Tips, news and views from Green Light Copywriting

AI: copywriting friend or foe? 1 March 2024

Copywriting and AI: it’s a complex relationship. That’s no surprise, with AI platforms going viral and staying firmly in the spotlight. In the early days it was all about ChatGPT. Now there’s a huge range of AI tools.

Whether it is content or images, everyone is talking about AI’s potential for business, for entertainment, even for the end of humanity. It’s certainly true that in many aspects of life as well as copywriting, AI is viewed both as a potential friend and a potential foe. That’s quite a spectrum, so let’s take a look at how it applies to the world of copywriting.

Now, I have to be clear from the outset: I do not use any form of AI to create written content for my freelance copywriting clients. My perspective for this article is from the point of view of businesses looking to create content to support their copywriting approach. So is AI great news for copywriting or not? Let’s weigh it up.

AI: copywriting foe?

You might expect to hear a freelance copywriter comment about the potential risks of AI. After all, there’s been plenty of talk about its impact on the world of content. From marketing automation to content planning, the very things that make people laud AI, ChatGPT and other platforms are the things that make copywriters worry about their craft. And it’s certainly important to consider the risks. Aside from its potential impact on copywriters, AI also presents as a foe to content in other ways.

Let’s consider the tales of generative AI going wrong. Or the high-level professionals being left with red faces as a result of relying on its factual accuracy.

AI may be easy to use but it is certainly not infallible. The risks of inaccuracy and possible copyright issues make it a potential copywriting foe. So too does the ease with which it can churn out reams of content.

The rise and rise of AI has seen volumes of machine-generated content hit the world wide web. You’ll probably already have seen plenty out there. It’s not hard to miss as it’s generally pretty generic and bland. So while the potential of AI is undoubtedly impressive, it also creates content that is unremarkable. In the tests I did to generate content for a specific type of company, the wording produced was distinctly cheesy and not suited to the culture of the company I had in mind. I could see what it was aiming for, but it kept missing the mark.

AI risks losing something important: tone of voice. I’ve written before about the hazards of companies companies sounding the same. The issues are multiplied many times with the advent of AI. The process of getting content from ideation to out-there-in-the-world can be quite a challenge. But it’s through that process that concepts are honed, messaging conflicts are clarified and content achieves its full potential. By making any type of content apparently available at the push of a button, AI platforms actively undermine the quality of the copywriting process – and that of business content.

AI: copywriting friend?

On the other side, AI content creation platforms have the potential to make marketers’ lives easier. I can’t comment on the plethora of solutions out there but there are certainly plenty available. Another positive is that generating the initial content frees up copywriters and marketing teams to focus on other things. AI can do the early-stage work of developing ideas and article structure, helping to inform and advance the whole content development process.

So AI can be a friend to copywriters and marketers, helping them achieve the level of volume and quality that is called for in a competitive market. It can also help them scale up their content to achieve the levels required to gain a substantial SEO presence. And AI is improving all the time. While there are risks, what about the advantages of AI capable of creating a credible tone of voice, of providing options to explore different content styles?

Crucially, AI platforms like ChatGPT give time back to teams. AI empowers companies striving to keep up with the competition online and the endless demands of the Google Search algorithm. It also provides another perspective and additional source of ideas. This machine-mind form of “creativity” can help to advance thinking and keep approaches fresh. Ironically, AI has the potential to revive companies’ marketing strategies by bringing something new to the table. It provides a valuable bouncing off point for the development of new content, particularly around familiar topics. Tech can give us a whole new perspective on our own world and how we write about it.

In the end, isn’t AI just another marketing and content management tool? It doesn’t have to herald the demise of civilisation, or at least, copywriting, as we know it. It could just end up being another option in the world of choices out there.

AI: copywriting frenemy

My view on the current status of AI and copywriting?

Neither friend nor foe but frenemy.

This is because AI has the potential to boost marketing and become a useful resource in copywriting. However, over-reliance on it can turn it into a frenemy by giving us a false sense of security. And just like a frenemy, it can appear to provide answers when in fact it presents more questions and more challenges. Companies thinking they can simply churn out huge loads of content without a strategy allow AI to be their frenemy. Businesses that automate everything and lose the individuality of their tone of voice also fall into the AI frenemy trap.

Ultimately, the issue isn’t AI. It’s us. It’s about how companies use the technology. It’s about what they do to ensure that they maintain the quality of copywriting and content while also making the most of AI to increase volume and idea generation.

We need to work on how we adopt the best of AI while minimising and mitigating the potential risks. Without a clear strategy and a great deal of thought, we risk adding to the volumes of bland machine learning generated content already out there. To avoid that, we need a strategy for ensuring that content has a clear purpose and a defined point of view. Because without a plan, you can’t make the most of AI’s potential without falling victim to the risks. That approach should bring together the right human copywriting and editing skills together with the most targeted and strategic AI tools.

I reserve the right to change my opinion in the future. After all, AI will evolve and no doubt the issues associated with it will too. But so too will our understanding of its potential uses in supporting and advancing copywriting. There will undoubtedly be challenges and issues. And it’s vital that companies, marketers, copywriters – all of us – do not overlook the legal or copyright issues.

Friend or foe? The issue is so much more nuanced than that. By keeping AI on their side and staying strategic, businesses can hopefully make the most of its potential for copywriting and content without being caught out by the many pitfalls.