Using AI article copywriting tools – a copywriter’s eye for details!

How can you tell an article has been written using Chat GPT or a similar AI tool? The first clue is in the contrived sentences within the opening paragraph – the result is a loss of authenticity and connection with the audience. If you see “In today’s fast paced business environment…” or something like that, Mrs GPT has probably been put to the task! Here is the opening sentence Chat GPT suggested for this article “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how businesses operate, and content creation is no exception”. In my opinion, quite a predictable, boring start and not at all in my conversational style!
Despite starting with one of the pitfalls of Chat GPT, I’m not going to slam the use of a revolutionary tool that is here to make everyone’s life easier. I’d like to highlight 5 areas where it is amazing and you should follow its lead and 5 areas where you should exercise caution. If you’d like your audience to remain engaged and appreciate that you’ve put in some effort rather than churned out copy that’s been regurgitated from other sources, read on!
5 areas where AI-powered copywriting tools are brilliant
- Idea generation and content planning – if you are someone who stares at a blank page, struggling to be inspired with topic ideas or gets stuck on expanding on ideas, these tools are nothing short of incredible. Ask it to create you a list of ideas on a subject area and use it to populate your content calendar. Brainstorming made easy!
- Personalisation – if you’d like nuanced versions of articles for different audiences, then AI writing tools can help. Just tell it about your audience profiles or your goals for each variant and put it to work.
- Generating content according to channel – these tools are powerhouses if you have to turn articles into other form of content in a hurry. Summarising is done at the blink of an eye if you need to turn an article into an attention grabbing social media post. If you have already written an article without AI help or perfected one, you can feed it back into the likes of Chat GPT to create different content forms with it.
- Best copywriting practice – despite the rather predictable opening paragraphs, AI writing tools do follow most of the best copywriters tricks, including doing a really good job of breaking up articles for easy reading. They often use bullet points, paragraphs of the right length, great punctuation and good use of subheadings.
There is also a logical sequence – saying what they are going to say, saying it and then summarising key points at the end. Personally, I don’t like that the formula for many of the AI drafts is to have a “In conclusion” subtitle at the end – it feels too formulaic. Remember that’s the reason many people claim to not enjoy a movie “too formulaic”, it can also suck the enjoyment out of reading something too! You can still include a conclusion – just make it more subtle and weave it into the article better. - Search engine optimisation (SEO) – AI tools are very helpful including keyphrases in articles and optimising articles in other ways such as the order, choice and frequency of words. Although if this is a particular requirement, always be sure to mention your emphasis on SEO via your prompt.
5 areas where AI-powered copywriting tools are lacking (and what to do about it!)
- Wrong tone of voice – does the writing style not seem like yours at all? Try changing your prompt to alter the style in the way you would like by giving it instruction to be “more informal” “more chatty” “more professional”. If you don’t get good results that way, try giving it an example paragraph written in the style you are looking for and ask it to re-write using that as a reference. Alternatively, this is where editing comes in – use the draft simply as a base and then re-write things manually in a style you feel is more appropriate.
- Too contrived and lacks authenticity – if you want your writing to feel more genuine, then you will need to take a critical look at where the AI generated draft has written things that seem robotic. Often you might need to use more personalised language like “I” or “you”, add some emotive words or insert some examples, points of view or anecdotes. These are all things that add a more human, relatable touch to writing.
- Doesn’t produce what you are looking for – it is a tool, not a complete solution. Accept that you are going to need to “massage” the writing at least a bit to achieve good quality results. Think of it as an extension of the editing process, which is part of good copywriting practice anyway.
- Lack of creativity and flair – AI tools can sometimes produce content that feels flat and uninspired. Creative writing often requires a spark of originality and flair that a machine may struggle to replicate. To combat this, infuse your drafts with your own unique voice and creativity. Inject humour, rhetorical questions, and great imagery to bring your content to life. Remember, AI can be a helping hand, but the true artistry of writing comes from a human touch.
- Struggles with complex topics – While AI can handle straightforward topics well, it’s likely to struggle with more complex or nuanced subjects. Technical or academic writing, thought leadership articles, or content requiring deep subject matter expertise might not achieve the desired depth and accuracy when generated by AI. In such cases, it's important to rely on humans to craft well-informed, precise, and engaging content that highlights their expertise so that it resonates with readers
As outlined above, AI-powered copywriting tools are undeniably impressive and offer many benefits, but they are not a solution for all copywriting needs. They can lack the personal touch, creativity, and depth that only a skilled human writer can provide. And I haven't even mentioned some of the other limitations around security of the information that is being "fed" into publicly available/free AI tools like Chat GPT. To leverage the full potential of these tools, use them as an aid rather than a replacement, be mindful of privacy matters and always refine and personalise the content to ensure it aligns with your vision and style.
Are you seeking compelling and authentic copy that truly captures your brand's voice and engages your audience? Look no further! Our team of expert copywriters is here to transform your ideas into captivating content. Contact us today to elevate your copywriting to the next level and leave a lasting impression on your readers.*
On a less cringey, less robotic ‘call to action’ for copywriting services note…if you are keen to make sure your copywriting doesn’t lose your brand voice and ensures you stay connected to your audience, get in touch for the human touch that will make all the difference. After all, experienced copywriters have a finely tuned eye for the little details in the editing that AI is not up to replacing (yet)!
*This article was created with the copywriting assistance of Chat GPT AND Copilot, driven by a human expert copywriter and editor. The strike-through paragraph illustrates a couple of the downsides of these AI tools. Sure, I could have kept refining the prompts, but that would have taken more time than writing a few sentences (and I like to keep my brain cells firing!).

About Andie Johnson
Andie is the owner of Flex Marketing. Flex Marketing helps businesses grow by allowing them to have the help of senior marketing resource without needing to employ a full time marketing manager. How flexible! Part of this work involves copywriting – not only do we have expertise in it, we really enjoy it. We take on copywriting projects such as re-writing copy for websites or creating client case studies as one-off projects. You can enquire about project based copywriting here. Flex Marketing has been helping businesses in this way to tell their stories and communicate their messages since 2011 and is based in Auckland, New Zealand.