Copywriters: 5 Reasons NOT to Fear GenAI

I’ve done my fair share of networking lately (I daresay even causing a bit of a splash at Brandland on Thursday!), and something that keeps rearing its head – certainly among senior figures within the copywriting, branding, and wider marketing world – is this:

Generative AI.

Quelle surprise, I hear you say.

Let’s say what needs to be said – upfront.

GenAI, seen from one perspective, IS frightening. There is no denying that.

It is having a seismic impact on the creative sector, and – let’s be frank – this is NOT going to stop. It will NOT abate; rather, it is going to intensify. That is not just my prediction, but I suggest also the general consensus among creatives.

However.

If you are worth your salt as a copywriter … You. Are. Safe.

Why?

Using our commonly perceived weaknesses against GenAI as points of departure, here’s how I see it:

? Weakness 1 – AI produces content at a speed we copywriters simply can’t match.

?? Riposte – Yes, in terms of its ability to instantly reel off a first draft of anything, it is quicker. It always will be.

But note I said FIRST draft.?

To get to a solid final draft using AI, that’s something that takes quite a bit longer when you take into account all the prompting, re-prompting, and fact-checking (see below) that’s involved.

As Bob Bly rightly said in a recent Rock and Art - UK article (thanks Martin Sayers for bringing this to my attention), if you’re a skilled copywriter , chances are you’ll find it quicker to just write the damn thing yourself – without all the back and forth.

This leads me onto…

? Weakness 2 – AI outmatches most people’s ability to write.

?? Riposte – It does, yes. ChatGPT writes better than a LOT of people. There’s no denying that. But let’s pull this apart and qualify things a bit here…

ChatGPT, and other like AIs, is a system of intelligence whose design, for now at least, compels written responses that represent the linguistic mid-point in a very large sample of language data.

In short – it produces, by definition, VERY AVERAGE writing.

Why is this a problem?

Because, although these AIs give the ILLUSION of excellent writing – which, alas, is often all people need to make decisions about whether to hire a copywriter or fudge it themselves with AI – it is not within their design to produce writing that is NOT average.

Yes, to SOME extent, ChatGPT can shift its tone of voice.

But not radically; in fact, very poorly. It is a machine whose core design relies upon, and produces, predictable structures.

This is why you rarely see ANY GPT-created text that shows variation at the sentence and paragraph level.

Next time you use ChatGPT, I challenge you to:

?? Look at the make-up of its paragraphs. Do they diverge in their internal structure? Or do they all cohere in the same rough way?

?? How about the length of its sentences? Are they different lengths, or is the syntax eerily similar?

?? What about at the sub-sentence level – the level of words, phrases, and grammar? Seen a few humdingers a few too many times? A few too many ‘deep-dives’ and ‘elevates’? How about the perennially reappearing chestnut “not only… but also…”.

Yeah. Thought so.

As a copywriter, YOUR advantage here is your ability to dance with what is NOT strictly linguistically predictable – the very stuff that AI has a hard time with:

? Words and phrases that come out of left-field;

? Paragraphs of different lengths (some 5-lines deep, others just a single word);

? Shades of meaning – including, most basically, irony – that AREN’T unsubtle and overtly emotional, but nuanced, emotive, even subliminal.

This leads me onto the third commonly perceived weakness…

? Weakness 3 – “ChatGPT understands my target audience better than me.”

?? Riposte 3 – Does it now…?

Okay, it may have a data-driven profile of your target audience – a hazy gestalt that is an approximation of your TA.?

But we’re talking about a snapshot that is time-bound and, I daresay, quite low-res here.

Something dead, not alive.

And your target audience – or your client’s target audience – IS very much alive (or at least I hope so!).

It is a dynamic, living, breathing thing.?

?? Is ChatGPT picking up the phone and speaking to clients at the end of the line? No.

?? Is it privy to the in-person conversations – with all their smiles, furrowed brows, and hedged answers? No.

?? Even if it were, could it ever understand them? No.

Why?

Because it is NOT human.

And, I contend, only humans can REALLY understand other humans, at least emotionally speaking (and even then!).

With that in mind…

? Weakness 4 – “ChatGPT sounds more like my target audience than I do.”

?? Riposte – Maybe it does, at first blush (haven’t used that phrase in a while; ChatGPT certainly wouldn’t!).

But with so much of copywriting and branding, it’s what’s BENEATH the words that counts. The sub-text. The emotive stuff I mentioned above.

I’ve said it elsewhere on LinkedIn, but I’ll make the case again:

ChatGPT and other GenAIs are able to write copy that is EMOTIONAL – by which I mean language that has a particular emotional dressing, be that angry, hasty, soothing, empathic…?

But they struggle to write in a way that is EMOTIVE – by which I mean language that compels a particular feeling deeper down.

I don’t know about you, but I consistently find myself feeling… well, not feeling. I’m unmoved by ChatGPT’s copy. Perhaps not 100% of the time... but a good 90%.

This takes me back to my point above – GenAIs aren’t humans. And in a world where the core societal stakeholder remains the human being – a realm where emotion, for better or for worse, reigns supreme – AI will remain at a significant disadvantage irrespective of how much it advances.

So yes, AI may sound like your target audience. But a darn good copywriter will always sound better, once they’ve spoken to you about your business..

They’ve just got that human edge.

? Weakness 5 – AI is cheaper than copywriters.

?? Riposte – It is. But don’t forget – EVERYONE craves an expert.

What?

Faced with something unfamiliar, or beyond their immediate zone of knowledge, most people seek help from others.

Recently, this has involved people consulting ChatGPT for their everyday problems.

And all for, relatively speaking, a pittance.

But AIs often themselves tell you not to take their own guidance at face-value, instead suggesting that you seek ‘professional’ (aka human) advice.

Coupled with the fact that AI often omits, misrepresents, misapplies, misattributes, or just plain hallucinates information – as well as providing often very different information when asked a second or third time round… this rather calls into question its factual validity.

Or, in other words, its AUTHORITY.

With this in mind, if you are a copywriter whose expertise IS beneath that of GenAI, you’ve got to be asking yourself serious questions – respectively, whether you’re taking your business seriously, or whether copywriting as an industry is for you.

Conclusion

Wrapping this up, I hope it’s clear that this isn’t just some whimsical attempt to downplay the significance of GenAI’s coming.

There can be NO doubt it poses a LOT of threats to the creative world, especially to copywriters and content writers.

It is, after all, a highly powerful weapon – but it’s one that needs careful pointing (a point James Gill that came out of our conversation on Thursday).

But it’s also, in its way, a very inchoate tool – and one that needs a lot of supervision and guidance from someone who ACTUALLY knows what they’re doing, despite AI’s illusion of competence and expertise.

So, to those copywriters who feel threatened by it, I urge you either to exploit its advantages as a time-saving, idea-generating resource – make it your servant – or, if you think it does surpass your copywriting expertise and competence... perhaps it's time to reconsider whether copywriting is for you.

Chances are, it is, and you're just worrying a bit too much. ??

And as for business owners without a background in writing who feel confident enough to point that weapon on their own without the help of a highly skilled copywriter who has a deep-level understanding of language and linguistics…

Well.

Good luck.

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