AI Product Description Generator: How to Fill a Whole Catalog Without Hating Your Life
Last edited ยท 10 min read
The short version: an AI product description generator turns a few specs into publish-ready copy in seconds, which is a lifesaver at catalog scale. It won't fix bad positioning or fact-check itself, so treat it as a fast first draft with a human (or an agent) on the hook for accuracy.
Key Takeaways
- It solves a volume problem, not a taste problem. AI is unbeatable at drafting 500 descriptions fast. It still needs your angle, your facts, and your brand voice fed in up front.
- Bad product info costs you sales and returns. 45% of shoppers have returned an online order because the product information was inaccurate or misleading, per Salsify's 2024 consumer research. Speed that produces wrong copy is not a win.
- Structure beats prose. The descriptions that convert lead with the benefit, list scannable specs, and answer the one objection that kills the sale, not three paragraphs of adjectives.
- Feed it real inputs or it invents them. Generators hallucinate materials, dimensions, and compatibility when you leave gaps. Garbage in, confident garbage out.
- Where Hubi fits: Hubi can draft and update product descriptions across your Shopify catalog from a Slack message, then push them live once you approve. It writes and ships the copy; it does not verify physical specs it was never given, so accuracy on facts is still on you.
Intro
You just imported 340 products and every description field is empty. Writing them by hand is a full week you don't have, and copy-pasting the manufacturer blurb tanks your SEO because 90 other stores pasted the identical text. An AI product description generator is the obvious escape hatch, and for the volume problem it genuinely works.
Here's the honest bottom line before you get excited: these tools are excellent drafters and terrible fact-checkers. They'll produce 340 clean, readable descriptions in an afternoon. They'll also confidently state that your cotton tee is "premium merino wool" if your input didn't say otherwise. This guide covers what to use them for, the inputs that separate good output from generic mush, and where a human or an agent has to stay in the loop.
What is an AI product description generator?
An AI product description generator is a tool that takes structured product inputs (name, category, key features, specs, target buyer) and outputs written sales copy for that product's page. Most run on the same large language models behind general AI writing tools, wrapped in ecommerce-specific prompts and, in better tools, connected directly to your store's catalog.
The useful ones do three things a blank text box doesn't: they follow a consistent structure across every product, they adapt tone to your brand once you set it, and they can operate in bulk so a 500-SKU catalog isn't a 500-session slog. The weak ones are just a general chatbot with a product-shaped prompt, which is why output quality varies so much between tools.
Why product descriptions are worth getting right
It's tempting to treat descriptions as filler text under the photo. The data says buyers read them and punish you when they're thin.
- 78% of online shoppers say detailed product descriptions and high-quality images are extremely or very important to their buying decision, per Salsify's 2024 consumer research [1].
- 45% of shoppers have returned an online purchase because the product information was inaccurate or misleading [1]. Returns eat your margin twice: the lost sale and the reverse logistics.
- Baymard Institute found 10% of ecommerce sites have product descriptions that are simply insufficient for what users need to make a decision [2].
The takeaway isn't "write more words." It's that the description is doing real conversion work, and getting it wrong actively creates returns. Speed that produces inaccurate copy makes the returns problem worse, not better.
What AI is genuinely good at (and what it isn't)
| Task | AI generator | Reality check |
|---|---|---|
| Drafting 500 descriptions fast | Excellent | This is the killer use case. Salsify notes writing copy for 1,000 products manually can take up to six months [3]. |
| Keeping tone consistent across a catalog | Strong | Once you set brand voice, it holds it better than a rotating team of freelancers. |
| Rewriting duplicate manufacturer copy for SEO | Strong | Turns identical blurbs into unique text so you stop competing with 90 other stores on the same paragraph. |
| Getting physical specs right | Weak | It only knows what you feed it. Gaps get filled with plausible-sounding fiction. |
| Brand positioning and angle | Weak | It can't decide why your product is worth buying. That's your job, done before you prompt. |
| Fact-checking its own output | None | It will state wrong dimensions or materials with total confidence. |
The pattern: AI removes the labor of writing, not the judgment of deciding what's true and what matters. Adoption reflects this gap. Shopify reported around 50% of merchants planned to use AI tools for content generation [4], while eMarketer found 59% of marketers saw copywriting as a high-potential AI use but only 26% were actually doing it [5]. People want the speed and are still working out the trust.
The inputs that separate good output from generic mush
Most disappointing AI descriptions come from lazy prompts, not bad tools. Feed the generator these five things and the output jumps in quality:
- Exact specs. Materials, dimensions, weight, what's in the box. This is the anti-hallucination fuel. If you don't provide it, the tool guesses.
- The target buyer. "Weekend hikers on a budget" produces different copy than "ultralight thru-hikers." Same product, different angle.
- The one key benefit. Not five. The single reason this product beats the alternative the shopper is also considering.
- Brand voice, with an example. Paste one description you love. "Match this tone" beats any adjective list.
- The top objection. Whatever makes people hesitate (sizing, care, compatibility). A description that pre-answers it converts better.
What a good AI-written description looks like
Structure it so a skimmer gets the point in three seconds:
- Benefit-led opening line - what the product does for them, not what it is.
- A short scannable spec block - bulleted, not buried in prose.
- One objection handled - the sizing note, the care instruction, the compatibility line.
- A plain call to action - no cleverness needed.
Avoid the classic AI tell: three paragraphs of adjective soup ("premium, innovative, versatile, high-quality") that never say anything concrete. If a sentence would fit any product in your store, cut it.
How Hubi does product descriptions
Most AI generators live in a separate tab: you export a CSV, paste products in, generate, copy back, re-import. Hubi is an AI agent that works inside your store and takes the instruction in Slack, then does the round-trip for you.
Hubi, write descriptions for all 40 products in the "Summer Tees"
collection. Benefit-led, casual tone like our bestseller "Coastal Crew,"
mention the fabric is 100% organic cotton and pre-shrunk. Show me the
first 3 before doing the rest.
What Hubi does with that:
- Pulls the collection from your connected Shopify catalog so you don't hand it a spreadsheet.
- Drafts descriptions in the voice of the example product you named.
- Sends the first three back in Slack for a gut-check before it runs the full batch.
- Once you approve, writes the rest and pushes them live to the product pages.
The honest caveat: Hubi writes and ships the copy, but it only knows the facts you give it. If you don't tell it the fabric or the fit, it won't invent reliable specs, and it can't physically inspect your inventory. It's a marketing and content agent, not a product-data source of truth. You still own accuracy on the hard facts, which is exactly the part AI should never be trusted with unsupervised.
When not to fully automate this
- Regulated or safety-critical products (supplements, electricals, kids' items) where a wrong claim is a legal problem, not a typo. Draft with AI, approve with a human every time.
- Hero products that drive most of your revenue. These deserve hand-crafted copy and testing. Let AI handle the long tail.
- When you haven't defined your brand voice yet. Automating before you know your angle just scales blandness across the whole catalog.
How to start
- Pick 10 products, not your whole catalog. Test the tool on a sample first.
- Write one great description by hand to use as your voice example.
- Feed the five inputs above (specs, buyer, benefit, voice, objection) into the generator.
- Generate, then read every draft. Fix the facts, keep the structure.
- Once the sample is solid, scale to the rest of the catalog and spot-check.
FAQ
Will AI product descriptions hurt my SEO?
Not inherently. Google targets unhelpful, low-value content regardless of who wrote it. Unique, accurate, genuinely useful AI-assisted descriptions are fine. Mass-published thin copy is the risk, whether a human or a machine wrote it.
Are AI descriptions better than the manufacturer's copy?
Usually yes for SEO, because manufacturer copy is duplicated across every retailer that sells the item. Rewriting it into unique text stops you from competing with dozens of stores on identical paragraphs.
How do I stop the AI from making things up?
Feed it exact specs up front and never assume it knows physical details. If a field is blank in your input, treat any spec in the output as unverified until you check it.
How long does it take to describe a big catalog?
Manually, Salsify estimates copy for 1,000 products can take up to six months [3]. With a generator feeding off structured inputs, the drafting drops to hours. The review time depends on how risky your products are.
Do I still need a copywriter?
For hero products and brand positioning, yes. For the long tail of routine SKUs, AI handles the drafting and frees the copywriter for the work that actually moves revenue.
Can AI match my brand voice?
Better than you'd expect, if you give it a real example to mirror. Pasting one description you love beats any list of tone adjectives.
The takeaway
An AI product description generator is the right tool for a volume problem: it drafts clean, consistent, SEO-friendly copy across a full catalog in a fraction of the time. It is the wrong tool to trust with facts or positioning. Feed it real specs, a clear angle, and a voice example, then review the output before it goes live. Do that and you get a filled catalog without losing a week to a text box.
Hubi is an AI agent that lives in Slack and does the work for your store. Start free - no card required.
Sources
- Salsify - 2024 Consumer Research (product info importance; return rate from inaccurate info). https://www.salsify.com/press-release-2024-shopping-survey-spending-trends
- Baymard Institute - Product Description research. https://baymard.com/blog/product-descriptions
- Salsify - AI Ecommerce Product Content Strategy. https://www.salsify.com/blog/ai-ecommerce-product-content-strategy
- Shopify - AI Tools for Business. https://www.shopify.com/news/ai-tools-for-business
- eMarketer / Mediaocean - Generative AI in marketing. https://www.emarketer.com/content/generative-ai-s-actual-use-isn-t-meeting-its-perceived-marketing-potential-yet
