It’s an understandable fear that artificial intelligence could be in line to replace humans across various industries. AI is the buzzword of the moment, with every company desperate to launch their own AI-powered product that will excite, intrigue and inspire customers. The rapid acceleration and advancement of tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Create have definitely made those who work in creative industries somewhat wary of their future livelihood. But even with supercharged knowledge and the whole internet to learn from, will they ever replace a human copywriting service?

Human Copywriting Services vs AI Copywriters

A poll on the subreddit “r/copywriting” asking about honest opinions on AI shows that 55% of writers don’t think of AI as a replacement for humans, and that they can actually use it as a way of doing the legwork for them. Of course, this was two whole years ago – remember back in 2022 we were shocked by the likes of DALL-E creating creepy, hall of mirrors-type imagery like it was the peak of AI innovation? Fast-forward to today and we’ve got programmes that can instantly create video footage from a prompt, and who knows what AI will be able to do in another two years’ time.

AI tools can produce incredibly coherent, well-structured copy in seconds, much more efficiently than a person and with an analytical perspective the human brain could only dream of. They can instantly analyse huge amounts of data, identify trends, and create content that is rich in keywords, making them an SEO wet dream. However, AI-generated content is a mirror to what has come before it, meaning that key human characteristics like deep emotional resonance, creativity, and cultural nuances will likely always be a struggle for these programmes. It struggles with producing original ideas, interpreting complex emotions, and navigating ambiguous contexts, meaning that there will always be a level of unique, human subtlety that AI will undoubtedly miss.

Humans and AI represent different ends of a spectrum, with the sweet spot being somewhere in the middle. One side is abundant in knowledge and analysis, thinking literally and understanding vast quantities of information in milliseconds without ever being able to truly experience or comprehend it. The other side is flawed by human error and unable to master a perfect attention to detail, but will always have a unique creative insight that a robot just can’t replicate.

Using AI to Improve Human Work

Although it’s very likely that AI will continue to evolve at double time, we strongly believe that it will never be able to outperform humans in most key areas. It’s important to stay level-headed when looking at what robots can and will be able to do, and instead of focusing on them as our competitors, identify how we can use them to our advantage.

For example, using tools like ChatGPT to do the legwork of research for us is a good use – even though it’s highly recommended that you fact check for cold, hard evidence yourself. 

If you’re going to use AI in copywriting (or writing in general), we recommend augmenting it into your work instead of giving up and letting it do it all for you. Ask it to generate a rough draft that you can tart up yourself, task it with basic SEO tasks, or see if it can pull up ideas you can work from rather than just copy-pasting everything it tells you verbatim and calling it a day. AI might be improving, but AI detectors like Quillbot are, too. Google (and other good search engines) are capable of spotting AI as well, and may penalise your spot in search results.

The Ethics of AI Copywriting

One of the biggest question marks over using artificial intelligence is just how ethical it is. Not only do we not have a clear picture on the gravity of its environmental impact (it’s sometimes hard to comprehend that using a computer can cause massive issues in the real world), but a lot of the time its creative output borders on, or even intrudes upon plagiarism.

Everything AI uses is essentially regurgitated from existing articles, blog posts, press releases, and intellectual property available across the internet. Sure, human writers will use information readily available online too, but we are able to incorporate our own understanding, perception and opinion to turn it into something different. We leave our mark on what we do, which is something that a programme without an opinion or human comprehension cannot do.

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Ultimately, and at least for now, AI writing will not be able to equal the creativity of a human – but it is learning, and quickly. At this current moment, there’s a certain beige-ness to its output, and while we’ve absolutely used elements of AI to research this very article (as icky as it might be to admit), hopefully, you’ll notice a human touch that AI can’t replicate right now.

For example, would AI really call itself an SEO wet dream? We don’t think so. That’s a human tone of voice that right now (and hopefully for a good while yet) AI won’t be able to replicate.

All this to say, while AI is a timesaver for writers and a money-saver for those who pay writers by the hour, it’s not taking the place of quality, human-written content just yet.

With most AI models being programmed in US English, if you're a UK-based company we highly recommend making sure any writing you do is checked over by a human with good comprehension of British English. If you're looking for a UK copywriting service that will implement the best of both worlds when it comes to AI assisted, human-written content, our copy team is on hand to create some keyword-dense, delightfully readable blogs, website copy, and much more.