Artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules for copywriting, just as in any other industry and service. No business sector is unaffected, and the implications at the moment are a little messy for all concerned.

On the one hand, AI can be a great tool for business. From the automotive industry to medicine and graphic design, AI has demonstrated how it can drastically help cut development time while improving the overall quality of service.

So, where’s the catch? Well, what we’re increasingly seeing (which is the result of what some have predicted) is that humans automatically push back against AI in various scenarios. More crucially, as long as people are buying, humanity will always trust humans to sell them things.

The problem for businesses using AI is that misusing that same technology can also be a trust-breaker. And in sales, a trust-breaker is a deal-breaker.

Put simply, if people feel like AI is selling to them, for example, or being misused in any way, they usually get cold feet. Sometimes, they will actively choose the competition. Do they hate AI?

Hate is a strong word. People don’t mind being given AI-generated information as long as the data has been extensively fact-checked from a verified data lake. But they want to avoid being presented with clear AI-generated sales speak, graphics, or call agents, especially when making a big buying decision.

Human voices, insights, empathy, and solutions to human problems will always be valuable, especially in an age where we struggle to know what is real and whom to trust.

Now, imagine those human values built upon data-verified AI analysis. All of a sudden, we have human creativity and direction with AI-level processing abilities. But only if we use it right. We could also have human laziness, with AI doing all the work. Or, the other way around, a human being is broken and overworked by the whims and processes of the AI as we try to keep up with it. Either scenario is possible.

Have we discovered the best thing since sliced bread? Or have we just unwittingly opened Pandora’s Box? No one truly knows for certain, but the latter feels more likely if we don’t implement safeguards.

At Next-Gen Copy, we believe in better rules and safeguards. We can’t wait for legislators to do it for us, so as copywriters, we’re trying to be clear about how we use AI tools so we can provide a better service at a more competitive price. It’s vital that you know where you stand. So, to that end:

We currently use AI to help us write better copy for our clients within a shorter time. This method may change, but here’s how we do it at the minute:

  1. We speak with you (the client), and if everyone’s happy, agree on a work schedule. With the fee paid, research begins.
  2. When research ends, we use ChatGPT and Bard to produce content blocks based on our own prompt engineers. Similar in the same way to Lorem Ipsum. But it’s better because we can see what text the AI has produced – therefore, we can see where we need to improve.
  3. That draft is evaluated against other drafts, after which we compile the best, most optimised structure.
  4. With shorter form copy, we ask AI to produce various drafts in response to a brief. Then, we take the best versions and use them as starting points for the development stage.
  5. The development stage is all human. That includes the development of the concept into various ideas, which we then write by hand, other times into a basic text editor.
  6. With the best ten ideas, we’ll hone down the best and use software tools to help us analyse the best ones. We base this on SEO rules, text readability, narrative structure, style, tone and voice, reading time, grammar and punctuation, and last (but by no means least) word count.

 

Without software and AI tools, this process would take longer and cost more. However, a human still needs to make that overall decision. Sometimes, the different systems conflict, so a human needs to make that decision and make the final call.

Overall, AI helps us deliver a better service in about half the time. The work is still human. It looks and feels authentic because, despite the tools involved, a human copywriter was still embedded at the core the whole time.

But that’s because we use it with these safeguards in place. If we didn’t, then the copy could come off as fake, which is when damage to your reputation can and would occur.

So, there you have it. This is how we use AI. We hope you feel confident that we can help you stand out for the right reasons as you continue to grow. What happens when humans are not buying any more? Well, that’s probably already a work of science fiction, so we’ll get working on an answer.