Here in 2025, the copywriter vs AI debate is not a new one. But as tools become more advanced, so does the conversation. After all, AI-generated content is faster, more scalable, and increasingly accessible. Some businesses are even replacing writers altogether. But is that a smart move – or a shortcut that doesn’t pay off in the long run?
The Current State of AI Content Creation & Performance
AI-generated content is not only more prevalent but also seeing more success, as recent industry reports are backing up. According to Semrush, 39% of marketers reported increased organic traffic when using AI-assisted content, with 33% claiming AI-enhanced content outperformed purely human-written content.
And nowadays, AI tools are helping everyone from local brands to Fortune 500s do more than just write. They can now produce content at scale, optimize for SEO, and repurpose existing assets. But companies seeing real success aren't churning out machine-written posts. They’re integrating AI into their workflows while keeping human expertise at the core.
Let’s take content performance as an example. In our experience, we’ve rarely seen businesses take a one-for-one approach (i.e. a full copy-paste of AI’s output). Sure, there is the odd case where it may have seen some success when operating in a niche/less competitive industry and based on the keywords targeted –– which were also in languages other than English. On the other end of the spectrum, we've also seen some companies use heavily humanized and edited AI content that still didn’t perform.
So in terms of how effective AI-generated content can be for SEO, it depends on industry, competition, and several other factors. And ultimately, as competition increases overall (with AI content able to be produced instantly and virtually for free) and search engine algorithms evolve to better detect low-quality content, generic copy won’t cut it in the long term.
Copywriter vs AI: Who’s Good at What?
AI can crank out a piece of content faster than ever, and it can certainly come in handy for other stages of the creation process. For example:
- Keyword research and analysis
- Brainstorming or arranging ideas
- Transcribing and summarizing interviews
- Generating basic drafts
- Optimizing for SEO
- Formatting, spellchecks, suggesting sentence rephrases, etc.
But AI lacks the master craft to spin a story that resonates, builds trust, and results in action. And of course, it’s also only trained on existing content, so its output will never be truly unique without additional human input. Add that to the fact that Google’s recent updates prioritize high-quality content and aim to reduce the unhelpful and unoriginal, and AI isn’t up to the job of being your chief copywriter. Human writers bring:
- Emotional intelligence: Understanding audience sentiment, humor, and cultural nuances.
- Real-world knowledge: Bringing expertise and lived experiences to the page.
- Content consistency: Maintaining a distinct, recognizable tone across content.
- Creativity & persuasion: Writing fresh, compelling narratives that AI struggles to replicate.
- Strategic messaging: Tailoring content to different audiences and buyer stages.
In short, AI can write, but humans persuade – the raison d'être of most content marketing strategies.
Examples of a Winning Human-Led AI Content Flow
So if AI isn’t replacing copywriters, how should businesses actually use it? Companies leading the way in AI-driven content are past experimenting. Instead, they’re refining a strategy that maximizes efficiency without sacrificing quality. Here’s how an optimized AI-human workflow we use might go:
1. Start with human research, leveraging traditional SEO practices but enhancing with tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT
AI can process vast amounts of data, but human marketers know what truly matters. By combining AI keyword insights with real-world strategy expertise, we ensure our content aligns with both our specific SEO goals and audience intent.
2. AI helps kick things off with brief creation and suggestions for a rough structure, which is then adjusted by humans
When inspiration just isn’t striking, this kickstarts ideation while keeping content aligned with the brand’s voice. We typically overhaul a lot here but still find AI helpful in accelerating the process (especially in terms of structuring or grouping subtopics).
3. Humans add the magic: Write, personalize, and add real-world examples
AI can summarize information but can’t create narratives that resonate, build trust, or drive decisions. In this stage, expertise, storytelling, and strategic messaging turn a basic draft into an interesting, engaging, and valuable piece.
4. AI speeds up creation of social posts, alt text, and similar small ‘chores’
While AI can free up precious time by helping with smaller tasks like metadata or Tweets, these are always led and reviewed by SEO specialists. We find that although it does well at things like image metadata, most outputs need to be at least 50% edited. Social posts, for example, need reviewing for style, flow, hashtags, etc. (and too many rocket emojis).
5. An expert editor does a thorough final check on everything
From spelling, grammar, and style to all the SEO and social copy, this is the most important step of all. AI can suggest optimizations and tools like Grammarly can catch typos, but expert human oversight ensures the content is engaging, natural, and fits our SEO goals. An approach like this doesn’t just improve efficiency, it guarantees quality content.
How to Stay Ahead With a Hybrid AI Approach
As the flow we use above shows, businesses looking to both understand and grow in this era of content marketing don’t need to choose between AI and humans. They need to smartly integrate both.
Firstly, don’t be over-reliant. Use AI as an assistant rather than an author — it can handle (fact-checked!) research, structure, and even first drafts, but you must own the output. Prioritize your brand voice, as AI can mimic tone when you feed it your brand book, but it needs human oversight for consistency and authenticity. Emphasize storytelling, because while data is important, lived narratives build connection and trust.
Yes, this takes work, but in the end, it’s human insight that ensures content truly resonates with readers.
Copywriter vs AI: A Synergy, Not a Battle
In the battle of copywriter vs AI, human writers won’t lose their place. They may continue writing the main copy and delegating the extras like metadata and socials. They may also gradually morph into more of an editing role, by optimizing and humanizing AI content –– if/once AI tools become better at writing entire articles. But now and further down the line, it has to be a synergy. AI handles what it’s good at, and humans bring creativity, strategy, and emotional intelligence.
At Hello Operator, we believe in a future where AI enhances — not replaces — the power of human ideas.
Get in touch to see how we can help you succeed in this new era of content marketing.
