Far from being the death knell of our trade, I do not believe AI is the enemy of the ghostwriter
Will AI replace writers? It’s an anxiety-inducing question for our industry – but one that few professionals can afford to ignore. Whether you’re manning a supermarket checkout, driving a train or ghostwriting the next New York Times bestseller, chances are you’ve wondered, at least fleetingly, whether an algorithm could one day come for your job. But let’s be honest: while AI is reshaping the world of work, some industries have considerably more reason to worry than others.
The data suggests that writing is on that front line. More than half of published novelists in the UK fear AI could eventually replace their work entirely, according to a report published by the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy in 2025. Surveying 258 published authors alongside 74 editors and agents, the study revealed that 51% believe AI is likely to displace them altogether. Many reported that their books had already been scraped without consent to train large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, while 39% reported that their income had already dropped, with the majority expecting earnings to fall even further.
As a professional ghostwriter, I’ve wrestled with the question ‘will AI replace writers’ constantly since ChatGPT launched in late 2022. Four years on, while a lot has changed, AI is still a long way from being capable of writing a good book. In my experience, it’s clear that LLMs remain fundamentally incapable of capturing the nuance, voice, and lived experience required to write a truly compelling book.
Yet, full transparency: I do make use of AI. Actually, more than that, I believe it has made a positive contribution to my work.
Far from being the death knell of our trade, I do not believe AI is the enemy of the ghostwriter. Hear me out…
Some sectors are more vulnerable to being replaced by AI than others
I was concerned AI could replace writers at first
A couple of years ago, a regular client – someone I’d collaborated with on multiple short business books – sent over an outline for his next project. He was always a very engaged author, brimming with ideas and suggestions for the series we worked on. But up to that point, he’d always left the structure completely up to me. This time was different: he had built the outline using an AI model.
It was a genuine heart-stopping moment. Was this the beginning of the end? I thought. Am I being replaced by AI?
To be fair, it was only a framework – a series of bullet points really. But how long would it be before AI filled in the bits in between, writing all the text? How long before AI replaced ghostwriters like me?
AI is already replacing some short-form ghostwriting
Currently, the ghostwriting economy is broad. While I, and the fellow members of The Ghostwriters Agency are bestselling ghosts specialising in full-length books, there are also ghosts for short-form writing like:
Speechwriting
Thought leadership content
Personal essays
Social media strategy
Investor reports
Blog posts
And more
Sadly, sectors such as those listed above are the most vulnerable to the possibility of AI replacing writers. Indeed, it is quite likely that ghosts in such sectors are already finding their livelihoods severely impacted by people using AI as opposed to ghostwriters.
For bite-sized content, AI can produce a serviceable first pass in seconds.They generate a draft, polish the rough edges, and paste it directly onto LinkedIn or their company blog, cutting the professional writer out of the loop entirely. Is the final product the best work possible? Unlikely. But do business owners and creators care? For many, "serviceable" is good enough.
An LLM simply cannot sustain and evolve the big ideas required for a full-length book
But AI cannot replace long-form, non-fiction writing
While we have to acknowledge that AI is replacing some writers who specialise in short-form, an LLM simply cannot sustain and evolve the big ideas required for a full-length book. The telltale flaws that slip into short AI pieces don't just carry over into an 80,000-word manuscript. They multiply exponentially until they become impossible to ignore.
The repetition alone is grating. My personal pet hate is the relentless crutch of variations on "it’s not just about X, it’s also about Y." Even with excellent prompting, AI also tends to default to a generic voice with safe, middle of the road phrasing. This produces a soulless read.
For an author wanting to produce a bold, cutting-edge book in, say, business, leadership or personal development, this produces the very opposite impact that they want.
Why AI cannot replace long-form ghostwriters
From day one, LLMs like ChatGPT have suffered from two major flaws when it comes to long-form writings: narrative amnesia and outright hallucination. Over the arc of a full-length book, the algorithm simply runs out of fresh steam. Instead of developing an argument or a story, it lobs in a rephrased version of an earlier point a few pages down, or invents facts out of whole cloth to bridge the gap.
The skill of a ghostwriter goes well beyond that of writing. We’re not just assembling information. We spend time interviewing authors, asking provocative questions and follow-up questions. This ensures there is enough original content and that it is written with the reader in mind. Add to this, some of the most valuable parts of any collaboration are off-script moments, when an author mentions something in passing that ends up anchoring the book’s central message.
Contrast this with an author who types in a prompt: ‘write me a chapter for a book on entrepreneurialism, exploring how to develop a business idea as a first-time founder’. AI has no idea what makes this person’s journey unique, and left to their own devices, most authors won't think to articulate it either. It takes an experienced human ghost to tease out why their personal scar tissue matters to the reader. Strip that away, and you're left with an algorithmic summary of business advice: technically competent, completely generic, and entirely forgettable.
Can AI replace a writer? Technically, yes. But does AI truly offer the skill and talent to replace a decent ghostwriter? Absolutely not.
Does AI truly offer the skill and talent to replace a decent ghostwriter? Absolutely not.
The problem with AI replacing writers? Algorithms can’t feel
While it’s less common for ghostwriters to be hired for fiction, looking at what’s unfolding in the creative world is revealing. There’s ample evidence that AI is churning out novels, though largely driven by hobbyists and amateur writers. In some genres such as romance, thriller and sci-fi, AI tools like Sudowrite and Claude can generate remarkably coherent chapters, plot outlines and dialogue exchanges. The formulaic nature of such books makes it more accessible to machines trained on vast amounts of existing work.
Are books actually any good when AI replaces professional writers? That’s for the reader to judge. In my view, AI-generated fiction falls completely flat on emotional depth. Fiction, especially when literary or character-driven, requires a subtle handling of emotional depth, personal nuance and psychological realism. AI can mimic tropes but it can’t make up feelings. Its main driver is to produce the next sentence that statistically appears to make the most sense in the particular genre.Caution is advised when using AI to ghostwrite
There has been much discussion about the legalities and implications for the publishing industry of AI and a number of ongoing legal actions from disgruntled authors about AI allegedly lifting books wholesale to train its models. I had a very revealing conversation with a publisher not long ago, who told me that one of their authors had uploaded their entire book onto Claude to check it and ask for any suggestions for improvements. That publisher subsequently declined to publish this book because it was now part of the model and could effectively be used in other works long before it appeared on bookshelves.
The message here is to take care of the content you put into AI. I wouldn’t advise putting in complete chapters and certainly not entire books. It works the other way around too. Take care what you take out. You could, inadvertently, be infringing someone’s copyright by lifting AI-generated content wholesale.
Can you tell if AI is used in writing?
As a professional ghostwriter, I can spot AI-generated copy a mile away. It goes far beyond the obvious stylistic giveaways, for example, the telltale overuse of em-dashes, the habit of Capitalising Every Single Word In Subheadings, or the obligatory breathless opening rhetorical question.
The real giveaways lie in the architecture and the insight. The structure is very formulaic and AI does seem to struggle with the nuances that make a short form piece really hit home. AI-generated blogs never seem to have the insight or originality that make pieces credible.
AI is not the enemy of ghostwriting
That doesn’t mean writers should never use AI
AI is not the enemy of ghostwriting. Far from it. I’ll admit, I was a bit reluctant to use it at first. My first foray was prompted by my youngest, who saw me manually alphabetising a list for the appendix of a book, and said ‘put it into ChatGPT’. I did and it was a revelation. Since then, I have relaxed about it and now use it in a number of ways. Here’s how it earns its keep on my desk:
Interview prompts
My writing process always begins with a chapter-by-chapter plan and I then interview to the plan. I will often run a chapter summary through AI to see if I am missing an angle. It is surprising how often it comes back with something that takes me in a different and potentially rewarding direction.
Chapter heading ideas
I’ve always struggled with coming up with compelling chapter headings, but AI can generate any number of them. Even if they are not quite right, they are food for thought and I can mix and match elements from the selection.
Book title and sub-titles
See above
Summarising long transcripts
With some books, especially with multiple contributors, it is possible to find yourself juggling with transcripts of many thousands of words, or numerous documents helpfully provided by an author. AI can summarise them all into useful themes. Note, the human writer still needs to go through the material in detail to make sure no nuances are missed. It’s just helpful to break down the task.
Research
This is a big part of any non-fiction ghostwriter’s job and AI is great for this purpose, much more efficient and faster than repeated Google searches. I will add the caveat that it is always important to check and verify the sources. I’ve caught Chat GPT out making things up more than a few times. (I may be a bit odd, but I quite like the response when I tell it this. If AI could do embarrassment…)
There are some skills AI will never replace
A word of caution: Writers should handle AI with care
There has been much discussion about the legalities and implications for the publishing industry of AI. There are also a number of ongoing legal actions from disgruntled authors about AI allegedly lifting books wholesale to train its models. The risks aren’t theoretical, either.
I had a very revealing conversation with a publisher not long ago, who told me that one of their authors had uploaded their entire book onto Claude to check it and ask for any suggestions for improvements. That publisher subsequently declined to publish this book because it was now part of the model and could effectively be used in other works long before it appeared on bookshelves.
The message here is to take care of the content you put into AI. If you are a writer, I wouldn’t advise putting in complete chapters and certainly not entire books. It works the other way around too. Take care what you take out. You could, inadvertently, be infringing someone’s copyright by lifting AI-generated content wholesale.
Should authors use AI instead of a ghostwriter?
Tools like ChatGPT can pull background research, summarise dense arguments, and help sketch an outline. What they cannot do is pinpoint the single, resonant metaphor that unlocks a messy concept. They can’t sense when an author is sanitising a story to protect their ego.
Unlike a professional ghostwriter, a LLM will never lean across the table and say, "Actually, this anecdote completely undermines the core thesis of Chapter Three – do we need to rethink the arc?"
More importantly, an algorithm doesn't care. It doesn't challenge. It doesn't interrogate. It simply outputs.
In non-fiction, clients aren't just buying content—they're buying intellectual companionship. They're paying for someone who can see the invisible connections in their thinking, organise chaos into clarity, and ask the questions that create a book worth writing.
(Now, a brief confession: did you notice that those last two paragraphs were generated entirely by an AI? Did you feel the subtle shift in voice? The neat, rhetorical parallelisms? If you caught the digital seam – or if it simply read just a shade too calculated – then you already understand the irreplaceable value of a human writer.)
If you want a real, perceptive ghostwriter to help turn your ideas into a lasting book, get in touch with our team today.