5 reasons I am not afraid that AI will “take my job”
Every now and then someone asks me what I do and when I tell them I’m a copywriter, they ask: “aren’t you scared AI is going to take your job?”
Here’s why I don’t have any fear that AI is going to make what I do obsolete:
1. AI has no personality
Like every other writer, I have a unique personality that’s the result of my genes, upbringing and other influences throughout my life. I have certain quirks, certain turns of phrase, certain ways of thinking that are unique to me and that AI could never mimic. This personality comes through in my writing and is why some clients may think of me when they need a bit of humour injected into something otherwise serious, or when they want to say something in a more leftfield or quirky way than normal. When AI is asked to make something quirky it turns out quite cringeworthy. All puns and ra-ra. Something like a 1st year copywriting student’s very very first attempt at a print ad headline. AI cannot think “out the box”, but can only replicate what has already been done.
2. AI cannot create an emotional connection
Many marketing campaigns aim to create an emotional connection between the brand and the consumer, because we know that consumers who have an emotional reaction are more likely to remember, speak about, and be loyal to a brand. But AI lacks the ability to understand and tap into emotion in humans because it is (literally) a machine. My humanness, coupled with 20 years’ experience in copywriting, gives me the ability to know which words to use - and how to use them - in order to tug at those little heart strings, elicit a smile, create a warm fuzzy feeling or make someone laugh. AI can analyse data until the cows come home, but it cannot understand the human experience.
3. AI can’t sign an NDA
I do a lot of writing and editing of reports, manifestos and other documents that contain sensitive information or intellectual property that companies don’t want floating around in cyberspace, or that needs to be kept under wraps until they’re ready to release it. For this reason, these clients are highly unlikely to feed the information into an online platform for editing or compiling. This is one of the main reasons I know that at the very least this part of my job - anything that requires me to sign an NDA - is completely safe.
4. AI doesn’t know how to inject narrative into copy
I believe that all information – whether a speech, video, company manifesto, project report or annual report – should have a narrative woven into it. It might not always be visible to the naked eye, for instance in the case of a report, but it should at the very least be arranged in such a way that it “unfolds” as a story would. AI doesn’t have the ability to inject the magic of storytelling into copy and this is one of the reasons it lacks that special something that makes you want to read it, or act on it.
5. AI is Easy to Spot—Can You Tell This Headline Was Written by AI? 🌟✏️
Finally - AI has a very particular, bland, unimaginative way of writing, favours particular words and emoticons, and uses specific punctuation and capitalisation, making it more and more easy to spot. For this reason, I believe actual human-written copy is actually going to become more sought after and more valuable than ever before. In fact, I think I should put my rates up. 😉
