AI Copywriting vs Human Copywriting (Which Works Best?)

ai copywriting

Should you stick to human copywriting? Should you give AI a chance to take over all your writing tasks? These questions are impossible to ignore today. In our experience, AI tools are quickly improving their ability to draft all sorts of content. At the same time, running a successful campaign isn’t possible without the intervention of experienced human copywriters.

So, which works best: Human or AI Copywriting? Well, we have tried answering the question in this blog. Here we will break down the debate in a practical way by discussing the pros and cons of each alternative. Ultimately, you’ll learn how to decide what’s best for your business. Let’s get started, shall we?

Advantages of an AI Writing Assistant

There are five simple reasons you should make the most of AI copywriting.

1. AI tools boost speed and volume

Well, you don’t always need a perfect copy. Sometimes, the content requirement reads like this: 50 headline options, 20 subject lines, 10 ad variants, and 5 landing pages. When this happens, you need to rely on AI tools to generate content in minutes. Making a human copywriter do this might take more time and money.

2. Iteration and testing

Fast-paced marketing works when perfection takes a back seat. AI copywriters are able to generate all variations of content while ensuring an A/B testing-driven growth. You can have short, long, emotional, and logical content. AI tools will also create content with different tones and address different customer segments.

3. Creating first drafts

We know how difficult it is to put the first word on a blank page. You can simply rely on AI copywriters to create well-structured first drafts. This is highly useful when you have to generate content for familiar formats like product descriptions, FAQ sections, and email sequences. You can also generate blog outlines, social media post drafts, and even ad copy bundles.

4. Summarizing and repurposing

There are times when you need an existing piece of content reviewed and improved. AI copywriters can help you transform content into new formats. For example, you can turn a webinar into blog sections or convert a blog post into social posts. You can even rewrite a landing page into an email newsletter. AI copywriters can effectively compress long-form content into short headlines, too.

5. Localization and language support

Ensuring cultural nuance and compliance with human copywriters can cost you significantly. With AI copywriters, you can market across regions by drafting localized content quickly. However, you will need an experienced human translator to review the cultural relevance of the generated content. In other words, an AI copywriting tool can help you with reliable language support.

Disadvantages of AI Writing Tools

But there are several cons of using AI writing tools for content generation. Here are the most critical ones.

1. Generic content creation

This is a major factor that keeps companies from using an AI writing assistant for content production. You will have to nail your inputs related to brand voice and creative direction to generate workable content. Without that, you will receive vague and over-polished content. The content can even be cliche-heavy and similar to your competitors’. You will have to rigorously guide the AI copywriting tool to create a unique copy.

2. Weak strategic thinking

Content marketing needs a direction or strategy to work. While an AI writer can produce content in just a few seconds, it can’t truly understand your market. AI writing tools are able to imitate existing frameworks. But they can’t interview your target audience or grab insights from a sales call. Strategy can be the difference between a copy that moves people and a copy that just reads well.

3. Factual errors and inaccuracies

This is a widely reported problem with AI-generated content. With AI writing assistance, you run the risk of introducing inaccuracies to your marketing copy. AI can easily add unsupported claims, invent details, and make costly mistakes. This is a huge risk when working in a sensitive industry like health, finance, and security. Since AI copywriting legal issues can be exhausting, this is precisely where we will recommend bringing a human copywriter on board.

4. Compliance risks

Content is what you use to represent or showcase your brand personality. AI writer tools don’t know your branding guidelines or internal policies. As a result, it can generate content with banned phrases, make claims you can’t support, or mimic your competitors’ positioning. If you ask us, ignoring accessibility or compliance requirements can render your ad copy useless. To overcome this, you should introduce a human review process.

5. No accountability

What if the AI copy fails to perform as per your expectations? The chances that AI-written content harms your brand and jeopardizes compliance are always there. What’s unfortunate is that you can’t hold AI accountable for the issues. AI doesn’t take responsibility for the content it generates. This is a prime reason why you need a human editor in the team that drives the campaign to its success.

Advantages of Human Copywriting

Human copywriters are excellent at beating content generation tools when the core requirement is nuance and sensitivity. Here are the five reasons why we recommend human copywriting over AI tools.

1. Insight-driven messaging

A brilliant copy or marketing campaign starts way before you write the first word. It starts with customer interviews, reviewing sales calls and support tickets, and exceptional market research. Humans can conduct a complete competitor teardown and add the product team’s context as well. Human copywriting involves pulling meaning from messy information and using it for sharp positioning.

2. Emotional empathy for quality content

Human writers are great at sensing when a piece of content feels manipulative. This is because such writers have been producing content that feels personal to the target audience. Human copywriters can use their experience to write for delicate moments and apply empathy responsibly. This helps prevent churn and improve trust. On the other hand, AI writers can only imitate empathy.

3. Originality and creativity

The best part of using human copywriters is the level of creative writing they bring to the table. You can rely on them completely for developing content that is unique to your brand. Human writers are best at adapting to the changing market and platform dynamics. An AI writer can’t do that because it trains on existing content. However, human writers are able to do this only through years and years of practice. They can connect dots across cultures and create copy where the audience can find itself.

4. Ability to restrain

When developing marketing copy, you can have so much to say and tell the target audience. But you can’t just say whatever comes to your mind. Instead, you will have to practice restraint. Sometimes, the best copy is not saying anything. If you ask us, only humans can deliver the subtext and nail the timing of a marketing copy. This is highly useful in situations involving premium branding and high-end offers. The ability to restrain allows humans to prevent any hype that ruins trust.

5. Stakeholder alignment

Creating content using human copywriters ensures that the content adheres to the instructions stakeholders share. Humans are able to take inputs from all the stakeholders while developing a writing process. This is why they can defend their decisions and manage feedback successfully. They are able to ask clarifying questions to maintain consistency across marketing campaigns.

When does AI Copywriting Work Best?

AI copywriting does an excellent job when your focus is on speed and volume. Once you have a clear positioning and voice guidelines, you can generate a high volume of content quickly. The copy an AI writer generates will generally be low-risk and would work if you rely heavily on A/B testing. However, the copy you will get from AI is standardized and formula-driven. You can use an AI content generator to create content for Meta/Google ad variants, subject lines, product or meta descriptions, and SEO outlines. Tools like OpenAI, Jasper, and Copy.ai can help you generate content for such purposes.

When does Human Copywriting Work Best?

Human copywriting wins when you’re defining positioning to ensure brand differentiation. It works best when your topic is sensitive, i.e., it requires a high level of trust. Human copywriting should be your go-to alternative when writing a landing page or creating an out-of-the-box social campaign. Human writers do a better job of representing a company’s voice. This is critical when the need is to sound unique, premium, or unconventional. We suggest you rely on human copywriters for homepage messaging, brand manifesto, and high-stakes landing pages. You can also use it when launching campaigns or publishing founder-led storytelling.

Deciding What to Use: AI Tools or Humans

We know that deciding between an AI writer and human copywriting isn’t simple. Despite sharing the advantages and disadvantages, here we have created a simpler decision template for you.

You should use AI models when:

You have a tight budget
Speed matters to you
You require variations
There’s a strong editor in the team
You rely on A/B testing

You should use human copywriting when:

You need a unique brand voice
The campaign is complicated
Emphasis is on accuracy and trust
You need to persuade strategically

However, we highly recommend you find a way to use both AI and human copywriters to get the best of both worlds.

Conclusion

There you have it. We have shared everything you need to know about the differences between AI and human copywriting. If you ask us, we’d recommend you use an AI content generator when you need speed and volume. However, human copywriting will still triumph wherever there’s a need for strategy, empathy, originality, and accountability.

We suggest you ditch the AI vs. human debate and make the most of a mix that serves your business purpose. If we were you, we’d treat AI like a draft-and-variation engine while making humans strategize and edit the content. At the same time, we’d suggest you adopt a data-driven writing process to figure out which copy (human or AI) works best.