He writes:
I was treated to a talk at last year’s Copy Cabana from Glenn Sturgess and Peter Stephen of OgilvyOne Business, on the topic of AI and copywriting. I touched on it briefly in my recap, but this is a topic to which I, and many others, keep returning.
Are the machines coming for your job? Basically, yes. They are, and it’s going to happen a lot sooner than you think. Even you silver foxes who are banking on being able to stretch things out to retirement are in for a rude awakening.
The technology is already here. Look at Persado, a platform which is capable of churning out 100+ headlines, each tailored to a specific business need, before a flesh-and-blood copywriter has put the kettle on and summoned the muse.
That last point wasn’t even a stab at comedy. Algorithm-driven content resonates with the besuited bean-counters who call the shots in ways us artsy-fartsy types simply do not. Suits trust data, not the stirrings of the soul, and that alone spells death for the creative industry as we know it.
Not convinced? Here’s three more reasons AI will replace copywriters in the next five to 10 years…
Machines learn, and don’t forget
My favourite thing about copywriting agency-side is the scope of clients we work with. There’s always something new on the horizon, and I like to think I’m an open-minded dude who can turn his hand to most subjects.
Compared to even a modest AI, though, I’m a dim-witted hick who’s still iffy on how to use a semicolon.
With AI-driven copywriting, you can rebrand your entire organisation, return years later for the next refresh, and the machine will still remember every last nuance of your branding, tone, and what precise emotions you want to instil in your audience.
Machines don’t talk back
I’ve been writing since I was old enough to stab my mum’s wallpaper with a crayon. So guess what! I know a thing or two about crafting something that reads well!
That doesn’t always sit well within a business process that sometimes produces multiple sources of contradictory feedback, all of which damages the consistency (and quality) of the finished copy. Whatever, Carol, it’s your birthday card.
An AI has no ego, impatience, or artistic integrity. Just tell it what you want, and that’s precisely what you’ll get… although the same might be said of the monkey’s paw from the old legend.
Machines are cheaper
If you’re still not totally sure I’m right, this one is game over. Using off-the-shelf software is always going to be cheaper than hiring a human with at least one mouth to feed.
When the end result is the same, if not better than what a human could produce, let’s see how long our beloved craft lasts when faced with the almighty bottom line.
Copywriting in a post-Skynet world
So why am I not worried about all this? Why am I not marching on the House of Lords, Byron-like, to mount an impassioned defence of neo-Luddism?
Well, it’s a combination of historical literacy, and realism when it comes to the human condition, really. We are tool-using mammals. From the moment one monkey picked up a rock to crack his coconut open, we began to evolve alongside our tools.
That’s the key. Copywriters who try to cling to outdated methods and values are going to be swept away by the march of history. Those who work with AIs and their developers aren’t just going to have an easier time. They’re going to help shape the future of our industry for generations.
Now, I can’t predict the future. If I could, I’d have invested in Bitcoin back in 2007 instead of beer. But let me go out on a limb and explore how our roles could change within the next decade.
Project-managing AIs
A slice of reality, this one. Most copywriters bemoaning the AI takeover are, in fact, pining for a craft which never existed.
Marketing copy is only very rarely about saying something new. People have trouble processing ‘new,’ and instead respond much better to simple emotional button-pushing. However we like to romanticise what we do, we’re basically just manipulating other monkeys into consuming products.
With such a relatively narrow window of stimuli to produce, the copywriter of the future might be most gainfully employed overseeing an AI’s output. We’d serve as the final sense-check on whatever the algorithm produces, working with it to refine the perfect messaging.
Read the rest of this post on the Sookio blog.