Compelling product descriptions play a crucial role in converting visitors into buyers. And with the rise of AI-driven content creation tools, many businesses are considering using AI to streamline and enhance their product copy.
But is it the right move?
In this blog, we weigh up the pros and cons and AI-generated product descriptions and recommend the best AI-copywriting tools.
Who should use AI for product descriptions?
First things first – do you even need to use AI in the first place? With more and more discourse around the quality of AI-generated copy and Google’s apparent crackdown on content created in this way, it may seem like AI is best avoided altogether.
However, as we explained in our AI content writing & Google’s core updates blog, it’s not about whether or not you use AI, but how you use it. Human intervention is always required to a certain degree, to ensure quality, accuracy and relevancy to the target audience.
With that being said, brands with very small product inventories are probably better off writing their product page copy from scratch. Bigger businesses, such as wholesalers, dropshippers or global enterprises with multiple storefronts on the other hand can benefit from automating the content creation process. If you’ve got thousands of products in your inventory and you’re adding new ones on a weekly or daily basis, it’s almost impossible (not to mention, expensive) to manually write product titles, descriptions, meta data and image alt tags from scratch for every single item. That’s where AI tools come in.
The benefits of using AI for product descriptions
Efficiency and scalability
AI can generate thousands product descriptions at scale in a fraction of the time it would take a human writer. This is especially beneficial for businesses with large inventories that need consistent, well-written content across hundreds (or even thousands) of products.
Cost-effectiveness
Hiring professional copywriters or content teams can be expensive, whether it be on a freelance basis or in-house. AI-driven tools offer an affordable alternative, reducing labour costs while maintaining a steady content output.
SEO optimisation
Many AI writing tools incorporate SEO best practices, ensuring that product descriptions include relevant keywords to boost organic search rankings and visibility.
Consistency in brand voice
Advanced AI tools allow businesses to input style guidelines, ensuring uniformity in tone, language, and messaging across all product descriptions, protecting your brand identity.
Unhindered growth potential
If you’re expanding your product offering and branching out into new categories, countries or niches, the last thing you need is content creation slowing you down or throwing a spanner in the works. With AI copywriting tools, you can rest assured that you’ll be able to create unique copy and SEO content in your chosen language within minutes as and when you need to, for every single product you launch.
The drawbacks of AI-generated product descriptions
Lack of creativity and emotional appeal
AI is great at structuring content and sticking to the facts. But it can lack nuance, emotional connection and creativity, although this is usually a bigger issue for long-form content rather than product page copy. If this is something that you feel your product copy needs, however, you’ll have to ensure every piece of copy is edited by human copywriters if you decide to go down the AI route.
Potential for generic content
AI-generated content can sometimes feel repetitive or formulaic. Without proper customisation, it may fail to stand out or resonate with potential customers. When choosing an AI tool, we’d strongly recommend looking for one that allows you to input brand guidelines and details about the target audience to make sure the content created is unique and on-brand.
Limited ability to capture unique selling points
AI works best with structured data, but it may struggle to highlight the unique features and benefits of a product in a compelling way that differentiates it from competitors.
Quality control is essential
AI-generated descriptions still require human oversight to ensure accuracy, relevance, and proper grammar. Businesses must invest time in reviewing and refining AI-generated content before publishing.
Three best practices for using AI in product descriptions
- Incorporate human creativity: blend AI efficiency with human insight to add emotional appeal, storytelling, and personality.
- Review for accuracy: double-check AI-generated descriptions to avoid errors, misleading claims, or irrelevant details.
- Test and optimise: continuously analyse how AI-written descriptions perform and adjust strategies accordingly to maximise conversions.
Our recommended AI tool for product descriptions
Typesmith
Typesmith helps retailers save time and boost conversions by automating the content creation process for product display pages.
Developed by SEO and ecommerce experts, Typesmith combines copywriting with cutting-edge AI technology to produce thousands of unique product descriptions, titles, meta descriptions and more in a matter of minutes.
So how does it work? Typesmith’s custom AI analyses your existing data (product titles, descriptions, collections, etc), then takes your brand’s tone of voice, target audience and writing style into consideration and crafts a series of titles, meta titles, product descriptions, on-page descriptions that are laser-focused on your brand and written to persuade.You’ll receive your copy in the form of an import-ready, CSV file that’s compatible with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Magento.
If you want some one-on-one training on how to use AI copywriting tools or simply want to learn more about them, fill out this form and we’d be happy to help.
