Corporate outreach campaigns are increasingly relying on AI to draft personalized emails, resulting in generic, inaccurate pitches that alienate the very professionals they aim to reach. Freelance writers report that these automated messages frequently mischaracterize their work and expose a broader corporate shift toward prioritizing speed and low cost over quality in communications.
The quality of automated outreach
Freelance writers receiving these pitches note immediate flaws in the generated text. One writer recalled reading the first sentence of a recent email and thinking, "This was written by someone trying to convince me they read my book when they didn't." The writer soon realized the message was not drafted by a human at all.
The structural failures of these emails are often obvious to the recipient. The writer described the output as being "like if you asked someone to put a 1,000-piece puzzle together blindfolded." While the words might technically form sentences, the resulting message lacks coherent meaning or genuine connection.
Mismatched messaging and lost jobs
Beyond poor syntax, these systems frequently hallucinate details about a recipient's work. In one instance, an AI-generated email described a book as a "heartwarming tribute to the human spirit," entirely misrepresenting the actual tone and subject matter of the publication.
This degradation in quality directly impacts the livelihood of human professionals. The writer noted that they are struggling to find work because companies are replacing human drafters with ChatGPT. The frustration stems not just from the replacement, but from the subpar quality of the output. "Right now, a whole lot of companies are choosing fast and cheap and saying to hell with good, and this is what happens," the writer said, referencing the classic business trade-off between speed, cost, and quality.
Why this matters for PR and communications professionals
Relying on unedited AI drafts for external communications damages credibility with journalists, authors, and partners. Teams deploying AI for PR & Communications must implement strict human review processes to catch hallucinations and tone mismatches before sending. Prioritizing automation over accuracy risks burning bridges that take years to build.
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