Should I Use AI for Copywriting?

What does this professional copywriter think about using AI for copywriting? It's… complicated.

But I don't want to skirt around the giant elephant in the room that AI has become for most business owners. Let's dive into the good, the bad, and the questionable of what it looks like to use AI in your marketing and messaging!

I'm not holding back. You'll get my full, honest opinions and some key insights that I think will help you make better decisions about how you use AI.

In this post you'll read all about:

• The most important thing to know about how AI works
• Why using AI for your copywriting is a bad idea
• Why using AI for your copywriting is a good idea
• How to train AI to sound more like your brand voice
• How to know when to use AI and when to trust a human
• A secret for getting AI to work harder
• My favorite ChatGPT prompts as a copywriter
• If I think AI will replace copywriters in the near future

There's a lot to cover, so let's get into it!

What you need to know about how AI works

I'm not a tech genius (far from it, just ask my husband), so this is not going to be an in-depth look at the intricacies of large language models (LLM).

But I've already jumped ahead and told you what you need to know about how AI works!

It's all in the name: Large Language Model.

AI services, like ChatGPT, are built to understand and respond to human language. The creators of ChatGPT basically fed all of the internet (more or less, I told you this wasn't a techy explanation) to an LLM and it learned how to generate responses based on the language it was fed.

So why do you need to know this?

Because the output of ChatGPT (or other LLMs) is based entirely on the input. In other words, if you put in trash, you'll get trash out. If you put in smart strategy, you'll sometimes get useful results.

We're starting with how AI works because you need to understand that it's not creative. (Yet.) It can't create something from nothing the way you can turn a blank page into a sales page, thanks to your human brain, unique perspective, lived experience, and skills.

AI relies on what you give it to generate a response. This is why prompts like, “Write me an email” lead to pretty bad results. (I'm sharing some of my copywriter-approved prompts later in this post!)

Okay, do we feel like we understand the important thing about how ChatGPT works? It learned language and is trained to respond using the same patterns, words, and structures humans use. It can't understand your marketing strategy without you telling it.

Is using AI for copywriting a bad idea?

Relying on ChatGPT for all of your copywriting is a bad idea.

I'm not going to soften that or add any caveats. It's just not a good idea.

When you rely solely on AI for your copywriting, you:

• Lose your own writing skills (practice makes progress… and skipping all the writing will only hurt your skills)
• Weaken the power of your brand voice
• Sacrifice authenticity and being a real human
• Lose connection with your potential clients
• Get lost in the noise of the online space more often
• Give up ownership of your IP (you can't trademark or copyright something created by AI)

There are clearly some pretty serious reasons using AI for copywriting is a bad idea.

Reasons not to use AI for your copy

Your messaging is the core foundation of your brand. It's how you tell people what you do, why it matters, and why they should care. Your messaging is the heart of everything you do.

So when you hand all of that over to a questionable robot… you're going to sacrifice some of the value.

Outsourcing all of your copy to AI also creates a disconnect between you and your messaging. The act of writing is essentially the act of thinking and processing. When you stop writing about your business, you stop thinking about your business. And that's a dangerous place to be.

ChatGPT relies on you to provide the strategy, perspective, and goals for what it puts out. The more distance you create between yourself and your messaging, the harder it is to understand what to tell AI to create.

It can become a degenerative cycle that leads to more generic copy, loss of your brand voice, and an erosion of what sets your brand apart.

Whew! So this copywriter hates AI right?

Not so fast. I know I just got serious about all the reasons not to only rely on AI for your copywriting. Buuuut there's more to the story.

Reasons you should use AI for copywriting

Surprise! I don't actually hate ChatGPT or think using AI is a bad idea all the time.

Everything I shared above remains true. And my hard stance is that you cannot completely rely on AI to write all of your copy.

But there are some reasons using AI is a great idea! You can:

• Save time outlining and planning your copy
• Generate tons of ideas and angles in seconds
• Repurpose content you've already created
• Quickly identify the specific words and phrases your ideal clients use to describe your brand, your offers, and you
• Break through writer's block or “blank page paralysis”
• Find out what questions your audience is asking so you can create content to answer them
• Create a more streamlined structure or flow for your website

I used ChatGPT to figure out what questions business owners were asking about AI, which inspired this post! So there are lots of positive, beneficial ways you can use ChatGPT for your copy.

Writing your own copy (or outsourcing to a trusted pro like me!) is still a best practice. But you can save a lot of time and get more clarity when you use AI to support your copywriting.

When should I use AI for copywriting?

The breakdown of where and how to use AI is actually pretty clear. It all comes back to where you prioritize connecting with your clients the most and the amount of strategy and precision required.

✅ DO use AI for simple, organizational tasks, generating ideas, and setting a strong foundation for your copy and content. You can also use it for social media captions (not technically copy, but it all gets lumped together!) and simple email reminders.

❌ DON'T use AI to fully write complex, sales-driven copy.

I recommend using ChatGPT for copy and content things like:

• Writing social captions, hooks, and CTAs
• Outlining blogs
• Coming up with an angle or focus for an email
• Writing descriptions for Pins on Pinterest
• Writing an elevator pitch or bio (if you give it enough info + edit it)
• Generating headlines or subheadlines for your website or sales page
• Structuring a sales page or website page
• Getting clarity on your ideal client, the questions they have, and what triggers them to buy
• Email reminders
• Automated communication through Dubsado or Honeybook

Social media is not the main driver of my marketing strategy. I don't currently use ChatGPT to write my captions, but I think with a decent prompt and training, that can work pretty well.

I also think AI is a great tool for personalizing automated communication, especially if you've trained it on your voice.

Training ChatGPT to sound more like you

Whatever you're using ChatGPT to write, it absolutely must be trained to sound like your brand voice!

As things work in 2025, you won't be able to replicate your voice exactly, but you can get close-ish. To get better results that require less editing, try telling ChatGPT:

• What words or phrases you use to describe each of your products or services
• What words or phrases you never use (looking at you, “boss babe!”)
• The tone of your brand voice (is it more playful or more serious?)
• The kind of humor you prefer (corny jokes, witty sarcasm, no humor, etc)
• How you use emojis in different types of copy and content (to number a list in a social media post, never on a sales page, etc)

If you really want to train your AI to sound less like a robot, I have a fill-in-the-blanks detailed prompt you can download, customize to your brand and voice, and feed directly to ChatGPT!

Training ChatGPT makes a huge difference in results

I asked an untrained ChatGPT to write a description of what I do. The answer was clear and accurate, but it didn't sound like me.

After I used the AI Bestie to tell Chatty how to talk more like me, I gave it the same prompt and this was the response:

Now that sounds like something I would say! All from one easy prompt. (And yes, there is an unnecessary em dash used that I would edit out if I were using this in my business.)

While you may read these and think, “Actually, I like the first one better!” and that's totally fine. The point isn't being better… it's being ON BRAND. And I think you can very easily tell the difference in tone and personality between these two!

When to trust a copywriter instead of AI for copywriting

Rather than using AI to write all of your copy or completely avoiding it altogether, it's helpful to know when to use ChatGPT and when to hire a copywriter.

Big things that build the foundation of your brand and marketing should be left to the pros:

• Website copy
• Sales pages
• Email sequences (welcome, nurture, sales, etc)
• Brand messaging
• Copy for funnels

You can also write those things yourself if you have the copy skills, knowledge, strategy, and time.

When you're looking for a copywriter to trust with your words, it's important to find someone you can connect with. Words are personal! You want someone who gets your energy and can capture your vibe.

At Emily Writes Well, I'm an expert at writing copy that sounds like the best version of you. A lot of my clients joke that I can read their minds… but really, I'm just very good at capturing different brand voices.

Even though brand voice is my superpower, there are still some clients I'm not the best fit for. It's important to actually talk to a copywriter and see how you connect before you hire them. Sometimes I'll refer a potential client to another copywriter I know and trust if I think they're a better fit.

The secret to getting AI to work better

If you want better copy and content results from AI, you have to bring the strategy and know exactly what to ask for.

Instead of making a general request, like you would ask a human copywriter like me, you have to put in the background work.

Let's take a weekly email as an example.

When a copywriter writes an email newsletter

If you ask me to write you a weekly email, here's what I'm doing behind the scenes:

• Researching what your audience cares about and needs to know more about
• Evaluating your social media to see what connects best with your audience
• Looking at your sales goals, including upcoming promotions and sales
• Figuring out how to make emotional connections through stories or client examples
• Scouring your testimonials and reviews to pick out the words and phrases your clients are using
• Putting together a short-term and long-term strategy for your weekly emails to balance sharing value and selling
• Adding in GIFs and memes that align with your personal interests and sense of humor
• Testing different subject lines to see what your audience opens most

So even though you get a clean Google Doc with a month of fabulous emails and subject lines written out for you, there was a LOT that went into that.

Getting ChatGPT to write better emails

Meanwhile, if you're over here telling ChatGPT: “Write me a weekly newsletter for my subscribers,” you're not going to get a good email in return.

After you've trained AI to sound like you, it's time to bring the strategy. Think about what your audience needs to hear, how you want to share it, and if you'll include a sales pitch.

It may sound like overkill, but writing down your goal for the email and sharing that with ChatGPT helps! You can also make sure it knows things you don't like, like long paragraphs or including a PS. The more details you can provide, the better the outcome.

The real magic is in using the right prompts. And I'm about to share some of my faves with you!

ChatGPT prompts to use for your business

When you're writing weekly emails:

“I want to send an email to my subscribers that tells them [value, tip, or education you want to provide]. Can you give me 3 ideas for different angles or perspectives to use in that email?”

“I want to tell this story in my email: [tell the story]. Can you give me 5 segues that connect this story to [point you want to make about their business, your offer, etc]?”

When you're writing a sales page:

“I'm writing a sales page for [describe offer or service]. What questions do you need me to answer to better understand my audience and build a sales page based on their unique buyer psychology?”

Asking ChatGPT what it needs to know from you, instead of telling it what you think it needs to know, is a great way to get better results!

It's also a really helpful way to kickstart your own creativity and marketing insights.

“Can you help me outline a sales page for [describe your offer]? I want to follow the framework of Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Purchase. Please include plenty of spots for testimonials and social proof throughout the page.”

When you're writing website copy:

“I want to update my home page on my website. These are home pages I really like: [include links to home pages of websites you're inspired by]. Without copying these pages, can you use them to inspire a new layout for my home page that includes sections for: [include the sections you want featured i.e. about me, services, link to my lead magnet, etc].”

Will AI replace copywriters?

This is a question I get asked pretty frequently.

Some copywriters are anti-AI and see it as a threat. And I totally get that.

However, I see it an an inevitable part of technology moving forward. And while I have some reservations about how much dumber it's making everyone (this is a real thing!), it can be useful.

I don't think AI will replace talented, strategic copywriters anytime soon.

Most of my clients come to me because they need more than just words on a page. They need strategy, perspective, and clarity. Things ChatGPT can't provide… yet.

I find AI to be a great way to save time in my own business and I encourage my clients to use it wisely. It's also great at taking care of low-impact, simple work so you can put your resources toward the copy that does the real heavy lifting.

If you use AI to generate social media captions and write product descriptions so you can afford to hire a copywriter to handle your website, sales page, or emails–– that's a win!

Work with a copywriter who understands and leverages AI

Be wary of working with a copywriter who says they're not interested in AI or don't pay any attention to it. AI is reshaping how online search works, and more and more of my clients are getting found through ChatGPT!

That's because I know how AI works and how you can show up in results.

You may have even found this blog post through ChatGPT! (That's not an accident.)

If you want to work with a copywriter who can capture your unique voice and make sure you're getting found as search shifts…

I would love to chat with you! You can click here to book a call to chat more about your business goals and see how I best support you.

Want to use AI for copywriting?

You can copy and paste the prompts I shared above to get better AI results immediately.

If you're not clear on what your brand voice is (so you can't tell ChatGPT how to sound more like you), you'll love this fun Brand Voice Quiz! It's only a few short questions and it will give you professional insights into your brand voice and how you can use it.

And make sure to grab your own Brand Voice Bestie so you can fill in the blanks and make AI sound more like you!