TLDR; No, AI is not going to kill copywriting. But you figured I’d say that, didn’t you?
After all, I’ve been a professional copywriter for 25 years and I’ve taught more than 12,000 people to build successful copywriting careers of my own.
I’ve got a little skin in the game.
But that’s the point: I’m not about to stick around if my career’s going to disappear (no matter how much I love it) and I’m certainly not going to teach other people to do it either.
Copywriting and content writing are not the same.
First, let’s get clear on some concepts. Copywriting is marketing and ad writing, designed to sell or persuade.
Content writing is writing that’s designed to educate, entertain, and/or inspire. Think blog posts and most of social media.
Content is a churn and burn industry. Because it’s easy to get into, the pay is low, it’s hard to earn much, and it’s easy to burn out.
Content is also very easy to create with AI because it doesn’t require much creativity or originality.
Copywriting, on the other hand, requires strategy, creativity, and originality. A basic tenet of copywriting is to differentiate from competition, which AI is basically designed not to do, but more on that in a bit.
There was a Washington Post article that made the rounds a year or two ago about copywriters who had lost their jobs to AI. Except…read between the lines and they weren’t copywriters, they were content writers.
It still sucks for them for sure, but let’s all make sure we’re getting our jobs titles and job descriptions right when we’re talking about this.
Speaking of getting things right…
AI Washing: Why some people are really being laid off
Not every layoff “because of AI” is actually “because of AI.”
Laying people off and ascribing it to “AI efficiencies” is lot more palatable to investors than layoffs because “we overspent and over-hired and now we have to fix that.”
The former makes a company sound forward-thinking and they later makes it sound mismanaged. So, if you were a company and you needed to lay people off, which reason would you give?
(I’m not making this up and nor did I coin the term; the LA Times, the New York Times, Newsweek, the Guardian, and CNBC have all written stories about it.)
Will there be legitimate layoffs because of AI? Absolutely.
But will there be plenty of other reasons for layoffs blamed on AI. Also absolutely.
And that certainly doesn’t make the layoffs any less painful for those who are affected, but it certainly changes the narrative and the fear factor for the rest of us when we have a different perspective.
Especially regarding writers’ jobs because, the truth is…
Companies—including AI companies—are actively investing in writers
I’m going to throw a few stats at you rapid-fire:
Earlier this year, Business Insider ran a piece called “The hottest job in tech: writing words.” Why? Because job listings for writers are surging.
Job postings for copywriters and communication managers haven’t slowed down, but here are a few that should interest you in particular:
This year, OpenAI has filled multiple writing-focused roles with $400,000 salaries. Anthropic has tripled the size of its communications team, with salaries around $200,000. Andreeson Horowitz, a venture capital firm known for investing heavily in AI launched an entire new media team.
If the people that run AI companies know that they need people to write for them instead of just using AI, don’t you think the rest of the companies do, too?
Scott Galloway, NYU professor and revered business commentator said that being able to “write well” is one of the biggest advantages someone can have in the age of AI.
The copywriting industry is expect to nearly double by 2032, from $25.29B in 2023 to $48.89B in 2032.
AI—>Email—>Internet—>TV—>Radio—>Printing Press—>Wheel
Okay, I’m skipping a few steps here, but you get the point:
AI is a tool that’s not going away.
When I was starting my career (25ish years ago), there were still some creatives and execs that resisted using email. Can you imagine?
Guess how that went for them.
My point is that you can refuse to use AI or you can educate yourself about it, learn how to use it responsibly, and maybe even discover ways it can make things easier in your business and your career.
Should you use AI to write your copy? Of flipping course not. (And, quite frankly, no one should. It’s crap.)
But could you use AI to help you manage your schedule? Sure. Help it to begin your audience research? Yep. Give you a leg up researching your client’s competitors? For sure. Balance it out with your own research because AI still makes stuff up, but you should take the help because it’s there.
And will a potential client or hiring manager value a copywriter who is proficient with AI over a similar copywriter who isn’t? It’s sure looking that way, folks.
Overuse of AI is making human writers even more valued
Look, it’s only responsible for a business to see if they can get the same results for a job they need done faster and easier. So it makes sense that some of them would test out AI for their copywriting.
The verdict? AI writes copy for crap.
The fundamental problem is that LLMs aren’t a creative engine, they’re a prediction engine. AI’s entire job in this context is to predict the most likely next words and generate them.
But do you know what makes for great copy? Words that are unlikely and catch an audience’s attention. Words that sound different than all of a company’s competition. Words that put ideas across in unusual and insightful ways.
And AI can’t do that. “Got milk?” could have never come from AI because it’s completely original. Which, of course, is what makes it memorable…and effective.
Companies have tested AI to write their copy and ended up hiring human writers to fix it.
Small businesses may still be believing the Instagram ads promising that “AI can write your copy for you”…but small businesses have always been notorious for putting their messaging (arguably the most important part of their business) last or trying to outsource it on the cheap.
Copywriting isn’t going anywhere…but don’t tell your competition
The copywriting industry is booming but AI fears and AI washing are likely to keep some people who would have explored a career in copywriting out.
On top of that, investing in education is seeing a sharp decline as the current (2026) economic crisis has more people focused on practical needs instead of education and career growth.
And, of course, older copywriters are still aging out and even choosing to leave the industry early rather than learn AI skills.
Which means that, if you’re interested in getting into the industry, now is an a better time than ever because you’ll be dealing with even fewer competitors than ever.
It’s a pretty great time to be a writer, don’t you think?
If you’re interested in exploring copywriting as a career (whether full time or part time, on staff or freelance), you can dig in for now via this free video workshop.
About the Author
Nicki Krawczyk has been a professional copywriter for 20+ years, writing for clients including Hasbro, adidas, Reebok, TripAdvisor, Barnes and Noble, and plenty more.
Since 2012, she’s also been teaching people to create professional copywriting careers of their own via the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, the #1 all-in-one online professional copywriting training program.
To learn more about the CCA and about beginning your own copywriting career, check out our free, on-demand video workshop.