As I was organizing this portfolio, I started to write on how my profession could be impacted by AI. I realized that I have stated I Manifesto, standing on principles I believe that will be the foundation for future copywriters who want to maintain their relevance and enhance the value creation for business and for themselves.
For copywriters, a new era is approaching.
The Artificial Intelligence of LLMs has transformed and is transforming the copywriting profession. The question that we, persuasive writing professionals, should ask ourselves should not come from a passive place, watching as replaceable areas and skills are replaced by the machine. That is inevitable. The correct question is: where should we look?
In a certain sense, AI produces better texts than humans. It almost always delivers satisfactory texts, which could take us a few hours to produce, in a matter of seconds. There are several perspectives a copywriter can take regarding AI, and I do not necessarily want to define one. I want, first, to define the approaches I consider dangerous or inconsistent, and then defend my perspective, based on the years working as a copywriter and working as a copywriter in collaboration with LLMs.
Question a complete replacement: those who advocate the possibility of replacing the human workforce with an artificial workforce lose sight of another possibility. That by firing someone and replacing them with an AI I do not lose only a human employee; I lose a human employee who could be enhanced through the use of AI. Let us suppose the following equation: 1 AI = 5 writers. I can replace 5 writers with 1 AI and my output will remain the same, theoretically. I will reduce costs, while maintaining the same output. But let us suppose another equation: 1 writer enhanced by AI = 10 writers. If I choose to keep 1 writer and train them to use AI, instead of 1 writer, I would have the equivalent of 10 writers. My costs would remain the same, but the efficiency, the technical quality of the output and the human character that must exist in certain types of writing would remain.
There are many other arguments against complete replacement; the cognitive limitations of AI, the likely increase in token costs with absolute delegation; the continuing need for an expert reviewer to supervise AI's creative work.
If we start from the premise that the copywriter of the future will not be an AI, but will also not be a writer without the tools that AI provides, enhancing their work, then we find this new professional who is taking shape: a copywriter who integrates AI from beginning to end of their creative process and is capable of enhancing, from various angles, the quality and final value of their work.
There is, therefore, a horizon of possibilities for this new professional.
Now, where should this professional look, faced with this horizon? What kind of skills should they cultivate? which principles should they instill in themselves and in the LLM? which values?
I am increasingly convinced that this new professional must be capable of working in areas where AI, for now, remains limited. That is where their differentiation lies. By finding these areas, developing them to their maximum potential will allow them to do the work that no AI does. Then, all the danger of replacement disappears. But not only this: their value as a professional increases, and their ability to enhance their own work through AI with this value add up and work like compound interest.
Let us imagine another equation, a simpler one: 0 + 1 = 1. The final result of a value created from nothing is equal to that same value. Without AI, it is as if my skill as a proofreader were only this, I proofread texts, and this has its own value.
But another equation shows us, in a simple way, the embedded value of AI. 1 + 1 = 2. The final result of a value created in addition to a pre-existing value is a new value. If this same proofreader adds AI to their production and delivery process, what they will see is this skill enhanced. But the equation does not remain this way. Imagine that every skill, no matter how surprising it may be, will remain 1 if it is not enhanced by AI. Excluding the technical limits that exist in certain skills, we can conclude that all of them have, with the use of AI, the possibility of becoming more than they are, greater than 1.
In this way, I want to state which skills I consider within this horizon of possibilities:
I am an attentive listener and a lifelong learner. I believe that one of the best ways to learn is by listening to other people talk about their own work (criticism often has more value than praise).
Rarely, in all the texts I have produced, were the ideas that worked my ideas. In fact, they were almost always a distinct (re)presentation of an idea that the audience tends to believe, pay attention to or oppose. In this sense, people hire me for my ability to build a deep repertoire regarding the audience and the brand, as well as a sensitivity to identify emerging trends and patterns that can stimulate actions toward that brand.
In the age of AI, the main skill of a copywriter is no longer that of the person who writes the best copy. But that of the person who learns best. A good idea, capable of impacting the profitability and success of a business, arises only when certain mental conditions are being satisfied. A copywriter is no longer someone who writes well, but someone capable of satisfying these conditions to see an idea emerge. And only then, from that idea, can they write anything.
This is one of AI's great limitations: it is not capable of satisfying these mental conditions, since it lacks crucial aspects for a big idea: human sensitivity, a distinct repertoire and asymmetric execution.
These are the 3 skills that I have developed and refined throughout my entire life. Not only from the beginning of my professional journey, but since my first cry upon leaving my mother's womb. Every contact with the world, every experience, every relationship over the years contributed to the consolidation of these 3 essential skills, these 3 principles that have underpinned all my work from the beginning.