Is AI Coming for My Job? A Reporter Tested 5 Writing Tools

If you’ve logged onto Twitter recently, you’ve probably seen a lot of talk about AI and what it means for the future of content writing. And people are passionate on both sides of the debate: Some argue that AI will never replace human writers. Others say the content writing profession will be extinct within 10 years.

A writer myself, the latter sounds… bad. So rather than waiting around while a bot steals my job, I wanted to investigate for myself. New AI writing tools seem to pop up daily, but I chose five of the most commonly mentioned ones and took them for a spin.

To make it fair, I challenged all my artificial little friends with the same writing prompts, and chose the same inputs whenever possible (I asked them all to write in a “casual” tone for a blog post, for example). 

The prompt in question: “The role of AI writers in the future of content creation.” 

I know, a little bit on the nose. But I didn’t want to mince words: After all, I’m a writer. The results are in, so read on to see how it went, and if I get to keep my job:

1. Rytr

Rytr is coming not only for my role but for conventional spelling altogether, apparently, with its techified name. 

Claiming to be a 10x faster way to write, this AI writing assistant is free, with the option to upgrade to paid plans for $9 or $29 a month if you want to write more characters per month or want a dedicated account manager and chat support. 

You can add the tool as a web extension on Chrome and use it for everything from drafting emails, to sending Slack messages and Tweets. 

To generate copy, first choose a language and tone (with options like casual, humorous, awestruck, and worried). Then pick from an extensive list of use cases that span from a blog post outline to an email to song lyrics (singing competition article up next). 

Two open fields for section topics and keywords allow you to enter any input you’d like with a 125-character maximum. To finish, you can choose how many versions of the copy you’d like the tool to generate (max three) and the creativity level, which has six levels ranging from none (factual) to max (less factual). 

With a casual tone, optimal creativity, and a blog section use case, this is what the bot generated for my prompt (in about five seconds):

With AI assistance, content writers can put their skills to use in a more efficient way. They can make sure that they are not wasting time on skill sets that they don’t have and instead focus on what they are best at — creativity and emotions.

AI writing assistants are increasingly getting popular in the workplace. Some companies use them when they need to generate content for a specific topic or niche. While digital agencies use them to generate all kinds of content for their clients.

2. Jasper 

By now, you’ve probably heard of Jasper. This AI-powered content writing tool has caused a buzz, so it was time to come face to face with the bot himself. 

And he ain’t cheap to hire: After a five-day trial it offers a starter plan at $40 per month or a “boss mode” plan for $82 (there’s also a customizable business plan with varied pricing). 

Jasper hosts a similar lineup of features and lets users choose from projects such as creative stories, LinkedIn bios, headlines, and even Instagram post captions. It also has a “content improver” option that will take a piece of content you wrote and make it better. 

Once you’ve chosen your desired output (in this case, a blog post intro paragraph), choose a title, audience, tone of voice, language, and the number of outputs you’d like to see (max three). 

I thought the addition of the “audience” field was interesting here — I typed in “entrepreneurs, business builders, readers.” Not sure what that triggered in the algorithm, but the opportunity to fine-tune content to your audience’s needs seems noteworthy. 

After plugging those in, this is what Jasper spit out: 

As content consumption continues to evolve, businesses are looking for new and innovative ways to produce content that will resonate with their audience. Enter artificial intelligence (AI) writers — a new breed of content creators that use AI technology to generate high-quality content. While some may be hesitant to rely on AI writers due to concerns about quality and accuracy, early adopters are finding that the benefits of using these writers outweigh the risks. In this blog post, we’ll explore the role of AI writers in the future of content creation and discuss some of the benefits businesses can expect from using them. Stay tuned!

3. Copy.ai 

The Copy.ai interface is slightly different than the first two and significantly pared down. The only required inputs for a blog intro are a title, a description of what the blog is about, and the tone. For tone, there were nine automated options, as well as a field where you could enter a custom term (their suggestions were “sassy, casual, or Elon Musk”). 

Once I hit the button to generate content, I got six versions of the intro ranging from 26 to 126 words. 

Along with blog copy, the platform offers a range of the typical writing tools, and also has a “brainstorming” section with generators that spit out company names, new products, and full startup ideas. I’ll be coming back for that when I need to find a new career. 

After taking a look at the six options, I first noticed one was deeply misogynistic (not sure how my inputs led to that…) and pivoted to this instead: 

Do you know what artificial intelligence is? You might think you do and then you say, “Computers are getting smarter.” But the truth is, most of us don’t understand what AI is. The industry has been abuzz about this for a few years but now, it’s even turning heads away from gaming and into other aspects like content creation. Keep reading for more information on the future of AI in content creation.

4. Copysmith 

Much like human writers, every AI writer accomplishes the same goals a bit differently. For Copysmith, that means having inputs for just tone and blog topic or title, with additional settings for language, level of creativity, and “Ali’s expert voice.” 

Ali, Copysmith’s AI bot, is trained in five areas of expertise (covid, men’s apparel, women’s fashion, technology, and travel). Users can select one of those sub-areas to add more specific info to their copy. 

After you input your prompts and hit generate, the software will spit out seven intro options. There’s an additional button where you can “check for uniqueness” on any of the outputs and it will run the copy through a plagiarism check to make sure it’s not too similar to another piece of content on the internet. 

When I ran my copy through, it passed the plagiarism check and said there was “no match found for 71 words.”

Here’s what Ali wrote:

The future of AI in content creation is here. Artificial Intelligence is set to have a huge impact on content in the next few years and it’s going to change the way we create and consume content.

Those who embrace AI are going to benefit from its power. The rest will struggle to keep up. So what are we talking about when we talk about artificial intelligence in content creation?

5. Writesonic 

The most simplistic of the bunch, Writesonic asks for a blog title, language, and the quality type (ranging from economy to premium) once you’ve chosen the kind of content you need. 

Aside from blog writing, the tool offers tons of other niche content types: There are eight options for YouTube writing alone along with TikTok video scripts and hooks. 

Some other hyper-specific content types Writesonic can help with: real estate listing descriptions, responses to product reviews, and even a tool that will create analogies for you between inputs. 

After hitting generate, I was met with three options, ranging from 84 to 139 words.

Here’s one: 

AI is changing almost everything. It’s not a fictional account of how things might be someday; it has become an integral part of our lives today. The algorithms that drive AI are continuing to improve, which means the potential for artificial intelligence to reshape content writing and other industries is only growing. 

Below we explore some of the ways AI will change content writing in the future, along with some implications for writers and other content professionals who work with these skills regularly.

The takeaway:

So back to the big question: Am I getting fired? And is it happening soon?

In my (highly biased) opinion… no. These tools are amazing and effective, but will have a time and a place. I think they can be used alongside talented writers, like trusty sidekicks, stepping in when writer’s block comes knocking or deadlines are looming. 

Basically, to quote my friend Rytr, “With AI assistance, content writers can put their skills to use in a more efficient way. They can make sure that they are not wasting time on skill sets that they don’t have and instead focus on what they are best at — creativity and emotions.”

While I stuck to writing intros for a blog post, the other applications of these tools seem promising, and I’d imagine algorithmic support for more data-backed content is where the value really is. 

My career as a writer lives to see another day, but I think I’ll be sleeping with one eye open.

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