Hail and welcome to my new blog.

Here we can talk about all things writing and editing: copy, content, scripts, social media, et al. Everything that makes up what it takes to be a successful creative copy and content writer in the Information Age at the rise of AI.

AI is a tool, nothing more. It is the new “shiny object” in the corporate world, where senior leaders see it making mundane tasks like emails and briefs easier for them to create. So, it is no great leap for them to think LLMs would help creatives too. At the very least, AI optimization (AEO) can help existing web content acquire more bot crawls for better placement in summaries and suggested links for Chat, Claude, and other AIs.

Those gung-ho senior leaders, however, are missing a few items worth noting when they require AI usage in marketing.

1. Just because you have a hammer does not make everything a nail.

AI is well-suited to do quite a few things. I have used it to develop worksheets for collaboration on briefs, for Gannt charts, and for spreadsheets. When in a bind about topics or stuck on a particular word, I may also use it to “vomit on the page,” so I can pull a key word or phrase out that I can build actual content around.

When you hire a creative, you hire them for their ability to think. It is our ability to think critically – to connect previously disparate thoughts, and to synthesize complicated ideas into words and images to make the complex easy to understand – that make creatives valuable. LLMs may seem like they’re thinking, but at best they are “elegant plagiarists” that can sound intelligent to those who are not familiar with your subject, or with good writing. AI can only act as a lagging tool, with words and ideas others have already written. It cannot lead or create out of whole cloth.

2. You can’t afford to leave nails sticking up all over the place.

If you use your AI hammer well, the nail goes in flush so no one will ever think about it. If I can see the nail sticking out when I read it, you used the hammer wrong and you will lose readers, credibility, and brand loyalty among your customers.

What do pointy, sticking-out nails look like to your readers?

If your copy starts “In the world of…”, contains multiple instances of “Not only does it [XYZ], but it [ABC]”, gives thesis statements like “In this article we will…”, uses overly academic language instead of plain-speaking, and caps off with “In conclusion,” you have great big nails sticking out everywhere, my friend. And those are just the tip of the iceberg made up of A.I.’s foibles and hallucinations.

Generally speaking, “out of the can” LLMs sound like poorly written freshman college papers where the student did not do the reading. They retained just enough from the lectures to toss in and talk around a few key terms – passively and at the greatest possible distance from the subject – hoping you don’t notice all those words are just filler.

The language is elevated to such a degree that it cannot connect with a human reader because the LLM is regurgitating words surrounding a subject, many of which would never be used by an actual expert on the topic, or even someone who did the reading.  

I could write volumes on the distance LLM writing creates between reader and subject (and maybe I will later). For now, just realize that in marketing, distance between your reader/customer and your brand means death. Our entire goal in content and copywriting is to close that distance so the customer sees your brand as part of the story they tell about themselves.

3. You need an expert to make sure your nails are flush.

I was asked to evaluate AI in 2021, when it was barely born. The owner of the agency at which I was creative director wanted to see if we could circumvent the expense of training copy cubs, or of hiring expensive professionals, by using AI. After a few weeks of review I told him that not one of the five LLMs I’d worked with could provide what he was after because they all needed “extreme human oversight.”

Extreme human oversight means line-level and developmental editing at scale; from an expert with the ability to know if the lede has been buried, or the language is too stilted, or the tool being used has the bad habit of starting every other sentence with the same phrase.

And then there are the “hallucinations,” where the software runs entirely off the rails and invents quotes, people, and even embedded web pages that do not exist. According to Forbes’ 2025 reporting, LLMs hallucinate 40% of the time, on average, and some researchers report hallucinations of over 80%. Court cases have been tossed, long-standing brands like Coca-Cola have lost credibility, and the public at large has rejected “AI slop,” all due to a lack of expert extreme human oversight.

Whether you’re a raving fan who thinks ChatGPT can solve all your content/SEO problems, a doomsayer who decries AI as the beginning of the end of creativity or find yourself somewhere in between – you have feelings about artificial intelligence & machine learning’s position in the marketplace of ideas.

Remember, it’s just a hammer. It’s up to you to make sure your nails are all flush and the brand you built remains intact when you use it.   

I’m here to help, if you need it. Please check out the editorial AI/LLM Oversight page for rates and information.

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment below if you’d like to continue the discussion, and let’s talk again soon.

**Some parts of this article first appeared in my LinkedIn post from 2024.