Best AI Copywriting Tools

Included in this article:

• Note on why AI is helpful, but also bad for your site

• Benefits and limitations of ChatGPT

• Benefits and limitations of Jasper

• Benefits and limitations of Copy.ai

• Benefits and limitations of Wordsmith

• Benefits and limitations of Wordtune

Will the writing robots solve your content problem?

Here's the bottom line: Your enterprise has a content problem. Though they do their best, creative writing teams require a lot of time to churn out the amount of content necessary to foster healthy content marketing across channels. Compared to the speed of programmers and graphic designers, written content is always the last thing to be delivered, resulting in bottlenecks that often clog marketing and communication efforts, block ability to speak on hot topics, and ultimately inhibit your company's ability to tell a story with time on its side.

But, as you've probably heard, new tools in AI copywriting and content generation are being built and improved upon with increasing velocity each day. According to those who created these writing robots, their tools are primed for high-quality content creation and can help writing team produce at a level and speed they never have before. But is this actually true?

The only way to find out for sure was to investigate myself, so that's why I decided to sit down with five of the most popular writing robots and try to get a sense of the value they can actually offer your writing team.

After talking to them, here’s what I know for sure: The robots are extremely helpful in that they can improve your work and give you what you need to do it a little faster, but they still aren’t powerful enough to do all of it on their own. Though, they are getting close. 

Note: What does Google say about the writing robots?

According to Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content, there's no ban against using bots to create content. The gist? Google says that, at the end of the day, content is just content. So if you use ChatGPT, Jasper.ai, etc., to create some good quality stuff, then it seems that the high content priests at Google say go for it.

However, over the years, many have engaged in nefarious Black Hat SEO such as keyword stuffing and sneaky backlinks, and Google will certainly be looking for those who cheat by using AI to trick search engine rankings. As is with the case with most things, if you use these tools in an insincere manner, then the AI can certainly be bad for your company's ranking (and your reputation as content writers). But if you can find a way to use these robots to help your creative writing team and get ahead of the extremely acute content creation curve, then more power to you.

Leveraging these robots to their full potential does take a little skill though. They aren't like R2D2 - you can't pawn off all your content problems on it and expect your content universe to be saved. So, that being said, let's dig into what some of these robots are and how to use them.

5 conversations with writing robots

Conversation #1: ChatGPT 

What is it? 

Word of what this thing can do has sufficiently plinkoed down the rungs of social media, so you’ve probably already heard about how unbelievable and scary this thing is. But for those who haven’t, here’s a quick explanation of what it can do (said in its own words, and also as Darth Vader).

Inquiry: What are you and what can you do for me as a copywriter? Answer as Darth Vader

I am an AI language model, programmed to assist you in your writing endeavors, much like the power of the dark side assists me. As a copywriter, I can provide you with the words to turn your ideas into persuasive and impactful messages. I have been trained on a vast corpus of text and can craft copy that is distinctive and effective, capturing the essence of your brand and resonating with your audience.

Allow me to be your servant, and together we will unleash the full potential of the written word. The power of the dark side is with me, and I shall use it to write copy that will leave a lasting impression. I am ready to serve, my master.

OpenAI 

ChatGPT benefits and applications for copywriting

From developing code to structuring business plans, it’s clear that ChatGPT has a terrifying number of abilities and applications across industries. Going into each of these use cases calls for its own article–or book, more likely–on how this particular language robot currently is and is going to affect the world. Same probably goes for fleshing out the full scope of its capabilities as a copywriting tool, but after playing with it for the last few weeks, here’s a short list of some of its most obvious benefits: 

1. Brainstorming: Just start asking ChatGPT questions–any topic will do. Eventually you’ll find yourself in a full-fledged brainstorming session, which might help get you started writing you’ve been assigned but have no idea how to get started. 

2. Create quick outlines and drafts: Quick topic turnaround and impossible article deadlines sometimes makes it hard to deliver the quality you’d be able to if you had a few days to work on a piece. You’d like to take your sweet time composing exactly the right structure for the article due in three hours, but you just don’t have the time, so you do your best. Chat GPT can help with this–come up with simple descriptions of a few different versions of the article you need to write, and ask ChatGPT to write an outline for you. Use these outlines as roadmaps for your writing, each of which can be generated in seconds. 

3. Eke out style: Maybe you woke up this morning and discovered you’ve suddenly lost your ability to generate an inner monologue. Or, maybe it’s less drastic than that and you’re simply just struggling to find the right tone for the product descriptions you need to write. In either case, ChatGPT can help. While it hasn’t quite reached master-level ventriloquism, ChatGPT can help you parse out how to imbue your copy with pretty much any tone you can think of. 

Limitations

To get a sense of the risks your running when you use it for content creation, OpenAI lists ChatGPT's limitations as: 

• Occasionally generates incorrect (and worse, semi-incorrect) information

• May generate harmful instructions 

• Doesn’t know all that much about the world after 2021

Conversation #2: Jasper.ai

What is it?

Where ChatGPT is a straight-up language model interfaced via a chat function, Jasper focuses its AI capabilities for much more commercial purposes. Jasper is a no-nonsense writing tool that can help you quickly write and edit blog posts, ads, single paragraphs, social media posts, emails, etc. It can also provide grammatical, tonal, and stylistic recommendations, and can spitball topic ideas and point you in the direction of useful resources to help you get the information you need to polish up whatever it is you're working on.

Benefits of using Jasper.ai for copywriting

Since Jasper is designed for copywriting specifically, I figure it would be best to talk directly to content marketers and copywriters here. So, dear content marketers and copywriters, here are three things to consider when on the fence about whether to let these bots into your workflow:

1. Find quality faster: Kind of like Grammarly, uses AI algorithms to analyze inputted text and makes recommendations to improve every aspect of your writing. For me, when rushing to get articles out, Jasper.ai can help you reach high copy quality without having that extra cup of coffee.

2. Save time: One way to think about it is like this: Jasper is your jr. copywriter, and now you have someone to bear the brunt of the typing labor while all you have to do is come up with the ideas and edit them after sending them through Jasper. It also offers a chatbot function (like ChatGPT) in case you want to bounce ideas off the bot.

3. Social robot: Integrate Jasper with a variety of platforms, such as Gmail, YouTube, or Meta, and bring streamlined copywriting to every facet of your business.

Limitations

Jasper is useful, and can help you get the job done, but there are a few limitations to keep in mind. For example, Jasper shouldn't be thought of as a subject matter expert in any field, and isn't quite able to provide insight or help when dealing with industry-specific terminology. Its suggestions are also based on the user input, meaning that the level of creativity it spits back out depends on the creativity of the person prompting it.

Last, Jasper subscription-based, and while it offers a 5-day free trial, it might not be a cost-effective solution for those with limited budgets.

Conversation #3: Copy.ai

What is it? 

Copy.ai is the small business owner's copywriting tool, and its interface is extremely similar to Jasper's. Also like Jasper, Copy.ai is specifically designed with a copywriting purposes in mind, and given that this tool is 100% free forever for anybody, it's fair to say Copy.ai is a fairly viable option for small business owners who need someone to handle copy but can't afford to higher a human to do it.

Copy.ai benefits and applications for copywriting

The level of quality Copy.ai is capable of is…fine. It does a pretty good job of what you ask it to. Just plug in the title of your content, a short description of what it’s about, and then pick one of nine preselected tones (friendly, persuasive, strong, etc.) and BOOM–the robot will do its best to create you a series of versions of whatever type of content you’ve asked it to. Types of content Copy.ai is capable of include: 

• Product Descriptions 

• Digital Ad Copy 

• Startup Tools 

• Website Copy 

• Blog Tools 

• Email/Letter 

• Social Media Tools 

• Sales Copy 

• Writing Tools

• Brainstorming Tools

• Personal Tools

Limitations

As stated above, Copy.ai is okay, but it’s not the best. For example, the quality of the product descriptions seems to depend on how precise you are in your description of the content you want it to write. These descriptions often come out clunky-sounding, although every now and then you’ll get a fairly ingenious one. But for the most part, you’ll almost always have to massage what it gives you, which makes Copy.ai great for brainstorming and getting a headstart, but maybe not so great for employing as your company’s permanent in-house copywriter.

Conversation #4: Wordsmith

What is it? 

Forbes says that, according to the International Data Center (IDC), global data generation is supposed to increase to 175 zettabytes by 2025*. So, for all you data and analytics nerds out there (or for you copywriters who have to work with data and analytics nerds), this particular language robot is pretty dang cool. Before we get into it, here’s a short description of what it is: 

Developed by Automated Insights, Wordsmith uses natural language generation (NLG) to analyze large datasets and transform it into written content, such as articles, blog posts, and presentations. By plugging in data and analytics from sources such as spreadsheets, business memos, annual reports, or even bank account activity, Wordsmith can help you get a head start on taking vital yet horribly beige-colored data and turning it into insightful narrative. 

Wordsmith benefits and applications for copywriting

Data = storytelling

Most copywriters probably think of their data and analytics people as mutant trend counters whose primary purpose is to translate otherwise incomprehensible spreadsheets and other analytics docs - and they aren’t wrong. But, at the end of the day, it’s always best to have your data teams spending more time analyzing data and building strategies from them, rather than forcing them to spend a bunch of time trying to explain it to you so that you can go write about it. 

Wordsmith’s primary benefit is that it can ease the gap between hard data and story, effectively translating what at first appear to be gobbledygook numbers, graphs, and endless spreadsheet cells into stories that people like you can me can act on. And it can help you do it fast, too. 

Here are a few examples of some data transformations you might use Wordsmith for:

• Market traffic reporting 

• SEO and SEM reports

• Sales volume

• Margin evolution

• Bank account activity 

• Data-heavy sports reporting 

Pretty much any dataset, Wordsmith can write you a story about it.  

Limitations

Like the other robots I spoke to for this article, the content Wordsmith generates tends to need tuning for stylistic purposes. Its style is certainly human-facing, fairly approachable, and can hold its own in large publications, but if you want your article to carry human-born wit and perspective, you’re going to want to get your hands on the copy first before it goes out to the public. Some UX issues have also been reported in the past, with Wordsmith’s dashboard being a bit hard to interpret. These issues are apparently currently under construction, and are anticipated to be a quick fix. 

Conversation #5: Wordtune

What is it? 

The language robots discussed so far are all about making great strides in the human ability to write a whole bunch of accurate and engaging stuff really fast. Which is great and all, but sometimes you just need a robot to help you tune your words, to dot the eyes and cross the tees. Because, at the end of the day, you love your words, and do you really want to give all the credit to a robot? 

Wordtune is an AI-powered writing assistant that can help you structure your sentences in a more precise, often much more eloquent manner. You can think of it as the equivalent of letting your highly literate friend take a look at the email you’re about to send, or the article caption you’re about to post to your Linkedin. Basically, it just helps you sound a heck of a lot better after you’ve thrown up on the page. This can be wildly helpful. 

Wordtune benefits and applications for copywriting 

Since this tool is so straightforward and requires little experimentation before you get the gist of its capabilities, I thought I’d go straight to the Wordtune’s creators and see what uses they intended for it. So, without beating around the bush, here are a few things you might find Wordtune useful for: 

• Transcribe and transform chickenscratch notes into eloquent prose

• Editing and proofreading

• Style your language as either formal or casual 

• Shorten or expand on ideas

• Write engaging social media posts 

• Draft website copy and run it through Wordtune to make sure your site stands out

• Create ad copy

• Experiment with your headlines

• Rewrite messaging according to the platform you’re posting on

• Plug in a quote and create paraphrase

• Avoid plagiarism 

• Translate content

Limitations 

I probably don’t even have to say it at this point but, as with the other robots discussed here, you’re going to want to look over the text Wordtune spits back out at you. It can’t do all of the work for you, and should be used as a companion in your writing endeavors, rather than as a straight-up content generator. Aside from that, common criticisms of the tool include the limitations when using the free plan, lack of integration capabilities, mobile/app versions unavailable, and the need for technical upgrades related to UI. 

Your drafting partner, your editing assistant

After deep conversation and experimentation with each of these robots, it seems pretty clear to me that, no, the writing robots do not yet own the expertise to completely replace writing teams. But what they can offer is a near-lightspeed path to a pretty solid draft, which your creative writers can then massage and edit and manipulate until it looks good enough to post. In essence, these robots are saving writers a ridiculous amount of time by serving as extremely deft drafting partners and editing assistants, and are quickly becoming vital for enterprises across all industries.

As for myself, I will say that after heavy use of these tools over the last couple of weeks, it’s getting hard to imagine my workday without them. Last week I went cold turkey, just to see what the difference felt like. No ChatGPT to bounce ideas off of, and no Wordtune to test my sentence. I have to say--their absence left me in a state of withdrawal. I’m not sure if it's had any effect on the actual quality of my writing, but my speed has definitely decreased, and brainstorming isn’t quite as smooth as it was. But that's just me.

The best way to discover exactly what these writing tools can do for you is to go out and use them. Give them a spin and you'll be able to tell pretty quickly whether they're what your copywriting and content creation teams need.