With all of the hype surrounding ChatGPT and other AI and the power of these systems in generating content, I figured I’d ask ChatGPT this question to see what it would say:

What are the current limits of AI in relation to copywriting?

Here is the response:

“As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, AI has made significant advancements in the field of copywriting and natural language generation. However, there are still some limits to consider. Here are a few current limitations of AI in relation to copywriting:

“Contextual Understanding: While AI models can generate coherent and grammatically correct text, they may struggle with understanding nuanced or complex contexts. They often lack a deep understanding of the subject matter or the specific goals and preferences of the target audience. This limitation can result in generic or inaccurate content that fails to resonate with readers.

“Creative Thinking and Originality: AI models excel at learning from vast amounts of existing data and generating text based on patterns in that data. However, they may struggle with producing truly original and creative content. Generating unique ideas, innovative concepts, and compelling storytelling that captivates readers is still a challenge for AI.

“Emotional and Cultural Intelligence: AI models often struggle to understand and convey emotions accurately. Copywriting often relies on evoking specific emotions or appealing to cultural nuances, which can be challenging for AI. Emotionally engaging content and writing that is culturally sensitive may require human input to ensure it resonates appropriately with the intended audience.

“Ethical Considerations and Bias: AI models are trained on existing data, which means they can inadvertently inherit biases present in the training data. This can lead to biased or discriminatory content generation. Careful oversight and manual editing are necessary to ensure that AI-generated copy is fair, unbiased, and aligns with ethical standards.

“Strategic Thinking and Business Insights: While AI can generate text, it may lack the strategic thinking and business insights that human copywriters possess. Understanding marketing objectives, crafting persuasive messaging, and aligning with overall brand strategy often require a human touch and domain expertise.

“It's worth noting that AI technology is rapidly evolving, and new advancements are being made continuously. The limits mentioned above may be addressed or mitigated to some extent with ongoing research and development in the field of AI and natural language processing.”

I’ll admit I found these points to be pretty much spot on.

The response itself is likely compiled from the comments of many writers on the subject. My personal take on the subject is that AI can definitely assist in content generation. How much depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your content.

If you are trying to educate or provide a summary of technical information, AI may work very well for you. I’ve used AI to generate skeleton or outline content as a template to start from. Then, I rewrite this material to my specific needs.

Image by kiquebg (Pixabay)

If you are looking for content that grabs attention and really creates a desire for a product or service, AI is likely going to be more limited in usefulness.

Even if you give AI a well-designed prompt, it is likely only going to be able to parrot existing sources that can be found on the internet. Still useful as a starting point or template perhaps, but completely ineffective in selling your product.

AI is not going to know your ideal client, their needs and wants, what appeals to them, which emotions to trigger at which times, etc. All of these aspects are what makes good copywriting effective. By the time AI can fully understand these nuances and the operator is skilled enough to enter good enough prompts to elicit the currect output, a skilled copywriter will have created mountains of effective copy and generated a lot of revenue for your company.

If you'd like a real copywriter to drive revenue for your business, contact us at expansionmarketingfl@gmail.com. Portfolio available upon request.