I am a professional business writer. AI is not coming for my job

Many companies have sprung up offering cheap and easy AI content to help business leaders expand their branding and reach to customers. There are even companies who claim they can ghostwrite a business book for someone using AI at a fraction of the time and at the fraction of the cost.

I am a business ghostwriter in direct competition with these AI companies, essentially offering the same service, but at a premium, human-level rate. Many recent conversations with fellow ghostwriters have them scared at the potential of our industry being completely gutted in the next few years, if not months.

Me, though - I’m not worried at all. AI will never replace what I and other similar writers do. Because we do not only offer the written word - we offer a relationship of support to help achieve goals. Technology will never be able to replace this human relationship.

I often compare the work I do with clients to therapy. You’d be amazed at how quickly conversation about one’s “thought leadership” turns into a discussion of hopes, dreams, frustrations and missed opportunities. I have to build a rapport with my clients and help them understand what they want to say with their writing - and what goals they hope to achieve with it.

Sure, AI is starting to replace therapists in some cases (although, with not great results). We are seeing the rise of AI companions attempting to replace - or supplement - human relationships (again, with not great results - we remember Her). Maybe these AI-driven relationships will improve, but without that, I don’t see a world in which there is no place for humans in a business writing partnership. Businesses - even businesses that work in AI - continue to and will always use human writers to help them craft their messages and engage with customers and clients.

Here’s why: When I talk to people about what they want to achieve through their business writing, it’s usually something like: I want to get on CNN. Or, I want to write a bestseller. Most of it boils down to some level of - I want everyone to know how smart and accomplished I am, and get some kind of material benefit from that recognition.

I actually really enjoy when authors come to me with blatantly ego-driven goals. It makes things easier. Because maybe they don’t get on CNN or in the New York Times, but we can approximate that feeling with some other milestone (local news, an industry publication, a keynote speaking gig).

However, even when those milestones are achieved, there’s the problem of the blank page that greets you the next day. Getting something placed in the Times or Wall Street Journal will give you a nice buzz for about a day or two, and then you have to go back to work with pretty much the same situation you had before. AI won’t be able to be there to help you figure out what comes next.

Wading through the Sludge

We are experiencing a deluge of AI-driven content on social media. Over two years, content on the writing platform Medium jumped from just under 2% to almost 40%. Over 70% of social media images are created by AI. This trend is only going to accelerate, with half of social media content created by businesses projected to be generated by AI by next year. Content entrepreneur Justin Welsh has called this the “dead internet” and, by his own personal estimates, figures that about 90% of social media comments are AI-created.

There is only going to be one way to cut through this AI sludge: By creating authentic, human connection with potential clients and customers through content. Welsh says that the only way to truly engage with someone digitally is through “genuine connection”, what he now considers the ultimate luxury.

AI may get to a point where it can mimic genuine human connection, but I think it will remain fully stuck in the place of sycophantic engagement, telling us what we want to hear (sometimes to the extreme), rather than pushing us to learn and improve. Without the ability to challenge, reason and hold a vision for a long-term plan, AI will never be able to take over human-driven writing relationships.

Certainly, like other industries, some jobs will be lost. Copywriters who only focus on production of content and not on the management of relationships, are in particular trouble, it seems. Entry-level jobs across industries are susceptible to being replaced by AI, which limits people’s ability to learn the job and advance in their careers. There is a real risk of AI “speedballing America,” borrowing Scott Galloway’s term, in which the top 10% achieve the benefits of AI-driven productivity at the expense of the bottom 90%. There are policy opportunities to solve this problem - which, in my opinion at least, all come down to a more progressive tax structure and an anti-monopoly regime targeted at Silicon Valley.

There is some content that I produce for clients that AI could have done, probably. Earlier in my career, when I was working as an assistant in various communications departments, AI in the hands of a competent boss would have probably been able to do most of my tasks.

Yet, as a professional business writer, I am learning that the hard part of the work - the part that people pay me for - is not the writing. Good writing is the expectation. What they pay me for is my relationship and my support to help them achieve their goals, through content development.

Recently, I wrote an op-ed for a client, and it took me about 45 minutes. Maybe more, maybe less. I knew this client well, I had an outline, and so I wrote it relatively quickly. I could have probably taken that outline and put it into an AI system and had it spit me out an op-ed in about 30 seconds. I have done this before, to see what would happen, and usually, I get an ok draft. But it takes me about 30 minutes to edit, maybe more, maybe less. So I save a little time with AI, maybe, but I feel more able to defend my work when I do it myself.

And, that 45 minutes I spent writing wasn’t what took up most of my time for this deliverable either. My time was spent on the brainstorming session with the client that came before, the back-and-forth on the outline, the engagement with other members of her team. Also, the months and years of a relationship I’ve created with this particular client to understand what she wanted to achieve with this particular op-ed, and why.

AI can’t do that - not yet, and I don’t think it ever will. There are many reasons to be afraid of AI - see Galloway’s points on income inequality, above - but it coming for writing jobs isn’t one of them.