I’ll start with the statement that most of my fellow ProCopywriters members will find heretical: AI has already made a significant portion of copywriters obsolete.
No, not all of us. Not yet. But if you’re writing formulaic landing pages, churning out product descriptions or crafting basic marketing emails, I’m afraid the canary in the coal mine stopped singing months ago.
What’s actually happening on the ground
For the past six months, I’ve been watching clients who once hired me for £500 per day now use ChatGPT to generate first drafts, then ask me to “just give it a quick polish” for a fraction of my previous rate. They’re not being malicious; they respond to market forces and capabilities that have genuinely shifted beneath our feet.
One marketing director at a FTSE 100 company recently told me: “We used to brief copywriters on campaigns, wait two weeks, and pay thousands. Now we generate 80% of what we need in-house with AI and just bring in specialists for the final 20% of refinement.”
The truth is that clients aren’t comparing AI copy to professional human copy. They’re comparing AI copy plus minimal human editing to professional copy, and finding that the former is good enough for many applications while being substantially cheaper and faster.
The hollowing out of the middle
What we’re witnessing isn’t a complete replacement of copywriters, but rather a hollowing out of the middle, exactly as we saw with photography, graphic design and web development in previous technological shifts.
The copywriting profession is splitting into three tiers:
- Those already replaced: Writers producing high-volume, formulaic content like basic product descriptions, simple landing pages and routine emails
- Those in the danger zone: Mid-level copywriters who lack specialist knowledge or distinctive voice but charge professional rates
- Those still thriving: Writers with deep specialist expertise, strategic insight, or extraordinary creative talent
If you’re in category two, this article isn’t meant to frighten you, but to serve as an urgent wake-up call. The window for repositioning yourself is closing rapidly.
The “just edit AI content” trap
Many copywriters accept smaller projects “polishing” AI-generated content, believing this represents a new stable equilibrium. It doesn’t.
As AI systems improve, the gap between what they produce and what clients consider acceptable will continue to narrow. The edit requests will become more minor and the budgets will shrink further. Eventually many clients will decide that internal staff with no writing background can handle these minimal tweaks.
If your value proposition has become “I can fix AI content,” you’ve already accepted a fundamentally diminished role – one that’s likely to shrink further with each model upgrade.
How to survive (and even thrive)
Despite this grim assessment, there are clear paths forward for copywriters who are willing to adapt:
Specialise deeply in complex domains
I’ve built my career working at the intersection of complex systems and human vulnerability, crafting content for government services, healthcare systems and crisis support. These domains require deep understanding of regulatory frameworks, ethical considerations and human psychology that current AI systems struggle to replicate.
The more specialised your knowledge – whether it’s in financial compliance, medical devices or complex B2B services – the more insulated you are from immediate replacement.
Reframe your role as a strategic partner
The most successful copywriters today aren’t merely writers; they’re strategic partners who understand business objectives, audience psychology and broader marketing ecosystems.
When a client sees you as the person who helps them achieve business outcomes, not just someone who produces words, you become significantly harder to replace.
Embrace the human elements AI cannot replicate
Despite impressive advances, AI still lacks genuine lived experience, cultural intuition and emotional intelligence. It cannot truly understand what it feels like to be a cancer patient seeking treatment information, a domestic abuse survivor reporting to police or a small business owner applying for crucial funding.
If your writing draws deeply on emotional resonance, cultural nuance and authentic human connection, you’re leveraging strengths that AI may never fully replicate.
Master the prompt, not just the polish
If clients use AI, position yourself as someone who can help them use it effectively. The skill of crafting precise prompts that generate useful first drafts is valuable and will remain so.
Rather than reluctantly editing AI content after the fact, proactively help clients develop prompt strategies that align with their brand voice, compliance requirements and strategic objectives.
An end and a beginning
For decades, copywriting has been a relatively accessible profession with a low barrier to entry. People who could write reasonably well could establish careers producing serviceable commercial content. That era is ending.
What replaces it is a profession with higher barriers to entry, requiring deeper expertise, more strategic thinking and greater creative distinctiveness. It’s a field where you can no longer succeed by being merely good enough.
The uncomfortable truth is that AI isn’t coming for copywriters’ jobs in some hypothetical future. It’s already here, already working and already changing the economics of our profession. The question isn’t whether this change will happen, but what you’ll do now that it has.
Will you be one of the copywriters who adapts and evolves or one who gradually finds themselves with fewer clients, smaller budgets and diminishing relevance? The choice, for now, remains yours.