Will AI take the job of human copywriters?
I have a confession to make. I’m not an early adopter of new technology. The green screens of the BBC computers at school terrified me. I was one of the last people at university to get a (very unfashionable) mobile phone and ‘internet cafés’ were places the cool people went to. So as you can imagine, I have tended to treat AI with caution and more than a little anxiety. If you remember The Tripods, maybe you too will be shivering at the thought of being ruled by robotic alien overlords.
But it’s impossible to deny that AI is rapidly changing the copywriting landscape and many businesses are increasingly using it to produce quick and cheap results. The result is that early career copywriters are more likely to struggle to find work and established copywriters are finding that their job role is rapidly changing. But if we look a little closer, we can see that the situation is more complex. And maybe it isn’t quite the infallible enemy we may fear it is.
AI is far from perfect. By working with what already exists, it runs the risk of producing copy that sounds generic and lacks originality, nuance and creativity. Can we always tell if something has been written by AI? Maybe not. But what we can detect as a reader is if something just isn’t very good.
You’ve probably tried it yourself and asked AI to write something for you. Within seconds - Voila! But, it’s all a bit empty, hollow, lacking in personality. Maybe it hasn’t quite understood your ‘brand voice’, or it just doesn’t sound quite ‘right’ somehow.
Many clients are now turning to copywriters with pieces of AI copy that they’re not that happy with and they’re looking for the human touch. Increasingly copywriters are needed to refine, improve and extensively edit the initial work of AI. Others are already working with the AI companies themselves to make the writing sound more ‘human’.
We aren’t at a point yet where AI can fully replace human copywriters. The more complex tasks involving strategy, nuance, editing and creative flair still need to be done by humans. But maybe the future is more collaborative. Rather than denying the uses and possibilities of AI and rejecting it in favour of something more purist, maybe we need to learn how to work with AI rather than against it, using it as a springboard and embracing the challenges and changes of new technology.
Although I don’t generally use AI myself, I’m always happy to improve and edit AI written content for clients. AI-free writing takes more time and is of course, more effort, so if some clients are in favour of using AI and request it, I’m also open to using it with them as a tool to aid the writing process.
Survival has always been the preserve of the ones who are most able to adapt. So I should probably give AI the benefit of the doubt.
And I won’t be rewatching The Tripods. Not just yet.
The Tripods image courtesy of Ethan Jones, Thingiverse
