Not gonna lie: AI is great for a lot of things … but it’s not gonna teach you how to write copy.
If you’re like, “But Nicki, you’re just trying to sell me on the CCA.”
Nope. (But, CCA students: tell ’em how it’s waaaaay more fun to learn alongside bada** humans. 😉)
What I am saying is AI isn’t the answer. At least for this.
It’s a robot. It’s never worked as a copywriter a day in its life.
On episode of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast, we’re breaking down exactly how the learn-copywriting-from-AI strategy is bound to backfire.
The tricky thing is, AI seems super confident. So, too many people are treating it like a know-it-all expert.
Don’t let it trick you.
TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher
Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[01:11] You can learn a lot of things from AI, including base-level information about a lot of different things. But while you can learn a few key concepts about copywriting, you cannot learn to actually practice copywriting from AI.
[01:42] Large language models (LLMs) include Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, among others. LLMs are trained on a large amount of language. They have been fed a massive, massive, massive amount of text. But just because they have consumed a massive amount of information, that does not make them experts.
[03:15] An LLM, or AI, can give you feedback based only on what it has consumed. It can’t give you feedback on experiences that it has had with clients. It can’t give you feedback on copy that is outside the realm of its understanding, which is fundamentally anything new. It’s predicting for you the most likely “correct” result. In copywriting, where there is no one “correct” answer, just one that answers the brief, that’s certainly not what coaching is all about. Coaching is about flexibility. Coaching is about bringing knowledge and lived experience, instinct, emotion, and knowing when and how to push you further.
[04:55] Especially when you’re coming up with a concept, and you might have a couple of different concepts for a client, or you might have a couple of different options for whatever the deliverable is, be it email, banner ad, billboard, tagline, whatever you’re coming up with, you might have a few ways in. There’s no one correct way to approach it. AI likes to stay in the box, whereas your best ideas are going to be outside the box.
[07:50] We caution students within the CCA about the really bad copywriting advice that’s circulating the internet, like choosing a niche earlier in your career and why that’s risky. AI doesn’t know that. It does not have the experience to be able to say, “Actually, that’s a bad idea, and here is why.” Or handwriting ads to learn copywriting. That’s a ridiculous piece of advice. You should be analyzing copy, but to hand write ads doesn’t help you actually learn. It could help you memorize, but that’s not useful. That’s a strange piece of advice that’s been around for a long time that AI has taken in.
[10:20] AI has no expertise in evaluating what makes one campaign more effective than another. That’s a skill that copywriters need to develop with the help of other working professional copywriters because there’s so much copy you might see, but that doesn’t mean it’s good or effective.
[11:30] Nicki shares how she tried to prompt Claude to write in her voice. It basically said, ‘There’s not enough about you and about what you teach out there in the world.’ It said any LLM would pull in what it could find, and then it would confidently make the rest up. It wouldn’t differentiate what was made up versus what it just found from other copywriting coach information on the internet.
[14:50] When you’re looking at a screen saying, “I’ve been staring at this for so long, I just need a fresh perspective,” that’s when you need a human. Someone who is a professional copywriter who can push you to go in a different direction, or challenge you to push a concept further. Not just agree with you.
[20:22] AI is so confident. It’s tempting when we think,”Oh, I want to be 100% sure that this is 100% the right answer.” But that’s not what copywriting is. If you’re looking for some validation, your fellow copywriters can certainly give that to you of what’s working, what’s not, what might be better, what could be better. Don’t rely on a machine just because it sounds like an expert.
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But here are a few of the highlights:
“ No matter how confident AI sounds, no matter how friendly it sounds, is a calculator of words. That is what you are actually getting back.” – Nicki
“AI can’t discern between good advice and bad advice. So, it’s just going to serve you up whatever it finds out there in the world.” – Nicki
“The copy is on a billboard, therefore it’s gotta be good, right? Just because it was published doesn’t make it good or effective copy.” – Kate
“AI is not going to fundamentally shake up how you’re looking at something, which is often, as writers, what we need.” – Kate
”When you’re trying to whittle down into the best possible version of a project, and it just needs refinement or it needs something added or something taken away, that’s when other humans are really, really helpful. Versus a robot that has never worked a day in its life as a copywriter.” – Kate
”AI’s goal is to bring any writing toward the average. That’s not ever what we’re looking for. We never want to be average. You want your clients to stand out from the competiton.” – Nicki
Related Links
- Episode 237: AI is Going to Take My Job!!! … But Is It?
- State of Copywriting Today
- Can Copywriting Software Replace Skilled Copywriters?
- Episode 264: AI, Plagiarism, and Ethics in Copywriting – with Amber Smith
Get an *Exclusive* Bonus Recording!
Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it!
Get all the details on how to get your recording here »
About the Build Your Business Podcast
Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?
Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 15+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.
Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.
