Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about AIs (Artificial Intelligences) and how they’re getting ready to take over the world. Or, at the very least, to take away the jobs and livelihoods of many digital marketing professionals, that’s what it is (that today we feel ourselves with a flair for the dramatic)! There is one in particular that, day in and day out, is in the press and has been the talk of the town by influencers and other (more, or less) relevant personalities of our society – ChatGPT. We’re not one to gossip, of course, but partially we can’t shake the feeling that, in addition to the natural curiosity that makes us talk about new things when they come along, there’s more here than meets the eye. Perhaps even a well-crafted marketing campaign with a small budget (!) which, in all truth and as professionals of digital marketing, makes perfect sense. However, please kindly note that, thus far, we have not received anything to promote this ‘creature’, but (hear us people of ChatGPT) would be available to do it, as we all have to make a living!
But let’s not digress. Are the AIs of this world (yes, because there is more than one) really going to be the ruin of copywriters, designers and other digital marketing professionals?
As copywriters, we can’t help but frown at any half-witted robot who thinks it can just come in here and start writing and doing the same things we do. But after the initial outrage, and if we think about it, the truth is that this area in which we work (the, very trendy, digital marketing) is itself something relatively new. 20 years ago, who would have thought that there would be people who are hired to work on a company’s social media (don’t forget that LinkedIn, for instance, was only launched in 2003, Facebook in 2004 and Instagram in 2010)? People whose job is to create texts, images, videos, etc, to regularly publish on these platforms, posts, stories, reels and ads on behalf of different businesses in order to promote them, generate leads and increase their sales. Well… but after 20 years, here we are!
As human beings, our time is limited – we all have 24 hours a day to live and not a second more. And in those 24 hours we have to fit in work, family, friends and, of course, some rest and personal time (so we don’t all go crazy, or at least don’t add to the madness!). Creating content, be it text or image and video, is time-consuming… quite a bit. But if you use one of these AIs to create a first draft of what you want to write, you can save some of that time, as the base-text is created by it (the jury is still out on whether it is a he or a she) and you only have to refine it afterwards. This is even more interesting if we are talking about advertising (Google Ads or Meta Ads, for example) where the number of characters that can be used is rather limited. And the same can be said for the creation of images with AIs like DALL-E 2 or the recently launched (albeit only in beta) Adobe Firefly. Is it possible that, perhaps, these AIs are after all a good complement on a digital marketing level – something that works with these professionals and not instead of them?
We strongly believe that nothing can ever truly replace Man and his creativity. That wonderful ability to imagine, create, invent that is so uniquely and innately ours. And we’re not for a second suggesting that we should fire all copywriters, social media managers, designers or other professionals in this field (especially because that would mean we’d be out of work and that would not come in very handy now). We are simply proposing that perhaps it is important to adapt (that also fabulous ability that humans have and that allowed us to progress to the present day) and embrace change, learning to work with it and using it to our advantage. Very possibly 20 years more from now (or maybe a lot less) there will be new professions (yes, Veranika, you called it!) that most people don’t conceive of, but that some already dream about today (those who will never be obsolete or unnecessary – the visionaries, the dreamers, those who are not afraid of the new and the unknown). People who will lead, guide, inspire the AIs of this world that today we fear will steal our jobs (so that they produce those texts or images).
Because, if there is one thing that is guaranteed, it is that humanity is in permanent evolution (not always positive, but that’s beside the point). And in the last decades, this evolution is happening faster and faster. So, maybe, instead of being ‘prophets of doom’ set in our ways and unwilling to change, the sensible thing to do is to try to stay one step ahead of these changes and learn to use them to our advantage when they are still taking their first steps. Who knows, maybe we’ll find a new job as ‘coaches of content-generating AIs’!
Still, and just in case, we went and asked the sneaky bugger if it was going to wipe out the copywriters on this planet. Here’s what it answered:
“ChatGPT, as an AI language model, is designed to generate natural language text based on input prompts and examples from its training data. While it is capable of producing high-quality written content, it is not capable of creating original ideas or concepts on its own.
Copywriters, on the other hand, use their creativity and expertise to craft unique and engaging content that is tailored to a specific audience or purpose. They bring a human touch and a deep understanding of language and persuasion to their work, which is not something that can be easily replicated by an AI model.
In fact, ChatGPT can be a useful tool for copywriters, providing inspiration and ideas for content, helping with research, and even generating drafts that can be refined and edited by human writers. Ultimately, the relationship between AI models and copywriters is one of collaboration rather than competition, as each brings their own strengths and skills to the table.”.
Good boy! That’s more like it.
