How Copywriters can engage with AI

The Upsides

AI tools are transforming the copywriting process. Writers are using AI to boost their productivity, to generate ideas for content, automate repetitive tasks such as research and proofreading, provide insights based on data analysis and optimise content for search engines. AI can also assist with creating personalised content for individual users or target audiences. In fact, AI can be a significant help in most aspects of the process of creating written content.

Every text generative AI works the same way. It produces original text from a few typed-in prompts and a description of the content of the article you require. You then refine this initial output to add more meaning and hone it for concision and clarity. By letting it handle the rote task of generating basic content, AI frees you up to concentrate on the higher-level message. It also allows you overcome a “blank page” moment and get words up on the screen, when you don’t have time to stare at it, wondering what to write.

Getting started is easy. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of AI writing tools to choose from and they all have their own characteristics. Newcomers to generative AI will quickly discover that different AI engines return different results. This itself is a good starting point for trialling your the use of AI for copywriting. Simply use the same prompt in a few different AI engines and consider which more closely matches your preferred writing style. The AI writing market is growing all the time so you would be well advised to keep researching and testing to find the tone, style and approach that suits you best. Bear in mind also that all AI tools will adjust their output as you refine the prompt. Many copywriters use one (or several) tools for research tasks and a different set for generating marketing copy. We list some popular tools at the bottom of this article.

Some aspects of the writing process are more suited to AI than others. Grammar and spelling are areas we should be able to rely on AI to get right more or less all the time. Grammarly is probably the best known and will catch typos, errors in grammar and clumsy phrasing.

Ideation is the greater challenge and it’s here that the output from different AI engines is most variable. There are a great many AI-powered writing tools that claim to do the job well. Tools such as Rytr and Content Harmony use AI to research subjects and suggest content ideas based on parameters provided. Generally speaking, we should expect the most purely creative parts of the writing process to present the greatest challenge to machine-generated content. For example, we might predict a reduced ability in AI to grasp the nuances of context and understand cultural references in the human sphere. Spontaneous creativity, emotional intelligence and the ability to empathise, understand and connect with human experiences - crucial aspects of effective copywriting - are surely going to be compromised, so be prepared to take responsibility for most of this yourself.

Interestingly, however, in terms of pure ideation, AI can excel. In a recent academic study, ChatGPT 4 was found to score in the top 1% in the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. (The Torrance test attempts to measure fluency, flexibility, originality and elabouration). In other tests, AI generated 7 times more top-rated product ideas than elite business school students and was 40 times more efficient than humans in terms of speed of producing ideas. The only area where AI was rated somewhat worse than humans was in the novelty of the ideas it produced.

Potential Downsides

Considered as a whole, AI copywriting does come with clear potential limitations. AI-generated text often lacks nuance and it can feel disjointed. AI tools can be poor at coming up with very new content, such as topics trending in social media, because they are often trained on pre-existing content that can be years old. No matter how much effort an AI claims it makes to avoid direct copying, plagiarism check services still report otherwise. AI tools may also struggle to create content that demonstrates expertise in a particular field. The more niche the content, the more we are likely to find a lack of industry or topic-specific knowledge, which in turn compromises the ability to convey a deep understanding of a complex subject.

Writing Type Differences

AI can aid various copywriting needs but optimal approaches and tools vary. For short social posts, tools such as ShortlyAI can quickly generate tweet and caption drafts from little more than a headline. News writing bots work similarly. But longer content such as blogs and articles benefit more from idea-generating AI than autonomous drafting. For sensitive copy such as staff reviews, AI may provide less value and add risk, so full human crafting, could be preferable. Even here though, AI strengths such as objectivity and data-driven assessments can help eliminate bias and provide rapid and regular feedback for personalised development. AI-optimised email and landing page copy from tools such as Phrasee boost engagement through data-backed refinement. Win-or-lose documents such as proposals and long-lasting text such as marketing materials warrant especially close oversight, to ensure the voice and message shows an organisation in its best light.

Summary and the Best Approach

Over-reliance on AI risks poor writing, so human guidance is key. AI should be used to enhance human creativity, not to replicate it. Never go with the first output - AI requires supervision to craft quality copy and reviewing any AI output before publishing is critical. But AI is here to stay. So do try it. When used strategically, AI can boost copywriter productivity without sacrificing quality. It already provides a competitive edge by narrowing the skill gap between the best human writers and the less-skilled or the time-poor. As the technology continues to advance rapidly, AI will become an increasingly valuable assistant for copywriters everywhere.