Is the Age of Copywriters Over?

Gotta figure the mercurial always got the edge over the mechanical.

Prolly whatcha got here is a super-sophisticated closed loop.

Remember: Indy's whip only resembles a lasso when it is coiled at his side.

(I do not know what that means, btw, but I am leavin' it here as a marker for 2037 jus' in case the super bloggo computer randomly quotes me.)

GS would not be investing 30 Million into the technology to just make short ads.

HA, ha and ha. The biggest losers in history are the guys who look at what some stupid company like GS does with it's money and think:

they must know what they are doing, right?

HA (Enron)
HA Tuzman, formerly of GS HA HA
HA eXcite turned down google for 750k BIG HA
HA TerrAlliance GS big loss
HA Cerveva Networks GS bankrolled
HA Goldman Sachs, the largest Welfare Recipient in US History

yea, these guys know what the future holds...

HA!

GordonJ

Decent content isn't hard to replicate at a very niche level. Try out the new age BS generator: http://sebpearce.com/bullshit/

This is just a spinning program with nested synonyms and sentences.

Replicating human-written text is one thing.

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/20...-story-who-won

Making it good, unique, or original is another.

Copywriters might have to make a better case for themselves down the road, but in terms of taking in new information and spitting out content, the human brain will probably be the best machine for the job for our lifetimes.

The most basic copywriting tasks--renew subscription emails, really short PPC ads, taglines--can probably be automated with AI based on current technology.

Long form stuff, or anything advanced/cutting edge?

I really doubt it. The article says that the app is based on the 'most commonly used phrases in digital marketing,' but high level copywriting is about writing something new that nobody has done before. I can't see AI doing that any time this decade.

long term capital management and bernie madoff had magic unknown black box systems that guaranteed profits too

The threat to copywriters ... and copywriting as a profession doesn't come from this piece of software.

Instead, it comes from three other directions:

#1 - The change in delivery mediums. Direct mail evolved into web sales pages. These in turn evolved in video sales page. Up to this point, they were reliant on the power of the written word. However, with the advent of VR, there is a shift from copy to experience. Once technology allows us to touch, manipulate, experience the product, once dimensionalized benefits become 3D life like experiences, then some aspects of copywriting will become obsolete.

#2 - The extremely low barrier to entry. Everyone is a copywriter now because copywriting is not regulated. If you claim that you know Java Script, there are ways to prove it. If you claim you are a designer, there are ways to prove it. However, most potential clients do not know the difference between good copy and bad copy and sophisticated buyers are a small crowd.

For most clients, there is no objective standard to test someone's copywriting skill. Instead, they rely on how they subjectively like the copy and the writing style. However, I don't think many clients judge the copy using questions like "How effective it was the theme?" or "How many proof elements are used?".

#3 - The shift in how sales are made. For almost a century, the system was simple. The lead received a sales letter. He read it. If he liked it, he bought. Now things are getting a bit more complicated. Most sales are done within a funnel. The offer matters more than it ever did before. In software application (ex: games), there are employed rather sophisticated cross-selling devices (like receiving 10.000 "gold" if you install a piece of software and you play up to a certain level).

This means that while copywriting is important, technology is used more and more to make the sale.

I don't think copywriting as a field will go extinct. However, I don't believe that the field of pure copywriting will remain alive either. I think it will get merged with marketing and CRO and a copywriter, instead of focusing on writing copy, he'll focus on generating conversion. He'll employ tools from writing to video to analytics to behavioral tracking to big data to help businesses sell.

So not so far in the future, a copywriter will be a conversion specialist, combining several fields as opposed to a wordsmith.

Best regards,
Razvan

You have to wonder if human
beings would actually want to
read blogs posts / articles or
books which are written by computers?

There is something extremely creepy
and weird about the whole thing...

One reason why people write and other
people read what they write is the
sense of human connection (If catch
my drift)

I mean Elmo let's not shit ourselves here,
you've posted an article written from a press
release which was put out by a company seeking
investors...said company claims to have invented
a miracle software which will allows you to shaft
writers and increase your bottom line...

If it happens it will happen but until then I'm
not worried.

I'd say that happened some time ago. When I read "sales pages" I can usually identify what "point" is coming next because of the overused script outlines so many "copywriters" adhere to.

Will be interesting, maybe, to see how far software produced copy can go....and whether only AI bots will be reading it in the future.

This change will have very little impact on the need for copywriters.

Most benefits are not experienceable.

You can test drive a car, either really or virtually, and yet that tells you nothing about the safety ratings of the car, its guarantee, its customer satisfaction record and so many other essential points about the car. Words are needed for that. And who writes the words? Copywriters.

In addition, the five senses have very little to do with the reasons we buy important things like insurance, coaching programs, even houses ("How good is the school system?" "What's the crime rate?" "What are the neighbors like?")

So while your point has some validity, I don't believe it's cause for worry.

Marcia Yudkin.

This is the direction I'm heading, been working on it for a while.

My ultimate goal is to automate 100% of my content and make it as high quality as possible.

I've ran several test and can completely automate building content at a rate of 4,320 units in a 24 hour time span from a single offline PC and then automatically upload to a site/host via the same Windows app with built in FTP.

Still a work in progress as far as quality control of the product but I'm there, I'm doing it.

You want the good news or the bad news? Let's start with the bad news...

This is a very real possibility.

Copywriters think they are irreplaceable and are the be all end all of marketing.

This A.I. stuff is most likely going to make copywriting obsolete for one very simple reason...

The computer can test and learn from the results faster than any copywriter can.


Think about it. If you gave this A.I. a niche like car insurance, had it take in all the top 100 well performing ads about car insurance and it spit out something to test in 5 minutes...

They could monitor and analyze the test results directly through tracking software that learns and sees where people get 'hung up' or stop reading entirely.

The A.I. then learns from this and adjust the copy accordingly and spits out something new.

This process repeats until it creates something that has a really high engagement rate / conversion rate and it can do this non stop everyday.

How many copywriters do you know can write new content everyday, analyze the data, LEARN from that data within a day, and create something new based on what they learned.

I don't know of any copywriters that can do that.

Although I think the next best people who can do that are the affiliate marketers who are running $100,000 a day campaigns everyday and track every aspect of their websites they can and alter words, phrases, and sections based on the data they get back.

These are the human versions of this A.I. and these guys aren't even close to being 'pro' copywriters.

That's what this A.I. software is doing.

People here think copywriting is some kind of "magical" art that only we can write, because we are human and we understand humans...

Yet in another sentence people talk about how dumb people are and you need to write like a 5th grader to get your content understood.

A.I. replacement for copywriters is a real thing and I think it will happen sooner than you think, but I wouldn't say the success of it would be 100% because of how good this A.I. will write. It will be more of how effective an A.I. like this could alter, adjust, and analyze data at an extremely fast rate to perfect a sales message through trial and error.

Copywriting has never been the key. Finding a way to analyze the results of what you write is the answer. Then you don't have to "guess" how your customers react to your content. You can measure results within days or even hours and plug in words or phrases until you hit a cord.

Now the good news...

This A.I. if it ever becomes good enough, it most likely won't be ever released to the public. It would be used by top companies to create their sales messages.

So copywriters will still be a thing, but they won't be the masters of the sales world anymore. Just like the switch board operator. Copywriters will slowly be phased out by technology.

I believe that the real threat to copywriters does not and will never come from an automated software or alogorithm, the real threat will always come from copywriters themselves. Yes! You heard that right. Copywriters become lazy and start to copy others. Now copying isn't all that bad. Many artists have done this over the ages. They were copying masters and then they created something brand new out of those. Great copywriters will always see something in a new way. Using the basics of great copy and then infusing it with tips from the great copywriters of our time. But when they go out and use sales letters of others and don't put their spin on it, then yes, copywriters are in trouble.

Unfortunately, the same thing was said about mathematicians that worked for NASA.

Everyone can become obsolete in this new world. Sooner or later, the software will become cheaper, and everyone will be able to afford it.

Back in the 60's and 70's when I was a kid, there were sign painters that made good money with their trade. You could make a lot of money painting signage and doing pin striping . Try to find a sign painter today that does it by hand. Anyone that could afford a vinyl plotter and a home computer can do signs and the market became saturated with vinyl plotter signage companies.

One of my best friends was an awesome graphic artist that made excellent money designing characters and logos for companies. Today, he works for peanuts when he can get the work. Anyone can learn Photoshop pretty quickly.

That's just the way it is and will be..unfortunately. Just about the only people that will be in demand are the high-end programmers and engineers. That is until Chappy can build a better Chappie unassisted.

Elmo

Here are a few other articles of interest.

The Watson computer that beat Ken Jennings on Jeopardy was tasked to write a movie trailer. Here are the results: Watson Writes Movie Trailer

Also, computers are now writing articles for magazines and online news sites. Considering all of the writers that are graduating from higher institutions, as well as people that have studied that trade on their own, the field could get quite competitive and crowded.

Here's the article on how computers are already writing articles for magazines. This technology is already affordable to most institutions and agencies. Magazine Article Written by Computer

I guess we should all follow Ken Jennings' example when he got beat by Watson. The answer he wrote down when he couldn't answer the Final Jeopardy question was:

"We all bow down to our new overlords and masters!"

I'll see you guys later. Alexa just told me it was time to take out the trash.

Elmo

The area I see Artificial Intelligence (AI) having the most problem with is hooks (in the case of written sales letters) and pattern interrupts (in the case of VSLs).

They are too individualized to be effectively pre-programmed or pre-loaded into a database.

And let's face it... the hook can make or break a sales letter's ability to convert.

Alex

If you want to engage me in a meaningful conversation, come up with a real counter argument other than I hurt your feelings.

It's a weak argument.

The creative process?

Didn't think I would hear a copywriter talk so highly of the 'creative process' considering almost every major copywriter doesn't believe in being 'creative'...

Let's take a David Ogilvy quote for example:

So are you saying creativity is going to save copywriters now? The enemy of copywriters will be their savior?

Alright we can meet in the middle. When these A.I. get here, you can be a professional hook creator for these A.I.

It might be fun. Like writing headlines for buzzfeed.

If you forget about the folks that write long enough to really look at what's going on, it gets interesting and it's not all the complicated how it works.

Everything we do has rules... the same goes for algorithms.

When you brush your teeth each morning you go through the same process day after day, it's repetitive. Copywriting also has repetitions. A copywriter will use buy words for instance, so you start with a single buy word and fill in the blanks depending on the demographic data. Once you have the results from Test-A the algo repeats with a mild change to the copy based on feedback and writes Test-B, and so on...

This might seem like a long drawn out process but it's not when you run the algo. against a large batch of traffic. You can split test thousands of ad copy very fast while fine tuning along the way.

Writers will eventually be replaced. It might not happen in our lifetimes but it will happen. Right now there's no real AI in the sense that a computer can think on it's own. There are however datasets that an algo. can use to create content.

Here's a real world example of how Google trained it's Google Images algo., some of you might remember this... Google used humans (search traffic) to select plain text based on the image presented to them. Google ran this algo training for a few years back in the early 2000s. Now, in 2017 Google is using data to test humans with captcha solving (image below).

This is how copywriters will put the last nail in their own coffins by generating data whether they know they're contributing or not.

This happens all the time. When a large manufacturing business moves out of the US they'll usually send a group of employees who will eventually go through a layoff to train foreign workers how to do their job. Nail in the coffin.

Been getting their newsletters for quite a while now.

They say their content outperforms human-crafted messages 100% of the time.

Something else I find interesting is their marketing. They're doing a great job of it. In 4 years they've gotten some of the best companies in the world.

Here's a report I got last year from them where they talk about automated content...if anyone's interested in reading:

http://lp.persado.com/rs/880-EHZ-626...rresterTLP.pdf

They've got some other good reports on their website too.

One of the problems with AI taking over the jobs of writers in general is that the computers are getting smarter and the software more sophisticated. Within the next decade you will see more and more computers writing software programs themselves.

It is kind of like a robot downloading several enginering degrees in a nano second and then building bettet robots. In the realm of computing, this is already possible and since computers never get tired, they can wtite more progrsms faster and better.

When this phase is in full bloom the growth and availability will be explosive and anything digital will be fair game for nonhuman work.

This will happen in the next decade or two.

Elmo

Ray Kurzweil, big-time inventor and director of engineering at Google says human intelligence in computers is a mere 15 years away. By 2029 they will be able to easily write and read at human levels.

He said that technologies expand exponentially. The Genome project was a perfect example of technology stating of slow and growing very quickly after the halfway point allowing them to finish in 15 years.

No, copywriting never goes. Copywriting is very important, Nowadays, the internet has become a main target of copywriting, and a lot of effort is being devoted into online copywriting. Hence, it is necessary to understand the changing nature of copywriting.

Hellor elmo033057,

Step back from the question.

Look at the bigger control.

There is no age of copy writers. There is only the marketplace.

It is not whether copy writers stay or face replacement.

History teaches, the marketplace is fluid. Change is constant.

What's in today, is gone tomorrow.

Old was new. New becomes old.

Some will stay. Some will fall.

Invention creates extinction.

Chinchilla

In 1997, a computer beat the reigning world chess champion Gary Kasparov.

If we call 1968 the start of the computer chess era, that means it took nearly 30 years for a computer to reach that point.

(1968 was the year David Levy famously made his 1,250-pound bet that a computer couldn't beat him within 10 years.)

A chess board has 32 pieces in play on a 64-square board. That represents an astronomical number of possibilities.

Now think of how many words are in the English language that can be written on an unlimited sized page.

Will it take computerized copywriting 29 years like it took computerized chess? Honestly, I expect it to take a lot longer.

And as I wrote earlier in this thread, the areas of copywriting that require human creativity will never be surpassed by a computer.

Alex

I think it'll be really expensive for the majority of companies to use them. AI has the potential to profit the most of all products, in my opinion, because of how we live in a subscription base economy. The creators could charge at an enormously high rate per month for the use of their AI.

Thanks for sharing this article - pretty amazing stuff.

A computer will never replace a person. You will always need the artistic creation.

Interesting. I think you can accurately gauge the trends in AI for copywriting if you look at advanced artificial intelligence weaponry (for example: Autonomous nuclear drones) that some countries are producing.

I think all of these will require human input and will never be automated, but surely you can get advantages with computational speed.

Here is a relevant sample study:

Average is Over!

In a recent new your Times article The Pentagons Terminator Conundrum: Robots That Could Kill on Their Own the concept of computer assisted work shows how software can give unprecedented advantages


In his 2013 book, Average Is Over, Tyler Cowen briefly mentioned how two average human chess players, working with three regular computers, were able to beat both human chess champions and chess-playing supercomputers.
It was a revelation for Mr. Work. You could use the tactical ingenuity of the computer to improve the strategic ingenuity of the human, he said.

Mr. Work believes a lesson learned in chess can be applied to the battlefield, and he envisions a military supercharged by artificial intelligence. Brilliant computers would transform ordinary commanders into master tacticians. American soldiers would effectively become superhuman, fighting alongside or even inside robots.

(can similar technology turn mediocre copywriters into genuises?)

NYTimes 10-26-2016
Of the $18 billion the Pentagon is spending on new technologies, $3 billion has been set aside specifically for human-machine combat teaming over the next five years. It is a relatively small sum by Pentagon standards its annual budget is more than $500 billion but still a significant bet on technologies and a strategic concept that have yet to be proved in battle. NY Times
Why is the Pentagon spending billions on AI technology?
Because teams of human paired with computers can beat the competition on the battlefield.
Do you think this technology might be applicable to writing and advertising?

You betcha!

Copywriting is over like oral sex is over.

Someone had to write the stuff they put in the software.

Technology is great, but there will always be individuals and businesses who can't afford the technology, so original and custom copy will be a need.

News Writers,

Here's a list of your potential competitors:

Buzzbot
Wibbitz
News Tracerhttps://blogs.thomsonreuters.com/ans...s-news-tracer/

Sooner or later we will come to the age, where all the copies will be written by machines. I am sure there still will be some place for human mind, while machines can not fully interpret all the feelings, so I am sure people will still have creative writers of different books, etc

This topic floats back up on this forum from time to time. Like a turd floating swirling back to the surface after a good flush. It's garbage. As long as people are buying things, you'll be able to use words to persuade. Someone has to write those words. More important, a MIND has to be behind those words.

You goons who think computers will replace copywriters don't get it You think copywriting is only about writing. It's not. Great copywriters aren't paid for their "pen." They're paid for their mind. Copywriting is only 10% writing. The other 90% is knowing WHY people buy.

"One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men. NO machine can do the work of one EXTRAORDINARY man." - Thomas Friggin' Edison

PS: In case anyone is thinking about pulling the AI Argument, you might want to research Roger Penrose and Stuart Hammeroff's challenges to that stupid pseudoscientific "The Singularity will lead to consciousness computers," claim. I'd go there, but, since this isn't a physics forum...

I tell you one thing. Good content will not be replicated by any kind of software for a long, long time. If ever. There is no such thing as pushing a button and getting quality content in seconds.

"Someone had to write the stuff they put in the software."

You are correct, Yukon.

However, the computers are also going to be writing programs very soon as well, and they can do it much faster than their human counterparts.

Read it here: New Scientist - Computer with human-like learning will program itself.

Elmo

Copy will always fall back to people. Companies will invest and invest in this kind of thing but it will never diminish copywriters truely. There is a big market out there and not everyone is going to get behind tech that professes to do a human job better than humans do. Tech is way too mechanical for the subtleties of well-written copy. Hopefully it will stay that way too!

Evry perfectly framed question got an equally smart answer, I guess.

Bump to jump, whatever yr A & B, whatever gymnastically apt leapo packin' waaaaaow pulls on gaspogazmo.

GS Spends 30 million! The good news for a copywriter... How many companies can do that? I believe there is plenty of business for the ole human touch. Go get em copywriters!

I remember now why I stopped visiting these forums. It's because of questions like this. I remember hearing like 7 years ago...

Is the age of PPC over!?

And yet, here we are.

Copywriting is not dead and it's not going anywhere for a long time. As long as people have problems, emotions, eyes to read and ears to hear copywriting will continue to convert sales.

I'm not worried about machines being able to write good sales copy. If Agora Financial starts using computers to write their sales letters, then I'll worry

But we also need to remember that Google is getting more proficient at detecting non-human writing. But yeah, these auto-writers are really annoying to think about. Thanks a lot.

No bot is going to replace a human copywriter. Imagine a computer trying to use the latest slang... The results would be far more cringe-worthy than even some oldster using it.

Copy requires the human touch. Even more "formal" copy will never be done well by a bot. Bots are darn good at testing though, which is what the OP's software is basically about.

Hi,

This is a good question and the answer is "IT DEPENDS".

It depends on what though?

Well, what do you understand through a copywriter? Do you see him as a sales expert that combines ideas from several fields in order to solve a specific problem? Then the answer is NO because while AI can replace the machine, it can not replace the operator of the machine.

This means that while AI, machine learning can do the job a lot better than a human (or will be able to do so, at some point in time), it will not be able to determine WHAT JOB to do. It is similar to industrial robots - you can program a robot to create a car far better than a human will ever do but you can not use the said robot to determine that a car must be created in the first place.

This is the fallacy with AI. From an efficiency perspective, it is better than you and me. No matter if the job is about creating leather boots or split-testing campaigns on AdWords, a computer will do it better or it is just a matter of time until it will get to that point.

However, no machine can set goals and be in the driver seat, at least until we reach the idea of singularity. Computers operate based on the data you feed them and there must be someone to feed them that data. A computer will only be as effective as the operator behind it.

So the copywriter of tomorrow will probably NOT write copy. He will direct a machine to do so and this machine will do it a lot better than he can. What he will do is create the structure, the strategy, the patterns for this machine to follow.

It is similar to high level programming.

Each level abstracts the code a bit more. If at the most basic level you write in 0s and 1s, binary code, most software today is done with libraries. If twenty years ago a developer would have used HTML to write a page, now a developer uses packages of resources and tools to create an outcome. So will happen with copywriting and virtually every other field - it becomes more abstract, the focus moves from "HOW TO DO IT" to "WHAT MUST BE DONE".

If right now the question is "WHAT DO WE USE SCARCITY HERE" ... the question of tomorrow is "SHOULD WE USE SCARCITY HERE AND IF SO, OF WHAT KIND?"

It is the natural evolution in any field of knowledge work - the switch from methods to tools.

As far as the day in which you'll pay $5000 to a self-aware AI to write you a VSL selling advice on how to pick up girls in the VR space, chances are that the market will change and our buying patterns will be different LONG BEFORE technology reaches that point.

Sincerely yours,
Razvan Rogoz

Seriously, is that even a good news?

There never was "An Age Of Copywriters".

They've been around since the beginning of time (almost).

What there was, was "An Age Of The Internet" when everyone that thought they were spectacularly good at writing a love letter, could suddenly make a gazillion dollars overnight by selling some cheesy piece of crap. All encouraged of course by the "Cheesy Guru's" that sold the cheesy crap to cheesy people that wanted to sell cheesy junk to other cheesy people. Comprehende?

Some of us were copywriters way before the cheesy stuff began...and so find it rather laughable that those who discovered the internet in the 90's when it came about...then discovered what they thought was a great new career spawned by the internet...that of being a copywriter...now suddenly are beginning to think the career is ending almost as soon as it began.

How bizarre.

Before you all start complaining that I'm the harbinger of bad news, here is an article you might want to take a look at:

How AI is Changing Content Marketing Today and in the Future

Now that I've had some time to digest the impact of what AI is having (or will have) in the realm of copywriting, here are a few more thoughts.

Back in the 90's when email was taking off, I had a friend that told me my wife's job at the United States Postal Service would be eliminated due to email. He told me that she needed to get rid of that gig because there would no longer be a need for mail.

Several years ago, Amazon announced that it was going to use drones to deliver packages. Everyone at the USPS freaked because now Amazon Drones were the new way to deliver.
I don't know of a single person that gets their packages from drones and once again, Amazon gave the USPS more work than it can handle.

As a matter of fact, due to the Internet the USPS had to hire a ton of more workers due to all of the online businesses like eBay!

I have noticed the "boom" in AI jobs in the last 2 years, it appears that AI will be the new technology frontier. Of course the term "Artificial Intelligence" is rather ambiguous; you can't put your finger on exactly what it is.

However, there is a problem with getting AI to write copy for specific companies and markets. It can't talk to or deal with clients. As a matter of fact, in order for AI to work as a copywriter, it is going to have to have specific data entered into it's program for it to work properly.

Once again, more jobs for copywriters and data entry people.

Anyone have thoughts on this aspect?

~Elmo