Alright, fine, I'll talk about AI.

Amaia Wilson Frade
2 days ago
7 min read

Updated: 19 hours ago

I’ve rewritten this blog 4 times now.

I've also been refusing to talk about this for the best part of 18 months.

Why? Because it is one of the most polarising topics we've had in years, and although I am actually someone with strong opinions, I do try (but often fail) to keep them to myself. I've also become quite bored with the conversation, and I know I'm not the only one.

But in the last few months I’ve been asked to prove how I use AI in my work, asked to prove that I don’t use AI in my work, and been genuinely disappointed at the number of awesome brands spewing out the same content in the exact same tone of voice – but more on that in a minute. These reasons, combined with how obvious it's becoming that we need to be showing more of ourselves and what we stand for, has prompted me to write blog/rant/helpful guide.

I am wary of AI. I worry about what happens to our brains when we stop using certain parts of them. I am worried about what we lose when we do not bother with thinking, critiquing, analysing, or assessing.

Because believe it or not, I want to learn, I want to make mistakes, I want the full process of creating and figuring things out. I don’t want efficiency or speed in every aspect of my life. Even as I write this, as I try and figure out how I feel and what I want to say, I'm being prompted to "finish this sentence with AI". No, I'm sorry. But there cannot come a day where my therapist says to me "how do you feel about that?" and I cannot answer because I have lost the ability to form my own f*cking thoughts and opinions.

A disclaimer

Now feels like a good time to clarify that my intention here is NOT to shame. We're all trying to do our best, with different priorities and different pressures. But I am frustrated at the disservice people are doing themselves, and if that comes out in my writing, then so be it. I will not be polishing it with AI.

A second clarification: I’m not anti-AI. I’m aware of and impressed by the multitude of uses and benefits, especially in areas like medicine and research. I can see how it saves people hours and helps them run their businesses better so that they can spend time doing other things – like being with their families. I’m simply tired of the over-reliance on it, or the lack of clarity people have about its limitations. It’s remarkable, yes, but it cannot do everything. I know it looks like it can, but it can’t.

Copywriting is an example of this.

Don't just take it from me. The creators of ChatGPT and Claude both hire in-house copywriters - what does that tell you? And mega-CEOs Leila and Alex Hormozi have banned their staff from using it in comms. Regardless of what you think of the subjects of these examples, my point stands.

Dogshit

When AI emerged, it wasn't a threat then, and I wasn't worried, because all AI-generated copy at the time was dogshit.

Fast-forward to 2026, and it is mostly still dogshit, sometimes just... dogpiss? Don't get me wrong, it's better, and people are learning to use it in ways that are genuinely helpful to their businesses. But it still cannot write good copy.

But for some reason, everyone's feeling a crushing amount of pressure to use it in all of their workflows. It's also pitting us all against each other in some weird, dystopian AI war. You're an idiot if you use it, you're an idiot if you don't. Are we all ok? Do we need to go outside? Breathe some fresh air?

What makes good copy?

This bit is really important. Some people think that copy is just well-written words – it’s not. My GCSE essays were well-written words, they weren’t trying to sell you anything.

Good copy is supposed to draw you in so that you read the next line, so that you’re following the copy without even realising you were drawn into it, so much so that you end up acting on whatever the writer wanted you to act on at the end.

It’s supposed to stop your scroll or slow your steps as you walk past a billboard. It’s supposed to evoke an emotion that makes you want to DO something. It does this with psychology, pre-established messaging frameworks and just general human emotion.

I've always known how to write well. If I couldn't write well, I wouldn't have walked out of the University of Sheffield with a cape and hat I begrudgingly had to pay for, and a scroll that’s now buried in a folder somewhere, never to see the light of day again.

But that didn't mean I could write copy. No, that I had to learn. I did courses, I read books, I studied how other copywriters wrote. I went back to pages, emails and adverts I had bought from and figured out why, exactly, I bought from them. AI cannot do that. It tries, but it misses the mark because it lacks human judgement. It hasn't felt the emotions you're trying to evoke, and it doesn't have an appropriateness meter to determine whether or not you should say a certain thing.

You see, the main problem with AI copy is not that it uses EM dashes or that it uses the word quietly repeatedly; it’s that it simply doesn’t work.

AI copy is hard to read because of the structures and formats it uses. The structures and formats that make it look good on the surface are the very ones that cause our eyes to glaze over when we try to read it. And this happens because our brains get bored of the repetition and predictability. I am actually going to list real examples here because I think it’s important you see what I mean by this:

AI vocabulary: This one is unfortunate because all these words existed before and are often fine, but the sheer frequency with which we see them has rendered them meaningless and, quite frankly, insufferable to read. Elevate. Delve. Fostering. Quietly.
Avoidance of basic copulatives ("is"/"are" phrases): Nothing ever just "is" something. Instead, it "serves as" or it "marks", or whatever other unnecessary verb that eliminates any clarity in what you're saying.
Negative parallelisms: Also known as fake opposites. This is when it appears to clear up a common misconception that doesn't actually exist and once more muddies the meaning of your sentence. "It's not just X, it's Y." "This is more than an X, it's a Y." This is annoying and long to read. If something is something, just SAY IT. Do not beat around the bush with unnecessary parallels.
Rule of three: This one's a shame because the rule of three is a common cultural and literary device that usually works nicely… Until it's used 5 times in one paragraph. So boring and unstimulating to read that, like droning music, will actually encourage your brain to switch off. You might think the formula of adjective+adjective+short phrase is enough to switch things up - it isn't. It's nauseatingly clean and often adds any random word or phrase into the sentences only for the sake of completing the list, and not because it's relevant.

I could go on, but I'm aware I'm close to boring you now.

Allow me to also caveat before you all come for me - copy or content with these devices above does not mean bad writing, nor does it automatically mean someone has used AI just because popped a lil' list of three in there. I'm just giving you examples of the devices that are so overused that they become tells.

Where I am using AI

I told you it had its uses, and there are ways it can help you with your copy that doesn't involve generating it from scratch.

As a copywriter, here are the things I've learned to use AI for and how I’m doing it carefully:

Brainstorming and idea generation (to prompt and stretch my own ideas)
- Note: This does not include "getting a first draft that I can then edit later" - this doesn't work. Remember that AI functions by generating an average of what already exists. So whatever first draft you get is a recycled version of things that already exist on the internet. It doesn't matter how much you edit, refine, or remove em dashes, you probably still have an unoriginal idea that you cannot move away from save for deleting it entirely and starting again from a new thought or original angle.
As a sort of thesaurus
Analysis and auditing
- Note: within reason and with limits. These are one of the skills I want my brain to be able to do. But if I’m in a pinch, I know I can use it for this.
Planning and organising my thoughts when they’re like spaghetti
Some (not all) research
- Note: Again, this is a valuable skill I have learnt and honed over the years. I do not rely on AI for this and use it only in specific cases. I also always make sure it can give me up-to-date sources that I can verify. If it can't, forget it.
Writing proposals (anything you can template and edit is now much faster with AI)
And a weird one: getting it to prompt me back, asking it to ask me questions so I find answers to things I hadn't considered.

Brands are missing opportunities

My final point before I release you from the sharp talons of this rant.

We live in a world where the vast majority of us have the opportunity to build an awesome brand based on our own brilliant ideas. I love this. Genuinely impactful organisations and sick brands are popping up left, right and centre.

But when everyone starts to market their products in the exact same tone of voice, writing the same LinkedIn posts about what they've been "quietly building", they lose their brownie points and their credibility. Believe me. Because how are you going to build something so impressive, and then sound so generic in all of your marketing?

My advice for if you're launching and need to use AI: figure out your positioning and your tone of voice first. Identify what makes you unique and original. Clarify what you stand for. Get uber clear on all of this, and then start creating copy or content using my AI use cases above. Your audience deserves your thought and your effort.

Remember that the rest of us value your ideas and your perspective. We want to hear from YOU. If you don't believe me, look at some of these posts sent to me recently: