Congratulations to Nikki Young for Winning the August 2025 Barefoot Writing Challenge! (Your $100 prize is on its way!)
The challenge was to write an essay that answered this prompt:
What is your reaction when you read AWAI’s Copywriter’s Manifesto? (Download it free here.)
Nikki told a completely relatable story about the internal conversation most of us have with ourselves about the current technology situation. But then she flips it into beautiful hope. Enjoy her winning submission!
AWAI Copywriter’s Manifesto Reaction
by Nikki Young
My family and friends say it with love and concern, but if I have to hear “Isn’t AI going to take your job?” one more time…
I understand where they’re coming from, but I’d gotten to the point where my standard response was “Hopefully not, but who knows.” I just didn’t have the energy to try to explain what I “knew” about AI and the writing industry. Or to try to calm their concerns.
Then I read AWAI’s Copywriter’s Manifesto… and it was exactly what I needed to be able to verbalize why I’m not concerned about my ability to continue making money doing what I love.
Not only did it give me the tangible stats about increased business spending in the copywriting market, but it also gave me an easy way to explain why the need for humans in writing is still so high.
Don’t get me wrong, AI is changing the market in massive ways, and if copywriters don’t get on board and embrace the technology, they will get left behind. In fact, something I heard recently has stuck with me and runs through my mind almost daily: “AI isn’t coming for your job, but someone using AI is…”
And there are definitely companies who are all in on AI-generated content. Who’ve decided that removing humans from the mix at every given opportunity is the way forward. And if that works for them, great. I wish them every success.
But those companies are not my market. It is not my job, nor is it worth my energy, to try to change the minds of people who don’t see the value of personal experience over the convenience of AI.
And while that small portion of the market goes down their own path, I will be focusing on learning everything I can about how to leverage AI to make me better at what I do. To automate the boring, behind-the-scenes stuff like invoicing and keeping track of my jobs and deadlines. To speed up my research, to broaden my understanding of my clients’ industries and competitors, and to make my input all the more valuable.
I will be using AI to make myself the most efficient I can be, so that I have as much time as possible to pour into the relationships I build with my clients. To give me more time to actually write, and to enable me to offer more to my clients by anticipating what they might need next.
Helping them with their marketing strategy and getting them lined up for success… rather than leaving them to scramble through their marketing and content, one bad ChatGPT prompt at a time.
