How to use AI without losing your soul

Look, AI is here and there’s nothing we can do about it. But most of us feel a bit icky about using it because it doesn’t produce anything worth using, it feels generic and boring, or it doesn’t align with our brand values. 

Let’s deal with that first. AI has huge limitations. Huge. The quality of what it spits out is questionable and we need to be on high alert. It lies, it glitches, it hallucinates. 

From a moral standpoint, we need to be thinking carefully about how and why we’re using it and how much. We need to think about the cost of outsourcing our thinking on our brains’ capacities to problem solve. We need to worry about the long-term cost of cutting out junior staff members in favour of a machine. 

We need to consider the fact that if we spend so little time writing something, and value the output so little, why should our customers and readers bother to spend the time reading it. 

We need to make sure that our use of AI aligns with our brand values. That it isn’t affecting the way our customers experience our brand. 

But we need to be smart, strategic business owners who adopt the latest tools to achieve faster, more affordable, more efficient processes. 

How the hell do you marry all of this together? Here are some of my (work in progress) suggestions of things to remember to get the most out of AI:

1. Be the author

   First, remember always that AI is not the author. You are. AI is your assistant. Yes, the blank page is scary. But always always always have a go yourself first. Even if it’s a list of bullet points that you ask AI to expand on, at least you’re starting from a point of uniqueness. 

2. Bring your brain(s)

   AI learns by reading what already exists. The magic of you as a human or as a team of humans is that your ideas and thoughts aren’t already out there in the world. This is AI’s biggest limitation and your biggest strength.

3. Limit what you outsource

   If you outsource the research, planning, writing and editing of a piece to AI, you’re going to come up with beige BS. Be very selective about what you give it to do. Give it a blog post outline you’ve already started to see if it can suggest additions. Give it a piece of copy you’ve already written to critique. If you give away the whole process, you’ve lost yourself in there. Your readers will notice.

4. Treat it like your mate that lies

   AI is like that mate you have who tells tall stories down the pub. You don’t mind, but you know to take everything they say with a pinch of salt. No, their 8.30am Ryanair flight to Malaga didn’t do a loop-the-loop somewhere over Bilbao. Check everything AI tells you. Be rigorous. Stay awake. 

5. Put the time and effort in

   Your readers will know if you’ve fired this out using an LLM without so much as a thought or a care. Are your brand values to put your customers first? To respect them, care about them, nurture them? Spend some time on your copy then.

6. Stop the sycophant

   AI is the biggest sycophant you’ll ever meet. It’ll tell you your work is brilliant – no notes – even if it’s a pile of shite. Tell it to critique you, tell it to be honest, tell it to compare you to the best of the best. Otherwise it will just blow smoke up your arse until you run for president. 

If you’d like to chat more about writing for your business (with or without AI), I’d love to hear from you.