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Freelance Writing Coach
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Bonus
Episode 52
Season 1
They’re coming for your jobs: AI, robots, and “write for you” machines
AI-powered writing tools have gained a lot of attention recently. These tools are impressive in their ability to understand natural language and create content in seconds. But are these machine-powered tools advanced enough to replace (human) freelance writers?
Social media is filled with screenshots of AI-generated emails, blogs, poems, and much more. Across the spectrum of fear and excitement, most freelance writers are wondering how these tools will impact them. Today, we’re sharing our two cents on the topic.
Can AI tools replace freelance writers?
Short answer: We don’t think so. There’s a long way to go for these tools to be able to put writers out of jobs.
In fact, most of these tools are marketed toward writers to help them in their process of writing. These tools claim to help writers generate content quickly, which they can edit and clean up later.
Despite this, much of the feedback we’ve heard from fellow writers is not positive (at least thus far.) The content generated by these tools is mediocre at best. Artificial intelligence is good enough to get you past the blank page. However, the content still needs to be heavily edited and is not a replacement for a human’s ability to add context, add original insight, address key pain points, etc.
“I don’t have any real concerns about these tools replacing the work we do. Especially because we have industry-specific expertise which these tools don’t bring to the table.”
Yes, we are worried that robots will become sentient (Kaleigh mostly.) AI taking over humanity in the future would be a much bigger problem than just getting our work as freelance writers taken away (um…have you SEEN the movie Ex Machina!?)
But big picture: thinking about how these tools can help you in your freelance writing journey is a much more worthwhile use of time than worrying about if AI will replace freelance writers completely.
How can AI-assisted writing tools help freelance writers?
Some AI tools have more of a content processing application, such as checking for consistency with a style guide—which, in our opinion, is an extension of features like spellcheck and punctuation. Most freelance writers we know use Grammarly today. Grammarly also uses AI to predict the tone of your writing and provide suggestions or check for plagiarism. We expect these tools to integrate into our work processes similarly.
The other category of these tools, the ones that generate content on their own with the help of a prompt or an outline, have an unprecedented set of applications. These “write for you” tools have various features targeted toward different target users and their needs. Writer is more geared toward enterprise teams, whereas Jasper and Copy.ai are toward freelance writers.
How these applications can help you as a freelance writer depends on the type of services you provide. For example, in the case of blog posts, generative tools can help freelance writers by:
- Speeding up the process: These tools can generate a full-length blog post, but they require heavy editing. Using these tools, you can put in your outline and get that first draft going within minutes.
- Helping with specific sections: Some of these tools are good at a specific task, let’s say, generating SEO headlines for an article you wrote. If you are struggling with an intro or creating headlines, these tools can help.
We can also imagine a future where these tools can evolve and help with context switching. Imagine a tool that provides recommendations according to specific brand requirements by referencing a version of their style guide. That’d be nice, right?
What should freelance writers do?
AI tools are not replacing expert freelance writers anytime soon, but can discourage new writers and stop them from even giving freelance writing a try. If you’re in this boat, the key is approaching these tools with curiosity, not fear.
“There are always going to be threats. The freelance writing market is more competitive than ever—even among humans, not just tools.”
Think of how you can use them to improve your self-editing skills when you get the first draft written by an AI. Can the use of these tools help you scale your services? Focusing on specialization, be it developing subject matter expertise, having a unique voice, or leaning into a niche, can help you stand out among these tools and the increasing competition.
Freelance writers are not going anywhere
The takeaway is that none of these tools are self-sufficient, and we don’t see one being soon (yes, not even with ChatGPT). These tools can help writers more or less depending on how advanced they are, but the job of a freelance writer is not going anywhere.
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