Cookin’ Up Some Robot Food

Is generative AI going to kill the copy game? Hell no.

Whether you’re scrolling Linkedin or any number of creative/copy subreddits and discord channels — it’s hard to avoid the topic of ChatGPT and AI.

”Can AI Replace Content Writers?”
“Will AI Make Copywriting Obsolete?”
“AI is taking over your writing job”

Hell to the no. Will it replace writers who don’t know how to use it? Of course — but so did the personal computer. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting more and more with ChatGPT and AI writing tools. So far, the result has been a DRASTIC reduction to what I call “banging my head on the keyboard and rolling my face across its keys”.

The power AI has to empower better and faster creation is game-changing. But the outputs are only as good as the inputs. I’ve always said copywriting is more about THINKING than it is about writing — and that’s why I love AI. It helps me sift through bad ideas and nonstarters in record time.

Robot food & the modern brand book

What’s Robot Food? Well, apart from being one of the best snowboarding films of all time, I’m also using the phrase to refer to the all important brand book.

All too often Brand Books, Brand Bibles — whatever you want to call them, are lovingly created by writers and designers to rarely be used again.

AI writing tools create an opportunity for a new kind of brand book, tailored to feed generative AI with valuable brand positioning nuggets that make concepting and creating all kinds of creative assets a breeze.

In just a couple of hours, I used a brand’s creative guidelines to teach ChatGPT all about the brand’s voice, tone, and positioning. Next, I kindly asked it to spit out 50 headlines to get me started on seasonal ads — something I’d feel bad asking any human to do.

Were they all good? Of course not. Did it take some back and forth with the AI, absolutely. Was the final result 100% AI generated? No way. But the process broke down creative walls, killed writer’s block, and saved hours.

I’ve affectionately nicknamed “my” AI Pony Boy. Stay gold.

Check back sometime soon to learn more about my experiments with AI as I use it for some of the eCommerce world’s leading brands.