What (Smart) Copywriters Think of AI Copy
APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE
I have a lot of feelings about AI in copywriting.
And before you come for me, I know. Everybody does right now.
But mine come from a whole boatload of specific situations in which I know my clients could be doing so much with AI, but instead spend it building copy that has no chance of converting.
For example, the clients that hand me ‘brand voice guides’ that are 86 pages long and built entirely by a bot, and I am expected to be grateful when in reality, it doesn’t help me do my job. It may help AI write copy that ‘sounds like you’, but if you had a human a bunch of pages that have no tangible direction included in them, they’re worthless.
So when Sara Joelle of Between the Lines Copy and I connected on Threads over shared AI frustrations, I knew we needed to record a conversation. This is that conversation.
Listen below, or enjoy reading the following summary.
Why This Keeps Coming Up
AI is not going away. And to be clear, I'm not saying it should. What I am saying is that the way a lot of online business owners are using it for copy is adding friction to their sales processes.
The problem isn't that AI exists. The problem is that people are using it as a thinking replacement instead of a thinking tool.
They’re giving away their self-trust in exchange for something done quickly.
If AI Researches Like It Outputs, We’re In Trouble
Here's something worth sitting with: If you and a complete stranger both open ChatGPT and type in the same prompt, you are going to get very similar answers. That’s because they’re pulled from the same training data. The same internet (hello, good ol’ search!).
Sara and I tested this live on the episode. We both typed "tell me the three best coffee shops on Cape Cod" into our respective ChatGPT accounts, hers being more trained on her preferences than mine. The overlap was significant.
And if that's true for coffee shop recommendations, it's true for copy angles, newsletter names, homepage headlines, and brand positioning statements too.
AI-generated copy feels true-to-you because you want it to be. But it's giving you the same answer it gave the person with a similar audience, a similar offer, and a similar prompt.
And babes, that’s the beige-ification of copywriting right there.
So What Is a Good AI Use Case for Copywriting?
Using AI to process your own thinking, to quickly summarize research, to get a rough structure down before you write for real, to handle admin-adjacent tasks that don't require your voice. These are fine. Useful, even.
What gets dangerous is using AI to do the thinking for you. If you’re tagging in AI every time you’re wondering if something you wrote ‘fits you’, or to give you opinions on offers or strategy, I fear you’re losing the plot.
AI is a tool, not a brain. So when you want to position yourself or write the copy that's supposed to make someone choose you over everyone else, it’s gotta be human.
Because if the model is generating from shared data and common patterns, your "unique" positioning might be less unique than you think.
The AI use case in copywriting is narrow. It's a starting point, for sure. But I wouldn’t be using it at every step of the writing process.
The Brand Voice Guide Use Case
Sara and I spent some time on this one because it comes up constantly. Clients will hand me a lengthy brand voice guide, often AI-generated, as if it tells me anything I need to know before I even start writing. 9 times out of 10, it doesn't.
Here's what a good brand voice guide does: it gives a human writer (or your future self) enough examples and specifics to write in your voice with confidence.
It answers questions like:
Do you swear?
What topics are off-limits?
What are three sentences that sound exactly like you?
What are specific examples of your brand voice?
What a bad one does: tells you your voice is "authentic, playful, and educational" across 30 pages without a single concrete example. If your brand voice guide doesn't include sample copy, it's not useful.
"What you use to train your AI is not the same thing as what you use to train your copywriter." (Sara Joelle)
Keep Your Creativity Muscle Strong
One thing Sara said that I want to put on a wall: the work you produce for clients is not the ceiling of what you can write. It's a product of the creative thinking you do everywhere else.
She dedicates the entire month of June to creativity, using prompt baskets, watercolor books, writing exercises, and other practices to stay sharp. She believes (and I agree!) that if you stop using your brain independently, you lose access to the thinking that makes your brand different from everyone else's.
This matters even more right now. When AI is an option for every step, the people who stay relevant are going to be the ones who keep their creative instincts alive.
Stay Colorful
Want to stay away from beige AF copy?
I have two great options for you:
Hire me to write your copy – I’ll write stellar copy that grabs your ideal clients by the ears so that they just can’t look away. Or something like that.
2. Join Copy On Demand – Currently on a waitlist, but doors will open in Q4! I’ll work alongside you as you write your copy.
Connect with Sara from BTL Copy:
Connect with me:
Watch episodes with subtitles on my YouTube
See my services → sales pages, emails, websites, and more.
Get on my calendar → if you’d like me to write your sales copy for you!
Opt-In Copy Bot → Write high-converting opt-in pages in minutes
Nomad Copy Agency writes copy that CONVERTS for service-based businesses. Inquire about done-for-you services here.
