I’m pretty sure you’ve already noticed that it’s almost impossible to have a conversation about copywriting right now without AI coming up.
Depending on who you ask, it’s either the greatest productivity tool our industry has ever seen… or the beginning of the end for copywriters.
And I’ll be honest… I’ve spent a lot of time observing how people are using it, reading what it produces (in the copy I critique), and watching how the conversation around it is evolving.
There’s something interesting that keeps showing up though.
The copy often looks right at first glance.
The structure is there… the words flow… the arguments are logically arranged… the grammar is clean.
On the surface, it looks like copy.
But when you read enough of it, you start to feel the difference.
Something important is missing.
Good copy doesn’t really begin with words.
It begins with understanding.
Understanding…
The frustration someone feels when something in their life or business isn’t working the way it should.
The quiet hopes they don’t always articulate.
The subtle emotional tensions that sit just beneath the surface of a problem.
That kind of understanding doesn’t come from predicting language patterns.
It comes from paying attention to people.
From listening to how they talk when they’re not trying to sound clever… noticing the stories they tell themselves about their struggles, and recognising the emotional truth sitting behind their words.
AI is extraordinarily good at recognising patterns in language.
But great copywriters aren’t only working with language patterns.
They’re also working with human patterns.
They’re noticing what people want… what they fear, what they believe, and sometimes what they haven’t quite realised about themselves yet.
And then they translate that understanding into words that feel almost uncomfortably accurate.
The kind of words where the reader pauses and thinks…
“That’s exactly how I feel.”
Which brings me to this week’s…
Knowledge Nugget #557:
AI Can Generate Words… But It Can’t Generate Understanding
Now let me be clear, AI is a powerful tool… and like every powerful tool, it can be incredibly useful when it’s used well.
It can help you brainstorm ideas, organise research, explore angles, and speed up parts of the process that used to take hours.
But tools have always existed in this craft.
The typewriter replaced the pen.
The computer replaced the typewriter.
Search engines replaced filing cabinets.
But none of those tools replaced the craft itself.
They simply changed how we practiced it.
What’s changing now isn’t the need for copywriters.
It’s the value of the deeper skills.
When anyone can generate words quickly, the real advantage shifts somewhere else.
It shifts to the people who can see the market more clearly, understand people more deeply, and recognise the emotional truth sitting behind the problem being solved.
Because words are just the surface.
Understanding is the foundation.
And foundations are still built by humans.
So, the real question copywriters should be asking themselves right now isn’t whether AI can write copy.
The real question is whether we’re developing the one thing AI can’t replicate.
The ability to truly understand people.
Until next week, take care, stay safe, and stay human. J
Pauline xxx
Pauline Longdon
a.k.a. “The Copy Alchemist”
P.S. I’ve found the best copy has always come from observation… not automation. Sure, there are some things we can automate, like sending emails. But when it comes to automating the writing of copy and sending it unchecked… we aren’t there yet.
Earlier in the year I saw an AI Guru gloat about how his AI Agent had just created 10 different landing pages in a few minutes. They were instantly published on the web for the whole world to see. He proudly said that the Agent did it without any supervision. But when I saw the headlines and some of the copy… it was absolutely terrible. It’s astonishing to me how impressed people in the industry are with AI slop like this. But you know who doesn’t like AI slop? Ya Mamma! (And mine!) The market is starting to hate it. Mark my words… “AI fatigue” is going to be a thing very soon if it isn’t already.
P.P.S. Tools change quickly and it can feel overwhelming trying to keep up. So, don’t. I tell my mentees to choose a few skills, get good at those and ignore the bright, shiny, new AI tools. But there is one thing that is constant… human nature. And true students of the craft already know that.
P.P.P.S. The copywriters who thrive in the future won’t be the ones who can produce the most words… they’ll be the ones who understand people the best. Which is why we still need to keep and develop our copy skills.