What is AI's weakness? DTC 2025
- mrpapri1
- Feb 9
- 8 min read
Advancing fast, AI can be a huge help in:
repetitive tasks
research
general brainstorming
Many people are wondering how fast it will take our jobs.
What I'd like to address is that AI won't take any of our jobs any time soon.
AI has some built-in limitations that make it impossible to generate human creativity and emotion.
In this blog post, we will cover examples where AI can do more harm than good when it comes to DTC businesses.
Quick Summary
AI can assist with tasks like research and short-form writing.
AI struggles with creativity, unable to produce original, engaging content.
Emotions drive consumer decisions, and AI can't generate genuine emotional connections.
Humor in copywriting needs timing and context, which AI lacks.
Long-form writing requires human input for creativity and structure.
AI helps but can't fully replace human-driven copywriting.
AI Weakness: Creativity
What is creativity in copywriting?
Ever read a piece of text and said to yourself: "Damn, that kept me hooked and hungry for more."? That specific copy has received many hours of attention from human creativity.
What if it was exposed to AI? Well, you would probably not have come across it. It would not perform that well.
It gets better:
Human creativity is something AI simply can't do yet. And won't for a long time.
And of course, the goal of copywriting is not just to become a chef without a recipe and trying a little bit of everything. It has to sell. You're not writing imaginative text... Your copy has to do its purpose.
Whether that's gaining more
awareness
nurturing
or selling
That's where human creativity takes the throne. This time, you're not just writing text that looks good to the eye. You're using creative selling techniques, meaning your customers don't even realize they're being sold to. And you know why? Because it's creative. They haven't seen anyone pitch them like you do. You're the first, which means you stand out.
Let me just quickly explain why AI's creativity doesn't come close.
Here's the thing:
The way it works is it has a massive chunk of data from the internet, spots patterns and similarities across topics, and makes predictions on data it doesn't have.
Do you see the first flaw? AI works off of data that already exists. And human creativity? Those are fresh ideas straight from the membrane. Just imagine composing a document of all of your competitors, and adopting all of their marketing strategies regardless if they're performing well or not. That's how AI works in a nutshell.
Second flaw? What if you're writing about a brand-new topic? There are zero sources about it online. This means AI will make stuff up.
Why is creative copywriting important?
There are hundreds of creative copywriting examples you see every day. It's the ad that grabs your attention and makes you stop and look. It's the TV commercial that leaves you watching as if you were hooked on a Netflix series.
Creativity is super profitable. While all of your competitors are always doing proven formats and proven angles, you're out there always doing something new.
If something that you make up is truly effective, you're also the first. It's your creativity that came up with that idea, after all.
And thus:
Being first in something makes you stand out.
Of course, there's a balance between creativity and "sellability" in your copy. The idea is to have both. 50% creative, 50% persuasive.
How can I be more creative in copywriting?
For you already creative folks out there, this will be like a walk in the park. If you're born with creativity, your ideas come subconsciously.
If you believe you're the absolute opposite of creative, you're definitely not alone. When I first started copywriting in 2024, the most creative thing I could come up with was writing a unique signature. That's it.
That's nothing.
However, I worked my way up and now I can say with full confidence... Yes, I am a creative person. It was hard. But it was worth it.
Do you know why companies hire copywriters nowadays? They don't hire you because you know good grammar. They don't hire you because you write well (even AI can do that, by the way). They want someone that is creative. Someone who can twist and turn stories to sell. Someone who has creative persuasion.
Here's the kicker:
If you want to become a creative genius (even if you're slightly creative already), you're going to have to train. There's no other way around this. The same way football stars sweated blood and tears, you're going to have to as well... (okay that might be a little exaggerated, but you get my point)
So how do you train creativity? It's like a muscle.
Creativity thrives when you're bored. Go have a hot shower. Take a walk in the park. Meditate.
Every day, grab a piece of paper and write a story about some memory in your life. This will fully engage the creative part of your brain. And since you're doing it consistently, it's like training a muscle. It will improve.
Long-form Copywriting
Artificial intelligence is good at writing headlines, subject lines, or short ads. It's quite handy for short text, basically.
Is it good at writing long texts? Absolutely not. Every single great copywriter who uses AI knows this. Use AI for short text, but for long-form, not so much. This is because AI makes mistakes. When there are 4-7 words, it's obviously harder to make a mistake. Compare that to 1000-3000 word blogs. The margin of error gets stretched out massively. So that's problem number uno.
Problem number two?
If you use AI to write your long-form first draft, human-editing everything will be a nightmare. Not only will editing your 3000-word blog take longer than truly writing it yourself, but it won't have a creative structure.
Have to be a deal breaker but...
Are you starting to see just how important human creativity is? If you don't start writing creatively, you're going to have to edit that in any way, taking even more time than if you didn't AI write your first draft.
What's long-form copywriting?
The average length of a landing page is 500 to 2000 words. Now stretch that to 5000+ words and you've got yourself a long-form landing page.
Of course, you're not just adding filler text. You're adding extra case studies, benefits, and storytelling.
It can be anything, too. For example:
sales/landing pages
blogs
emails
videos
Long-form copywriting is most often used in high-ticket offers (<$10 000) or if you want a good SEO ranking. Additionally, you can use it if you want to convert cold traffic that is still skeptical.
How do you write long-form?
Oh dear. Writing long-form copy requires a lot of patience. And it's crucial to follow some important rules.
"Simple scales, fancy fails" - Alex Hormozi.
For the simplest explanation of how to write long-form copy, just follow this quote. What it means is to write your entire blog, landing page, or video script with bare-bones quality. No fancy stuff. No images or optimizations just yet.
After you're done writing the < 5,000-word copy, you can get going and optimize it. But don't worry about the difficulty of long-form. It's highly effective and converts a heck of a lot more than short-form copy.
Shhh... Are you sure your copywriting isn't costing you sales?
Find out if your copywriting is leaving money on the table.
AI Weakness: Emotions & Humor
Using emotions in copywriting
Knowing how to spill emotions in your writing is as powerful as a lion's roar. (that sounded poetical)
And no, you don't have to be too emotional in order for it to have an effect. There's no need to start every sentence with "Oh my god!", for a chance to inject emotions into your copy.
Here's the thing:
According to studies, consumers buy a lot more emotionally than logically. So what does this mean for you? You need to realize how important emotions are in our lives. Think about how many decisions today were completely altered because of an emotion. It's everywhere.
Without emotion in your copy, you're missing out. You're only engaging the logical part of your customer's brain. The part that is responsible for careful and slow decision-making. And the part that is responsible for emotions? Quick and instinctive.
So when will AI be able to have emotions? Yeah, that's right. Never.
As I've said, Artificial Intelligence has some built-in limitations (creativity, and emotions) that simply can't become a part of it. To effectively convey these two elements you will always need a human. So if you're someone scared about AI, don't get scared by AI's rapid growth. What's there to grow if it can't be done? Try multiplying zero by a million, it's still zero.
Don't get me wrong, AI has made some revolutionary discoveries possible and has streamlined a lot of processes in the world. It can assist you in writing, but make sure the last draft is as human-edited as possible.
What are examples of emotions in writing?
Every purchase is driven by an emotion called desire. If you don't desire something, it's more likely that you despise it, therefore you aren't looking to purchase it.
It gets better:
Important as a key, this emotion can't be generated with AI. You need a human. If you learn how to convey desire in your copywriting, your sales will go through the roof.
So we've covered an emotion that makes you purchase things. What about the others?
anger
anxiety
fear
excitement
These are all emotions regularly used in copywriting to nudge people in a direction. As I've mentioned earlier, copy can be used for awareness, nurturing, or sales. It's your decision, after all on how you decide to use these emotions for your benefit.
And AI? Do you think it can convey these effectively without a human? Don't think so.
How do you use emotions in copywriting?
If you have studied basic copywriting, you might know that when you want to write a piece of copy it's composed of:
Research
Writing
For putting emotions in your copy, you can forget about research and writing. The optimization part is what truly matters when it comes to emotions.
When you write a piece of copy, it's normal for the first draft to be horrible. There's no shame in that.
That's why for injecting emotions it's best done when you leave your text to marinate for about a day. And then come back, and put emotions in.
Why for a day? Well, there's a lot that happens in a day. You might be walking on the street, notice something, and it gives you an idea of what to put in. Additionally, your mind needs a rest from writing.
Here's the kicker:
Almost all ideas are formed in the subconscious. To promote the formation of these ideas, it's necessary to give this part of the brain a rest. In other words, just take a break.
Humor in copywriting
I've decided not to put this in the emotions category, because it deserves a special place. Humor is crucial. It's vital for when your audience is skeptical, for when you want to loosen things up, or if you want to connect with your customers... Making them loyal fans.
How you decide to use humor is completely up to you. However, it's not just placing jokes left and right thinking you can achieve comedy.
It's the comedic timing that is just as important as the joke itself.
How to use humor in copywriting?
If you already have a good sense of humor, it's easy to know where to strategically place humor. In other words, inject it when you feel like what your audience is reading is boring.
But keep a healthy balance. You don't want to become a standup comedian when writing your copy. That's distracting and will take their focus away from the subject at hand. Ideally, you'd want to place humor every 600 words in your copy.
It could be:
self-depreciation jokes
inside jokes
absurdist humor
Use it strategically, and with a healthy balance.
But wait a second...
Are you willing to make your DTC business stand out using my unique process?
What is long-form vs. short-form?
Long-form is content that is longer than 1000 or 5000 words. Often used to educate, convert cold audiences, and sell high-ticket offers.
Short-form is digestible, skimmable content often used at the awareness stage. It quickly informs the customer and is sharable.
Will AI take over copywriting?
AI is unlikely to completely take over copywriting because it's not good at creativity and emotions. Both elements are crucial if you want copy that drives results.
How do you show mood in copywriting?
Write your first draft, come back a day later, and add it in. It is only after letting the subconscious part of the brain rest that it becomes possible to see your copy from another perspective.
