Copywriter Grades AI Content at 95%

Many pro content marketers insist AI-generated text is inferior to humans’. But not Neville Medhora. He’s a seasoned copywriter who claims AI is 95% as good as human writing, even for the most complicated work.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow, but you’ve got to adapt,” he told me.

Neville is the founder of Swipe File, a curated library of promotional content, and before that, of Kopywriting Kourse, an instructional site.

He first appeared on the podcast in 2019. In this our latest conversation, he addressed AI content and adapting to change.

Eric Bandholz: Tell our listeners what you do.

Neville Medhora: I run a site called Swipe File, which is a library of ads, emails, and campaigns to inspire marketers. Before that, I ran Kopywriting Kourse. It was a cash cow for years. I’m a long-time copywriter — a freelancer, a publisher, and an instructor.

With AI, you don’t really have to learn copywriting. Initially the results were pretty good; then they improved. AI is now better than what most people can produce. I can still write an article better than AI, but you have to give me at least three hours. But AI can be 95% as good, maybe even 100%, and it can produce 50 versions.

But my own newsletter and copy are 100% human.

Bandholz: I don’t receive a cold email anymore that isn’t AI. I can sniff it out as plain as day. It turns me off.

Medhora: I’ve followed AI for a long time. It keeps evolving, and it’s based on humans and how we learn. With the right formula, it can emulate a human brain. I don’t see what’s controversial or weird about that.

It can already do a pretty damn good job, but it still lacks a few things. I categorize it as easy, medium, and hard writing. AI solves easy writing, such as generating a headline for this episode based on the transcript.

An example of medium writing is an email update from an ecommerce store.

Hard writing is venture capitalist Mark Andreessen pontificating about the world and business on Twitter. That’s high-level writing. It might be short, a small thought. But even so, AI is 95% there.

My Instagram posts used to produce really crappy results. Now AI makes good images, good posts with pretty good results. I’m not sure why people are so afraid of it.

I’m a writer, a creative person. Initially AI stung for a while. Then I regrouped. Instead of writing one email for a client, maybe I can write thousands.

It’s a hard pill to swallow for some people, but you’ve got to adapt.

Bandholz: An essential skill in 2026 is tweaking and massaging AI copy.

Medhora: I don’t think people mind AI writing, but they do mind being fooled into thinking it’s from a human. At the beginning of my newsletters, I say it’s 100% human-written, with AI help for the images. People like that transparency.

AI-generated articles can be good, but they’re different from my style. I recognize and adjust it for important pieces.

Bandholz: Do you have a favorite AI model for writing?

Medhora: No, not just one. I use ChatGPT and Gemini a lot. I use Grok, especially for spicy questions. Grok is a little more unhinged. I use Perplexity sometimes to test the others.

For writing, the platforms are all roughly the same, within three months of each other.

For images and video, there are very real differences. ChatGPT Image 2.5 is vastly better than 2.0, which was much better than Google’s Nano Banana.

Bandholz: For basic chat, Grok is my go-to. I even like Grok’s image generation. However, I haven’t found differences from an editing standpoint. I’m implementing an AI-generated SEO strategy and content. I don’t want a single human to read it, just other robots.

Medhora: I’m going to Ahrefs’ SEO conference in a month. It’s the big topic — SEO, GEO, AEO, whatever you call it.

How do you spread a lot of content across the internet — video, audio, text, images, et cetera — so AI models can scrape it? That seems to be your strategy. It’s a lot like traditional SEO where the goal is more links.

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Bandholz: Let’s talk about Swipe File. It’s a beautiful website.

Medhora: Swipe File feeds my newsletter. I find stuff, post it, and include it in the newsletter. I post about three items per day. The idea is to inspire marketers.

For advertising inspiration, click the ads sidebar for many examples.

We have a tool called Remix. Enter your URL, such as Beardbrand.com, and Remix learns your website and sends you tailored content ideas.

Remix costs just $200 per year. It’s a great value.

Bandholz: Where can people follow you, support you, reach out?

Medhora: The best place is SwipeFile.com or SwipeFile.com/remix. I’m on all the socials: X, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.