Don’t let AI outsource your authenticity

I got fooled by AI.

I thought I could easily spot it, but it got me.

After facilitating a program for senior leaders, I was reading the reports each participant was required to submit, based on five questions.

One submission was particularly thorough. I let the person know I was impressed.

A few reports later – the same wording as the one I’d just praised.

At first I was confused. Did they copy each other? Seemed unlikely. These were senior executives from different businesses, not school kids or uni students. 

Ah…AI. They’d used the same questions in their prompts and got almost identical answers.

How did I not pick it?

Sadly, leaders in some large organisations speak fluent bureaucratese. I’d mistaken AI’s human-less style for clunky corporate language.

Here’s my point: AI is a phenomenal time-saver for behind-the-scenes work. But senior leaders MUST do better than passing generated information off as their own insights.

Maybe it’s not such a big deal in a context like the one I’ve described – although it left me feeling disappointed in the two leaders.

But it IS a big problem if you’re communicating with your teams or external audiences and outsourcing all the effort to an AI platform.

People need to hear from the authentic you: your message, your insights, your essence.

Generative AI is a huge help; researching (but check the facts!), producing ideas, providing a structure – and more.

But true sharing of meaning needs to be human to human. Don’t risk your reputation by abdicating that responsibility.