Movies like Ex-Machina and Wall-E have foreshadowed how robots and artificial intelligence may one day take over our jobs, making humans obsolete and replaceable. We’ve read news on how data entry and manufacturing jobs are slowly being replaced by AI – and today, even creative jobs are not spared from potentially being replaced by these same forces.
If you are a copywriter who has been doom scrolling articles about ChatGPT, or a business owner trying to make AI do your brand copywriting just for the sake of reducing operational costs – we’re here to tell you that AI tools cannot fully replace copywriters, and here are the reasons why.
1. You need empathy to write copy that resonates with your customers
For your copy to be truly persuasive, leveraging on human emotions and feelings is key. Understanding your customers’ behaviors, their decision-making process, and their spending patterns requires empathy. There’s no one-size-fits-all in copywriting: each and every consumer segment is different, and each should be tailored according to their needs and preferences. This is why we still need that human touch in copywriting.
Let’s take marketing for oat products as an example: for Millennials and Gen-Z, they are more likely to relate to brands that are unique, creative, and are aligned with their progressive values. That’s why taglines like…
“Powered by Plants.” – Oatly
…resonate with Millennials and Gen-Z because it’s fun, quirky, and relates to environmentalism, particularly for a generation that is most concerned about the impact of climate change.
Meanwhile, Baby Boomers value brand loyalty and authenticity, which is why slogans like…
“Real Fruit. Real Oatmeal. Real Good.” – Quaker Oats
… are more appealing to them because it conveys a brand image that is honest and authentic.
Although AI can create taglines or copy that are catchy and creative, they do not understand your customer segment enough to create personalized copy the way a copywriter would.
2. You need creativity to capture your readers’ attention
As copywriters, we love playing around with words and coming up with creative ways (think memes and puns!) for our content. No doubt, AI can also write creative copy, inspirational prose, and catchy phrases. But here’s the catch: as a brand that wants to stand out, would you want your business to have copy that is pretty similar to those of your competitors? AI tools are not a perfect replacement for copywriters because machine learning feeds on existing data rather than creating new ones.
A copywriter can help you build your brand identity by ensuring that everything from your tone of voice to the phrases you use are consistent with your business. If you are running a business that sells various products: how do you sum it all up in a tagline to convey your brand identity? You want something that conveys a personality, a feeling, or a value proposition – and a copywriter can help you craft one.
3. AI does not understand your business objectives
Your business objectives are a set of measurable results to achieve as your brand grows, and you will have to carry out specific actions to reach those goals. Are you trying to sell a new product or offer an existing service? Or are you just trying to increase brand awareness among your clients? AI-powered tools don’t have the capacity to understand your business objectives.
Whether it’s sending cold emails or writing promotional copy, writers will tailor the message accordingly to business objectives, crafting copy with a touch of personalization. Additionally, AI tools don’t know which stage of the marketing funnel their audience is in, which results in generic-sounding copy instead of something that readers can relate to. This means, you are less likely to convert your audience into customers for your business.
4. AI is prone to biases
AI writing tools might help to reduce grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, but they are not free from bias and prejudice. With a new generation of consumers aligning with progressive values, they demand that brands be more ethical in not just their production process, but their messaging as well.
For instance, researchers realized that Google’s AI language model BERT tends to associate the words “programmer”, “money”, and “jewelry” with men rather than with women. AI tools learn from the vast amount of digitized and physical information around them, and they pick up our existing biases and prejudice altogether, which can be harmful to your brand’s image. Copywriters can help conduct fact-checks, add their creative flair to it, and most importantly – make sure that written copy are balanced and bias-free.
5. AI cannot capture nuance and cultural context
For small and medium enterprises, the majority of your audience would be local, thus making it imperative to localise your content. An AI copywriting tool will not be able to write copy that incorporates local languages and trends, unlike a copywriter.
Humour is a useful way to build emotional connection with your readers. Despite that, how people perceive humour varies across different cultures, and AI lacks the capability to understand your audience’s cultural nuances. For example, they can’t create memes about your favourite local delicacies, nor can they create cultural-specific content about local customs. On the other hand, a good copywriter can write copy that reflects local culture, lifestyles, values, and more, which helps your brand stay relevant and stand out from the rest.
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Despite what sci-fi movies depict, AI cannot replace good copywriters, but they can definitely help copywriters write better and faster. Copywriters and businesses, you do not need to worry or be sceptical about AI tools – learn how to embrace them instead! In the next few years, AI is set to amplify good writers by making them editors and subject-matter experts.
If you’re looking for copywriters who can write great copy by combining their skills and the use of advanced tools, we’re only an email away!
