If you had to make a bet, would you say that ChatGPT wrote this article? Is it the em dashes? (Don’t blame them. Grammar nerds like me loved punctuation long before robots arrived.)
I let AI do too much of my writing. But then I realized it all started sounding like muzak: technically fine, emotionally empty. I felt irrelevant, like a ghost in my own work. So I reinvented my approach. Now I’m learning to write from a more emotional place, to let myself actually be seen. Because I believe the true promise of AI is to make us more human, not less.
The heart of what makes us human
What have humans done since the beginning of time? We’re storytellers. We’re connectors. We’re communicators. Sure, AI can “tell a story,” but what AI can’t do is have lived experience. AI can’t teach another human being something it has lived through. AI can’t stand in front of a room and help someone feel something real.
That’s why I believe the people who are going to succeed in the age of AI are the storytellers. Because stories create emotions. Stories connect people. And it’s still—all of it—about people. At the end of the day, the easiest way to get a job is still finding someone inside the company who knows you, or who knows someone who knows you.
Image courtesy of Florian Schleicher’s Marketing Trend Report, Return to Real
Where AI actually helps us
It’s been shown that when consumers sense that a brand is using AI—maybe it’s a certain style of writing instead of our own unique voice—trust goes down (see Florian Schleicher’s Marketing Trend Report, Return to Real). Because we’re not telling our own stories. We’re essentially allowing AI to do that for us.
And then everything becomes kind of beige. Everything starts sounding the same, like the terrible pop music pumping into the coworking space where I’m writing this. And it’s funny because no one is listening to it. We’ve all got our headphones on, listening to something that actually moves us—something that wasn’t produced with maximizing sales as the end goal. Something Rick Rubin would approve of.
The point of AI is synthesis. But beige is boring.
Humans need to dance.
In many ways AI is good for helping us do the things we don’t need to be doing anymore. I’ll give you some examples from my own life: translating long healthcare documents and pulling out the salient information I need to make a quick decision, researching which supplement regimen is best given my age, helping me build a spreadsheet that tracks certain aspects of my finances. All of this time saved so I can double down on where I shine: working with clients, teaching, helping people connect.
The real opportunity
The opportunity in front of us right now is to lean into our humanity, not away from it.
To connect.
To tell stories.
To build relationships.
Whenever disruptive technology comes, net new jobs follow. They just take time to appear. It’s like watching a new galaxy form—chaotic, disorienting, and full of possibility.
Every day, I talk to people who feel pessimistic or scared. I can empathize—and I have always been a chronic optimist. That’s why, until the robots come to carry me away, I’m going to use AI to help me be the most creative, vulnerable, and human human possible.
THE BIG PRINT
In the Age of AI, double down on your humanity FTW.
How to Be More Memorable
If you’re wondering how to actually communicate your humanity in a way people remember, this is where story comes in. I use this Red Thread framework with my clients to help them ground their experience in a personal story. Here’s the framework in three steps:
Want to learn more about this framework and get specific language to help build your red thread story? Download the Red Thread Story Builder here
TAKE IT FROM… Rick Rubin founder of DefJam Records, a gifted and prolific music producer, and author of one of my favorite books, The Creative Act: A Way of Being.
Rick Rubin doesn’t do beige. He taps into his intuition and listens for what wants to come through. Before each music production session with a new artist, his music studio is repainted white—a nod to the blank canvas as possibility.
Rubin has honed his taste to know what feels right. He says, “Art is simply what we choose.”
AI can output infinite variations. But it doesn’t choose one.
Taste—the ability to discern what feels alive—is uniquely human.
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