BY JEAN TANG,
FOUNDER & CEO OF MARKETSMITHS@@MARKETSMITHS
Yes, artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionizes how businesses approach marketing. No, it hasn't replaced my staff of 25 human copywriters. Really.
As founder and CEO of a copywriting agency, I find myself fielding questions about AI a few times a week, and we all know why. AI is innovative, exciting, and a tad scary. From customer service chatbots to predictive analytics, the possibilities for the technology seem endless and inescapable.
The AI-generated "copywriting on the wall" spells layoffs, and I'd be lying if I said we haven't tightened our belts at the specter of another trending word: recession. Nonetheless, I can attest that AI has only made my employees more valuable, in perpetuity. Here's why.
AI tools are broad-based thought starters
One might assume that AI can do the job of copywriting faster and cheaper, but that depends on who is working with the technology. Sure, bots like ChatGPT can analyze data, suggest keywords, and even write articles, but their storytelling is only as on-point and effective as the data they're fed.
At MarketSmiths, we're hardly dodging AI. In fact, we've embraced it as a tool to enhance work for prominent B2B clients and household brands. Where relevant, we utilize AI assistants to furnish thought starters--and we've found that the technology can in fact help us execute high-quality work with a lift and a zing. But it can't do so in the absence of solid, human-powered insights and strategy.
The human touch is essential for connection
As a champion of high-end content, I'm professionally obsessed with using words to build bridges with attractive strangers. While AI bots provide assistance to marketers, the potential to connect with people--to figure out how to close the gap from where they are to how you want them to think, feel, and act, within the alluring edges of your brand--is still a job for a fellow human.
For now and indefinitely, only humans can intuit that complex bouquet of knowledge, intrigue, resistance, inspiration, illumination, urgency, bias, fear, ignorance, empathy, compassion, desire, and fulfillment--and know how to shape the messaging to ensure an interpretation that lands squarely in the ballpark of where you want it to. Only humans understand the nuances of language--as received by the brain, heart, and spirit. Only we can be truly adaptive to subtle changes, detours, and delights in our shared human experience.
These are the beliefs I've built my company on, and they will never change unless the human condition is somehow rewired. As an entrepreneur, I welcome a new tool (always). Innovative technologies, market shifts, rising competition--these changes are bound to continue disrupting, refining, and perfecting the status quo.
AI is here to stay, but it will never displace the most effective writers or workers. For what we do is bring the counterpart to AI's computational magic: an (equally magical) ability to construe humanity. That's a winning credential in any industry.
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