There’s no shortage of people typing “ChatGPT for copywriting” into Google.
Many people think using AI is a shortcut to better content.
It certainly helps with quantity. But quality? That’s another matter.
Here’s my take:
Yes, you can use ChatGPT for copywriting.
But not as a substitute for strategy.
And definitely not before you’ve defined your positioning, voice and messaging.
That’s because…
AI is not the strategy layer. It’s the execution layer.
So – if you haven’t clarified what your brand stands for, how it should sound, what it consistently needs to say, and what makes your offer different, ChatGPT won’t fix that for you.
It will just generate more words around the confusion.
Why doesn’t ChatGPT sound like me?
When people use ChatGPT for copywriting, but say, ‘ChatGPT doesn’t sound like me?‘, it doesn’t surprise me.
I’d put money on the fact that no one has properly defined:
- what your brand wants to be known for
- how it should sound in practice
- what messages need to stay consistent
- what language fits your brand
- what language absolutely doesn’t
- what matters most to your audience
- where nuance, tone and trust need to be protected
They think prompting is the strategy. And that’s why things go sideways.
You ask ChatGPT to ‘write a homepage‘ or ‘make this sound more professional‘ without giving it the strategic foundations those tasks actually rely on.
Yes, you’re producing more content faster. But is it any good? Is it doing what it’s meant to do – eliciting a human response? When words feel human, people don’t just read them, they react.
ChatGPT is fast. But speed magnifies whatever foundation you give it.
This is what makes AI so useful and so risky at the same time.
If your positioning, voice and messaging are clear, AI can help you:
- get to first drafts faster
- repurpose content across channels
- turn rough notes into a usable structure
- break through the blank page
- create momentum where content used to stall
But if your foundations are weak, AI helps you produce weak content faster.
It scales whatever is already there.
So if your business already struggles with fuzzy positioning, erratic tone or copy that doesn’t quite sound like you, adding ChatGPT too early usually makes the problem more visible, not less.
You don’t get clarity from the machine. You get clarity from the work that comes before. From a deeper layer of thinking.
Brand voice and messaging strategy is what makes AI useful
This is the part I care about most, because it changes how businesses use AI completely.
Before you ask ChatGPT for copywriting support, you need a working source of truth.
Not a vague list of adjectives like friendly, professional, approachable or clever. That’s not enough.
You need practical guidance that answers questions like these:
Who’s your audience? What do they struggle with? What are they tired of and what do they want? And, importantly, what builds trust for them?
Your core messages should show up again and again across your website, emails, sales materials and content.
What tone, rhythm, sentence style and vocabulary feel true to our brand? (And what feels generic, off-brand, too pushy, too corporate or too vague?)
What beliefs, strengths, differentiators and audience concerns shape our writing?
What does our voice look like in a headline, CTA, nurture email, service page or social media post?
That’s the strategic layer – and what brand voice and messaging guidelines are for.
They don’t just help humans write better. They help AI produce something worth editing.
Without them, you’re essentially asking a machine to guess your positioning, voice and messaging.
And guessing is expensive when it shows up across your marketing.
Why this matters more now, not less
The easier it becomes for everyone to generate content, the more valuable it becomes to sound recognisable and real.
Because now the internet is filling up with content that all sounds the same.
It doesn’t build trust.
It doesn’t create distinction.
It doesn’t help people feel, ‘Ah, yes. This is for me’.
When every business has access to the same tools, a distinctive voice and message become your biggest competitive advantage.
Your messaging sharpens the meaning.
Your voice shapes the feeling.
Together, they stop your content from collapsing into sameness.
That’s the layer AI can’t invent for you from scratch.
It can imitate patterns, synthesise language and generate options all day long.
But it can’t decide, with human judgement, what your brand should stand for, what your audience most needs to hear, or what kind of communication will build trust.
That work still needs thinking and discernment.
It still needs a human.
Where AI fits in my copywriting process
I’m not anti-AI. Far from it.
Used properly, it’s super helpful. I use it to support me with things like:
- exploring angles
- pressure-testing ideas
- summarising messy notes
- generating structural options
- speeding up draft development
- helping clients maintain consistency once the foundations are in place
But I don’t use it to decide my clients’ voice and message.
Because good copywriting is not just about the words.
It’s about judgment, nuance, empathy, and good old-fashioned storytelling.
It’s about:
- Knowing what to leave in.
- Knowing what to cut.
- Knowing what feels true, what feels generic, what needs more tension, what needs more clarity, what overpromises, what underexplains, what sounds credible, what sounds slippery.
That layer is deeply human.
And it matters even more in brand-led work.
Plant the thinking. Then grow the words
If I had to simplify it, this is the workflow I’d recommend:
1. Define the strategic foundation
Get clear on your positioning, core messages, audience priorities, tone, vocabulary and brand voice rules. (You can explore my approach here.)
2. Use AI to create momentum
Once those foundations exist, use ChatGPT to generate first drafts, variations, rewrites, content ideas or channel adaptations.
3. Edit like a human who understands the brand
Refine for nuance, credibility, emotional intelligence, specificity and flow. Cut what sounds generic. Keep what sounds true.
That middle step is useful. But the first and third steps are what make the final copy any good.
Skip the strategy, and the AI output drifts. Skip the human edit, and the copy feels hollow.
You need both.
So, should you use ChatGPT for copywriting?
Yes, you can use it to get unstuck, to speed up early drafts or turn a rough idea into something workable.
But don’t expect it to magically create a clear brand out of thin air.
And don’t confuse fast output with strong communication.
- If your messaging is unclear, AI will amplify the blur.
- If your voice is undefined, AI will default to average.
- If your copy matters, it still needs human judgment.
The businesses getting the most from AI aren’t the ones writing better prompts.
They’re the ones with clearer thinking.
They’re the ones giving ChatGPT something strong, specific and strategically sound to work with in the first place.
That’s where voice and messaging guidelines come in.
- First the foundation.
- Then the tool.
- Then the edit.
That’s how you get copy that’s faster to produce and still feels like you.
Want AI-assisted copy that actually sounds like your business?
Start with the layer most brands skip: voice and messaging.
(When that foundation is clear, ChatGPT can sound more like you – always remembering that authentic emotional connection is what grabs your audience’s attention.)
If you’re actively exploring ChatGPT for copywriting, read this next.
(It’s where I explain how my built-for-you brand-trained AI Writing Assistant really pulls its weight.)