Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Replace Real Copywriting Skills?

Artificial Intelligence

Imagine a machine churning out articles like cookies out of a vending machine! This resembles the future of copywriting paired with Artificial Intelligence. And this is where the new age marketing thinking creates a difference in the modern marketing. While AI copywriting tools might be a boon for affiliate and digital marketers who are looking to create a high volume of content every day; it can be a nightmare for the writer who puts his heart into writing a content piece. 

With the increase in AI tools developed to create smart content for organisations, writers are concerned with the speed at which they might get replaced by an AI. Here we discuss the ways AI can change and shape the future of the writing community all around the world.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

Artificial Intelligence, The Marketing Thinking

Artificial Intelligence is changing the way we lead our daily lives. Tech experts are creating AI robots that are intelligent, can make decisions for themselves and do not need humans to monitor them. AI is developing new wings every day, at a pace that very soon, it can surpass human abilities to perform certain tasks. 

With copywriting in picture, AI has begun to leverage its knowledge about natural language and successful campaigns to make writing a machine-based task too. The outcomes have been better than average writing and has led to new prospects in business, giving more success to brands. It is becoming successful as it is bridging the human-machine gap by mapping out and mimicking cognitive tasks like learning and problem-solving. 

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace real copywriting skills?

AI can automate processes, enhance efficiency and make operations better gradually. Although, this looks like an investment; it can save money and pay well in the long run. Will AI replace copywriting? The word replace means that one thing will displace the other. This might not be the case with AI in copywriting. Some tasks will still need the human touch and will not always be automated. Human copywriters can not go out of the picture completely; but businesses who invest in AI when it is selling like hot cakes, it could be a fortune winning game for them! 

To emphasize, AI Copywriting is a tool that is there to help copywriters, not replace them. It will make the process easier for a lot of people who are new to writing and it will help those with busy schedules or difficult deadlines. AI copywriting is just that – an aid- not something meant as competition! 

AI is already being used to write content…

The truth is that AI is already being used to write content, whether it be via machine learning or even AI that has been programmed to mimic the human voice. And we’ve seen how well this works for companies in terms of generating leads, engagements, and sales!

What do content marketing experts think about AI? 

Visual content will have a growing influence on SEO, according to Sam Mallikarjunan, Head of Growth at HubSpot Labs. “Search engines are growing better at figuring out what a video, audio snippet, or image is about,” he explains. This insight helps us navigate the journey of the content we create. AI can help in optimizing your content based on the keyword you’re using for your piece. However, SEO is not only about using keywords as many times as one could in their content. That’s not the purpose of SEO or the secret of having successful content that reaches many people. SEO is best done when we create content that is not only creative but also holds some value for its consumers. Relevant content that is written around the keywords and not using the keywords too many times is a content we should aim for.

How can copywriters use AI for their benefits? 

While writers are still figuring out how AI will or will not be a game changer for the writing world, here are a few ways in which AI has an advantage in copywriting: 

1. Thinking outside the box/ overcoming writer’s block. 

As a writer, creative thinking is one of the major and the strongest skills that one should possess. Even the best of the writers experience writer’s block and are unable to get to a solution most of the times.  

AI comes as a saviour in such times. It can help you come up with content ideas, taglines, headlines etc. Just add your prompt and click a button; there- you can have tons of ideas to kickstart from. 

2. An instance for the same

Trying copywriting for an imaginary product “baby sleep mattress”. 

Product description: We make spongy sleeping bags that are pretty comfortable.

Product name: Baby sleep mattress

Audience: People who love to sleep like a baby. tacos and sleeping

Output

Tagline one: Sleep like a baby. It doesn’t get better than this.

Tagline two: Sleep in comfort with baby sleep mattresses. 

This is a fair outcome from an AI powered tool and it absolutely cannot get better than this. 

3.  AI-powered Content optimization 

Data collection and processing are the most impacted with the advancements of AI. Writers are leveraging SEO tools and making recommendations based on machine learning. 

4. Content creation at scale

Sometimes, content is needed in bulk, and having an AI content generator can be a boon for content creators. Solopreneurs and boot-strapped startups usually cannot afford to have a dedicated content department, and hence find it easy to use an AI content generator. 

Why can AI not replace human writers? 

Only humans can understand (more like drown) in emotions.

This is the only aspect that keeps humans different from all other beings. To create promising copies, you need to attract the right emotions. AI based writing is often factual and bland, which might not attract human readers. 

A copy needs to engage readers on an emotional level. AI is not self-sufficient to produce content which can touch human emotions in the slightest. Unlike human writers, AI does not have the experience or the creative capacity required to play with words to express a completely different standpoint for a lot of things. 

Understanding your brand essence.

Sure, you can use AI software to enhance your content, but you cannot explain to an AI the emotion your brand is trying to induce in your target audience through your product. AI can never comprehend the depth of your brand message, purpose, culture, and values. 

Wrap up!

AI can give you a kickstart with words to use for expressing a few of those emotions, but putting together a sentence to specifically induce an emotion or memory or painting a picture in the head of your target audience is something only humans are capable of doing (at least for now).

If anything, AI is not self-sufficient to produce content which can touch human emotions in the slightest. Unlike human writers, AI does not have the experience or the creative capacity required to play with words to express a completely different standpoint for a lot of things. Not only the creative bit, most AI would fail if the passwords get changed for the system. AI requires assistance from a human at most steps to complete a task successfully. AI cannot perform a task unless they are programmed specifically for that task alone whereas a human writer can write content for multiple fields and give different emotions as well as knowledge through each of them.

Anjali Mathur