Tips, news and views from Green Light Copywriting

Why it's time for AI and human copywriters to work together 7 October 2024

AI seems to be an inescapable aspect of conversations about marketing right now. I certainly had an interesting chat about it earlier this week with one of my lovely clients.

You know those sci-fi films when the brave character finally defeats the machines in some clever way and all is well with the world again? It’s time to change the story.

What’s going on with AI and copywriting right now?

There still seems to be an interesting dichotomy around the AI content trend. On the one hand, some businesses are leaping in head first with their use of generative AI, creating huge volumes of content for their blog, for example. Sadly, the content is often pretty generic and also instantly recognisable as AI-generated.

And on the other hand? Marketers and businesses concerned about the risks of AI are holding back and potentially missing out.

So who is in the right?

Both are. Because AI that isn’t an either/or situation: as in either you’re on the side of the robots, or you’re with the humans, like in those sci-fi films. In business marketing, as with so much else, things are far more nuanced than that. Like all great partnerships, human and AI copywriting can complement each other. By working together, they can combine high volume with high quality, bringing the best of both worlds to content.

In short, it’s time to make nice with the robots, or AI. Let’s take a quick look at how AI and human copywriting can work together…

The AI copywriter’s contribution to the content creation process:

• Large volumes of content
• Big picture ideas
• Starting point for businesses to create a baseline of content
• Content planning ideas, again as an initial stage

The human copywriter’s contribution to the content creation process:

• Intelligence/insight into the most effective language
• Original ideas
• Finetuning and maintaining company tone of voice and narrative
• Editing and reviewing content
• Ensuring that the right messaging is in place at every stage

Again, there are nuances within these lists, with certain aspects being shared across human and AI copywriting.

The best of both worlds

AI is changing fast, with new tools and approaches emerging all the time. But with new tools, new risks emerge too. There’s the risk of content being overlooked for being too generic and impersonal. There’s also the issue of lack of trust due to the perception of content being AI-generated. Fortunately, most of these pitfalls can be addressed with a robust human-AI copywriting partnership and strategy in place.

There’s still a way to go but, done right, AI copywriting and human copywriting could help to simplify and accelerate content for all kinds of businesses. As I’ve written before, some believe that the push to use AI could ultimately help to enhance the quality of content marketing.

The business landscape never stops changing. In this brave new world of marketing, companies can stay ahead by combining the creativity and intelligence of human copywriters with the advantages of AI technology.