AI writer survey results; analyzing royalties; neuroscientific sneakers: Newsletter 5 November 2025

Newsletter 122. A deep dive into what 1481 writers told us about how they use AI. Plus, AI is a better parrot than MFAs, demystifying royalty statements, three people to follow, and three books to read. And, I’ll see you next week at the Gathering of the Ghosts — let’s connect!

Key results from the “AI and the Writing Profession” survey

Many months ago, Dan Gerstein, the CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, approached me with an idea. Could we do a comprehensive survey of how writers use artificial intelligence, how they feel about it, and what the likely outcome would be for the writing profession?

Thus began the “AI and the Writing Profession” survey project. I’ve spend the last two months analyzing the data from 1481 survey responses. The results fascinated me. What I learned was that not only were a majority of writers using AI, but there was a huge schism in the writing community. The people who used AI thought it was making them more productive and in some cases, actually increasing their incomes. The ones who didn’t were actively hostile.

As of today, you can download the full results at here. But here are some highlights. (Please, if you share these graphics, keep the fine print — base, source, copyright — to maintain the context and credit for these statistics).

Six out of ten writing professionals use AI tools at least sometimes; 26% use them daily. Thought leadership writers are most likely to use them (84%), while journalists (44%) and copy editors (33%) are least likely.

For the charts that follow, we classified all respondents into four classes:

• Advanced AI users (uses AI daily, 6+ different AI-aided tasks weekly)
• Basic (3-5 AI-aided tasks weekly)
• Dabbler (Uses AI at least sometimes, or performs 1-2 AI-aided tasks weekly)
• Nonuser (Uses AI rarely or never, does no tasks with AI weekly)

It’s tempting to believe that AI raises incomes, because the most intense AI users make $47,000 a year more on average than nonusers. In my opinion, it’s more likely that the highest paid writers are the ones most likely to use AI to increase their productivity.

People use AI tools for all sorts of tasks; the average writer using AI uses it for 3.6 different types of tasks weekly. I wasn’t surprised that finding titles and search were popular, but it’s amazing to me that 68% of writing pros using AI were brainstorming with it. However, only 7% of writers use it generate text that’s not edited further, and only 1% do that every day.

Writers think that AI makes them a lot more productive. The more they use the tools, the more they believe this. Across all writing professionals using AI, 43% believe that it make their writing better, and only 9% believe it makes their writing worse.

The more you use AI, the more you believe content created with AI should be labelled. (This question is likely to become moot; as AI tools become as common as spell-checking, the idea of labelling content created with AI will soon seem unnecessary.)

It’s interesting that 57% of writing professionals who are advanced AI users think AI is a positive force for the profession, but only 3% of nonusers agree.

I did find it notable and quite concerning that one in four writers were considering giving up their careers due to AI, a result that is consistent regardless of how much those writers use AI.

You shouldn’t get the idea that AI users are oblivious to its problems. Across all writing professionals, 91% are worried about hallucinations, 81% are worried about content theft, and 79% are concerned about the erosion of perceived value of human writers.

AI appears to be impacting freelancers’ work. A worrisome 45% report reduced demand, and 40% report reduced income.

Writers as a whole are pessimistic. Three out of four think opportunities for writing professionals will decline in the next five years.

As you can see from the final chart below, there’s a clear correlation between behaviors and attitudes. I scored every respondent with a use score (U), based on how frequently and broadly they used AI, as well as an attitude score (A), based on how worried they were about it. As a rule, the more you use AI, the less worried you are — even though on balance, more writers are concerned than are not.

I’ll be sharing more detail from the survey in coming weeks at Bernoff.com. While this field is shifting quickly, there is a lot of insight to mine from these survey results.

Please use the comments here to contribute questions you have. If the data we collected can answer those questions, I’ll find and share those answers.

News for writers and others who think

There are few books on New York’s controversial mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, and none have sold a significant number of copies. A flood of crappy AI-generated biographies are due any moment now. Let’s hope Amazon is prepared to fend them off.

A Columbia Law School study showed that MFA-trained experts were worse at copying the style of classic writers than AI was. I agree. If your objective is to copy another writer’s style, I pity you, but you should definitely use ChatGPT rather than getting a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Emily Riley is surveying high-income women. If this is you, take her survey please. Insights are sure to follow.

Phil Simon explains how to use AI to understand those confusing publisher royalty statements.

Nike has introduced neuroscience-based footwear that sends stimulation to the brain and improves concentration. Of course, if you wear these, you’ll look like Bozo and the resulting ridicule might get in the way of your gains in concentration.

Three people to follow

John Maeda , design god

Alex Wieckowski 📚 , intrepid book recommender

Qin Qin , exploring and puncturing Asian stereotypes

Three books to read

The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last by Jimmy Wales with Dan Gardner (Crown Currency, 2025). Wikipedia founder explains how trust enables it to endure.

The Definitive Guide to Ghostwriting: Hone Your Skills. Grow Your Business. Create the Life You Desire by Alice Sullivan and Alee Anderson (Gatsby House, 2025). A practical guide to getting started as a successful ghostwriter.

The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity–and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race Daniel Z. Lieberman and Michael Long (BenBella, 2019). What you need to know about the master hormone dopamine.

See you in New York at the Gathering of the Ghosts

I’ll be there on Monday and Tuesday (November 10-11). I’m chairing the first panel, on AI tools. Stop by, say hi, and tell me you read this newsletter.