You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but for the last couple of years, Large Language Models {LLMs} like ChatGPT and Claude, have been taking up a lot of space in my mind.
Up until now, I have largely kept my thoughts about AI offline. Charlie and I recorded a podcast episode on the subject in November 2024, but even then, I was aware I was holding back. It felt important to appear optimistic and upbeat, but in reality, I was anxious and worried.
Questions like ‘is AI going to kill my copywriting business?’, ‘am I going to get left behind if I don’t embrace these tools?’, and ‘what will I do if I can’t do this?’ have been swirling around my head on a fairly regular basis for the last 18 months. Last summer, my mental health took a major dip. These thoughts, and others just like them, were partly to blame.
When I sought help via the NHS, as well as being referred for therapy, I was offered some employment support. My advisor, Erika, was lovely, but she didn’t do much to dispel my fears. ‘Yes, retraining is probably for the best,’ she said.
Over the course of six weeks, we talked about my transferable skills, the pros and cons of going in-house, and other careers I might want to consider pursuing. I browsed job websites, worked on my CV, and researched other industries. At the end of our time together, I was more convinced than ever before that I was exactly where I was meant to be, doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.
One year later, I remain committed to my career path, but I’m done pretending AI isn’t impacting me and my business.
When I mentioned this on Instagram recently, I was inundated with responses from fellow copywriters, as well as marketers, photographers, and designers. You’ll find some of their DMs dotted throughout the rest of this article. What struck me most is how alone many of these freelancers felt in their struggles. I certainly don’t have all the answers to the AI debate, but this is something I can help with.
How AI Is Changing the Way I Work
How people search online is evolving and showing up in AI-generated results is becoming a priority. With this in mind, I’ve been learning as much as possible about Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
It’s challenging! No matter what anyone tells you, until the LLMs give us clear guidelines on what their tools are evaluating, what’s happening on the back end remains a mystery. There’s no secret hack or guaranteed method to get your content referenced in an AI Overview.
However, GEO feels like the next iteration of SEO, and the same fundamentals feel important. With this in mind, I’m continuing to focus on creating high-quality content for my clients, building genuine authority, and optimising for user intent {i.e. writing with human readers in mind and providing relevant, up-to-date, trustworthy answers to their questions}.
AI has been integrated into many of the tools and blogging platforms I’ve been using for years. Currently, you’re given the option to skip or disable these tools. This is my preference, although I have used built-in AI to generate the odd meta description {a short HTML tag that summarises a webpage’s content}.
I’m encountering more and more AI generated copywriting briefs. Clients who used to contribute their own expertise for content in the form of notes are outsourcing this task to an LLM. I’m not necessarily against these things, but it’s impacting the nature of my job and the raw materials I work with. It’s also removing some of the human connection from my creative process. Instead of turning someone’s messy thoughts and ideas into coherent copy – a transformation I find deeply satisfying – I’m editing and refining structured notes generated by a machine.
Recently, I received client feedback that was clearly generated by ChatGPT. I found this experience particularly soul destroying, but it highlighted some big gaps in my terms and conditions, client comms, systems, and processes. A new dedicated AI policy is in the works.
The Financial Impact of the AI Boom
For a very long time, the income streams in my copywriting business looked like this:
- Full website copy projects {my signature service which includes research, strategy, and brand voice development}
- Smaller website copy projects {e.g. sales pages, my Home & About page bundle}
- Retainer clients paying for long-form written content packages on a monthly basis.
- Online and in-person copywriting workshops
- One-off strategy and content planning sessions
In 2024, I wrote five full websites. In 2025, I wrote two. So far this year, I haven’t booked a single one. Smaller website copy projects have also been few and far between. Currently, my retainer clients are providing the bulk of my income.
Last year, business felt noticeably quieter, but my income remained steady. 2026 has been quieter still, and my gross income is £1500 lower than it was by this time last year. Things could pick up in Q4. Historically, it has always been my busiest time of year. But my inbox simply isn’t pinging like it used to.
‘I’ve stopped working with some clients altogether because of their unrealistic expectations on time/money/quality. I’ve also had clients who get it, want a human, and trust me, but that’s based on years of working together. New clients? I’ve been ghosted and had my rates questioned like never before. I’m surviving but also considering other income streams.’
– Alie
Of course, I cannot attribute a drop in enquiries to AI alone. There are other factors at play. For example, when I lost my bonus dad earlier this year, I paused most of my marketing for a couple of months. For lots of reasons, I’ve done less in-person networking this year. I’m also long overdue a rebrand, and my website is in desperate need of updating. Plus, everyone is broke and the world is on fire!
Running a business is hard right now. Consumer habits are changing and the online world is evolving at an incredibly rapid pace. As a copywriter, I am finding the looming threat of AI destabilising, and the discourse around it exhausting. None of us know what the future holds, and that feels scary.
‘It’s exhausting. Freelance is hard enough without the threat of impending doom!’
The Emotional Impact of the AI Boom
I realised recently that some of what I‘m feeling in relation to AI is probably grief. I’m grieving the loss of the world I originally built my business in. A world I thrived in happily for many, many years. A world I knew inside out and felt confident operating within.
Even when progress, change, and innovation feel like positive things, letting go of the past and giving up how you’ve always done things can be difficult. I’m not convinced the path we’re currently on with AI is leading us somewhere I’ll want to be. This is making the loss and change harder to bear.
People in my industry, and others like it, are also navigating a sense of powerlessness in the face of all this change. The future is uncertain, but we keep being told the rise and eventual dominance of AI is inevitable.
I see it in people’s faces when I tell them I’m a copywriter. The boldest say what they’re thinking out loud. ‘What are you going to do when AI puts you out of business?’ Others try to make the question more palatable. ‘Has your work changed much since everyone uses ChatGPT now?’ It’s demoralising.
While there are certainly things copywriters can do to evolve and keep pace, ultimately, we seem to have little control over our own destiny. It’s hard not to feel hopeless.
‘Every other day, I’m like, should I retrain as a carpenter or something?! As a fellow chronically ill girly, it’s really hard to shake the hopelessness. I feel far too exhausted to even comprehend learning another trade. I keep fantasising about running away to the countryside and living off the land in a little community where the skills I have are valuable and we support each other.’
If It’s Killing Anything, It’s Killing My Confidence
Something I haven’t seen many copywriters talking about online is how the rise of AI is affecting their confidence. I used to feel so proud of my skills, my values, and the business I’d built. I believed in myself, my expertise, and my ability as a writer.
Clients told me I was good at what I do. They trusted me, they chose me, they booked me again and again. The results they achieved with my support spoke for themselves.
The other day, I ended up in a comment section filled with business owners talking about how they’re using AI to create their content and copy. At the end of another quiet month in my business, their words cut deep. I tell myself not to take it personally, but I don’t always listen.
Like most copywriters {and consumers}, I can spot AI generated content a mile off. Sometimes it’s passable. It’s rarely powerful, distinctive or compelling. Everybody is starting to sound the same. I am deeply confused by people’s willingness to use such mediocre, inauthentic drivel as the voice of their brand.
It’s becoming harder to shake the feeling that the things I care about, the things I believe make my work special, are perhaps no longer valuable. Asking a machine to spew out copy on your behalf is preferable to working with someone like me? Do you no longer care about quality? About human connection?
The knock-on effect of my knocked confidence is that it often feels hard to show up and market my services. Questioning my worth sometimes leads to questioning my prices, and the fear of sounding like AI {when in reality AI sounds like me} has stolen some of the joy from my creative process.
‘The drop in copywriting enquiries since early 2024 has been impossible to ignore. Knowing I’m essentially competing against AI has sometimes made me discount my usual rate when replying to new clients. I think I’ve also changed the way I use grammar and vocabulary (a reverse evolution, if you will) in fear of being accused of using AI on projects.’
– Meg
So, Is AI Going to Kill My Copywriting Business?
My response to this question changes with my mood. On good days, I feel resilient {‘LLMs cannot do what I do’}. On bad days, I do not {‘nobody cares about quality anymore – they’re perfectly happy with AI slop’}.
Today, I’m choosing optimism.
‘I think everyone’s had a play with AI now – and a lot are seeing it for what it is: regurgitative and/or bland. How can businesses stand out if everyone’s using it? Some of the bigger business players are advertising copywriting roles at higher salaries than ever before.’
In many ways, copywriters have always had to convince people of their worth. I’ve seen lots of business owners fall into the trap of believing the internet is a predominantly visual medium. The familiar saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ has a lot to answer for!
My ideal clients know the visual imagery associated with their business is important, but they also know it’s copy people connect with. It’s copy that helps consumers begin to understand your values, and it’s copy that helps you win their trust and build loyalty.
Alongside this, my ideal clients believe AI generated copy isn’t good enough for their brand. They don’t want to sound like everyone else, and they don’t want to risk damaging how they’re perceived by the public. They see my expertise, value my knowledge, and respect my professional insight.
I Will Survive
This is why I’m refusing to treat LLMs as my main competitor. The people I want to work with wouldn’t even consider outsourcing something as important as their website copy or blog content to ChatGPT.
Instead, they’re drawing up a list of potential copywriters and booking consultations. They’re keen to collaborate, so they want to find someone they connect with on a human level. They know they need to stand out, so they want to work with someone who really understands who they are and what their brand is about.
‘The thing [ChatGPT] can’t replicate is the really unique writing. Journalistic long reads littered with the writer’s idiosyncrasies. Stuff based on the expert knowledge that lives in your business […] AI-generated writing is about pattern recognition. It inserts the words it has already seen. The writers that will do well in the AI era will be the ones that break the pattern. Think outside of SEO best practice. Experiment. Use the unexpected words. Make everything human.’
– Cami
For copywriters, the online world and our industry specifically are evolving at an alarming pace. But all is not lost! We’ve weathered rapid change before, pivoted through a pandemic, and lived to tell the tale {because telling tales is what we do best}.
We’ve got this, but our wobbles are valid. Running a copywriting business during the AI boom feels hard because it is hard. If you’re struggling, you’re definitely not alone.
A Final Dose of Hope and Optimism
- History is Repeating Itself
- Lines I Don’t Reckon AI Could Write
- The Turbulent AI Era is Here {This essay doesn’t shy away from describing the damage AI could do to society, which means parts of it feel scary and depressing. Overall, I appreciated reading about the potential positives, and welcomed Gates’ ideas for making sure the benefits of AI outweigh any harm it causes.}
- Emma at The House of Social made me feel less alone when I recently experienced receiving AI generated feedback from a client.
Work With Me
I’m Franky, an experienced copywriter and digital content creator who’s spent more than a decade empowering ambitious business owners and solopreneurs to communicate effectively with their ideal clients.
With an emphasis on storytelling and authentic human connection, my strategic approach is designed to help you stand out and achieve your business goals. Browse my portfolio here and get in touch to discuss your project.
Love Audrey xxx
