It’s still a question I’m asked weekly. “So, is your business suffering because of AI?” When I reply that it’s a tool and not a human replacement, almost predictably, the conversation will include something about writing good prompts is what fixes all of that. To some extent, it’s true, and it’s always exciting when you’ve just figured out how a new tool works, much like a baby who’s just discovered that a toy makes a squeaking noise when you turn it upside down. But soon enough, that baby will get bored with it, as will the people watching them find that first joyful squeak. Instead, it’ll be annoying, not cute or clever. It’s the same with copywriting. Let me explain.
Picture this: it’s January, you’re tired of writing copy, and everyone’s talking about AI. ChatGPT promises to revolutionise your content creation. So, you decide to run the ultimate experiment – let artificial intelligence handle all your copywriting for six months and see what happens.
Spoiler alert: it’s not what you’d expect.
Here’s what happens when you hand over your entire copywriting operation to AI, based on a hypothetical experiment that many businesses are secretly considering. The results are equal parts fascinating, hilarious, and sobering.
Blog headlines: the promising start that goes sideways
The first month feels like magic. AI churns out headlines faster than you can use them. ‘10 Ways to Transform Your Business Today’ and ‘The Secret Strategy That Doubled Our Revenue’ pour out effortlessly. Your click-through rates from social media to your blog jump by 23% initially.
But by month three, patterns emerge that make you cringe. Every headline starts sounding identical. AI loves numbers (7 Essential Tips), superlatives (Ultimate Guide), and the word ‘secret’ appears in 40% of your titles. Your headlines become indistinguishable from every other business using the same AI tools.
The real problem reveals itself in month four: Google stops loving you. Search rankings for your target keywords drop by 35% because your headlines have become generic SEO-speak rather than genuinely useful titles that people want to click. ‘How to optimise your workflow for maximum productivity’ sounds like it was written by a robot – because it was.
By month six, you realise that while AI can create grammatically perfect headlines, it doesn’t understand your audience’s actual language. Your customers don’t search for ‘optimise workflow’, they search for ‘stop feeling overwhelmed at work.’ AI knows the formula but misses the human element entirely.
Blog content: where things get weird
AI blog writing starts impressively. The content is well-structured, factually accurate, and reads smoothly. Your publishing schedule becomes wonderfully consistent. But strange things begin happening that you didn’t anticipate.
Your brand voice slowly morphs into something unrecognisable. Every article sounds like it was written by the same enthusiastic marketing graduate. Personality disappears. Your quirky comments, industry-specific humour, and controversial opinions – the things that made readers care about your content – disappear completely.
Worse, AI develops an obsession with certain phrases. After six months, you’ve used ‘game-changer’ 47 times, ‘paradigm shift’ 31 times, and somehow ‘leverage synergies’ crept into a blog about gardening tools. Your readers stop reading, and because we live in Kiwi-land, you’ll only know by the website traffic stats being on the decline. Just like when that restaurant is no good, you don’t tell them, you just don’t go back.
The search engine optimisation results are mixed. AI understands keyword density perfectly but struggles with search intent. A blog about ‘project management software’ ends up targeting people looking for literal software downloads rather than business advice. Your organic traffic increases for irrelevant terms while dropping for the keywords that convert.
Perhaps most importantly, AI cannot tell your company’s unique story. It writes generic advice that could apply to any business in any industry. The personal anecdotes, client case studies, and hard-won insights that made your content valuable get replaced by statistics anyone could Google and advice so broad it’s meaningless.
Newsletter subject lines: the unsubscribe experiment
Email subject lines seem like perfect AI territory – short, punchy, designed to drive opens. Initially, the results look promising. Open rates climb from 22% to 28% in the first six weeks as AI crafts curiosity-driven subject lines like ‘You won’t believe what happened next’ and ‘This changes everything about marketing.’
But email platforms are smarter than you think. By month four, your deliverability scores plummet. Internet service providers flag your emails as promotional because AI gravitates toward spam-trigger words and phrases. ‘Amazing opportunity,’ ‘act now,’ and ‘free’ appear with suspicious frequency, landing you in spam folders.
The bigger issue becomes apparent when you analyse subscriber behaviour. While initial open rates improve, click-through rates drop by 19%. AI writes subject lines that promise more than your content delivers. ‘Revolutionary breakthrough in customer service’ leads to a mundane blog about responding to emails faster. Subscribers feel misled, and engagement crashes.
Unsubscribe rates tell the real story. After six months, you’ve lost 34% more subscribers than usual. Exit surveys reveal that people found your emails ‘clickbaity’ and ‘disingenuous.’ AI optimised for the wrong metric – opens instead of genuine engagement and trust.
The most painful realisation comes when a long-term subscriber emails directly: “Your newsletters used to feel like advice from a friend. Now they feel like spam from someone trying to sell me something.” AI had optimised the emotion right out of your communication.
Social media posts: when algorithms fight algorithms
Social media feels like AI’s natural habitat. Short-form content, trending hashtags, engagement-focused writing – surely this is where artificial intelligence shines?
AI produces content at superhuman speed. Your posting frequency triples, hashtag research becomes effortless, and every post follows proven engagement formulas. Likes and comments increase as the algorithm rewards your consistency.
But humans are surprisingly good at detecting artificial content. Your engagement becomes hollow – lots of generic emoji reactions, fewer meaningful comments, and almost no shares. AI writes content that triggers algorithmic approval but fails to create human connection.
The voice consistency problem amplifies on social media. AI shifts tone based on platform algorithms rather than brand identity. Compare these posts about the same topic:
LinkedIn AI version: Optimising operational efficiency remains paramount for sustainable business growth. Key performance indicators demonstrate that strategic implementation of systematic processes can yield measurable improvements in productivity metrics across diverse industry verticals.
I mean, what? I’d have to copy this into an AI just to figure out what it’s talking about!
LinkedIn human version: I just spent 20 minutes looking for a document that was saved as ‘Final_version_FINAL_v2_actualfinal.doc’ and realised our filing system needs help. Anyone else drowning in digital chaos?
Facebook AI version: 🎉 Exciting news! We’re thrilled to announce our amazing new service that will revolutionise your business! 💪 Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity! Link in comments! #GameChanger #Success #BusinessGrowth
Eww. Sounds like all bark with no bite, it’s leading me somewhere I probably don’t want to go.
Facebook human version: Our printer just jammed for the third time today, and I’m starting to think it’s doing it on purpose. I’ve been trying to print out info on our new service, but here are the details digitally because I gave up on the printer.
Followers notice the lack of personality immediately.
After six months, your social media metrics look impressive on paper – more posts, more likes, broader reach. But conversions from social media to actual business inquiries drop by 43%. AI optimised for vanity metrics rather than business results, creating engaging content about nothing useful.
Most tellingly, industry peers stop engaging with your content. The thoughtful discussions and professional relationships that social media facilitated disappear when your posts become indistinguishable from automated marketing blasts.
The unexpected consequences nobody talks about
Beyond individual channel performance, letting AI handle all copywriting creates problems nobody anticipates. Your team loses touch with customer language. When human copywriters aren’t regularly crafting messages, they miss evolving industry terminology, customer pain points, and market shifts that only emerge through the writing process.
Client relationships suffer in subtle ways. Proposal writing, email communication, and project updates all carry the same artificial politeness. Clients notice the change even if they can’t articulate why your communication feels less personal and engaging.
The hidden costs accumulate:
- Time spent editing AI content to sound human
- Revenue lost from decreased conversion rates
- Brand equity damaged by generic positioning
- Team skills atrophied from lack of practice
The surprising lessons learned
AI copywriting isn’t uniformly terrible – it’s selectively brilliant and predictably mediocre. It excels at structure, grammar, and basic persuasion formulas. It fails catastrophically at nuance, brand voice, and genuine audience understanding.
The experiment reveals that effective copywriting isn’t just about stringing words together correctly. It’s about understanding human psychology, brand positioning, market dynamics, and the subtle art of building trust through language. AI can mimic the mechanics but misses the meaning.
Perhaps most importantly, copywriting serves as market research. The process of crafting messages teaches you about your audience, your positioning, and your value proposition. When you outsource that entirely to AI, you lose critical business intelligence that only comes from wrestling with how to communicate your value effectively.
The verdict: AI as tool, not replacement
After six months of AI-generated copy, the conclusion isn’t that artificial intelligence is useless – it’s that it’s a powerful tool being used incorrectly. AI excels at shitty first drafts, research, and overcoming blank page syndrome. It fails at strategy, brand voice, and the human insight that transforms adequate copy into compelling communication.
The AI experiment proves what we’ve always known at MasterJack – great copywriting isn’t just about perfect grammar and clever phrases. It’s about understanding your audience so deeply that your words feel like they’re speaking directly to each reader’s specific situation and desires.
We use AI as one tool in our arsenal, but we never let it replace the human insight, strategic thinking, and brand understanding that creates copy that truly connects. Whether it’s your website, newsletters, or social media, we craft messages that sound authentically like your brand while driving real business results. Let’s talk.