In today's digital age, AI technologies are impacting services everywhere, from data analysis to customer service. With tools like ChatGPT gaining popularity, do we still need human expertise? Do Copy and Content writers still hold value in this market when AI can generate content on demand? Let’s discuss.
What do Copywriters and Content Writers do?
Let’s start at the beginning. While a content creator is a fairly known phenomenon these days, not everyone will be familiar with the concept of a copywriter or a content writer. That’s ok.
Let’s break it down:
Copywriters:
Create persuasive text to prompt specific actions, like purchases or sign-ups.
Focus on converting organic traffic.
Sell your target audience on your brand.
Produce short-form, clever content: ads, taglines, product descriptions and landing page text etc. They’re also known to build email campaigns and social media posts.
Content Writers:
Produce informative posts that educate, entertain, instruct or inform.
Focus on driving organic traffic.
Drive your target audience to your brand.
Produce long-form content: articles, blog posts, guides, whitepapers and educational social media posts. They’re also known to build thought leadership pieces and industry trend analyses.
SEO knowledge and target audience research is vital for both.
Although there is definitely a difference between the roles, most writers will naturally transition between copywriting and content writing. These days, it doesn’t really matter. A freelancer is likely to provide both types of content or a mix of services.
How is AI Technology Affecting Both Professions?
AI tech is reshaping the landscape for copywriters and content writers. In a positive sense, it assists in generating content more efficiently, giving writers access to quick drafts and inspiration. Basic tasks like product descriptions and social media posts are easily put together, which saves time for writers to focus on strategic, creative endeavours. However, there are concerns about the potential negative impacts. While AI enhances productivity, it lacks the nuanced understanding and emotional intelligence that human writers bring to storytelling and personalised engagement.
Thou Shalt Not Make Repetitive, Generic - Content
Relying on AI to fulfil all your content needs contributes to the existing problem of online homogenisation. Leaving us with a sea of generic, regurgitated content, lacking originality and creativity. Successful writers must strike a balance between AI-powered efficiency and the unique value of human input.
Target Audience Fail
While capable of producing text quickly, AI content often lacks the depth and emotional intelligence necessary to effectively convert or drive traffic. It’s hard to explain the intricacies of a brand’s voice and values, which leads to impersonal content that doesn’t resonate with target audiences. It might give you a quick draft or template, but it can’t craft compelling narratives that evoke emotions, tell engaging stories, or address readers' pain points. Without this emotional resonance, AI-generated content will never establish a genuine connection with readers, making it less likely to drive actions or capture sustained interest.
Culture, Trends and Context
AI models can’t fully comprehend current cultural nuances, trends, or context. Most models aren’t configured to ‘real-time’ and extract information only up to a certain year. This leads to content that feels out of touch and doesn’t engage modern audiences.
Google Doesn’t Like AI-Generated Content
Are you using ChatGPT to create SEO-focused blog posts? If so, you should know that Google doesn’t view AI-generated content favourably and your post could be categorised as spam. Google highly values content that addresses users' queries and showcases qualities like experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT). This is what leads to high search rankings. Language modelling software doesn’t fit this profile and Google have implemented technology capable of identifying AI-generated content. There’s even a team of human reviewers who can flag websites. Once flagged, fixing the situation takes a bit of hoop jumping. Not ideal when you’re trying to reach the masses.
Should Writers Avoid AI?
In conclusion, copy and content writers can relax in the knowledge that AI technology isn’t here to take their jobs just yet. We still have a huge quota for human generated content to fulfil and nothing to gain from writers falling behind the latest technology trends. AI powered tools can improve efficiency, provide basic drafts and help form ideas. Writers can integrate these merits with their existing work practice and clients will pay for high value content that captivates audiences and scores high in search ranks. It would be unwise for anyone to strictly rely on AI-technology to create their content and sell their brand. It might save a bit of money in the short-term, but the outcome is unlikely to add the intended value.