3 Reasons Why AI Won’t Replace Ghostwriters

This isn’t the end of “human” ghostwriters.

Nicolas Cole
6 min readSep 5, 2024

The arrival of Artificial Intelligence revealed one important thing:

Ghostwriters feel insecure in their careers. For the first time, there was a technology that could compete with writers everywhere:

  • AI can write faster than any “normal” writer
  • AI can give “OK” output in a matter of seconds (which might take some writers hours to produce)
  • AI lowers the barrier to entry for people who want to use writing as a way to scale their message online

Ghostwriters aren’t alone in being impacted by AI. It isn’t just affecting “a handful” of industries.

It’s affecting every industry, all over the world, right now. So, if you’re a ghostwriter, is it already too late? Does the rise of AI mean you’ll be replaced by the machines and waste hours fighting over the dwindling number of writing jobs that haven’t been taken by ChatGPT?

Here’s the brutal truth:

  • If you want to remain relevant
  • If you don’t want to get left behind, caught with your pants down (ouch)
  • And if you want to have a thriving ghostwriting career over the next ~10 years

Then you are better off ASSUMING AI is going to majorly impact you as a ghostwriter — versus assuming AI “won’t” impact you that much. The former will be prepared, and the latter will be left behind.

And the best way to prepare yourself so you can compete with AI as a ghostwriter?

Becoming a Premium Ghostwriter.

Here are 3 big reasons why AI won’t replace Premium Ghostwriters anytime soon:

Reason 1: Premium Ghostwriting is more than “writing.”

Regular ghostwriters are in the “doing” business.

They diligently follow instructions given to them by the client, write a certain number of words, and deliver a finished piece. They are digital laborers. Premium Ghostwriters, on the other hand, are in the “thinking” business.

They are business consultants who just happen to be all-star writers:

  • They advise their clients on their positioning, strategy, and message
  • They have a talent for extracting the best ideas from a client (by being a “Close Listener”) and organizing them on the page so readers find them easy to consume
  • They are experts at spotting business bottlenecks (e.g. leaky funnels) and using writing as a vehicle to solve them at scale for the client

So, when you’re creating your writing services you don’t just want to “write words.” You want to create an Irresistible Offer clients can’t say no to.

Premium Ghostwriters are the complete package, whereas AI (like the rest of the digital laborers) are just in the business of doing.

And many business owners don’t know what they need to do to scale themselves or their message online. So then the THINKING becomes more valuable than the WRITING. This is where Premium Ghostwriters can excel (and charge more as a result).

This leads nicely to the next point.

Reason 2: Premium Ghostwriters save or make their clients time and/or money.

People who need ghostwriters (which, by the way, anyone with a public-facing role needs a ghostwriter) hire them to save/make time and money.

Why?

Because they know they need to get their message out but they don’t have the time to write. And they don’t have the time to learn how to write. Their time is better spent focusing on other areas of their business or career. So, you might be thinking… “Sounds like these are the best people to leverage AI.” And yes, that’s true… but they also don’t have the time to write, test, and iterate on AI prompts, learn about Large Language Models, or stay on the cutting edge of AI.

Even if they swipe prompts from other people, will they have the time to tailor their prompts to get the best results from AI?

Unlikely. So while AI lowers the barrier to entry for “writing words,” it doesn’t remove the need to spend time mastering AI-related skills, which will take your clients a ton of time they don’t have.

But guess who does have the time?

Premium Ghostwriters.

Reason 3: Premium Ghostwriters have an AI advantage.

It’s important to remember that the vast majority of people who need help scaling their message don’t know how to use AI properly.

Let’s take another good example: The internet.

The internet has been around for 30 years. It’s changed rapidly over the years and it has transformed the way people work, network, and spend their free time. But how many people and businesses use it to its fullest potential? And how many people know how to do that? Very few.

And it’s the same with AI.

If you can master AI, and work WITH it, you’ll have an AI advantage as a Premium Ghostwriter. You become the go-to consultant in your niche and you can use AI to deliver faster (and better) results for your clients.

So how do you use AI in your ghostwriting business?

Here are 5 ways you can start using AI in your ghostwriting business.

We have tons of ghostwriters inside our Premium Ghostwriting Academy who consider themselves “AI-enabled” or “AI-powered” ghostwriters.

Here are 5 tips to help you do the same as a Premium Ghostwriter:

  • Tip #1: Templatize your frameworks. Once you start to build up the pattern recognition of what writing templates, styles, and frameworks work for your clients, then you can use AI to execute on those frameworks for you. Train AI to be your “doer” while you keep all the thinking for yourself. This is how you write with AI.
  • Tip #2: Research. Tap into the wealth of knowledge inside AI to understand more about an industry. For example, if you’re working with NGOs and want to know the pain points of canvassers who raise money for charity, you can easily ask AI to give you a break down of their pain points. And you can apply this to any industry you’re in.
  • Tip #3: Stress-test your ideas. Instead of checking everything first with the client (and wasting their time!) use AI to stress-test your ideas. Ask it to show you what you might have missed. Then you can go to the client with specific questions relating to their experience (rather generic information in their industry.)
  • Tip #4: Editing and grammar checks. Feed AI your work and ask it to correct your grammar, make edits for fluency and flow, and more. AI helps you polish a piece of work 10x faster than it would take normally.
  • Tip #5: Rewriting. If a client wants you to make some edits to a piece, then use AI to accelerate that process. Rewrite a piece in a different voice. Rewrite a piece at a lower (or higher!) grade level of reading. Rewrite a piece of a different demographic. The options are endless.

One final reminder:

There is so much upside to be gained from AI. And if you’re reading this, you’re ahead of 99% of other writers. All you need to do is learn how to write with AI, rather than let it overtake you (by completely ignoring it.)

Want more help starting (or scaling) your ghostwriting business?

Then here’s a FREE, 5-day email course on the 5 steps you need to become a Premium Ghostwriter.

Click here to join 10,000 others who’ve already taken the leap!

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Nicolas Cole

100M+ Views | 5x Author | Co-founder of Ship 30 for 30 | Want to start writing online? Get the Ultimate Guide: https://startwritingonline.com