Read time: ~17 minutes (yikes!)
There I was, a year into my new career, my new business — the one I left everything behind for — and there it was.
A threat to the brand new future I had just begun to create for myself.
I was doing my best to ignore it. To keep my head down, to continue to focus on my clients and my business. But day after day there was another article, another video, another think-piece about Chat GPT, Gemini, content marketing, and AI.
I’ve learned it does me no favors to obsess over a brand-new product, service, or software. But with every unavoidable headline, I deflated more and more until I was practically imploding.
Eventually I let myself have a temper tantrum.
“IT ISN’T FAIR!”
A few years into pivoting into ‘finding my calling’ as people love to say, with first copywriting then SEO, I was feeling good! I was finally feeling confident and ready to go help small businesses!
Right as I was feeling all of that, this industry-changing event threatened to invalidate my future.
^ This is from 2023.
In the beginning of 2025 where we are now. The threat to my job (or my husbands’ who’s a software engineer) hasn’t subsided.
Fortunately my strength is coming from my Pinterest algorithm full of people who hate what generative AI has done to search and to humanity.
If you feel the same you’re in the right spot. Maybe there’s a place for generative AI alongside our creativity.
My place in this world as a person, as a sustainable copywriter & search engine optimization consultant is to make a better internet.
To connect with business owners who feel the same and revel in the direct and indirect benefits of having a non-agency, personality-filled, GIF-loving millennial on retainer.
So let’s get to the answer you came here. Do I think AI will replace copywriters?
Honestly? It can if we let it. So we’ll leave it at ‘it’s complicated’.
“Not All AI”
Let’s make an important distinction before we begin.
The AI I’m referring to is generative AI.
The one that’s coming for creatives’ jobs.
The one that the wealthy elite are using to extract the work from the worker without paying.
The one that’s taking the human out of humanity.
NOT the AI that’s used to find tumors, sort through data, and be helpful to the people doing the work.
Got it?
So Let’s Talk About Copywriting & Generative AI
In these first few months of 2025 I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of regular ass people putting ALL OF THEIR INFORMATION into “chat”.
- Using it to get health insurance information
- Using it to have ‘Chat’ tell them stuff about themselves
- Using it to text a crush back
These are the dangers of when a technology develops too fast. Where does all this data go? Who holds, controls & sells it? And what is the environmental impact of all this AI?
Here’s the thing…
- Lots of people are good writers
- Writing is an ‘art’ — it’s open to interpretation. What you think is good writing might not be what I think is good writing.
- Good writers don’t necessarily make good copywriters.
- Because the purpose of copywriting is to get people to take an action.
That’s why I went from a jack-of-all-trades copywriter to a website copywriter. I still get to tell stories and use my brand of creativity in a way I don’t feel like I get to do for headlines, social copy, etc.
Writing makes you feel.
Copywriting makes you feel and then it makes you do.
Where AI floats in all this… IDK.
Everything it has learned has been from human writers, artists, salespeople and critical thinkers.
Sure it knows all the techniques but it’s much more than that… which is where sustainable copywriting comes in.
What Then, Is Sustainability Copywriting?
Sustainability copywriting is using those same copywriting skills to write for brands with the intention of selling, without the bad vibes.
Personally, my interest in writing sustainable copy came from my own experience trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle. When I began my journey, the copy I was reading from websites and email lists wasn’t friendly, wasn’t inviting, wasn’t sustainable. It was kind of elitist and kind of condescending. I said — we can do better.
As a sustainability copywriter and SEO strategist, I want to help companies reach more people by using inclusive, positive language while incorporating their unique personalities into the copy. Let’s bring a little fun to the industry!
So, Do I See Ai Taking Replacing Copywriters?
My answer in 2023: No. In 2023, I said “No, not at this moment in time. I think AI is going to weed out mediocre (and bad) copy. If our work can be replaced with AI then we’re probably not doing something right as copywriters. Right now, what AI is producing is awkward, unempathetic, and sometimes straight-up nonfactual content — all of which helps absolutely no one.”
My answer in 2025: Yes. Because that’s what corporate greed does. Using OUR writing and our thoughts already on the internet, it learned how to write. And now it’s taking everything we taught it and replacing us.
Companies will absolutely replace us if for half the cost.
If everyone can create content now then there’s no value in content.
But only if we let it. We as a society, not we as copywriters.
I don’t know about you but I want AI to wash my dishes, clean my floors, and scrub my toilet.
I don’t want AI to be:
- Teaching my kids how to text their crush
- Writing emails to their idols
- Or having it read books for them.
We can absolutely coexist with generative AI as a tool.
What is AI In Copywriting?
Do I use ChatGPT? Unfortunately, yes. Yes I know how bad it is for the planet. Where were all of you when this was coming out and environmentalists were saying that?!
Just add it to my list of daily eco-anxiety triggers.
I’m also a solopreneur charging people for my time. If there’s a way ChatGPT or any of these tools can speed up a process, I’ll bite.
BUT there is still critical thinking involved.
“AI is a tool to help you do creative work faster. It should not be used as a replacement for critical thinking and problem-solving.” This is probably my favorite quote about AI in copywriting from Alex Cattoni.
Never remove critical thinking and problem-solving from your process. In fact, we should all probably go take a class on critical thinking right now.
I like to think of AI as a mansplainer. Not just a mansplainer, one that loves to hear the sound of his own voice. AI has no knowledge of what is truthful vs what is a reasonable answer to your query. answer to your query.
That’s why when you search for an image of salmon in water you get salmon fillets in water.
Image from Global Nerdy
It’s great for meme content but it’s still not something to joke about.
But we’re here to talk about the good and the bad. So what can AI help copywriters with?
- AI can help you get inside the head of your ideal consumer
- It can create a competitor analysis
- It can help you spot gaps in your content
- It can help generate content for future posts
- It can create a product description
- It can help tailor content for a specific audience.
- It can tell you how your writing reads
- It can help you paraphrase your own thoughts or others’
- It can help you with your grammar
- It can help you brainstorm.
The reason AI is so scary to copywriters is that it does part of the work of a copywriter. Ask it to create 10 punny headlines for a blog about cats and you’ll get 10 ‘punny’ headlines in 5 seconds.
Ask it to write you a blog, it’s going to write you a blog.
Let me be direct — if you don’t know what a good blog is or what good headlines are outside of what your brain enjoys — then you will replace a human for AI.
And that’s what corporations are doing. They’re cutting and slashing and AI-ing until people get pissed off because they so clearly didn’t even try.
You need to know when and where to use AI.
This is the latest skill set we all need to master because if you start using it for everything (or important things) you’ll join the millions of brands and people releasing more junk onto the internet.
It’s basic capitalism: When supply significantly outweighs demand, the value of that item continues to decrease in value.
I.e. If everyone can create content now then there’s no value in content.
The past 30 years of the lawless internet is available at our fingers. Most of it is absolute garbage. That’s why the most important ranking factor for Google is helpful, reliable information written for people.
It is more important now than ever before to ensure you’re releasing content that is
- Well thought out
- Well researched
- Valuable
- Written to help someone not to satisfy an algorithm.
The goal is to create content that people are going to actually read because it brings value to their lives — hopefully like this post.
Why should I want to read something you didn’t care to put the time into writing?
How Are Copywriters Currently Using AI?
1. Use AI to Get Inside The Head Of Your Target Audience
Alex has an amazing video where she breaks down exactly how to do this. If you put on your critical thinking hat, this can be another great way to get some insight into your ideal target audience. But…
- You have to already know who your audience is.
- You have to understand the goals of what you’re trying to accomplish.
- You need to be able to ensure AI is actually giving you relevant, usable information.
2. Use AI To Quickly Create Content
AI can save you time creating content, but not in the way you’re thinking. The most common way people think about AI saving us time is by using AI to write a blog.
But it’s not really worth it if you still have to spend hours fixing its mistakes, correcting the tone, and editing TF out of it.
In reality, AI can help save copywriters time on the initial boring stuff.
- The outline.
- Narrowing down the POV of the piece.
- Thinking of some words/phrases that might resonate with your audience.
- Getting inside the head of your ideal consumer.
- Brainstorming how different types of headlines and tones would sound: provocative, FOMO, intriguing — although I’m never satisfied with these results.
3. AI Can Help Writers Push Through Writer’s Block
I really enjoy using AI for this. Writer’s block is real — it just looks different for everyone and it affects everyone differently which makes it hard to narrow down.
- Sometimes you’re lacking perspective.
- Sometimes you’re lacking inspiration (again, whatever that means to you).
- Sometimes it looks like procrastination.
- For me, it looks like all of my ideas/thoughts forming a tornado around my head that doesn’t allow me to grasp a singular idea.
Using an AI tool can be a great way to pull some of those thoughts out and start turning them into pieces of what you want your content to look like.
4. AI Can Help Copywriters Brainstorm Using Different Perspectives
As a solopreneur, I don’t have a team of people to bounce ideas, thoughts, jokes, and everyday complaints off of; it’s truly one of the aspects I miss the most about an office job.
Using AI to help with this has been really interesting. I like to use it to help me write 2 or 3 perspectives related to the piece.
- What does target audience A look and think like?
- What does target audience B look and think like?
- What does an opposing audience look like?
I prompt the AI to create the same idea using each different perspective and that helps me get a hold of the tone or direction of the piece.
As with all of these examples, put on your critical thinking hat because AI doesn’t always nail it, but it certainly can help speed up the brainstorming process and help you flesh out some ideas more quickly.
What This Copywriter Dislikes About AI
1. AI Is Not A Storyteller
This encompasses a lot of different aspects but look at the entirety of human history. We’re storytellers. Good copywriting and content writing involves telling a story and hooking the reader in a way that lets them know you understand them.
AI also seems to not be so great at providing updated information, correct citations, transitions between concepts, and getting passed the surface level of a viewpoint.
From Courtney Herda again, “Quality and performance from content written by humans and for humans performed better, likely not just because it was written by a human, but because the topic was analyzed critically.” 👏
2. AI Doesn’t *Really* Have An Imagination
I’m taking a Spanish class right now and one of the activities we did in class was look at the images and tell each other what we thought. The image was of a woman and man sitting on a step with some boxes behind them and I think maybe holding a cup of coffee.
- One person in the class said they were getting coffee at a bodega.
- One person said he helped her move.
- One person said they’re coworkers eating lunch.
- THEN I said, I think he just helped her move because he’s interested in her (in you know what way) and he hoped that by helping her move her boxes she would sleep with him and now that they’re done he’s leaning in and doing a little flirting.
They all looked at me and said that’s what you took out of that picture?? And that’s when I remembered how powerful our imaginations are and how different they are from one another.
We will never replace our creativity and imaginations with machines.
3. AI Isn’t Funny
Okay it’s getting better, but I don’t think I’ve ever read something AI-generated that made me laugh out loud — and sometimes that’s what you’re going for. Funny depends on your audience — are they sarcastic, literal, punny, enjoy dark humor, like bodily related humor… you gotta know who you’re talking to.
AI generally has a slapstick literal sense of humor, always paired with emojis, and it’s very easy to detect that an AI made that joke. You might be able to put a bunch of examples and prompts in to get what you need but it’s going to take a while.
4. AI Cannot Fact-check
AI really came out at the best time, coming off of a presidential term that had absolutely no regard for truth. Fact-checking is currently at the lowest and highest priority it’s ever been at.
Let’s not forget about the biases and discrimination it carries with it. So if you’re going to use it, you have to back it up with real facts and know where to look out for the bullshit.
5. AI Can’t Write From A POV
Because it doesn’t have A POV. Because it’s a machine. POV (point of view) is important to any type of writing. Every author needs to know:
- Who you’re writing the piece for.
- Why you’re writing the piece.
- Why you are writing it right now.
This concept is something I initially learned from Tracey Wallace from Contentment and something I’ve found to heighten my quality of work. You could create a beautiful piece of copy but you’re really risking it all if you don’t understand the client, the keyword, the purpose, and the POV.
And AI doesn’t usually get it right.
In a piece for WorkWeek, Tracey says, “As writing speeds up thanks to AI content tools like ChatGPT, editors will become more and more crucial. That’s because AI tools aren’t always accurate (fact-checking is required), and often don’t pull in the proper POV you need for your company or a piece of content.”
This heightens my don’t-let-AI-write-your-blog argument but it reinforces what I’ve said ten thousand times already — critical thinking is still needed to interpret the output of AI content.
6. AI Output Is Only As Good As The Input
How many people are calling themselves “AI engineers”, or “AI prompt engineers”?
- Points for adaptability? Check!
- Points for creativity? Check!
- Points for incorporating and ‘mastering’ a new software? Check!
But why? Why does this exist — and why does it work?
Because you have to put time into the input to get a good output. Think about it, you’d expect a dumb answer to a dumb question, but here’s the thinking:
- We all talk differently.
- We all come from different backgrounds.
- We all use different words.
What I think is a good, thorough query is probably not what you would think was a good thorough query.
It reminds me of the resume specialists I’m obsessed with following on TikTok. If you answered phones and scheduled appointments, you don’t write down that you were an assistant or an order taker. Instead, you were an intake and data specialist. Amazing! You should hype up what you did, that company needed you.
Not everyone has the time, the energy, or knowledge to create good inputs. (and not everyone is a good judge of what a good output is).
7. AI Reduces The Diversity Of Thought
I saw this come up in my Axios newsletter the other day. As a surprise to probably no one, in a study when strategy consultants were given an AI assignment that fell outside the capabilities of the AI software, they “were 19 percentage points less likely to produce correct solutions compared to those without AI.”
As Axios ultimately summed it up so nicely, “Relying on clichéd GPT-4 outputs reduced the group’s diversity of thought by 41%.” 41 percent!
Technology has made it easier to connect with others, but it’s also made it easier, and kind of necessary, to narrow your focus.
- Work in your niche
- Play in your niche
- Stay in your niche.
That kind of thinking doesn’t encourage newness, it doesn’t encourage empathy, and it doesn’t encourage creativity.
To me, copy is meant to inspire, to connect, to validate (for starters). And to do that we need empathy, understanding, and diversity.
Before I wrap it up I want to acknowledge that we can write as many pieces like this as we want, but AI has already started replacing human jobs. Copywriters, software engineers, entertainment writers, auto workers, administrators and so much more.
My prediction is that corporations will do what they always do — fire people to “save money”, and incorporate the new technology.
They’ll pay the fines for the mistakes the new technology makes and eventually, they will have to bring back people because AI is not a substitute for a person.
Like when CNET laid off reporters, used AI to write the articles, and later had to issue corrections for plagiarism.
I wrote this article to show how AI can fit into our lives without replacing us — because only another person can truly replace each of us.
We’re in a position to embrace AI, let employees learn to use it, let it make their lives easier (everyone is already doing the work of 4 people anyway), and let’s see where it all takes us.
Alright, I’m wrapping it up — thank you again for your time and attention! At this moment in time, I’m still not convinced AI will take my job. I’m not not convinced but what keeps me going is working and speaking with small and sustainable businesses who LOVE working with other people. We’re each other’s biggest supporters! We all have to look out for each other and I don’t want generative AI to take anyone’s job.
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