Copywriting in an AI-Centric World

Artificial Intelligence continues to grow and develop as an essential part of the modern world. How do we know when it has gone too far? When certain creative careers are no longer filled by human minds. Entry level advertising jobs are disappearing as AI continues to do everything humans can do, but faster.

According to Harvard Business Review, writing jobs were affected the most after the introduction of ChatGPT, with a 30.37% decrease in jobs posted online. Employers implement AI services because it is free, fast, and easy to use. However, an AI machine will never be able to think the same way a human mind does.

To demonstrate this, I asked ChatGPT to write five headlines about selling cough drops with a humorous tone. This is what it came up with:

"Silence Your Inner Drama Queen—One Cough at a Time."

"Less Bark, More Bite—Our Drops Shut You Up (in a Good Way)."
"Coughing So Loud You Scared the Dog? We’ve Got You."
"Because That Cough Sounds Like It’s Plotting Something."
"Turn Your Cough Into a Whisper. Or at Least a Slightly Less Embarrassing Honk."

Some of these headlines serve as a good baseline, but they lack an extra touch that truly catches the human eye—personality.

Advertising is one of the major industries that relies on human connection, whether that be between an account executive and client, project manager and their team, or the creatives collaborating to produce a single idea. It requires originality and teamwork along with the basic knowledge of how advertising works.

AI is programmed to understand everything about advertising but it is unable to be original or have an authentic human personality. This is a problem for copywriters because a big part of the process is finding that one idea that is original and unique. AI, at its core, is a machine that researches well. It can research human connection and empathy, but it will never truly understand it.

Earlier on, I asked AI to sell cough drops using a humorous tone. The copy was basic and it lacked personality. I asked AI this in order to compare its copy to an actual campaign done by the popular cough drop brand, Ricola. In 2015, they launched the campaign “Make Sure Good News Sounds Like Good News” which featured ads like this:

Unlike AI, Ricola’s copywriters understand the human experience and are therefore able to relate to their consumers. Humans understand what it is to have a baby, a difficult relationship, or anticipation waiting for test results. AI can be knowledgeable on these topics, but it will never know what it is like to experience them.

So why are jobs being taken? A lot of entry level advertising jobs include content creation, data entry, and basic analysis— skills that AI can do, and does well. These jobs are the usual ways advertising majors break into the advertising industry. Through an entry-level job, new employees learn how to work in an agency and gather skills that will help them rise to the top. Looking for a job after college is more difficult than ever before because of AI.

This doesn’t mean humans should just let AI take over. Creatives need to understand that they have something AI will never have—their unique personality and ability to connect with other humans. An agency run by humans is successful because it produces original and memorable advertisements. AI is everyone’s least favorite coworker—lazy, boring, and smarter than anyone else. Advertising will always be an industry grounded in human connection.

-Gracie Glen-

Copywriting in an AI-Centric World

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