Poll Results: How Copywriters Are Using AI in 2026

 In an informal, unscientific survey, responses from copywriters who are using AI focused on a "healthy use of AI," using it to remove drudge work, spark ideas, and improve drafts while keeping humans in charge of strategy, voice, and final decisions. Responders indicated that the more AI handles low-value tasks, the more a copywriter’s value concentrates in high-level thinking clients can’t automate.

1. Research and discovery

Use AI to speed up prep, not to replace your own judgment.

• Scan large volumes of material to surface angles, objections, and questions you then verify and refine.​
• Turn messy notes, transcripts, or briefs into organized bullets or outlines you can interrogate and reshape.
  ​

2. Outlining and structural help

Keep control of the message, but let AI help with scaffolding.

• Generate several outline options for a landing page, email sequence, or article, then choose, merge, and adjust based on strategy.​
• Ask for headline buckets, section labels, or CTA placements, then rewrite them in your own language and brand voice.
  ​

3. Brainstorming and unblocking

Treat AI as a brainstorming partner whose ideas you always improve.

• Use it to propose variations: hooks, angles, metaphors, objection-handling lines, or lead-ins you then refine or remix.​
• When stuck, have it produce “bad but different” drafts to argue with, sharpening your own thinking in contrast.
  ​

4. Draft refinement and polishing

Keep your draft as the source of truth; use AI like a smart editor.

• Ask for alternatives for a specific sentence, transition, or CTA, then select or rewrite rather than copy-paste.​
• Use it for readability passes, tone smoothing, list formatting, and grammar catches, while you own the nuance and emotional punch.
  ​

5. Repurposing and scaling assets

You provide the original; AI helps with versions and formats.

• Take a cornerstone piece you wrote and have AI propose social snippets, alt intros, or length-adjusted versions that you then tweak.​
• Use it to adapt content to channels (email, social, short script) while you guard positioning, claims, and voice consistency.

NOTE: A small percentage indicated that they don't and won't use AI in their copywriting process.

​