Stay ahead of AI · Copywriting Launchpad

Carolyn Santo

17d • 💬 Discussion

Stay ahead of AI

As AI rapidly changes everything, you don’t have to panic and assume you’ll end up doing manual labor just to survive.

Four years ago, when people were still using ChatGPT for dad jokes, Mario Castelli said something that stuck with me:

“Treat it like an intern.”

That has been the most useful way to think about AI.

AI is a tool. And people who know what they’re doing love good tools because they save time.

But like any tool, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it won’t help you.

Take copywriting.

If you don’t understand what good copy looks like, AI won’t magically fix that.

If you understand copy, you can treat AI like a junior assistant. You give it context, examples, and clear instructions. It gives you a draft you can actually use.

And that’s the key.

Most people still need to edit. AI doesn’t know what’s wrong unless you do.

If you can’t see what needs fixing, you won’t get better output.

Watch how the industry keeps shifting.

First, people sold prompts.

Then they sold courses on how to write prompts.

Then they sold bots.

Now they’re building AI agents that run tasks on their own.

Some are even teaching people how to build systems of agents that work together.

Same pattern. Better tools.

There are a handful of people, like Mario and Luke Iha, who can push out ads that are basically ready to run.

Even if you had their tools, it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t understand marketing like they do.

So when everything starts moving fast and it feels overwhelming, I come back to one idea:

Treat AI like an intern.

If I want better results, I need to get better at directing it.

That means staying up to date on marketing, understanding platforms, and knowing who actually has real expertise.

More than anything, it comes down to critical thinking and common sense.

That’s what keeps me pointed in the right direction.

Over time, AI has made me better at marketing. But it’s also helped with random things like stain removal, fixing recipes, and figuring out what’s wrong with something around the house.

Here are two things I taught myself that make a big difference:

A. I ask AI to critique my work and try to tear it apart. It’s much better to have ChatGPT scold me than a client.

B. After I edit something, make AI read the changes so it can improve. It told me I naturally cut 10 to 20 percent of the words, remove fluff, and make things more conversational. Now the first drafts I get are better, so I spend less time fixing them.

These are just a few things I taught myself through trial and error. I didn’t learn that from a course. I figured it out by paying attention.

That’s really the point.

Using AI well gives you time and space to think better.

And that’s how you stay valuable.

So AI isn’t forcing you to give up marketing and embrace manual labor.

It’s exposing who knows what they’re doing.

0 comments