Are AI Writing Tools Lowkey Killing Our Ability to Write?

Writers face an uncomfortable choice: integrate AI writing tools into their workflow, or risk becoming irrelevant. But if we outsource writing to AI, will we slowly lose our ability to write on our own?

As a professional writer, ChatGPT has quickly turned into my work bestie. It assists me with my writer's block, it helps me organize my ideas, and it helps me sharpen my writing. But after a while of using it to assist in my writing process, I can't help but wonder: have I lost the ability to write without being assisted 24/7 by artificial intelligence?

The undeniable truth is that AI tools are becoming better writers day by day. They're still not at the level of writing strategic copy or thought leadership content (because they can't think critically on their own, nor can they understand or express emotional nuance), but they are becoming better at writing.

And for writers, that presents an uncomfortable choice: adapt and integrate AI into your workflow, or risk becoming irrelevant. But there’s something else no one’s talking about. Something that’s been gnawing at me...

Are we slowly losing our ability to write on our own? And if, as writers, we outsource our writing to AI, can we still call ourselves writers without feeling like we're cheating?

The Silent Side Effects (the Slow Death of Original Thought?)

Are we losing our ability to write by letting AI write for us?

It’s a bit like muscle atrophy. What happens when you stop using a part of yourself for too long? If we let AI take over the heavy lifting, does our writing brain start to weaken? Do our instincts dull? Creativity, after all, is a muscle. And the more we outsource it, the more we risk losing our ability to create without second-guessing ourselves and seeking validation from a robot.

The benefit of using AI writing tools is clear: we become faster, more efficient, and better able to juggle deadlines and scale our output. We can draft in minutes, iterate endlessly, and produce content that ticks all the boxes.

But the danger is subtle... and more insidious. We risk becoming bland. Generic. Soulless. You can spot AI-assisted copy a mile away. It’s polished, grammatically sound, and technically “correct.” But it’s also emotionally flat.

Writing is a highly creative job. We’re tasked with choosing words that cut through noise, that stir something real, that turn readers into believers or buyers. And anyone who’s ever stared down a blank page knows that this work isn’t easy. Not everyone can do it. And certainly not everyone can do it well.

Yes, it’s a learnable skill. But for those of us who’ve been at it for years, it’s also something deeper. It’s how we think. It’s how we process the world. Writing isn’t just how we make money. It's our identity.

And so this shift toward outsourcing that expression to machines... it's complicated. On one hand, it’s a gift. AI helps us hit deadlines, improve flow, and do more in less time. We can serve more clients. Reduce burnout. Kickstart the creative process when we're stuck. But on the other hand? It feels like a slow creative death. A quiet handing-over of the thing that made us us in the first place.

Because if we stop doing the actual writing – if we just prompt, edit, and polish instead – can we still call ourselves writers without feeling like we've lost our identity? Without feeling like we're a fraud?

AI Writing Tools Made Writing Easier, But They Didn’t Make It Less Valuable

Aside from slowly killing our sense of identity and our ability to create without second–guessing every single thing we write, the surge of AI writing tools has changed the very nature of the freelance writing job market. And not just in a “seasonal dip” kind of way – but in a structural, the-ground-is-shifting-under-our-feet kind of way.

Well-paid writing jobs are harder to come by. Clients are ghosting more. Budgets are tighter. And even companies that used to value premium writers are starting to question those fees. Writing is “easier than ever,” they say. “Faster. More efficient. So why should we pay more for it?”

And to be fair, they’re not entirely wrong. AI has made writing faster. It’s sped up the research process, helped structure content more quickly, and made brainstorming feel less like pulling teeth.

So, if I used to spend five hours analyzing case studies and interview transcripts, I can now read for context, drop everything into ChatGPT, and get logical insights and potential angles in thirty seconds.

But faster doesn’t automatically mean cheaper – at least, it shouldn’t.

If a consultant uses a tool that lets them solve a problem in an hour instead of a week, do you pay them less, or do you pay them more because they’re now even more effective? It’s the same with writing. If I can now write a sharper, more insight-driven piece in half the time, isn’t that more valuable, not less?

The problem isn’t that AI is making writing easier. The problem is that many writers are still pricing based on time and effort instead of outcomes. They’re selling words, not results. And the second you frame your value in word count or hours, AI will always seem like a cheaper, faster alternative.

But if you’re selling clarity, conversion, positioning – things that directly impact how a business makes money – you’re not in competition with AI. You’re using it as leverage.

So yes, writing is easier now. But writing that actually drives revenue, builds trust, and sounds like a real human with something worth saying? That’s still hard. That still takes skill, taste, and experience. And clients who understand that are still willing to pay for it.

Are Writers Dying a Slow, Unnoticeable Death?

What AI tools are giving us in speed, they may be taking away in soul. Yes, we're able to analyze information faster. We write faster. We churn out more copy and more content for more clients in less time than ever before.

But the more we outsource our writing to AI, the less creative we become. When AI becomes our second brain, our own starts turning into mush... because we're no longer able to write anything by ourselves without second-guessing whether AI could write it better. We lose trust in our instincts, and we get frustrated by the very craft we love.

So, where does that leave us?

As freelance writers, we can do the only thing that's left to do: incorporate AI into our writing process as an assistant to help us with research, analysis, and brainstorming, and refuse to let it write for us. Or instead of us.

Because if we let AI do the heavy lifting, how long until we forget how to carry the weight ourselves? How long until we lose our ability to write and become managers of prompts?