With AI everywhere - does the future of copy swing back to being (WAY) more human?
Lately it feels like everywhere I look there is content being spun up by AI. Blogs / emails / socials etc. - all starting to sound kind of the same. I'm really starting to notice it in my own inbox - tons of emails feel polished but a little... robotic? Clearly an LLM has had a hand in it (mind you its great when working with customers who speak another language).
It makes me wonder if the real pivot is actually back in the other direction. Do we start to see copy that is more casual / almost raw and unpolished (slang / grammatically incorrect haha?) and more human as a way to stand out?
When LLMs get really good at writing polished copy from prompts - what role is left for humans? (dystopian kinda)
Are we just lightly amending what AI writes, or is there a bigger opportunity for people who lean hard into personality, community, and voice in a way AI cannot replicate? (its likely AI will soon be able to replicate this **)
I feel like there might be a split coming... AI will take care of the bulk content (support docs / SOPs / Technical docs etc) but the stuff people actually connect with (landing pages / positioning for brand etc) could end up being unpolished / human and super casual.
Curious how others see it. Do you think authenticity becomes the main differentiator or does copy evolve in a different direction? (I'd love to hear what direction people see things evolving?)
What % of your posts are written by AI? (for bonus points)
Replies
Pretty timely post in light of market events actually!
AdTech alum here, there already was a pretty major market for "grammatically incorrect" creatives. There are jokes to hell and back on current slang usage of gen Z and Alpha for example, and these are incorporated into algorithms by major(Google, Meta, X) and minor players alike. They certainly understand how specific slang or even sentence patterns can catch on, have data for how many people of a certain age or in a specific area are using terms, and generally if they weren't successful at this already doomscrolling would've died off!
I also don't think AI will be relegated to the backrooms. Products like bolt.new let people make pretty attractive pages in a way many strive for. Even fonts are pretty varied and would be what I think people would pick for a "non-corporate" and creative product (ex. https://navistride.online/).
I think what LLM's frankly are not too good at are whats termed "organic" content. They're getting better but they need guidance and a "pilot" for the foreseeable future. I think corporations are starting to notice this as for example Amazon is backpedalling on saying it's great to replace junior talent with AI, despite Matt's boss (Amazon CEO Andy Jassy) literally saying the complete opposite. Markets are also starting to notice this and stocks are pulling back from certain AI focused golden children.
AI is just a tool, for now. I think it's going to be used everywhere, for for everything you mentioned above and more. It's not goin to kill off authenticity, but I think what it will do is lessen the "amount" of authenticity in a society where clicks and exposure matter, because where a human had to think of content to engage you can now train an AI to produce even MORE content of specific type, and frankly drown out the "smaller" voices.
I feel like a flood is coming, but it's either going to be a flood of crap or of creativity, and I'm hoping for the latter! I probably should but do not use AI for writing. I for one encourage ChrisBot come to fruition so I can finally catch up on sleep.
@csurita Really appreciate the reply! especially the point about slang and “imperfect” creatives already being a thing in the ad realm.
Makes total sense - platforms are tracking those patterns and optimizing around them.
I also like your take on AI as a tool that still needs a pilot. That feels (currently) pretty accurate (who knows what they have cooking up in the OpenAI / Deepseek labs ahha)
The sheer volume of stuff it can crank out does make me wonder if we’ll start seeing audiences tune their radar sharper for what feels “organic” vs. just another piece of feed filler. (if they aren't already)
You're (I think at least) pretty spot on on the flood front - either it’s going to drown everything in sameness, or maybe it actually pushes people to lean harder into personality / uniqueness to cut through.
I’m with you on hoping for the latter. (If not - I'll take a bot with a better hairline if I get a say in the matter haah)
Daniel, I think you’re spot on about the split. What I’m seeing already is:
Utility copy (docs, FAQs, SOPs, transactional emails): AI is already strong here and will dominate because speed/accuracy matter more than personality. No real differentiator for a human.
Conversion copy (landing pages, brand messaging, community posts): This is where “raw human” will likely become the differentiator. The irony is brands that dare to sound less polished may actually stand out more because readers can tell it isn’t templated.
Future role of humans: I don’t think we’ll just be “lightly amending” AI. Instead, humans will double down on taste, cultural intuition, and voice. AI can mimic slang, but it lags behind in reading the spirit (what feels fresh, funny, or edgy right now). That gap is where humans win.
To your last question: less than ~20% of my posts are AI-assisted, and even then it’s usually for structure or brainstorming, not voice. Authenticity becomes not just a differentiator, but a signal of trust.
Curious, do you think we’ll reach a point where rawness itself gets commoditized and AI starts simulating “unpolished” copy convincingly? That’s where things get tricky.
@priyanka_gosai1 Super insightful and I think thats a great way to break things down - Conversion copy still feels like it needs to be the most polished / human and vital to businesses.
I do think we'll reach a point where things will become as indistinguishable as necessary for most consumers (so most companies adopt it more or less entirely for most of their copywriting) .
I presume (not an expert - just someone in the space everyday) that we'll land in a world where prompting is more important than writing itself.
- How complete are your prompts / how clear are they / how much industry / internal IP / historical X data does the LLM have access to / does it understand the purpose or the end user?
Ie: can you have repeatable prompts (with the right structure / rigidity) that yield outputs users are MOSTLY happy with.
Time will tell - but it is a spooky time to be a full time copywriter not keeping a keen eye on the LLM evolution.