Can AI Write Sales Copy? An Honest Answer From Someone Who Tests It

The Short Answer: Yes and No

Can AI write sales copy? Yes. Can AI write sales copy that reliably converts cold traffic into customers on complex, high-stakes offers? No.

That is the honest answer from someone who has spent 30+ years writing direct-response copy that has generated more than $523 million in tracked results — and who has spent the past several years testing every major AI writing tool against real traffic with real money at stake.

The nuance matters, because "sales copy" covers a vast range of formats and contexts. A product description for a $29 kitchen gadget on Amazon is sales copy. A 45-minute VSL script for a $997 health supplement offer running cold Facebook traffic is also sales copy. AI handles the first one reasonably well. It fails at the second one in ways that cost real revenue.

Most of the content online about this topic falls into two camps: people selling AI tools who tell you AI can do everything, and threatened copywriters who insist AI can do nothing. Both are wrong. The reality sits between those extremes, and understanding exactly where the line falls is worth real money to any business that depends on copy to drive revenue.

What AI Does Competently

I am not anti-AI. I use AI copywriting tools every day in my workflow. There are specific categories of sales copy where AI performs well enough to be genuinely useful — and in some cases, AI's speed advantage makes it the smarter choice.

Product descriptions

For standard e-commerce products where the copy needs to be clear, benefit-driven, and SEO-friendly, AI produces serviceable output. Feed it the product specs, target keywords, and desired tone, and you get descriptions that are within 10-15% of what an experienced human would write. At scale — hundreds or thousands of SKUs — the economics strongly favor AI with human quality control over pure human writing.

Social media ad copy

Short-form ad copy for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google is another area where AI performs respectably. The formats are constrained, the character counts are limited, and the primary skill is generating volume for testing. AI can produce 30 variations of a social ad in the time it takes a human to write three. That testing velocity matters, because in social advertising, the creative that wins is the creative you found fastest.

Email subject lines

AI is genuinely competitive with human copywriters on email subject lines. In tests I have run, AI-generated subject lines perform within 10% of human-written ones — and the sheer volume AI produces means you can test more options and find winners faster. This is one of the few areas where I would say AI delivers comparable quality to an experienced human.

First drafts from detailed briefs

When you give AI a sufficiently detailed strategic brief — specifying the audience, emotional triggers, persuasion framework, proof elements, and desired outcome — it can produce first drafts that give a skilled copywriter a meaningful head start. The key phrase is "sufficiently detailed." A brief that says "write a sales page for my supplement" produces garbage. A brief that specifies every strategic element produces a draft worth refining.

Variation generation for testing

This is arguably AI's single greatest strength in a sales copy context. Need 50 headline variations for split testing? AI generates them in minutes. Need 20 different hook angles to test against cold traffic? Done before you finish your coffee. The ability to generate high volumes of test variations compresses optimization timelines dramatically, and that speed-to-winner advantage is real and measurable.

What AI Fails At

Here is where the honest assessment gets uncomfortable for the AI-tools-solve-everything crowd. There are categories of sales copy where AI not only underperforms — it underperforms badly enough that using it costs businesses serious money.

Long-form sales pages

A high-converting sales page is not a collection of well-written sections stitched together. It is an engineered persuasion system — a carefully architected sequence where the headline creates a specific expectation, the opening hook activates a specific emotional state, the problem agitation raises the stakes to a level that demands resolution, the mechanism creates credibility for the solution, the proof stack builds conviction at the precise moment the prospect needs it, and the offer leverages all of that accumulated psychological momentum.

AI cannot design this architecture. It can fill in sections once you tell it what goes where. But the strategic decisions that determine whether someone actually pulls out their credit card — those require conversion copywriting expertise that comes from years of testing in specific markets. I have seen AI-generated long-form sales copy test against human-written versions dozens of times. The human copy wins overwhelmingly, and the performance gap is typically 40-60% on conversion rate.

VSL scripts

VSL copywriting is the hardest format in direct response, and it is where AI falls shortest. A VSL must hold a cold, skeptical viewer's attention for 15 to 45 minutes while building emotional intensity, establishing credibility, creating desire, and overcoming objections — all in a precise sequence with specific pacing that keeps the viewer watching. AI produces scripts that sound like they should work but do not. They lack the rhythm, the emotional calibration, and the strategic escalation that keep viewers engaged. In testing, AI-generated VSL scripts underperform human-written scripts by 50-70% on both viewer retention and conversion.

Strategic email sequences

An individual marketing email? AI can handle that reasonably well from a good brief. A seven-email launch sequence where each email must build on the emotional momentum of the previous one, escalate commitment, introduce objections at the right moment and resolve them, and drive the reader toward a specific purchasing decision? That requires email copywriting expertise that AI simply does not have. AI treats each email as an independent unit. A great sequence is a connected persuasion arc, and that arc requires human strategic direction.

Complex offer architecture

When you are selling a $997 core offer with a $297 bump, a $497 upsell, and a $197 downsell — each of which needs copy that builds on the psychology of the previous purchasing decision — you need someone who understands sales funnel architecture at a strategic level. AI does not understand why the upsell copy must reference the emotional state created by the initial purchase. It does not know how to position the downsell to capture the prospect who said no to the upsell without undermining the upsell's perceived value. These are judgment calls built from experience, not text prediction.

“AI writes copy that looks like it should convert. It has the structure, the bullet points, the call to action. What it does not have is the strategic engine underneath that makes someone reach for their wallet. That engine is still a human-built machine.”

Why AI Copy Underperforms on Paid Traffic

This section matters because paid traffic is where the truth about copy quality gets exposed. When you are spending $500 to $5,000 or more per day driving cold visitors to a sales page, conversion rate is not an abstract metric — it is the difference between profitability and bankruptcy.

AI copy underperforms on paid traffic for three specific reasons.

Cold traffic demands strategic precision

Organic visitors who found you through search or content already have some level of awareness and intent. Cold paid traffic has neither. They do not know you, they are not looking for you, and they are scrolling past your ad on their way to something else. Converting them requires a precise persuasion sequence that meets them at their exact awareness level and moves them through a carefully calibrated journey from skepticism to conviction. AI defaults to generic persuasion — the kind of copy that speaks to everyone and connects with no one. Cold traffic punishes generic copy ruthlessly.

Every visitor costs money

When the copy is free — organic traffic to a blog post, for example — underperformance is annoying but not catastrophic. When every visitor costs $3 to $15 or more, underperformance is a direct financial hit. If your AI-generated sales page converts at 1.5% instead of the 3% a human copywriter would deliver, you are effectively paying double for every customer you acquire. That is not a copywriting expense problem. It is a math problem — and the math never favors cheap copy on expensive traffic.

Competitive markets require differentiation

In any market with real competition, multiple advertisers are running traffic to similar offers. If your sales copy sounds like it was generated by the same AI tools your competitors are using — and it probably does, because AI's default output gravitates toward the statistical average — you have no differentiating message. In a market flooded with AI slop, the copy that converts is the copy that sounds like a human who actually understands the prospect's specific situation. That is not what AI produces.

Real Test Results: AI vs Human Sales Copy

I do not ask anyone to take my word for this. Here are the patterns I have observed across systematic testing in real markets where real revenue was at stake. These findings are consistent with what I have detailed in my AI vs human copywriting analysis.

Long-form sales pages: AI-only copy converts 40-60% below human-written baseline. The gap is widest on complex offers with sophisticated audiences. The hybrid approach — human strategy, AI-assisted drafting, human refinement — performs 10-20% above the human-only baseline due to faster testing cycles.

VSL scripts: AI-only scripts underperform by 50-70% on both viewer retention and conversion. Viewer drop-off happens earlier and more steeply, suggesting AI lacks the pacing and emotional calibration that keeps prospects watching. Hybrid approaches improve on pure human performance by 5-15%.

Email sequences: AI-only campaigns generate 20-40% less revenue per subscriber than human-written sequences. Individual emails perform closer to parity, but the sequence-level performance — where strategic escalation matters — shows a significant gap.

Product descriptions: AI performs within 10-15% of human copy. At scale, the cost savings typically justify the small performance gap, especially with human quality control.

Email subject lines: AI performs within 10% of human copy, and the volume advantage often tips the scale in AI's favor because more variations means faster optimization.

Social media ad copy: AI performs within 15-20% of human copy on individual creative performance, but the volume advantage — 30 variations tested vs. 3 — means AI-augmented workflows often find winners faster.

The pattern is unmistakable: the more strategic complexity a format requires, the wider the performance gap. For simple, structured formats, AI is competitive. For complex persuasion assets, the gap is enormous. This is not my opinion. It is what the conversion data shows, consistently, across markets and offer types.

“I have tested AI copy against human copy on more campaigns than I can count. The result is always the same: AI wins on speed, humans win on conversion, and the combination wins on everything. The mistake is thinking speed alone is enough when money is on the line.”

Where AI Fits in a Professional Sales Copy Workflow

The right question is not "can AI write my sales copy?" It is "where should AI participate in the process of creating sales copy that converts?" Here is the workflow that produces the best results, based on everything I have tested.

AI leads: Research and intelligence gathering

Use AI to compress market research from weeks to days. Analyze competitor funnels. Mine thousands of customer reviews for the exact language your prospects use to describe their problems. Synthesize market trends. Identify positioning gaps. This is where AI delivers its highest value with the lowest risk, because the output feeds human decision-making rather than going directly to prospects.

Human leads: Strategy and architecture

The human copywriter — whether in-house or a hired specialist — makes every strategic decision. Who is the target prospect at what awareness level? What is the primary emotional driver? What is the persuasion sequence? Where does the proof go and why? What makes this offer different from every other option in the market? This is where the copywriting expertise lives, and AI has no role in it.

AI assists: Drafting and variation

With strategy locked, AI becomes a production tool. Generate first drafts of individual sections from detailed briefs. Produce dozens of headline and hook variations. Create segmented copy versions for different audience segments. AI is executing within boundaries that a human has defined — not making strategic choices of its own.

Human leads: Refinement and craft

The experienced copywriter takes the AI-assisted drafts and applies the craft that separates copy that exists from copy that converts. Sharpening emotional language from generic to specific. Ensuring the persuasion architecture flows with the right rhythm and escalation. Adding the details, the market-specific nuance, and the human voice that makes copy connect. This phase is where ChatGPT-assisted copy becomes genuinely professional copy.

AI assists: Testing at scale

Deploy AI to generate systematic test variations and run them against real traffic. The human analyzes results and directs the next round. More variations tested faster means faster optimization and better results over time.

What Businesses Should Actually Do

If you have read this far, you know this is not a simple question with a simple answer. But here is practical guidance based on what I have seen work — and fail — across hundreds of campaigns and every major direct-response market.

If your copy drives paid traffic at scale

Hire an experienced direct-response copywriter who integrates AI into their workflow. The copywriter's fee — whether it is $5,000 or $50,000 — is almost always a fraction of the revenue difference between copy that converts well and copy that converts poorly. When you are spending $30,000 or more per month on traffic, a 1% improvement in conversion rate can mean hundreds of thousands in additional annual revenue. This is not a cost-center decision. It is a revenue-multiplier decision. If you need guidance on finding the right person, start with my guide on how to hire a copywriter.

If you need volume content at scale

Use AI with human oversight. Product descriptions, social media content, blog articles for SEO — AI handles these efficiently, and the small performance gap is justified by the massive cost savings. Invest in prompt engineering and quality control processes rather than paying premium copywriting rates for every piece of content.

If you are somewhere in between

Most businesses are. The smart approach is to segment your copy needs by stakes. Use AI for the high-volume, lower-stakes content. Use an experienced copywriter for your core conversion assets — the sales page, the VSL, the launch email sequence, the ads that drive your most expensive traffic. This is not a compromise. It is the optimal allocation of resources.

If you are currently using AI-only copy for high-stakes assets

Test it. Run your AI-generated sales page or VSL against a version written by an experienced human copywriter. Measure conversion rate, average order value, and revenue per visitor. In my experience, the test will tell you everything you need to know — and the answer will justify the investment in professional copy many times over. The numbers from real case studies consistently confirm this pattern.

If you are a copywriter wondering about your future

Your future is strong — if you develop both strategic depth and AI fluency. The copywriters who are struggling are the ones whose only skill was assembling competent sentences, which AI now does faster and cheaper. The copywriters who are thriving are the ones who bring strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and proven conversion expertise that AI cannot replicate. Learn to use AI as a force multiplier. Do not try to compete with it on speed. Compete on the strategic value that no tool can provide. Copywriting is not dead — but it is evolving, and the evolution rewards depth over volume.

The Bottom Line

Can AI write sales copy? Yes — for certain definitions of "write" and certain types of "sales copy."

Can AI write the kind of strategic, emotionally precise, architecturally sound sales copy that converts cold traffic into customers on complex offers at profitable acquisition costs? Not yet. Not close.

The businesses getting the best results right now are not choosing between AI and human copywriters. They are combining both — using AI for the tasks where speed and volume matter, and experienced copywriters for the decisions and craft where strategic judgment determines whether the copy actually makes money.

That is not a sales pitch. It is what the data shows. It is what three decades of testing has confirmed. And it is the honest answer to the question that brought you here.

If you are spending on traffic and your conversion rate is not where it needs to be — or if you are building copy with AI and wondering whether a professional could meaningfully improve your results — I am happy to have a straightforward conversation about your situation. No pressure, no pitch. Just an honest assessment of where the opportunity is and whether I can help.

Reach out here and let's talk about what you are trying to achieve.