have that onboarding phase that for us is really important,” she explained. At the beginning of every project, they build a style guide and create training resources for writers. “If the client’s not willing to wait a couple of weeks for us to get that all set up, then it’s probably not the right fit,” Shaheen stated firmly.
The conversation shifted to the complexities of managing international teams. Shaheen explained that their target clients typically have very high English proficiency since they’re managing content or marketing campaigns across multiple markets. Most client communication happens in English, though the agency’s Spanish base means everyone also speaks Spanish.
Brent drew parallels to his experience with development teams in Bolivia and other South American countries, where English proficiency varied. The discussion then explored fascinating nuances of Spanish localization across different markets. Shaheen addressed the common question about whether there’s truly a “generic Spanish” or “Latin Spanish.”
“There is nobody who really speaks like that,” she said. “It’s trying to create a neutral version where you’re not using any very specific local vocabulary, using a more neutral vocabulary that would be understood more universally.” However, this approach involves trade-offs. While neutral Spanish can work for broad audiences, it doesn’t create the emotional connection that truly localized content achieves. “The more localized it is, the more narrow you’re going and the more different versions you’ll have to make, and the more expensive that is,” Shaheen explained.
She gave the classic example of “coger un taxi,” which is perfectly normal in Spain but inappropriate in some Latin American countries. These linguistic landmines make local expertise invaluable. The need for localization depends heavily on the audience and context. Some B2B clients targeting international company employees can succeed with English-only content, while consumer brands selling products in local markets need fully localized messaging.
Brent brought up the evolution of search optimization, from voice search preparation for Alexa and Siri to current large language model optimization. Shaheen confirmed this remains a major focus area for Vera Content. “We’re staying on the cutting edge of that,” she said, noting they were preparing a webinar on the topic. While optimization for traditional SEO and LLMs doesn’t appear hugely different yet, there are specific considerations that can help content perform better in AI-powered search results.
The conversation touched on seasonal content patterns, with Brent asking about fourth-quarter demand around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shaheen noted that while seasonal content creation happens every year, the bigger trend is the overall explosion in content volume. “We’re seeing more content being created than ever before in the history of humanity,” she observed. “It’s so easy to create content now and everyone is.”
This led to an interesting observation about market corrections. Despite—or perhaps because of—the flood of AI-generated content, Shaheen has noticed renewed interest in print publications. “I think that shows the hunger there is for actually curated, well-organized content that has been vetted by someone because of all the crap that’s just being spewed out on the internet these days,” she said.
Brent emphasized a critical point about differentiation. Content created purely through ChatGPT without human refinement becomes indistinguishable from what everyone else produces. “There’s no differentiator in your own brand if you’re just using a straight-up model and never having anybody edit it,” he noted. Shaheen agreed completely, adding that AI can speed up processes tremendously when used properly.
“You need to give it the source information,” she advised. “Don’t ask it to look for the source information for you, because what it will find is what everyone else is finding, and it’s going to create the same old generic stuff.” This insight captures the essential role humans play in the AI-assisted content creation process—providing unique perspectives, proprietary information, and editorial judgment that generic models cannot replicate.
Throughout the episode, both Shaheen and Brent demonstrated how content professionals must evolve rather than resist technological change. The agencies and companies that thrive will be those that integrate AI tools strategically while maintaining the human expertise that creates truly valuable content. Quality curation, brand voice consistency, cultural adaptation, and thought leadership remain firmly in the human domain, even as AI handles more of the heavy lifting in content production.
As the conversation wrapped up, Shaheen Samavati encouraged listeners to explore the free resources available on Vera Content’s website, including guides on LLM search optimization, global social media management best practices, and AI content creation strategies. Her pragmatic approach to navigating industry disruption offers a roadmap for other content professionals facing similar challenges in this transformative period.
Final Thoughts
The content creation industry stands at a crossroads where AI capabilities and human expertise must work together rather than compete. Shaheen’s experience demonstrates that while tools like ChatGPT have changed client expectations and pricing models, the demand for quality, localized, brand-aligned content remains strong. Success requires agencies to be strategic about AI integration while doubling down on the value only humans can provide—cultural understanding, brand voice mastery, editorial judgment, and original thought leadership. The companies creating generic AI content without human refinement will find themselves lost in the noise, while those investing in proper processes and human expertise will stand out in an increasingly crowded content landscape. As Shaheen’s journey shows, the future of content isn’t about choosing between human or artificial intelligence—it’s about orchestrating both to create something greater than either could achieve alone.
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