By mid 2020, as businesses began to feel the financial burden of the ongoing pandemic, cost-cutting and restructuring measures saw highly-skilled talents in the creative industries slowly re-entering the job market. The month of June saw a five-year high in Google searches for freelance writing jobs. Come December, Facebook groups like Filipino Remote Copywriters were seeing huge spikes in new members, ranging from new writers to experienced social media managers. It was around this time that Rogin Losa, a former brand content lead of a top national youth publication in the Philippines, decided to leave the highly competitive media industry for her new role leading brand-building efforts for a Japanese eyewear brand.
“For most members of the media, the amount of labor we do in a day doesn’t match what we make in a month,” says Rogin. “It leads to overexhaustion and burnouts with little return. So it’s no shock that former media personnel turn to similar industries instead, like eCommerce for instance. The workload in these industries might be similar or even harder. But at least, the compensation meets the amount of labor.”
As industries like copywriting heat up, many businesses have begun turning to new technologies to automate their content creation—a compromise between creative human work and affordable, infinitely scalable output.
By 2025, the global artificial intelligence market is expected to reach roughly $126 billion, led by advances in applications such as natural language processing. This is the branch of AI concerned with understanding and replicating the way humans write and speak, a hallmark of science fiction and a matter of concern for many of those in the creative industries.
AI models like GPT-3 have been used to create marketing tools like Ryter that experts claim can generate news articles nearly indistinguishable from articles written by humans. For small businesses and top corporations alike, this can be a boon, allowing for consistent content at a fraction of the cost. For creatives, it may pose a substantial threat to their already competitive field.
To explore how these technologies may reshape the creative industries, The Independent Investor asks three questions.
What exactly is an AI writer?
AI writers are a new breed of content creators, or rather writing assistants. They are not replacements for human writers. They help content creators by generating ideas and editing their work. Marketing teams can use them as a brainstorming tool to generate ideas and find the right angles for their campaigns. They can also use AI writers to write blog posts, articles, and even social media posts that will engage their audiences with witty copywriting skills.
These AI writers are not a replacement for human copywriters, but they do provide assistance to the content writers by getting rid of writer’s block and generating content ideas at scale. In the future, it is certain that we will see more AI writing assistants in the workplace. They will be used for different purposes, such as generating all kinds of content for digital agencies and their clients.
What are the best use cases for AI writers?
The best use cases for AI writers are when the content is repetitive and there is a need for high volume. AI writers can generate blog posts, articles, or other content in a matter of seconds. They can also be used to generate content for specific topics or niches when you need to create a lot of content with specific keywords.
One use case that is becoming more popular is using AI writers to generate blog posts from scratch. When you have an article idea but don’t know how to write it, you can use an AI writing assistant and get your blog post written in less than five minutes. They can also be used to generate content at scale for companies that need content for their website or social media pages.
The use of AI writers is not just limited to generating content. They also help in building your brand’s voice and tone which is important when it comes to creating an emotional connection with your audience.
What are the key differences between AI writers and human copywriters?
In the opinion of professional copywriter, Illya Kaboniyan, “copywriters are better than AI.” The point of his argument lies in the necessity to be alive and in your body when you write. He also talks about the humanity that a person brings to copywriting as well as understanding human needs.
Copywriters are expected to create enticing headlines and captivating content that will keep the audience engaged. They also need to be able to write creatively and understand the emotions of their audience. AI writers on the other hand, are good for generating content ideas at scale, but struggle with creativity and emotions.Human copywriters require imagination, creativity and emotional skills that AI writers do not need to possess in order to get the job done.
There are some key differences between AI writers and copywriters. While AI writers have the ability to generate content at a very high volume, they are not capable of conveying emotion. This is where the human copywriter comes in because they can make sure that there is a human touch to the content and make it more relatable.
Copywriters are uniquely positioned to produce content that resonates with readers. They have the ability to create a connection with their audience by using emotional language, which is something that AI writers cannot do.
Copywriters are more than just writers and they need to be able to think critically about how content will resonate with readers. They also need to be able to shift gears when needed and write for a variety of audiences. This is something that AI writing assistants cannot do as they only work on one specific topic or niche.
In today’s world where algorithms can be used to generate engaging feelings, copywriters are prerequisites. They are needed to use skillful words, hooks and sentence structure to express emotions or sentiments particularly in trying times.
Anything you can do, (A)I can do better…
All this seems to paint a rosy picture of AI writers and human writers harmoniously working alongside one another. But as in other industries hit by automation—a force that the McKinsey Global Institute predicts will replace a quarter of the US workforce by 2030—there are aspects of the copywriting industry that will inevitably shift away from humans and towards AI’s more scalable, affordable services.
In fact, this story itself was largely written by AI. Each of the answers to the three questions posed here were generated using Ryter, a tool that takes prompts and creates blocks of convincingly human-sounding text in seconds. Creative use of AI tools like these will likely shape the future of the copywriting industry. As the artificial co-writer of this piece stated earlier, “AI writers are a new breed of content creators, or rather writing assistants. They are not replacements for human writers.”
They’re right, at least for now. The technology definitely has limitations still. As far as we could tell, no quote attributed to an Illya Kaboniyan exists online—likely a fabrication of the tool. But as these technologies continue to sophisticate, copywriters will need to understand exactly what sets them apart from their AI counterparts to stay ahead.
With additional reporting by I.W. Gonzalez