The AI promise: instant, perfect copy. The reality: often bland.
When ChatGPT first hit, everyone (myself included) wondered if copywriters were out of a job. And yes, AI can generate text that's grammatically correct and logically structured. It's fast, it's cheap, and it never complains. But for a local business in Kent, trying to stand out and build trust, "grammatically correct" isn't enough. You need personality, local flavour, and a genuine voice. That's where raw AI output often misses the mark.
Where AI excels: the first draft, the boring bits.
I've found AI to be incredibly useful for getting past the blank page. If you're staring at an empty screen, trying to describe your plumbing services or your new bakery in Deal, AI can give you a starting point. It's brilliant for:
- Drafting basic service descriptions: "Write 100 words about boiler servicing for a Kent-based plumber, focusing on reliability and efficiency."
- Generating FAQs: AI can often predict common questions customers might have, saving you brainpower.
- Summarising long content: If you have a detailed product spec or a long blog post, AI can condense it into a punchy summary for a web page.
- Brainstorming headlines and calls to action: It can give you dozens of options to choose from, which you can then refine.
Think of it as a very fast, very patient junior copywriter who needs constant supervision and heavy editing.
Where AI falls flat: personality, local nuance, and trust.
This is where most Kent businesses need to be careful. AI doesn't know your specific tone of voice, your unique selling proposition, or the subtle ways you connect with your local community. It struggles with:
- Injecting genuine personality: AI tends to sound generic. It doesn't have your dry wit, your friendly approach, or your deep passion for what you do.
- Local specifics: It won't know that your café in Whitstable uses beans from a specific roaster in Canterbury, or that your building firm specialises in period properties in Sandwich. You have to feed it every detail.
- Building trust: People buy from people. AI-generated copy often lacks the human touch that builds rapport and credibility. It can feel cold, even if it's technically accurate.
- Emotional connection: If your service relies on empathy or understanding a customer's pain point (like a therapist or a financial advisor), AI is unlikely to hit the right emotional notes.
My workflow: AI as a co-pilot, not the pilot.
When I'm helping a client with their website copy, especially for a new site or a refresh, I often use AI, but never as a direct output. Here's how I approach it:
- Gather the raw material: I'll have a good chat with the client, get their unique story, their passion, their ideal customer. I'll ask for examples of how they talk to customers.
- AI for structure and initial ideas: I might ask AI to generate a few different ways to structure a service page, or to suggest bullet points for benefits.
- Drafting the "boring" bits: For standard sections like "Our Process" or "What to Expect," AI can draft something functional.
- Heavy editing and injecting personality: This is the crucial step. I'll take the AI output and rewrite it to sound exactly like the client. I'll add specific examples, local references, and their unique voice. This often means deleting 80% of what AI wrote and keeping just the core idea.
- Focus on the human connection: The most important parts of the website – the 'About Us' page, the 'Why Choose Us' section, the main sales pitch – are almost always written or heavily re-written by me, drawing directly from the client's own words and ethos.
For a recent client, a bespoke furniture maker in Folkestone, AI could list materials and processes, but it couldn't capture the artisan's passion for sustainable wood or the story behind his workshop. That had to come from him, refined by me.
The takeaway: use AI to save time, not to replace your voice.
If you're a busy tradesperson in Ashford or a small retailer in Sandwich, you probably don't have hours to spend crafting perfect prose. AI can absolutely help you get a solid first draft done in minutes. But always, *always* review, edit, and inject your own authentic voice. Your website is often the first impression a potential customer gets, and you want that impression to be genuinely *you*, not a generic chatbot.