Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

by planckscnston 12/14/25, 10:01 AMwith 92 comments
by rfarley04on 12/14/25, 11:10 AM

I'm a full time copywriter for SaaS companies and I'm actually finding the opposite. My experience is people are having AI write stuff then trying to massage it themselves. When they can't get it to a point where they're happy with it they eventually just throw up their hands and hire me for pre-AI project scopes with 2025 rates. Not saying that's the experience everywhere, but AI has been much less problematic for me than most of the narratives I've seen online (knock on wood)

by singpolyma3on 12/14/25, 4:30 PM

The problem isn't getting rid if people's jobs. Jobs are not inherently valuable. The problem is we have not built a society or economy where everyone can thrive regardless of their employment.

by simonwon 12/14/25, 4:16 PM

My additional commentary on this one is not worth much - I suggest reading the original article instead: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forced-to-use-ai-u...

by mvkelon 12/14/25, 4:49 PM

I can't help but wonder if this is a bit like a few years ago when comedians were complaining that nobody was laughing at their jokes anymore. They realized that it was a mandate to figure out how to be funny again, because what was considered "funny" had changed.

In this instance, and probably most instances of art/craft, copywriters need to figure out what is creative again, because what is considered "creative" has changed.

I could also see this being the journey that AI customer support took, where all staff were laid off and customers were punted to an AI agent, but then the shortcomings of AI were realized and the humans were reintroduced (albeit to a lesser degree). I suspect the pendulum will swing back to AI as the memory problems are resolved though.

by moltaron 12/14/25, 3:08 PM

I think the article is about “copywriters” who aren’t true copywriters but those who were writing junk articles for SEO.

Once AI can write proper compelling converting copy then I’ll change my mind.

by e-danton 12/14/25, 2:26 PM

I have more of a problem with poor governance than strong automation. The economy should provide us all food and shelter, beyond that, do what you love.

by conductron 12/14/25, 4:26 PM

A couple friends have been laid off in fields similar, where AI is excelling and reducing demand for labor significantly, and it seems they’re mostly unaware and saying/thinking it’s the job market that is tough / time of year and maybe it will improve in 2026 as budgets are executed. I’ve not had the heart to tell them they will likely need to change careers. And that’s if they can, in my opinion the faster they realize that the better off they will be. I don’t think the laypersons familiarity with AI right now understand that this is full out reductive in labor and there is no substitute.

by icegreentea2on 12/14/25, 4:34 PM

When I feel deeply cynical about the quality of our modern life, I imagine that one of the reasons it's so easy for us to "settle" for the "good enough" output of AI in certain areas, especially around corporate copywriting, art, and yes perhaps even code is that these areas already fundamentally suck.

I believe that good skillful writing, drawing, or coding, by a human who actually understands and believes in what they're doing can really elevate the merely "good" to excellent.

However, when I think about the reality of most corporate output, we're not talking about "good" as a baseline level that we are trying to elevate. We're usually talking about "just barely not crap" in the best case, to straight up garbage in maybe a more common case.

Everyone understands this, from the consumer to the "artist" (perhaps programmer), to the manager, to the business owner. And this is why using AI slop is so easy to embrace in so many areas. The human touch was previously being used in barely successful attempts to put a coat of paint over some obvious turds. They were barely succeeding anyways, the crap stunk through. May as well let AI pretend to try, and we'll keep trying until the wheels finally fall off.

by mmoosson 12/14/25, 5:51 PM

Shouldn't the OP link to the original story, not a short blog post referencing it?

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forced-to-use-ai-u...

by zeroonetwothreeon 12/14/25, 5:08 PM

Why don’t we see it in the aggregate job data? Could it be that people sometimes lose jobs for “reasons” but that’s just the normal flow of the economy? Until there’s some effect on actual unemployment rates I wouldn’t be worried.

by jacknewson 12/14/25, 3:20 PM

If a human component is required in addition to the cheaply machine-automated part, that belies the claim that 'most of the work has already been done'.

The human part, turning it from slop to polished, becomes the most important part of the work, and then (and in any case) should be paid at human rates.

by constantcryingon 12/14/25, 4:00 PM

Having jobs for the sake of having jobs is a ridiculous proposition. Copywriting is largely obsolete. Sure, it sucks to be in that profession right now, but what alternative is there. A Machine does your job far cheaper than you and even right now it is "good enough" to replace everything but the most complex and demanding writing.