The AI Threat: When Everything Sounds Right, Nothing Feels Real.
I don't know about you, but 2025 left me feeling sour and sickened by all of the stony AI flooding our feeds and oversaturating our lives. I'm exhausted.
And frankly, I'd be lying if I said it doesn't worry me sometimes. People are making content and big life decisions with ChatGPT and other hollow AI platforms. Then I see the outcome and think, "Do people really fall for this AI fluff?
Companies and professionals are missing the whole idea of marketing. Marketing, at its core, is about understanding human behavior, and AI distorts that signal by interfering with the data we learn from humans.
Let's take social media content, for example. People scroll their feeds for different reasons. Some are bored, tired, procrastinating, looking for something specific, or trying to numb their overstimulation. AI will look at data and patterns of what's been done before and repeat it with the same hooks, phrases, structures, and motivational tone.
Ugh! Is no one else tired of those generic "POV" reels or carousel "lessons" posts?
These posts aren't bad, they're just useless when they're multiplied endlessly and stripped of any human individuality. AI took these messages and structures and increased their volume. That's where the interference lies when it comes to social media. And every great marketer knows that humans behave differently when something is repeated a million times.
How about when it comes to branding?
I take time to trust anyone. I also relate more to the messy stories of imperfections and contradictions. AI avoids this mess and, in turn, avoids honesty and cultural nuance. That makes brands forgettable.
It's true that when we write, we care about how something sounds, but most importantly, as copywriters, we focus on how it feels. People are missing the point that authentic brands have personality, and while AI can copy tone, it can't copy an actual point of view.
Will your customers take you seriously if you use AI to build your brand? Content and design are meant to connect with users and customers so they feel comfortable enough to buy your product or service. It's supposed to help build a lasting brand, which, by the way, requires consistent and authentic language, and AI is incapable of that.
You might have seen this or something close to it:
"At [brand], we believe in empowering individuals to live their best lives through thoughtfully crafted solutions designed with care and intention."
Substitute "brand" with any company, and while it sounds nice, it means absolutely nothing. Brand voice collapses because AI is trained on endless examples of how people speak and write, and it settles somewhere in the middle.
It picks the safest, most neutral language, not the boldest or truest. AI is trained to include everyone, but brand (and human) identity is not built by what most people agree on. They're built on what people reject, as well as what they like. Apple rejected technical lingo. Emirates rejected the idea that flying is just transportation. Stc rejected being just a service provider. They reject being explained by their products and operate with a clear belief system and strong messaging, understanding it's humans that ultimately decide. Who better to speak to humans than other humans?
The last few years have left us distracted by the shiny new object syndrome that is AI, and along the way, we've eroded authenticity and lost trust in companies. Is it AI? Is it real? How do we know? It's fooled so many people, and what's scarier is that it'll only improve.
But trust was never about intelligence. It's about human judgment of knowing what to say and what not to say. So, how much judgment are you willing to give up along the way?
