Last week, a savvy marketer asked me:
“What do you think of the AI-augmented copywriter path?”
The idea is to have humans at the center of decision-making, strategy, ideation, and creation. Then, use AI tools to inform, support, and speed up the writing.
Here’s my thought:
“I very much would like to see a realistic version of this path. But I don’t think this path exists yet.”
Yes, I see (and use) AI tools throughout my workflows.
Dubsado. Fathom. Grammarly. HemingwayApp. etc.
In addition –
As a one-person, full-stack email marketer for e-commerce, I would love to expand my capacity by 10x with the help of AI.
Right now, I can only work with a few select clients at a time.
2… 3… maybe 4?
After that, I risk exploding or sacrificing quality.
But all freelancers know that when you’re working with only 2 to 4 clients, it hurts to lose any of them. (It doesn’t matter how long your waitlist is. It still hurts)
Since I don’t have the ego to write every word myself…
(I didn’t build my brand on this line—like Daniel Throssell)
I’d love to explore the possibility of expanding my portfolio without taking on a bigger team… and without compromising my lifestyle.
One-person, full-stack email marketer who can take on 10 clients with the help of AI proteges—without sacrificing quality and time with my wife—is a dream come true.
But the problem is –
Every single copywriter who takes this path…
Regardless of what they claim, you see the output suffers.
Even the best in the game.
There are mentors who I used to read every single email yet…
I find myself skipping (and deleting) more and more of their emails without bothering to open. I even unsubscribed to most of them.
(longer form content—like blog posts, VSLs, and sales pages—are less impacted. But for emails, the difference is too significant not to notice.)
This is because, for us, writing is thinking.
The painstaking process of drafting, editing, pulling our hair out, deleting the whole thing out of frustration, rewriting, and revising 5 more times is how we think.
This process, while painful, allows us to pull out the deeper insights.
When you rely on AI to generate 80% of the first draft, your final result becomes that much shallower.
Yes, it’s maybe just a 20% difference.
But that extra depth is what attracts the raving fans.
Now, you don’t need to be ‘perfect’ to make more sales for your clients.
But I’m also not comfortable saying:
‘Hey, I’m just writing for my clients. Big deal. Give them some shallow AI content.’
At least not yet.
So, yes, I would love to see a realistic vision of an AI-augmented copywriter path that doesn’t sacrifice output but gains 5x in speed.
(btw – I can write 8 to 15 emails for a client in a single day when I need to. So… the AI assistant will have to beat that number without making me want to punch my screen.)
But as for right now –
I don’t see it happening yet.”
Talk soon,
– WYH