Robots doing work and writing articles for people might sound like a sci-fi film, but it’s not that far from our reality. AI (artificial intelligence) copywriting tools can now crunch copy and produce short and long-form content to help you market your business.

Does this mean computers are replacing writers? Not quite. Using AI as a copywriting and marketing tool can save you a ton of time and help you to generate content—if you use it correctly and carefully.

How Does AI Copywriting Work?

AI copywriting is written content, from marketing headlines to social media posts to blog articles, that aren’t created by a person, but generated by a computer. AI tools use algorithms and natural language processing (NLP) to create content based on the information and instructions you provide. It’s the same technology as predictive text on your phone, search engine suggestions on Google, and spelling and grammar check on Microsoft Word, but it’s more advanced than ever.

I wanted to test it out myself, so I went to CopyAI for a free trial. First, you describe your brand or product in 400 characters or less. Then, you copy and paste a short description of your website, and in seconds, the AI copywriting tool generates dozens of paragraphs describing your business. Here’s an example:

You’re so over throwing your time, money and effort into something that doesn’t work. Why are you still advertising on Google when you haven’t got a single lead? Why are you spending hundreds of pounds on Facebook to get ZERO leads? I understand the frustration. I’ve been there. Let me show you how to succeed with marketing without breaking the bank. I swear your business will soar high.

The AI generated paragraph isn’t perfect, but it accurately describes my business’s essence. Some paragraphs were amazingly similar to my original description, just a bit rearranged and reworded. Others, like the example provided, were very different.  

AI copywriting tools can predict words and generate copy based on similar content from any online source.  But as you can imagine, they can’t understand language like a real person (yet) and they lack the judgment, creativity, and emotion human writers possess.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of AI Copywriting

AI copywriting saves you time. The average person may take a couple of hours to write a 500-word article, but AI copywriting can produce one in seconds. The article may be less creative, less emotional, less original, and less well written, but it’s faster and kick-starts the writing process. It also spares you from writer’s block, giving you more time to focus on running your business and following your marketing plan.

On the negative side, AI copywriting can be harmful to your marketing if you rely only on AI copywriting. If you just copy-and-paste content from AI tools to your website, the quality of your content will plummet (and it may not make perfect sense). Content also isn’t truly “original” because it’s generated by analyzing and remixing thousands of similar articles posted on the net.

AI copywriting also can’t create new ideas or capture emotions like human writers or marketers who are paid to brainstorm and write copy that tugs at your heartstrings.  You’ll also find mistakes, inaccuracies, and miswordings with AI tools.  Just think of all the times Siri has said something bizarre or irrelevant, and couldn’t understand what you were asking.

How to Effectively Use AI for Marketing

Think of AI marketing as a tool for writers to save time and generate content more quickly, not to replace writers altogether. To use it effectively, have human writers and editors review and revise AI-generated content before you post it. AI copywriting will give you a rough draft, but the human touch (and your magic touch) makes your copy more meaningful and powerful.

Want to get started? Check out these tools for AI copywriting: CopyAI, Jarvis, Copysmith, and Writesonic. Neil Patel discusses more AI copywriting options along with details about their abilities and pricing in his article 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier.

Experiment with your marketing copy and listen to Jack Canfield’s advice. “The more things you try, the more likely one of them will work.”

Robin Samora is a marketing consultant in Boston with over 20 years of experience creating marketing plans for various clients. Reach out online!