Futureproof your copywriting career against AI

If you're a copywriter or content writer worried about losing your job to AI, focusing on adding skills and futureproof your copywriting career

Futureproof your copywriting career to succeed in the age of AI

What kinds of companies have laid off copywriters in favour of AI?

A lot of writers are worried about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over their work. You’ve probably already read stories in the media about copywriters and content writers who have been laid off in 2023 and are now working as dog walkers. Or they are slogging away at very low-paying jobs at Toloka.ai or dataannotation.tech which involve checking and trying to humanize AI.

My bet is that the writers who have been laid off to-date were working for businesses or clients who didn’t/don’t understand what generative AI is, and valued quantity over quality. These organizations are taking risks by using AI without forethought, and are likely creating pages and pages of poor-quality content that don't add anything to a funnel or SEO efforts.

Futureproof your copywriting career against AI

If you’re working as a writer and mildly concerned or even anxious, try to relax. I know, it’s easy to say that. If you’re good and committed to continuous improvement you'll always be able to find work as a copywriter, content writer, or content creator. Here are things you can do to bring the worry down, and futureproof your copywriting career against AI

Recognize how you feel

Talk to someone about how you’re feeling and thinking. Ideally this should be someone outside of work, because some of your colleagues will share your concerns and conversations with them could become negative and make your worry worse.

Instead, do some journaling, find a good career coach, or talk with close friends or members of your professional association Structure the conversation so that the ultimate focus is on:

1. Recognizing and acknowledging how you feel
   

2. Planning to adapt and staying on top of generative AI and the AI-powered tools that writers and content creators use.
   

3. Learning as much as you can about the tools impacting your industry. Have conversations with people you respect, connect with experts on LinkedIn, ask questions, and keep gathering information
   

4. Developing a strategy based on all the information you have gathered. It should be personal for you. And it should lay out how you’ll learn, improve your skills, and remain current. Your strategy should be flexible; change it if you need to
   

5. Start implementing the strategy and track your progress.
   

Have a conversation with your manager so that you can try to get a sense of where your employer stands and what its plans for AI are.

Lean into AI

There’s isn’t a lot that we can control in life. But what we can control is what we do today and how we prepare for the future. Learn as much as you can about AI and relevant AI tools and begin using AI as a resource to support your work. Read what other writers are doing with AI, too.

Learn content strategy development

If you’re not involved with content strategy development or don’t know what it is, you should learn it. This is because in the very near future being a copywriter or content writer won’t be enough. You will need to expand your role and become a content creator, and strategy development skills are the starting point. They set you on par with marketers and help you understand an organization’s big picture and what the top content goals are. Here are some courses on content strategy you can consider:

1. Skillshare’s How to Create a Content Strategy Plan for your Brand
   

2. Skillshare’s Fundamentals of Content Strategy
   

3. LinkedIn Premium’s range of content strategy courses
   

4. Hubspot’s free Content Strategy course
   

Keep your content writing focus on improving your writing

1. Examine content on landing pages: Search for excellent landing pages. What are their key features? Do they work as part of a funnel? Too many organizations think that web pages are there to get immediate sales. Remember, a landing page isn’t there to sell a product. It is there to spark interest, engage, generate an email or call, or get a newsletter signup. Which pages need reworking or revising? What would you recommend if you were that page’s writer?
   

2. Use AI for feedback on content: Submit copy such as funnel content to generative AI and ask the tool to analyze it from a reader’s perspective to see if anything is missing or if improvements can be made. Keep in mind that before you do this, you need to train AI on exactly who your customer is, and what your product/service is. NOTE: Do not submit a client’s content to any gen AI platform or AI tool without their permission. You should also turn off history and model training. For ChatGPT, here’s how: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7792795-how-do-i-turn-off-chat-history-and-model-training-web.
   

Keep your copywriting focus on the customer

Ultimately, the goal of your work is to support your client or employer develop connections and relationships with potential customers, and support sales of a product or service. Do this in the best way possible. For example:

1. Understand human psychology: Keep learning about human psychology and what makes people tick. Human psychology isn’t static. It changes over time because people’s priorities shift with life stages and economic changes. What trends are impacting your industry and how are customers and potential customers reacting? What obstacles are customers raising, and how can you work around them and/or make content more persuasive?
   

2. Localize your copywriting: Localization is not going to be affected by gen AI for some time, and even then, the results may be out-of-date and subpar. LLMs contain general knowledge and not specific information about local markets and how your client or employer’s product/service can match local needs. Specializing in this area will help build your expertise and generate work.
   

3. Niche markets for copywriting: If you freelance, finding niche industries in need of copywriting services is another way of developing your market. There are always businesses and organizations in need of strong copy and sometimes they just don’t know it. Be strategic with your marketing and in particular invest time in local networking events so that you can meet potential clients. Offer to hold a copywriting talk and discussion at a networking event. As the saying goes, give to receive.
   

4. Personalization in content writing: Copywriters and content writers know that persuasion in copy happens when you know your audience. With this knowledge, you have the best possible opportunity to connect. On your LinkedIn profile, resume, or website, detail how you personalize content. Do you work with data? Interview clients? Gather additional details in case studies? Personalization is an important tool that many writers lack or don’t think about. Use it to your advantage.
   

5. A human writer’s unique selling points: What value do you deliver to clients or your employer and how do you illustrate this? Is your LinkedIn profile the best that it can be? Do you have a website with and up-to-date portfolio. How do you add value to the copywriting process and finished products in ways that are better than other writers?
   

Your recommendations and ideas: What are you doing to future-proof your copywriting career? We want your input! If you’re overly worried, share how you’re feeling.