The swift introduction of AI can be a scary thing, especially if your whole livelihood revolves around your writing talent, which it now appears can be performed by a robot. Believe me, I was in the same panicked position a few months ago too!

But don’t panic, it’s not the end! While AI is a new and quickly developing form of technology that can make many lives easier, it’s still not as talented as you are at your skill.

Is AI Better Than a Content Writer?

No, AI is not better than a content writer!

While AI has advanced significantly and can generate content to a certain extent, it’s essential to recognise that AI-generated content still has limitations and cannot replace the role of human content writers.

Here are some reasons why AI is not the end for content writers:

Creativity & Originality

Artificial intelligence is just that - artificial. It generates content based on its learning ability online. This means that its content isn’t normally original, as it has learned the ability to write about the subject from sources that it’s found online.

You may find that clients start to get a little frustrated when they use AI to write blog content or web content a lot, as many of their pages will look very similar. AI removes the creative element, meaning that you can ask it to write two very different articles based on the same subject and they will come out almost identical.

Emotional Intelligence

You’re human, which means you understand how other people will feel when they read a piece of writing. You will also understand the motivation for searching for a specific topic online.

While AI might be able to write a long piece of copy selling the services of a funeral director, it doesn’t really understand why people might be searching online for that information.

That’s why human-generated content is far more appropriate in these kinds of situations. As an experienced content writer, you can take the right tone and use a ton of empathy, as you will be able to relate to their situation and know exactly what they need.

Specialist Content with Life Experience

You have the ability to put yourself in the customer's shoes. You can always approach your content from the perspective of someone looking for that service or product.

This means that you can really appreciate what’s most important to people searching online. If you’re writing an article about gutter cleaning services (yes, there are more than you might think), then you will be able to understand the most important things for potential customers. These might be good reviews and reasonable prices.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t know which of the things on the huge list of benefits would be most important to the types of people searching.

The ability to recognise a target demographic and aim your writing directly at them is a huge asset.

Tone & Brand Voice

AI doesn’t know your client’s business. But you do. You’ve spoken to your client, visited their website, understood their goals and talked through their brand voice and values.

While AI accepts prompts to change the tone of voice, it will never fit perfectly with your client’s vision if it’s generated by a computer.

Editing

AI has some fantastic editing tools, there’s no doubt about it. However, it doesn’t understand the tone of voice, colloquialisms, language changes or humour. This might make the edits a little off and will make the copy appear flat and lacking personality.

Strategic Content & Customer Journey Considerations

You can make fantastic prompts on AI platforms that create really engaging content, but the system doesn’t actually know where you intend to place the copy.

When you work with a client, it’s normal for you to have a conversation about CTA and what the copy is intended to do. You’ll find out where it will be placed on the website, which will help you to structure the content so it fits perfectly with any internal or external links.

AI won’t be able to do that. It’ll create standardised text which fits the bill, but doesn’t consider the customer journey that’s built around the piece that it’s writing.

The Fact Checking Potential of Human-Generated Content

Another huge problem with AI platforms is that they have a nasty habit of bending the truth to present a more compelling story.

While that might be great in certain marketing positions, it’s not ideal if you manage to market a product with features and benefits that actually don’t exist. Once people find out, you’re in big trouble.

I recently used the most up-to-date version of ChatGPT to write a piece on the Women’s World Cup. It was well worded, well formatted and in general, came out great!

But when I looked a little more closely, it had mentioned the outcomes of games that hadn’t even happened yet. Maybe it could see into the future and knew something I didn’t?

Well, actually, no. It just made up the results to create a more exciting story. After those games had taken place, the copy it had created turned out to be completely wrong.

This is a big problem for many companies right now. They’re using AI to create amazing pieces of writing with minimal effort and costs. It seems like the easy way out - that is until their customers raise issues with them about factually incorrect information.

That’s where you come in!

Us content writers can write amazing content that’s just as good as AI, if not better. And, we’ll diligently check through the copy and get our facts straight before we deliver it back to the client. AI might be able to write, but it works on logical programming and can’t display emotion, change direction or check facts that are regularly being updated. That’s why AI will never replace content writers. 

So, Will AI Be the End of Content Writers?

While AI can be a valuable tool for content writers, helping them with research, grammar checks, and content ideation, it should be seen as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for human creativity and expertise. AI can’t produce the human emotion or empathy that’s needed to really sell a product or generate interest in a service. If you would like to learn more about how you can incorporate AI into your business to move forward, there are some great resources available. Check this one out!

So don’t worry. AI may be here to stay, but it can’t replace your talent. Being skilled at writing and reaching out to the audience with real, human-lived experience is something that AI won’t ever be able to do, so your job, passion and creativity is all completely safe.

In fact, you can even use AI to your advantage to increase your productivity and hone your skills. To find out how you can upskill your talent and take advantage of AI, take a look at some of the great writing courses here on these fabulous remote learning platforms.