AI didn't kill copywriting. It made brand strategy stand out.
"You do copywriting, so AI must be your worst enemy, right?"
I get some version of this every few weeks. At parties, at networking breakfasts, from the stranger next to me on a plane. I always answer the same way. "No. I love it. I use it every day to write copy and build stories."
The face shifts. A small frown. The script they had ready does not fit anymore. So they reach for the one thing everyone agrees on. "Yeah, but it makes so many mistakes, doesn't it?"
It does. And the mistakes feel oddly familiar, because AI learned them from us. We wanted AI to sound and feel human, and to be human is to be flawed. But that’s another conversation.
20/60/20
Last December I attended a talk about Storytelling For Founders at Wintercircus in Ghent. James Vincent spent over a decade building Apple's narrative alongside Steve Jobs and shared his view on how to use AI for optimal results: let AI do 80% of the work, but let a human take care of the last 20%. He was talking about AI automation in general and he’s probably right.
But in my experience when it comes to writing it does not split 80/20. It splits 20/60/20.
The first 20% is mine. The thinking. The angle. The foundation of everything that comes next. Then AI starts generating its 60%, fast and well. The last 20% is where I come back in. It is fact-checking, polishing tone of voice and judging what holds up. Because AI is only ever as good as what you put in front of it.
People watch this happen and see the writing industry shrinking. I see the opposite. AI has made the words cheap. Yes. But it made the thinking that comes before the words more valuable than it has ever been.
Copywriting matters less now. Brand strategy has never mattered more.
AI is a mirror
The game has become all about that first human-made 20%. Get it tight, sharp and true, and the machine has something real to build on. Get it wrong, and… well, we all know what comes out.
AI reflects what is already in front of it. A mirror, basically. It is, in a way, the market: everything everyone has already said, averaged out and handed back to you. The first 20% is the one thing it cannot generate, because that part is not out there yet. It comes from inside the person who built the company. The one who took a risk to show the world how things can and should be different.
When I sit with a founder, I am not there to hand them back what they already say about themselves. I am not a mirror. I am there to find what they cannot see. Not the story they tell the market. The human story that sets them apart. You won’t find that in the reflection. You find it behind the mirror.
So no, AI is not my enemy. It took the part anyone can now do and made it cheap. It shocked the creative writing industry, but staying sad and angry is what kills the career, not AI. It showed me where my real strength and talent lie: showing people parts of themselves they are unaware of. Parts that fuel their every move. And then putting that into words they can carry, and other people can relate to.
Anyone has the words now, so what makes you stand out is a voice.
You can’t find it in the market. You find it inside the founder.
