Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Content Creation Efficiency for Chinese Self-Media Publishers

This study investigates a critical research gap in understanding how generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools quantitatively impact content creation efficiency among Chinese self-media publishers-a rapidly growing sector facing increasing productivity demands.Despite widespread AI adoption in content creation, empirical evidence of its efficiency impact remains limited.This research examines application scenarios, functional characteristics, and efficiency metrics through a comprehensive survey of 287 self-media creators across multiple platforms (WeChat Official Account, Douyin, Rednote, Baidu Baijiahao) and rigorous case analyses.Statistical analysis reveals significant AI integration across content creation stages, with text generation (32.05%), image generation (27.87%), and video editing (24.73%) being primary applications.Chinese self-media creators predominantly utilize ERNIE Bot (25.08%),Midjourney (24.04%), and ChatGPT (19.86%), with tool selection significantly influenced by language adaptation ( = 18.7, p < 0.01).Implementation of generative AI demonstrated statistically significant efficiency improvements (t(286) = 12.4,p < 0.001), with mean content creation time reduction of 37.8% (SD = 8.3%), 95% CI [35.4%, 40.2%].Specific processes showed varied optimization levels: text creation time decreased from 6-8 hours to 3-5 hours for 5,000-word articles (mean reduction = 42.6%,SD = 7.2%), material collection time reduced by 65.3% (SD = 9.1%), and content review time shortened from 1-2 hours to 0.5-1 hour (mean reduction = 48.9%,SD = 6.3%).Content output volume increased by 63.7% (SD = 11.2%)among surveyed self-media creators.Multivariate analysis indicates that AI adoption facilitates workflow restructuring, enabling self-media creators to reallocate 58.4% of previously technical tasks toward strategic content planning and quality improvement (F(3,283) = 24.6,p < 0.001).These findings demonstrate empirically how generative AI can transform traditional content creation processes into more efficient, collaborative, intelligent work systems, thereby impacting the productivity of creative industries.