Will AI Replace Content Writers? The Future of the Craft and How To Navigate It | Brafton

Ask any professional writer, and you’ll notice they’ve had at least one deeply normal 2 a.m. thought that goes something like: “Cool, cool … so, am I getting replaced by a brand voice machine with ambition?” Meanwhile, your CMO is staring at a dashboard that whispers sweet promises into his ears like “40% faster output,” “original content” and “lower cost per asset.” 

Both have a point. So, let’s ask the unavoidable question, because the real story isn’t “human content creators vs. AI technology.” It’s “Which kinds of writing can we automate? Which copywriter tasks get an upgrade? And which will stay stubbornly human?”

Is the Future of Content Creation Really All About AI?

Not exclusively, but let’s put things into perspective. In a recent McKinsey survey, 65% of respondents stated their organizations were regularly using generative AI, nearly double the percentage from the previous year.

But “AI content creation” is a messy umbrella term. These days, it could mean:

• SEO blog drafting: Outlines, first drafts, rewrites, search engine optimization.
• Product and feature copy: Release notes, landing page variants, microcopy.
• Sales outreach: Sequencing ideas, personalization snippets, objection handling.
• Internal docs: SOPs, onboarding pages, meeting summaries.

So, the short answer is: Yes, AI tools will automate a chunk of human writing, but automating tasks isn’t the same thing as deleting entire roles. 

For example, in a recent report, respondents predicted that AI systems could automate 26% of tasks in sectors like design and media. But at the same time, 40% of those working across disciplines report improved job security due to exposure to an AI tool. In short: It’s complicated.

The problem doesn’t lie in objective facts telling us artificial intelligence will automate each and every writing process tomorrow. Rather, we’re dealing with competing priorities: On one side of the chasm, there’s the content writer who might notice certain AI copywriting tools don’t quite deliver what colleagues who don’t write 2,000 words of unique content a day miss. On the other side, there’s the manager who’s looking at the way AI-generated content is already changing expectations across industries, and who’s aware it’ll have an effect on what “junior” even means.

The question isn’t “Can an AI-powered tool write a blog post?” That ship has sailed. At this point, every decision maker needs to deeply and thoroughly understand both technology’s capabilities and those of their staff to set the team up for success. Factors like your onboarding and training, your risk appetite and your industry will determine how your writers will or will not use AI to a greater extent than your marketing budget.

And yes, I’m aware of the irony: I’m the medieval-lit nerd who still journals on a mechanical typewriter and still spends his days pondering how natural language processing will reshape our notion of a content strategy. Writing tools can be ink on paper and tokens in a model. The future is rude like that.

So, Will AI Replace Human Writers? Some Paranoia, and a Brutally Honest Segmentation

As we’ve already established, “Will AI replace writers?” is the wrong question, and also the one your CMO will keep asking, because budgets are real and content volume is a hungry monster.

However, a better framing would be: Which categories of writing can we automate first? After all, an AI writer will tackle all tasks with the same level of outward confidence, but hardly with the same accuracy.

Low-Stakes, High-volume (First in Line)

This is where AI already does good-enough work, especially when humans supply guardrails.

• Product description refreshes.
• Basic listicles and “SEO filler” content.
• FAQ expansions.
• Standardized internal announcements.
• Template-driven social media copy.

This is the bucket you can automate aggressively without being reckless. Just don’t confuse “fast” with “final.”

Medium-Stakes, Judgment-Heavy (the Hybrid Zone)

Now we’re entering higher spheres, where AI becomes the drafting engine, not (always) the author.

• Thought leadership (real POV required).
• Brand storytelling (Tone and positioning constraints).
• Localization and translation (Culture, nuance, risk management).
• Complex briefs (Strict claims, compliance or customer promises).

In this bucket, AI can certainly speed up production, but humans are doing the heavy lifting: Choosing what’s true, what’s useful, what’s on-brand and what’s defensible.

Over-the-Top Human (Hard To Scale, Sometimes Hard To Monetize)

Marketing can bleed into other formats and genres, and while these are edge cases, we don’t want to ignore them. We’re talking:

• First-person essays (whether it’s a founder’s blog or a philosophical manifest).
• Highly idiosyncratic humor.
• Experimental writing that breaks rules on purpose.
• Some forms of guerilla marketing.

Here, it’s mostly still true that no AI can replace creatives, but these are also the styles and formats that most marketing teams will never touch. One reason for that is that not every brand needs a sassy mascot. The other is that the current landscape incentivizes decision-makers to emphasize certain strategies.

The volume mix is shifting fast. One analysis reported that AI-generated articles briefly surpassed human-written articles around late 2024 (although detection is obviously imperfect and the ratio may fluctuate). Only the future can tell which kinds of brands will invest in more elaborate, human-only content and which might go all-in on AI marketing.

Why Humans Write (and What You Should Never Automate)

These examples already tell the story from a marketing perspective, but we should address an important point. We use the word “writing” as though it’s one thing. It’s not. It’s a spectrum of motives, goals and situational or cultural contexts. And in each example, the motive determines what you should or shouldn’t automate.

I grew up in the German school system of the 1990s and 2000s, so for me, writing will forever be associated with blackboards, my Intel 386 and a Siemens C25. But that doesn’t mean I’ll insist all marketing copy must be written with T9. To truly answer and understand the question if AI can, in fact, replace a human writer (even if only to a certain extent), we have to distinguish between different kinds of writing and separate our personal preferences from practical use cases.

Writing as a Business Function

Usually, these are activities tied to lead generation, raising awareness and return on investment. 

• Product updates.
• Help docs.
• Campaign copy.
• SEO content systems.

Now, that may seem obvious, but it’s worth pointing out that certain claims you may read about AI not being able to “write” simply won’t hold here, because they originate from another realm, namely:

Writing as Craft and Expertise

We’re not yet talking about personal essays and satire here. These are simply documents that tend to lean toward art more than systems, because writers often have to figure out the rules applying to their unique case during the drafting process. That’s also why you most likely can’t think of one distinct format when you hear of things like:

• Strategy docs.
• Localization guidelines.
• Customer narrative framing.
• Editorial judgment under constraints.

Here, you can use AI as acceleration, but you can’t rely on it as an authority without risk. 

Writing as Thinking and Self-Construction

And finally, there’s the open playground that’s often used as the extreme example AI will never get.

• Journals.
• Letters.
• Marginal notes.
• Private essays you’ll never publish.

Automating these is like hiring someone to fall in love for you. Efficient? Yes. Pointless? Also yes.

Now, what does that mean for anyone who’s currently thinking about automating certain content production workflows (or the writer fearing takeover by robots)?

As a rule, it means you need to differentiate and categorize.

• A CMO setting up systems for automated and templated product updates = Low risk, high leverage.
• That same CMO’s journal or a handwritten letter to a partner = Deeply human, and frankly not the point of automation.

We can all think of exceptions like these, and there may be technical reasons why an AI content workflow isn’t right for you, but personal bias shouldn’t keep your team from enjoying its benefits.

How To Stay Ahead of AI Writing Tools, Be It in Management or Editorial Teams

Let’s get painfully actionable, for content writers, managers and the people who approve headcount.

For Individual Writers: Build What AI Can’t Easily Steal

• Domain expertise: Become annoyingly specific.
• Research chops: Primary sources, real data, real constraints.
• Editorial judgment: What to keep, what to kill, what’s risky.
• Interviewing: Extracting truth from humans is still a superpower.
• Systems thinking: Tone guides, content QA, reusable structures.

And learn to use AI like a ruthless editor:

• Brief it hard.
• Ask for options, not answers.
• Fact-check like you’re allergic to hallucinations.
• Treat outputs as clay, not scripture.

For Content Leads: Kill the Prompt Theater

One-off “play with ChatGPT” workshops create a temporary productivity sugar high. What actually works:

• Playbooks: Prompts paired with examples when not to use AI.
• Shadowing: How senior writers edit AI drafts into publishable work.
• QA checklists: Claims, tone, sourcing, audience fit, compliance.
• Feedback loops: Track what AI-assisted content does in search, pipeline and retention.

For Leadership: Fix the Bottleneck

McKinsey’s workplace research argues employees are often ready to use AI while leadership is the actual bottleneck in training, policy and enablement.

Your job is governance, not vibes:

• Set IP and data policies: What can go into prompts, what can’t.
• Define accountability: Who owns accuracy and final claims.
• Build career paths: Don’t replace juniors but train them into AI-augmented strategists.

Coping With the Bots: Psychology, Ethics and the Long Game in Content Marketing

I’ll be the first to admit it: Writers love dunking on AI. You screenshot one hallucinated data point in your AI writing tool and boom: “AI is so dumb.” Except there’s one problem those screenshots don’t catch: Decision makers don’t need perfect. They need good enough and cheap, unless good enough starts quietly poisoning trust, in which case a course correction is in order.

Writers aren’t the only ones who feel the need to defend themselves, though. Comedians, arguably those in the last bucket we discussed, have been stress-testing models for a while. German comedian Till Reiners literally built a segment around the idea of AI writing his jokes. But even here, we see the first comedians noting that certain models are getting funnier. So it’s probably just a matter of time that AI will transform these niche applications.

And yes, whether you’re deciding what to automate or whom to replace, that can be stressful. But rather than ask, “Will AI replace me?” we should ask:

• Which part of my work do I want to be irreplaceable at?
• What do I want AI to delete from my week, so I can do more of the good stuff?

I’m aware that even that can sound cynical, but we have to accept the annoying truth: Wishing you could write in a hut on ethically sourced vegan parchment won’t stop AI startups from changing workflows in agencies, nor should it. It doesn’t help us tackle what’s ahead.

Schools are already dealing with the downsides of fast adoption, including data issues and relationships with teachers. That shouldn’t tell us AI is evil, but that the new literacy is suspicion and critical thinking.

Future teams will always need people who can:

• Cross-check sources.
• Spot confident nonsense.
• Articulate original thought.

And audiences do care. The Reuters Institute’s 2025 report on AI and news found relatively low comfort with news made entirely by AI. That doesn’t even cover copyright debates involving big names like Meta or Warner Music Group, which will keep informing the AI debate at least indirectly.

So, as humans, we have a lot to figure out. But as marketers, we can confidently say that the craft of writing is changing, not dying. Your move, whether you’re the content writer, the Marketing Director or the CMO, is simple but also challenging:

Decide what must remain human. Build AI into the rest deliberately, with QA and accountability. 

Note: This article was originally published on contentmarketing.ai.