A Little Tough Love About AI

Hello my friends! My apologies for the froggy voice. We had a lovely little taste of spring here in South Dakota followed by more winter. This shifting in the seasons has triggered some crazy allergies in me, and given me a bit of a scratchy voice and a little cough. Not to worry I actually feel fabulous, I just don’t sound like it. 

And normally I wouldn’t record an episode when my voice sounds this rough but I had a message I really wanted to share with all of you today… 

This is going to hit hard, my friends. I want to talk about something that’s been sitting with me lately. The goal of this bonus episode isn’t to offend you. It isn’t to annoy you. It’s to inform you. 

Here’s the thing––It’s not that AI is bad––it's just AI doesn’t know the real you.

And if you found that intro to be a bit irritating, then you will know where I am coming from. This is AI writing at its finest, and it just doesn’t feel real. 

Lately I have been seeing the telltale signs of AI showing up everywhere in brand messaging. Just this morning as I was scrolling through my emails, and out of the 5 emails I opened to read, every single one of them opened with a classic AI statement… 

• This is going to hit hard… 
• I want to talk about something that’s been sitting with me lately… 
• It’s not that …. It’s just this 

And let’s not forget the three short choppy sentences after the opening sentence.  

And guess what I did with those emails. I deleted them without reading them. There may have been some really interesting stuff in those emails, but they didn’t feel genuine or authentic to the person sending them. They felt like fluff and I personally don’t have time for fluff. 

I also am not the only person who is over the AI fluff in our world. Plenty of other people are doing just like I did… deleting messages without reading them, and it is hurting our businesses. 

I love AI in a lot of ways. 

I use it to help me brainstorm, to transcribe my hand written meeting notes, and even to help me come up with clever phrases and metaphors I can work into my blogs and podcasts. 

I even use it to help me with calculating my calories and macros when doing my meal planning and to research ways to make new meals. Although you have to be careful there too.  I actually came across an AI written food website that said to bake a tray of cupcakes for 60 minutes at 450. Don’t do that… unless you want burnt hokey pucks! 

I was also one of the early adopters of AI. I am actually an early adopter of most things, so when AI came onto the scene I was excited to explore and see what it could do. I even let it write for me for a little while, because I thought it would make everything easier.

What I learned in relying heavily on AI 

What I discovered was putting the “me” back into AI written content took three times longer than just writing the content directly from my fabulous brain. 

I also lost subscribers, followers, and large pieces of my audience when I was relying heavily on AI. My engagement rates on my emails plummeted, and most importantly I lost the connection I had with my audience. This was the worst possible thing because I really pride myself on being genuine and real and authentic. And while I thought I was being efficient by using AI it was taking the real me out of it little by little. I wasn’t creating that connection with my audience that is so very important to me. 

I don’t want this to happen to you. I get it. Being a solo business owner or small business owner with a tiny team there is a lot to do. We wear a lot of hats and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to get it all done. I am all about finding new efficient ways to focus on my business, these new efficient ways should never come at the cost I paid. 

So consider this bonus episode a little tough love note from me to you encouraging you to trust in yourself and most importantly remember… AI is not your employee, it is not your friend. It's the suck up ass kisser who will tell you whatever you want to hear, without ever looking at the real you. 

AI is a tool to support business. Not build it. 

You can love it, you can use it daily, you can even give it a cute name… I call my AI tool Sparky… but at the end of the day it is still just a tool, and it can never see or portray the real you. 

It doesn’t matter how much information you feed into your AI to get to know the “real you”, it doesn’t know what you have lived through, and the fears you have overcome or the successes you’ve accomplished. It doesn’t see all the planning, researching, and learning you have done to get to where you are. It can’t actually speak to your level of experience because it can only process the data it is given, and you are so much more than words on a screen. 

It also can’t pick up the nonverbal communication cues that a real person can see. It can’t hear the change in your tone of voice when you are excited about something, or notice the shift of your eyes when something doesn’t feel right. AI doesn’t recognize body language, or even care if you are smiling or frowning or making funny faces at it. It can’t pick up on your gestures or make real eye contact. It simply mimics patterns and strings together words, often in very long run on sentences. 

To quote Arthur Weasley from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets… 

“Never trust anything if you can’t see where it keeps its brain”

I am not saying break up with AI

I simply want to encourage you to stop using it blindly. And if you want to stand out, to be noticed by your dream customers, to grow a business on a solid foundation that is built to last, you have got to put the “YOU” into your content. 

Sure with all the advances in technology there is AI that can 

• Build a website… but not one based on strategy that is specific to you, your business, your brand, your life and your goals 
• Write website copy… but not copy that captures the real you and connects with your dream customers an a genuine level 
• Offer an “ear” to confide in… but it can’t offer empathy or any real support and encouragement. It just blows smoke up your “you know what” 

And that is it for today’s episode of The Solo Grind. I really hope that today’s message has you thinking a bit, and recognizing that you are so much more amazing than your AI counterpart. 

Only you can… 

• Show the world the real you… that your dream clients love working with. 
• Bring your knowledge, experience and intelligence into what you are building. 
• Create the life you are dreaming of. 

See you all next week on our regularly scheduled episode of The Solo Grind! Until then, have a fabulous weekend my friends! 

Thanks for tuning into the Solo Grind. If you found this episode interesting, please share it with a friend. Together we can end this madness with AI and create a world that is much more genuine.