Can that sexy AI copywriting tool replace a professional copywriter?

Can an AI writing tool replace a professional copywriter? You probably already suspect that the answer is “errr, NO!”

These tools are growing in number.

The ads for them are everywhere.

You’ve probably tinkered with a few and may even have subscribed.

That’s cool. These AI copywriting tools have their place, as long as you understand:

- what you have signed up for,

- what their limitations are and

- how you can make the best use of the tool you’ve decided to use.

And most importantly, know that it can’t replace your human copywriter.

Copywriting is more than putting words in a box and seeing what spews out.

Granted, a lot of what comes out of these tools is really useful as a first draft or as a springboard from some really great ideas. These tools use years’ worth of content from the internet so the resources they draw from are vast. Unfathomably so.

They are definitely going to bring forth ideas a solitary copywriter hadn’t considered, although more so for content writing – article writing, rather than for copywriting of your sales page kind of stuff.

These AI tools take the commonly used frameworks that copywriters use to write a sales page or any persuasive copy. These are pretty easy to learn yourself and use as a template to write copy. You don’t need a tool to do that for you, but it certainly helps if you are starting out.

The key to understanding their limitations is in the word "tools". That’s what they are in essence – tools to help you write copy or content. Tools in the wrong hands are useless and in the right hands can create masterpieces.

But you still need to know how to write persuasively and write correctly. These AI tools start to put out useful stuff on topic but then they begin to repeat and get further off point. You end up with loads of content you have to edit down.

By the time you’ve sorted out the drivel and reduced the content to manageable lengths, you may just as well have started from scratch.

It’s quicker.

You still need a human to sort out and organise the content, and decide what information is relevant and what to delete. Then you also have to provide the real examples as the tools will just provide made up ones.

It’s still going to require a lot of your time. It doesn’t shorten the work, you’ll just be doing different work.

To write copy that works, you have to be a great behaviour specialist and brand strategist. You need to be able to understand how to fit certain pieces into your campaign at the correct stage in the funnel. AI tools can’t do that for you.

So to sum up, don’t get me wrong. AI tools certainly have a place. Take advantage of what they CAN do for your low-level content – educational articles, idea generation and the like. Use them to save you time on your initial draft. But understand that it doesn’t take the writing part off you. You still need a human for that – someone to make sure the context is correct.

You can liken AI tools for writers as the equivalent of Canva for designers. Amateurs can use these tools because they are easy to use and will let you create the low-level stuff. But when it comes to professional design unique to your brand, you need a professional designer’s input - someone trained in the principles of design.

Likewise with AI tools, they are great to come up with ideas and get you started, but you still need a professional writer to make it work for your marketing campaigns.

The question to consider is, do you want to get it done, or do you want to get it done right?

If you have half-finished AI-generated articles that need the human touch to get them publishable, or you are worried that you’re publishing questionable content by relying solely on AI and don’t have the skills to check, ask for our help.