With all the advances in artificial intelligence, comes all different ways to create content. 

It’s just like business communication. Once upon a time, you could have a meeting, write a report, or send a letter. In the modern age, you can use Zoom, WhatsApp, Slack, eMail, create a Google Doc, and so on. 

Writing has changed in the same way, but with a major difference. In some cases, you barely need to touch the keyboard at all, yet you will still end up with pages of interesting copy that gets the audience to convert. Marketers can now choose between having their texts written by a person, or by artificial intelligence – but even here, there’s an important decision to be made. 

AI Writing Assistants

Basically put, AI-powered writing assistants support a copywriter in the performance of their tasks. This typically includes things like spelling and grammar corrections, as well as suggested sentence completions. 

In MS Word, when a writer has a spelling mistake, the software underlines the error, and upon a right click, will provide suggestions. Note: It is the writer who has created the copy, and the program that provides creative input. The process of suggestion continues whenever the writer inserts text, and so the AI writing assistant works alongside the copywriter.  

There are many types of AI writing assistants, and they fall essentially into two categories (with some overlap):

• AI text editors – support the writer in the form of grammar, style, and spelling reviews
• AI text predictors – delivers ongoing suggestions to the writer in the form of automated phrase and sentence completions

One platform that includes both functions is Google. As you type in a search term, it will underline spelling mistakes and give you clickable options as it auto-completes your search phrase.  

AI Writers

This technology is more recent and serves a different function compared to assistants. When starting a task, an AI writer requires minimal information, such as keywords, a URL, and perhaps a product description. From that point, they do all the text creation. With a click or two, AI writers will generate, among other things:

• Ad copy
• Landing pages
• Blogs
• Social media messages
• SEO meta descriptions 

The Key Difference Between AI Writers and Assistants

In a way, AI writers are the opposite of assistants. Whereas an assistant delivers creative input to the writer who has built the copy, an AI writer builds copy based on creative input from the marketer.  

So there are two different types of people involved here – copywriters and marketers. Accordingly, each technology is most useful (but not exclusively so) to the separate roles.

Which to Choose – Writers or Assistants?

Traditionally, a marketer is responsible for the copywriter, and assigns them tasks based on what channels and copy types need to be generated. This was once a straightforward concept, but as the number of channels increased, the variety and complexity of messages also increased. Emails, SEO, content marketing, search engine marketing, and social media ads are only a start, as each also involves a specific platform, such as Facebook or Google. The copy for each of these channels requires constant updates, needs to fit the overall marketing strategy, and must also appeal to the audience. For many marketers, this workload is overwhelming.    

In this situation, AI writers make an ideal tool. When using a traditional writing staff, the marketer probably reviews their output before it is posted. One step removed from this process is to type a few parameters in an AI writing program and let the technology do the rest. 

Copywriters face a different challenge. They need to implement all of the concepts behind great writing, such as knowledge of the target market, unique selling points, and the most appealing language. And, again, they must repeat this process across all channels. 

In this environment, mistakes and ‘pauses’ are common. Even the best writers are guilty of run-on sentences or poor grammar, and nearly everybody can get stuck in the simple act of completing a sentence. AI writing assistants are vital for cleaning up copy and providing hints that enable the copywriter to get to the end of the paragraph more quickly. 

Does a ‘cleaning up’ function really matter? Actually, yes; 59% of web users would avoid buying products from a company that allows grammar and/or spelling mistakes in their copy. 

As mentioned, there are also cases where marketers could use a writing assistant. Some marketers are style fanatics and closely inspect, then edit, the work of copywriters. They find assistants to be a useful QA tool. Similarly, copywriters suffering from ‘writer’s block’ might get inspired by the output of an AI writer, and could always modify that output according to their preferences.   

An Even Greater Advance with Anyword’s AI 

Anyword is a pioneer in AI writing technology and is a leading platform for marketers with a lot of responsibilities, but not a lot of time. The technology goes beyond most AI writers with a wide range of intuitive features that jazz up copy through both variety and style:

• Tone-of-voice adaptations, such as ‘hard sell’ and ‘feminine’, at the click of a button 
• A power mode which creates a customized branding style based on your input
• A rewrite feature to improve existing copy
• Basic format choices that include copywriting formulas, bullet points, and value propositions  

Apply Anyword across numerous advertising and social media platforms. All it takes to start an Anyword writing session is a URL and a short description of your product. A few clicks later and you’ll have the ad copy, landing page, or blog (among other copy types) that otherwise can take hours to write. Finally, Anyword optimizes your copy for conversion with its unique Predictive Performance Score. How does that work? See for yourself today with Anyword’s 7-day free trial.