AI copywriting is an excellent way to overcome the blank page syndrome and speed up your writing process. It leverages machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to create everything from ad copy to social media posts.
While the underlying mechanism of AI copywriting tools is quite complex, the gist of it is simple—the tool scours the web for content related to your prompt, learns from it, and generates a fresh output based on its findings. You can have match-ready copy with only a few tweaks instead of having to write everything from scratch.
If this sounds appealing, this guide will help you choose the best AI copywriting tool by reviewing some of the most capable solutions.
What is AI copywriting?
AI copywriting is a type of content creation where you use a tool built around ML and NLP to create short-form content like landing pages, ad copy and social media captions. The main benefit of using AI copywriting software is that it takes care of the heavy lifting, giving you more time to focus on fine-tuning your copy.
Of course, some AI copywriters can also create long-form content (e.g., a blog post), so they're quite versatile and useful for just about any type of written content.
How does AI copywriting work?
AI copywriting starts with a prompt/instruction you enter into your AI tool. Thanks to NLP, the AI copywriter understands your prompt and starts generating a response according to the instructions you give it.
The response is based on the existing content found around the web. Much like human writers, AI copywriting tools research the given topic to create high-quality content aligned with the provided input.
The main advantages of AI tools over human writers are speed and efficiency.
You can get a draft in just a few clicks and no more than a couple of minutes. That's why leveraging AI writing tools is an excellent way to scale content creation beyond the constraints humans deal with.
Does this mean an AI tool can replace a human copywriter?
Not at all.
AI-generated content should always be reviewed to ensure factual accuracy because AI models aren't always perfectly reliable.
Due to the phenomenon called AI hallucination, you must double-check the output to avoid publishing false information.
Besides, AI copywriting tools (still) don't understand all the little intricacies of a language, which are particularly important in short-form content where every word matters.
A skilled human copywriter knows that small tweaks can make a big difference and can adapt AI-generated copy accordingly.
Advantages of AI copywriting tools
Despite a few shortcomings, an AI copywriting tool can benefit your content creation framework in many ways, most notably:
- Overcoming writer's block—AI tools let you generate content ideas effortlessly, so you'll spend less time dealing with an empty page.
- Time savings—Besides brainstorming ideas, an AI copywriting tool can automate the creation of first drafts to give you a jump-start and minimize wasted time.
- Streamlined workflow—An AI copywriter can generate product descriptions, CTAs, and other high-impact copy in no time, letting you focus on other activities.
With the help of a capable AI tool, you can supercharge your online marketing strategy by creating many different types of content on autopilot, such as:
- Blog post ideas, outlines, and first drafts
- Social media posts
- Title tags and meta descriptions
- Website copy
- Creative email subject lines and newsletter content
13 best AI copywriting tools
We've seen an insurgence of AI copywriting software in the past couple of years, with each solution having some unique selling points.
Here's a concise recap of the best platforms you should check out:
Surfy
Surfy is an AI copywriting tool that lives inside Surfer AI, an AI writer for long form content.
As any good copywriter will do, Surfy can help you create original content or rewrite content based on specific instructions.
Think of Surfy as your personal AI assisted copywriter. It can help you with several content tasks such as:
- Writing new content
- Rephrasing content in a different tone of voice
- Adding examples
- Expanding or summarizing existing content
- Linking to other web pages
- Researching content
You can use Surfy by signing into Surfer's Content Editor and tapping the forward slash key (/) on your keyboard.
To write new content, just add a prompt that is appropriate for your piece. Here's an example for an article on document management systems I'm writing.
And here's what the generated output looks like.
Of course, you can choose to expand on this with a more detailed prompt.
If you'd rather just edit an existing paragraph, highlight it and instruct Surfy.
Rephrasing, for example.
Or a prompt asking for examples and internal or external links.
You can then accept the newly written content, or start over.
The more detailed your writing prompts are, the more customized your content generated by Surfy is.
AI copywriters can especially benefit from using Surfy for a blog post but it can also write captions and create content for social media.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is OpenAI's flagship product and one of the first commercial AI copywriting tools that has amassed an extensive global user base.
It's built on the company's GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) models, which vary depending on whether you use a free or paid version.
The free version is built on GPT-3.5, while ChatGPT Plus runs on GPT-4, a far more advanced model. With either version, you get a capable chatbot that can produce human-like content on a variety of topics.
You can also integrate it into other apps using the OpenAI API to tailor the model to many different needs.
ChatGPT has a user-friendly interface and is easy to navigate.
All you need to do is enter the prompt, and you'll get a response instantly.
Like with any other AI tool, the output reflects the quality of the prompt, so you should enter detailed instructions to feed ChatGPT enough information about what you're looking for.
You can use ChatGPT for free by creating an OpenAI account.
If you find it useful and wish to expand its functionality and response quality, you can upgrade to the Plus tier for $20 per month.
Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
SEO Writing Assistant (SWA) is a part of the Semrush content marketing suite.
While it doesn't generate copy independently the way other AI platforms do, it's a useful editing tool with a few standout features, most notably:
- Real-time SEO assistance—SWA gives you helpful insights as you write, which are based on the top-performing competitors for the given keywords.
- Add-ons—You can integrate SWA with Google Docs, WordPress, and Word to streamline the writing process.
- Readability and tone consistency tracking—The Assistant will assign a readability score as you write and help you maintain a consistent tone throughout the text.
You can't use SWA as a standalone platform—you need to sign up for the Semrush account and create an SEO Content Template. The free account only lets you create one template, which is a limitation that extends to the Pro plan.
You need at least the Guru subscription to unlock more templates you can use SWA with.
The available plans are priced as follows:
- Pro—$129.95/month
- Guru—$249.95/month
- Business—$499.95/month (a custom plan is also available for business users)
Wordsmith
Created by Automated Insights, Wordsmith lets you create content from data using NLG (Natural Language Generation). It generates human-like, cohesive narratives from various data types, which makes it useful for reporting and content creation alike.
While it might not be the best solution for short-form copy specifically, you can still leverage it for other content forms like whitepapers.
Wordsmith lets you create templates to ensure the content matches your brand voice, and you can integrate it into various platforms thanks to different APIs.
The platform serves a specific purpose without many bells and whistles, so you won't find many AI copywriting features that other tools on our list offer.
It's still a capable solution for turning large amounts of complex data into a compelling narrative, so it's worth checking out.
Wordsmith's pricing isn't readily available on the Automated Insights website—you need to inquire about it by contacting the sales team.
The good news is that you can get a free trial (demo) to see the platform in action and decide whether it's worth the investment.
ContentShake
ContentShake is another AI software created by Semrush. Unlike SWA, it's capable of writing entire blogs from scratch, and it can be useful for short-form copy as well.
A standout feature of ContenShake is its unique approach to content ideas.
When you sign up, it will ask you to describe your business and suggest topic categories and tags accordingly.
It then shows you a list of topics with details about their traffic potential and search intent, similarly to Surfer's Keyword Research Tool.
When you choose your topic, you'll get an outline with the Compose with AI option if you want the platform to write the draft for you.
The free plan only gives you three paragraphs per article, while the paid tier unlocks unlimited words and articles.
The content editor also lets you set specific parameters for the tone of voice, word count, and readability so you can adapt the article according to your preferences.
As for the pricing, you can use ContentShake for free if the basic features can satisfy your needs and you don't mind spending time to write the content yourself, considering the three-paragraph limitation.
If you want AI to do it for you, you'll need to subscribe to the paid plan, which comes at $60 per month.
AI Writing Assistant
AI Writing Assistant encompasses over 75 different tools split into four categories:
- Website copy & SEO
- Social media & ads
- Blog content
- Marketing & e-commerce
This means you can use the tool to generate everything from Google ads copy to full-fledged blog posts.
You can create content in multiple languages (over 25 as of this writing), and you can tailor the content to different audiences, creativity levels, and tone of voice.
The clarity and convenience of each content type having a dedicated tool is surely a significant benefit, especially for businesses and writers who want to consolidate various writing tasks into a single platform.
AI Writing Assistant advertises a free plan, but you can only write 1,500 words before having to buy more credits or sign up for the paid plan, which costs $25 per month.
With this in mind, it's more of a free trial than a full-fledged plan, as you'll need to subscribe anyway if you decide to use the platform ongoingly.
AI Social Content Generator
As the name implies, AI Social Content Generator is a copywriting tool designed specifically for crafting social media posts.
It doesn't only create written content like captions and hashtags but also full-fledged posts and even videos based on simple prompts.
As you publish posts created by AI Social Content Generator, you'll get valuable insights to see what works best so that you can double down on it. You can even assess your competitors' performance to get new post ideas.
The platform also lets you set color palettes your posts should be built around, helping you maintain brand consistency.
All of these features come at a cost, so you'll need to pay $35/month to use AI Social Content Generator.
You get a 7-day free trial to see the platform in action and determine if it's worth the money. If you end up enjoying its features, you can subscribe to the Plus plan for an additional $20/month.
This may not be necessary, though, as the standard plan is robust enough for an average user.
You get 200 posts and 100 competitor analysis runs per month alongside two brand setups.
Headline Optimizer
Whether you need headline suggestions for Google ads or want to test your existing ones, Headline Optimizer can help.
All you need to do is enter the keyphrase, and you'll get various options to explore.
When you choose the most compelling ones, you can A/B test them with over 500,000 paid testers to get objective feedback you can use to tweak your headlines. Note that your test won't encompass the entire panel of 500,000 people but a group of 100, which is still enough to get useful insights.
You also have the option to test the ad with your own audience/followers, which can be a good idea because the results may be more representative than with a random group of people.
Headline Optimizer will show you a metric called Ad Performance and assign one of three scores—Low, Good, or Best.
The app can help you tweak your headlines to achieve the highest score and ensure optimal results.
You can use the app for free, though the free plan is pretty limited. You only get three AI-generated headline suggestions per day and three monthly A/B tests with your own audience. If you want unlimited suggestions and access to paid testers, you need to pay $65/month.
You can also increase the pool of paid testers from 100 to 200 for an additional $50/month.
QuillBot
QuillBot is a popular paraphrasing tool that can expedite the writing process and let you create different versions of your copy.
While it doesn't generate AI copy independently, it can be useful for tweaking the content written by it without too much manual work.
The platform is available as a web app and has dedicated Chrome and Word add-ons.
The macOS app is still in the works as of this writing, but you can sign up for early access on the website.
Regardless of your chosen platform, the app is simple to use. All you need to do is type or paste your text and click Paraphrase. You can adjust the tone of voice by choosing between a few predetermined modes, such as:
- Standard
- Fluency
- Academic
- Creative
- Formal
You can also create a custom mode if you need a specific tone that isn't encompassed by the predefined ones.
Besides the Paraphraser tool, QuillBot offers a few additional handy platforms:
- Summarizer
- Grammar Checker
- Plagiarism Checker
- Citation Generator
You can also leverage the Co-Writer tool, which combines the above into a centralized platform for added convenience.
Note that most of the above features are only available with QuillBot's paid plan, which comes at $9.95/ month if you opt for monthly billing or $4.17/month with annual billing (lump-sum annual payment of $49.95).
The free version caps at 125 words with Paraphrazer and 1,200 words with Summarizer, so even if you don't need any of the extra tools, you'll need to pay to unlock unlimited words.
Jasper AI
Jasper AI is among the most popular AI copywriting tools with several unique features.
It lets you upload information about your audience and business details so that the content created by its LLM models is tailored to your brand.
This reduces the need to manually adapt the tone of voice and other specifics, which can speed up content creation.
When you feed Jasper AI the necessary information about your campaign, you can select specific assets you want to create (emails, ads, blog posts, etc.).
The platform will then generate copy quickly while making sure it's aligned with your general style guide.
Jasper AI features Chrome and Edge extensions, which you can leverage to use some of its features in real-time while completing different tasks like emailing.
Despite Jasper AI's many benefits, it's not perfect.
Users have complained about the tool creating repetitive content and occasionally missing the mark when it comes to tone and style.
If you don't mind such drawbacks, you can choose from three available plans:
- Creator—$49/month ($39/month with annual billing)
- Teams—$125/month ($99/month with annual billing)
- Business—Custom pricing available upon inquiry
Wordtune
Wordtune started as an AI rewriting tool, which remains its core purpose.
Its standout feature is the ability to understand the context of a sentence, so it can provide suggestions that are not only grammatically correct but also contextually appropriate and coherent.
You can get real-time AI recommendations to tweak your copy quickly.
Suggestions include the so-called Spices, which include statistics, examples, and even jokes you can use to give your text a bit more oomph.
As Wordtune evolved, it included the ability to create prompt-based content from scratch comparable to other AI copywriting tools on our list.
The feature is straightforward and includes different types of content like LinkedIn posts, emails, headlines, and more.
Similar to QuillBot, Wordtune also has a summarizing tool, except it's more advanced. Besides summarizing text, it can also process YouTube videos through transcriptions, which is a welcome feature that can speed up your research if you regularly use video sources.
Wordtune is free to use, though the free plan might not be rich enough for continuous use.
You only get 10 rewrites and Spices daily alongside three AI prompts and summaries.
If you need more, you can upgrade to one of three plans:
- Plus—$24.99/month ($9.99/month with annual billing)
- Unlimited—$37.50/month ($14.99/month with annual billing)
- Business—Custom
Copy.ai
Copy.ai is a versatile tool that lets you create just about every type of written content you might need—including short-form copy.
It features various built-in templates for different marketing efforts and audiences while letting you maintain a consistent writing style and tone by adding a specific brand voice.
What makes Copy.ai stand out from the competitors are predefined workflows.
There are currently four options to choose from:
- E-commerce workflows
- Social media workflows
- SEO workflows
- Sales workflows
Workflows let you automate several steps of the content creation process through simple inputs.
Tell the platform what you need to do, and you can generate an automated multi-step process effortlessly.
Copy.ai offers a free plan, but it's far too limited for regular use.
You only get 2,000 words a month, which many writers might burn through in a single day.
If you plan on adding Copy.ai to your workflow, you'll most likely need to subscribe to the Pro plan, which costs $49/month ($36/month with annual billing).
There's also the Enterprise plan tailored to larger teams, but you must reach out to Copy.ai's sales team to inquire about the price.
Copysmith
Built on GPT-3, Copysmith is a handy tool for content marketers specialized for short-form pieces like Google and social media ads, headlines, and SEO meta descriptions and tags.
You can create several versions of your copy to decide on the most impactful one.
Copysmith will also show you a mockup of the page with your copy on it so that you can see what it will look like when it's live. This is particularly useful for ads because it lets you assess their visual appeal.
As you create new copy, you can use the previously created pieces as reference points that Copysmith will use to ensure style consistency.
You can also like or dislike the output, and the platform will learn from your preferences to provide better results in the future.
Copysmith offers a free trial that lets you test out the above features.
If you find it useful, you can sign up for one of the two credit-based plans, with each credit equating to 10 content pieces. The pricing structure is as follows:
- Starter (50 credits)—$19/month
- Professional (250 credits)—$59/month
As of this writing, Copysmith is still running their promotional "early adopter offer," which lets you get 1,000 credits for the price of the 250 you get with the Professional plan.
Overcoming AI limitations
While AI copywriting tools have become quite capable, they're not without flaws. It's not a good idea to merely copy/paste the output without human supervision, as you might expose your website and brand to several risks.
The first and most notable one is plagiarism.
AI-generated content may not be 100% original, mainly because LLM tools rely on existing content to draft their pieces.
It's always a good idea to run the content through a plagiarism detector and fix any potential red flags to ensure originality.
You may also need to adapt the content's style to your brand voice if unlike Surfer AI, your AI tool doesn't offer you the option to do so.
Remember that you're working with a machine that might not match a human's grasp of a language's many nuances, so some editing might be required.
There have also been concerns about the impact of AI content on SEO.
Luckily, the claims that Google punishes AI-generated pieces have proven themselves untrue so far.
The company has made it clear that it only cares about the reader getting relevant content created for them instead of the search algorithm, regardless of how that content is written.
Here's a tweet from Google's Danny Sullivan that confirms this.
That said, you should tread lightly with AI content writing tools when creating YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) content.
Such topics require a high degree of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), so any inaccuracies caused by issues like AI hallucination can cost you SEO points.
You should consider drafting an article with AI but then layering it with your own experience and insights for YMYL.
Make sure to fact-check your content before publishing it, and you should stay on the safe side.
How to choose an AI copywriting tool
While the main yardstick for choosing an AI tool will be your needs and preferences, there are a few universal features to look for.
SEO features are easily among the most important ones.
There's not much point in using AI tools that make you edit your content heavily to include all the relevant keywords and meet other on-page SEO requirements.
By contrast, platforms like Surfer AI can create ready-to-rank content in minutes, freeing up a ton of time.
Automatic tone and style adjustments are also invaluable, as they help your content reflect your brand's unique voice.
As mentioned, an AI tool might not nail it down perfectly from the get-go, but you'll have a solid base to work with instead of a generic, robotic piece you'll need to overhaul before publishing.
Other notable features to look for include:
- Ease of use—An SEO tool must hide its advanced mechanisms under a user-friendly interface to ensure you can leverage it without lots of technical knowledge. All the features should be laid out intuitively to provide a seamless user experience.
- Plagiarism detection—As AI content might not always be original, it's better to have a plagiarism detector built into your chosen tool instead of using (and probably paying for) a separate platform.
- Third-party integrations—You should be able to integrate your AI copywriter into your workflow without friction. Look for tools with different browser extensions, cross-platform support, and content export options.
An AI copywriting tool must act like a human copywriter and make your work easier. You can sign up for a base plan to get hands-on experience and help you decide if you should invest in an AI copywriting platform.
Key takeaways
- AI copywriting is an excellent way to overcome writer's block and scale your content production quickly. Comprehensive AI copywriting tools can create various types of short-form content and reduce manual work.
- An AI copywriting tool works similarly to a human copywriter—it researches the given topic based on your prompt and creates copy derived from existing content. This doesn't mean AI copywriting tools can replace human writers, as their output often requires some tweaking for factual accuracy and style.
- Most AI copywriting tools serve a specific purpose, so determine your content needs before assessing the available options. For example, Surfer AI is a solid option if you're looking for SEO-friendly content, QuillBot is suitable for rewrites, while Wordsmith is a great choice if you need to turn complex data into digestible, cohesive narratives.
- Whichever AI copywriting software you choose, make sure to check it for plagiarism and accuracy. Some editing will be required in many cases, so look for a tool that minimizes the need for it. And don't worry about Google punishing you for using an AI copywriter—as long as your pieces are written for humans instead of search engines, Google shouldn't penalize them.
- When comparing different AI copywriting tools, look for options with SEO features, plagiarism detection, tone and style adjustments, and third-party integrations. Make sure your tool also has a simple, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to take advantage of its features.
Conclusion
The rise of AI copywriting tools is a trend you shouldn't sleep on, as many writers and businesses have embraced them to supercharge their productivity. This still doesn't mean copywriting should be completely outsourced to AI, as the human touch is irreplaceable.
If you want to craft compelling copy in minutes and free up more time for creative work, go ahead and try Surfer AI. Combine it with your expertise, and you'll instantly level up your copywriting game.
