AI for Copywriting

Good for the First Mile and the Last Mile

I keep hearing a refrain that is all too familiar now: “I had ChatGPT write it for me. What do you think?”

ChatGPT is so ubiquitous now that it has practically become a part of the English language, signifying the use of AI, much like Kleenex for tissue paper, Xerox for making copies, and Google for search.

Never mind that there are many AI alternatives — Claude, Gemini, Le Chat, Llama, DeepSeek, Perplexity — it seems we’re all saying “ChatGPT” when talking about researching and writing stuff.

Whichever your AI tool of choice is, I have some thoughts about using it for copywriting.

AI ain’t got no soul.

If you absolutely don’t want to sound like you wrote something, use ChatGPT to do it instead.

If you don’t care whether your writing sounds original or not, use ChatGPT.

ChatGPT does an exceptional job of writing copy that is grammatically correct. It can sound conversational — even engaging.

But it isn’t human. By definition. So it can’t reflect any one person’s personal experience. 

It draws from an amalgamation of millions of pieces of writing it has trained on (much of it copyrighted, but that is a topic for another day).

In other words, AI ain’t got no soul. It’s just repeating stuff in a way that almost sounds natural.

But fresh? No. Personal? Nope. Generic — like something you’ve seen before? Absolutely.

AI ain’t brand — it’s bland.

Your brand, by definition, it your organization’s unique identity. 

To preserve that uniqueness, you have to consistently communicate in a way that is distinctive to your organization. This plays a critical role in differentiating your organization from your competition.

AI-generated copywriting does the opposite. It spits out a composite. It’s designed to not be unique. 

You are doing your brand no favors by using ChatGPT to do your writing for you. You’ll spit out content faster, but you’ll actually be watering down your identity in the process.

This is critical. In a competitive market, your only competitive advantage is the unique identity that endears your organization to a specific niche of customers. 

Put another way, in a commodity market, the stronger brand always wins. 

So why would you want to weaken your brand with bland writing generated by AI?

I call that “blanding,” not branding, and I’ll advise you to use AI differently.

AI: Use it for First Mile / Last Mile.

What do I mean by that?

I mean, AI is a fantastic tool to use at the beginning of your writing process (first mile) and the end of your writing process (last mile).

Let me explain.

First Mile:

Before you set your proverbial pen to proverbial paper, you gotta do your research. 

AI is brilliant at this. I have found that tools like Perplexity and Gemini, with their Deep Research settings, can scour the entire internet in seconds and deliver a well-sourced, annotated research report that can help you come up to speed on a particular topic very quickly. 

And not only come up to speed, but interpret, analyze, and draw your own conclusions, based on your own personal experience and perspective. This is vital to sounding human, and coming across as authentic, not generic.

This can help you vastly accelerate generating fresh, original copy, produced by a real human with a real point of view — you!

Another example: let’s say you’re dealing with writer’s block, and you’re looking for some creative thought starters to spark your process. You can ask your AI tool to help. Just enter a detailed prompt to tell it what you’re looking for and watch the thought starters emerge.

I’ve saved myself a ton of time getting started this way.

[Effective prompt writing is a whole other topic. There’s a new cottage industry of consultants offering to help you learn to write better prompts to get what you want. Perhaps we’ll talk about that in another blog post.]

Last Mile:

Once you’ve written your magnum opus, there’s one more vital step. Edit.

AI can be a marvelous editor for you. 

Drop your piece into ChatGPT (or Gemini, Claude, Le Chat, Llama, DeepSeek, etc.), and it will come back with what are typically excellent suggestions for cleaning up your writing — both with grammar and style

You can also use capable tools like Grammarly (on the higher-priced side) and LanguageTool (more affordable).

Or a combination thereof. Having more than one editor double-check your work is never a bad thing.

Pro-tip: don’t just check for grammar and style. Here are other great uses:

Trim the excess: Ask your AI if your writing can be more concise, and easier to consume. Odds are, your piece could effectively say the same thing in fewer words. AI can help you trim away the excess.

Confirm appropriateness: Ask your AI to check your writing for things like cultural or demographic sensitivity of the language in your piece to avoid accidentally offending the very people you’re trying to engage.

After you’ve completed your last mile edits,  then it’s time to publish!

Speed up your work AND keep your soul.

AI can vastly speed up your preparation before you start writing (first mile) and clean up your writing just before you publish (last mile). 

That leaves you to build the rest of the road.

It also frees you to put your inimitable imprint on your writing. 

Speak with your own voice. Share your own stories. Express your soul.

That’s the unique value you bring to the world. Nobody else can do it quite like you can.

And certainly not ChatGPT.

By the way…

To the above point, ChatGPT could NOT have written this very blog post. 

I am giving you my personal perspective, both as someone who has been writing copy for more than 35 years, and someone who uses AI extensively now. 

Only Ron Jesse Marcus, at this point in his career, could have written the very piece you are consuming now.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But what about the “em-dash?”

There’s a rumor going around these days that you can easily spot a piece written by ChatGPT because of its frequent use of the “em-dash” — that long dash, which apparently is something no human actually uses in their writing.

That’s news to me.

I’m a human, I love using the em-dash, and I use it all the time. You could call it a hallmark of my writing style. (It’s all over this post, by the way.)

So don’t be afraid to use the em-dash. 

My AI tools of choice:

For my first- and last-mile work, I frequently use a combination of:

• Google Gemini
• Perplexity
• ChatGPT
• LanguageTool

Although I’m on a Mac, I don’t use Apple Intelligence. It’s just not ready for serious use as of this writing. I hope it gets there soon.

The takeaway:

AI will make your writing process much more rapid and efficient. But it’s no substitute for your voice. We need to hear your voice. 

As the world gets saturated with generic AI-generative copy, your unique voice will truly stand out. 

To your brand and marketing success,

P.S. Full disclosure — the image for this post is AI-generated. The copy? All me.