Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

And all of a sudden it’s an issue. Everyone from universities to copywriters are talking about the problem with AI and ChatGPT. .

“All the technology in the world can’t properly simulate human connection. ”

All I can say is, let’s hope. Given the way AI has galloped so far, I wouldn’t be so confident. It already cuts away huge swathes of the writing businesses, for example. I’m thinking about press releases, “content”, social media posts, translation – basically anything that has to be done at scale or at speed. I’ve even been told the current AI text engines are nothing compared to what Microsoft is preparing.

I already see parts of the advertising agency business that would be better done by AI than by humans as there is little added value in some specific cases (allow me to underline that). Why pay someone per hour and then have to wait 24 hours to see the result? ChatGPT provides OK writing that is practically free, instantaneous and managed by one person. That combination of speed and convenience for free is a tempting proposition!

What can ChatGPT bring to marketing writing?

Alongside a big concept, most campaigns (big or small) generate a lot of collateral that is low value. These are the dozens of small ads that might accompany a World Cup sponsorship campaign, for example. They use the hero headline and find some excuse to create a CTA.

In an ideal world, the writers would be all fired up to create crisp, insightful lines for these. That is not what I am seeing. A lot of the writing coming from ad agencies at this level is tired and formulaic. Ask ChatGP to write some calls to action and you will get phrases that are entirely comparable to ones being approved by clients every day.

It’s even worse in the case of multilingual campaigns, where the destination languages are based on tired writing in the original language. If clients are OK with this level of execution, they will be better served by semi-automatic writing and translation. And they will inevitably do exactly that.

“But wait, you’re leaving clicks or money on the table”. That’s likely, but we are not the client. Perhaps, we value effective writing more than they do. If the client does not feel the added value of human copywriting (or images), AI is a revolution for them.

The real problem with AI

And herein lies the real problem with AI and ChatGPT: it highlights the issue many clients and agencies have with paying for quality. Once a campaign is launched, the race to produce “stuff” is immense. In terms of priorities, speed of execution is often top of the list. Second-best but faster will win every time. If clients are OK with this level of execution, they will be better served by semi-automatic writing and translation. And they will inevitably do exactly that. Every time.

Your thoughts on this are welcome. If you use AI for images or ChatGPT, what do you think are the best practices?