Since ChatGPT took the internet by storm late last year, AI has been the word on everybody’s lips and has divided the industry. While many marketers have run full force into embracing artificial intelligence’s possibilities, others are cautiously wondering what the fuss is about. And then there are the few who fear the rise of AI and wonder what that may mean for our careers in the long run.
In this article, we will look at how accurate AI copywriting is and why we copywriters will not be replaced by robots anytime soon.
What is AI Copywriting and How Does it Work?
AI copywriting is computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools that are powered by machine learning. Neil Patel describes natural language processing as: “An area of artificial intelligence that leans on disciplines like computer science and computational linguistics to enable computers to interpret, comprehend, and manipulate the often arbitrary, ruleless world of human language.”
Although it sounds pretty alien, natural language processing has existed for a while and is already embedded in our daily lives. For example, when you use predictive text on your phone, ask Alexa or Siri a question, or turn to Google Translate for a quick translation, you’re using NLP.
And when it comes to AI language models that generate content, it works in the same way. Using OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, the process looks a little like this:
- You decide what you want to write and what you will use the copy for.
- You set specific parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, you want to create a Facebook ad for a dog-walking company based in South Devon.
- The AI tool follows these parameters, analysing similar pre-existing content from around the web and generating new, plagiarism-free content.
How Accurate is AI Copywriting?
AI has made massive leaps and bounds in recent years and it’s expected to fully permeate our daily lives by 2025. And it can do a few things well. Social media captions and email subject lines are two pieces of content marketers frequently generate using AI – and many social media and email scheduling tools now use AI directly within their platforms. These results aren’t too shabby and, more often than not, pass the mark. However, the majority of content AI produces has quite a few limitations. When used in bulk, the copy it generates appears pretty formulaic, repetitive and not very unique. And when it comes to brand tone of voice, it struggles to get it right. Long story short, AI isn’t coming for your job just yet – and here’s why.
What are the Limitations of AI Copywriting?
The bottom line is AI and machine learning are still in their infancy so there’s a lot of work to be done until it’s actually really effective. But even if it does make leaps and bounds, a human helping hand will always be essential.
- AI struggles to sound human: It can only generate idioms with clear instruction and it lacks the ability for expression. Emotions make for persuasive copywriting – without them, you may as well give up trying. Great news for us – the robots have a little longer to go until they don’t sound like robots. Sharing her thoughts on LinkedIn, Copywriter at Klowt, the personal branding agency, KirstyMcMachan, agrees:
1. AI doesn’t produce insights: Ask ChatGPT to write a blog on a certain topic, and it will summarise it without offering unique insight or opinion – and that’s no surprise when AI cannot craft judgements and think for itself. People love opinions and personality; thankfully, you’ll struggle to get that unique charm from anyone other than a real person.
2. AI is repetitive: It is programmed to follow a specific structure which means if you want multiple variations, they are all going to sound pretty similar. If your competitors are also using AI to create content, chances are you’ll struggle to sound unique. Remember that Facebook ad we asked ChatGPT to generate earlier? We asked the chatbot to generate the same thing for a different business. Is there an echo in here, or does it sound pretty much the same?
3. AI isn’t great at being concise: It produces content that is very wordy, summarising and explaining points that don’t need the explanation while revealing too much detail on things that don’t need the detail. It’s true what they say, less is often more. Make every word count.
4. AI has a tendency to lie: Fact-checking isn’t AI’s forte. If it can’t find factual information, it will assume or guess the answer based on the data it has got. And this can result in generating some pretty whacky things.
5. AI is biased to be formal, literal and neutral: Opinions will make you stand out and ChatGPT struggles to create them. But is that surprising when the copy created lacks insight from an actual human brain? Creator and co-founder of Take Up Space, Paff Evra notes that we shouldn’t be relying on AI to do things we are good at, and instead we should be using it to make more time to express our thoughts, ideas and creativity.
What is AI Copywriting Good For?
Although our last point might make it hard to believe, AI content writing can and should be harnessed for a few things within the content creation process. As Paff Evra pointed out, by making the most of AI by giving it the time-taking jobs we push to the bottom of our to-do lists, we writers will have more brain space to do what we do best – write. Here are three things AI does well:
- Editorial accuracy: AI can help improve the accuracy of copywriting by reducing the likelihood of errors. With AI, copywriters can ensure their content is free of grammatical and spelling errors. Additionally, AI can help with fact-checking – but make sure your AI is up to date with the information it consumes.
- Idea generation: AI-powered tools can help copywriters tap into their creative potential. By providing inspiration and generating ideas, AI can help copywriters come up with fresh and innovative content. This allows for more creative freedom and can lead to more engaging and memorable copy. Save time thinking of ideas and get straight to writing.
- Automation: AI can generate content much faster than human writers, which makes it ideal for tasks within content creation that can take a long time. Email subject lines, social media post hooks and other short copy snippets will benefit from an AI helping hand.
The Best AI Copywriting Tools on the Market
With that being said, what tools should we copywriters be making the most of? Here are three you should try to help you figure out if AI copywriting is worth the hype:
- CopyAI: Fantastic for when writers’ block hits, CopyAI can help you develop your ideas from brainstorming to a simple draft. It uses GPT-3 to produce content based on a few prompts and phrases submitted by you. You can generate 2000 words for free every month, but the pro package allows you to create content in 25 languages – pretty crazy, eh?
- Wordsmith: If analysing data sits at the heart of your copywriting, Wordsmith might be a great tool to use. This platform analyses large data sets to generate content, turning boring numbers into an easy-to-understand narrative you can develop and craft. Excellent for journalists or financial reporting, this is a tool to try.
- Copysmith: Copysmith offers a host of unique tools the whole marketing team can use. But it does come with a price. If you’re willing to pay, you can make the most of copywriting support within your browser and even a plagiarism check. This tool is great for writing Amazon listings.
New and Emerging AI Language Models
We’ve mentioned ChatGPT a few times already in this article, and that’s because when OpenAI announced it late last year, it blew the industry away. OpenAI trained ChatGPT to interact in a conversational way, making it possible to answer follow-up questions, challenge incorrect premises, admit its mistakes and, most significantly, reject inappropriate requests. The AI model is still in its trial phase and, therefore, is still learning. But it’s already made its mark on the AI industry, so much so that Google announced its own AI model, called Bard, and Microsoft launched BingGPT in response. The AI race is well and truly on.
How Will These AI Tools Affect the Future of Copywriting? Our Predictions
Big Star Copywriting founder and CEO, Derryck Strachan, shared his two cents on the matter. Here’s what he said:
“Some of our clients are interested in how AI might save them money and/or time on their content creation. We get that. AI – and AI content writing specifically – has had a lot of news coverage lately. Understandably more brands are trying to test it.
We’ve found that it can work for some areas of content writing – some brands have had success with Instagram captions, email promo text and other small pieces of content. However, it isn’t advanced enough to write a good blog article – the results for long-form content are poor. For example, our blogs and case studies often contain content acquired from interviews with the client or their end users – you can’t get that kind of originality from an AI. And don’t get me started on tone of voice – what we’ve read from the AI is flat, dull, and lifeless. Even Grammarly – an essential tool for us – tends to remove tone of voice if you use it strictly. It requires human interpretation. I guess the bottom line is that when people talk or write naturally, they’re not necessarily following strict grammatical conventions. Humans just don’t like rules!
“When it comes to product descriptions, we think they’ll always need editing and SEO optimisation so they read well and are suitable for search engines. By the time that’s done, you may as well have written the description from scratch. Chat GPT is OK for eBay listings, Amazon listings, non-SEO led products and areas where you need quick descriptions for short-term listings, but it doesn’t work well for websites that rely heavily on SEO and long-term product visibility.
When you’re competing with brands that have unique and engaging descriptions for their products and much higher authority, AI descriptions won’t cut it. The best brands will take the time to use the descriptions as a natural place to amplify their brand story and their tone of voice – like a real, human sales assistant would do in a shop. So often, product descriptions are just a list of features and an opportunity to sell the sizzle – and upsell to other products – is missed. But that’s another story!”
How Accurate is AI Copywriting – Let’s Recap:
If you’ve got this far, you’ll hopefully feel pretty relieved to know copywriters are secure in their jobs (for now). AI has a long way to go before it can effectively and successfully give us all a run for our money. So to answer the question ‘how accurate is AI copywriting?,’ we’re going to say, for the most part, not very. Here’s a quick recap:
- AI is a great tool for the mundane tasks, idea generation and repetitive content production exercises we find ourselves doing on a daily basis – but that’s really as far as it goes.
- There are quite a lot of nifty AI tools to try on the market right now – give some ago. It’s fun to have a play around and a good idea to stay informed.
- And finally, copywriting is one of the most human parts of content marketing, full of emotion, idioms and quirks, and the robots would have a hard time filling our boots.
Get in touch for human copywriters who can provide you with high-quality professional copywriting services. From regular blogging and social media content to web copy and product descriptions, we can deliver all the words you need quickly, skilfully and cost-effectively. Let us help you find the words to stand out in a market full of repetitive content.
