Generative AI is a good copywriting hack, but that’s about it… for now

W hat’s the best way to convey a story to an audience? It’s a question we’re constantly asking ourselves.

In the B2B world, the audience is often (but not always) the customer. To understand the best way to connect with them, we first need to ask who they are, what they are trying to achieve and what barriers stand in their way.

We can then work out the best way to talk to them. How do we tell a story that explains how they can overcome their obstacles?

We are not just writing copy, we’re helping a person solve a problem. And this is the reason why we still need humans for copywriting.

While GenAI can quickly produce copy, it’s not great at solving problems. It’s very good at reviewing what people have written before and reproducing something similar to that. But (and it’s a big ‘but’) those answers will rarely perfectly fit.

Any scenario we discuss on any given day will always have unique elements that AI will fail to grasp – and this will impact what it produces. At first, the copy may appear passable. But as you read on, the descriptions of the challenges lose their accuracy, the solutions proposed lack nuance and the degree to which the copy resonates with the audience crumbles.

"When copy doesn’t resonate it can alienate a potential customer."

Paul Maher Head of Client Strategy and Content

We shouldn’t underestimate how damaging this can be. When copy doesn’t resonate it can alienate a potential customer. To that prospect, it will feel like your business is a bad match for them. It will cause them to walk away, probably never to return.

The limits of GenAI copywriting were recently emphasised in this BBC report. It highlighted how AI can cause more problems than it solves – and how it’s created work for copywriters, who are being called in to fix the issues created.

This is not to say AI does not have any role in copywriting. Before writing anything, it’s helpful to know what others in the industry have been saying first, and AI is brilliant at summarising this for you. It can save you a huge amount of desktop research – making AI a fantastic copywriting hack.

But the key to great B2B copywriting will always be found in the ability to create stories that the audience can identify with. And for that, you need a human touch.