AI didn’t steal your job but it probably needs you to finish it

Let’s clear something up: AI isn’t coming for your writing job.

At least, not unless your job is writing SEO filler about the history of email marketing in 17 different ways.

What AI is doing is handing you the rough draft. The bones. The starting point.

It’s the content equivalent of a frozen pizza base.

You still need to add sauce, toppings, and the little sprinkle of personality that makes people care.

AI didn’t replace writers. It replaced the most tedious bits of writing. Research. Repetition. That third blog post in the same series where you’ve already said everything interesting.

In other words, the grunt work.

But, and this is a big but, AI still can’t:

• Understand nuance
• Match a brand’s personality
• Handle tone shifts with emotional intelligence
• Know what not to say in a sensitive situation
• Deliver hot takes, sharp insights, or genuinely original phrasing

When AI goes rogue (and a human has to clean it up)

Let’s take a real example. Someone once asked AI to write a blog post on mental health support in the workplace.

What came back?

“In today’s fast-paced work environment, it’s important to smile through the stress and stay positive.”

Yikes. Good intentions, terrible execution.

That’s what happens when a machine doesn’t understand that tone isn’t just a setting. It’s a responsibility.

Another example: an AI-generated product description for a premium blender.

“This blender is good. It blends. It’s very blendy.”

Look, I love efficiency as much as the next person, but “blendy” isn’t selling anyone on a £120 kitchen appliance.

I have filed the word away to use at a future date though…

Writers and editors are still the grownups in the room

So AI is a great tool to help us write, but it isn’t yet ready to go it alone.

All those businesses that are letting writers go in favour of generative AI are going to be eating humble pie soon and I have no sympathy.

What skilled writers do:

• Translate ideas into messages that resonate
• Inject voice, humour, restraint, and rhythm
• Sense when a line goes too far (or not far enough)
• Anticipate reader reactions before they happen

What editors do:

• Catch what the writer missed
• Sharpen logic and flow
• Make sure tone doesn’t slide into cringe
• Align it all with the actual goal (traffic? sales? trust?)

AI doesn’t do any of that. Not well. Not yet.

The actual magic trick = humans + AI

Here’s the good news: the combo does work. Let AI do the typing while you do the thinking.

Let it handle 800 words on “how to choose a desk chair,” and then you come in to:

• Add a story about your dodgy lower back
• Fix the intro so it actually hooks the reader
• Cut the fluff and add something new
• Make it sound like a human wrote it (because one did, mostly)

Final word (written by a human, edited by another human)

AI isn’t your competition. It’s your assistant. One that’s weirdly good at bullet points and weirdly bad at empathy.

It’s here to help you write faster. Not disappear you entirely.

So no, AI didn’t steal your job. But if you want to keep it? You might have to teach the robot how to write a decent headline.

Need help finishing what your AI started? That’s my favourite part: www.coastalcontent.co.uk