Just finished reading another colleague’s comments about not using AI in their writing. And their concern is valid. There is certainly no shortage of AI generated content attempting to pass itself off as insight and thought leadership. This is particularly prevalent on LinkedIn. Is it the frequent line-breaks or the over-use of certain words like ‘signal’ that weren’t a feature in our writing six months ago? What I’m wondering is: is this now a thing? Do I now need to put my hand up and proclaim whether I “AI or don’t AI?” To be honest, it makes me uneasy. So maybe it’s time to pull the band-aid off and be authentic myself.
I enjoyed the writing of these folks long before I knew about how or if they used AI. Their articles and posts are thoughtful, considered and grounded with stories and real experience. And they’re well written and concise. I can clearly see how this differs from other posts that are flat, make unsupported statements and feel like their speaking ‘at’ me rather than ‘to’ me. That difference was always clear. I can actually see them through their writing. Who they are and what they stand for.
To AI, or not to AI, I don’t think that’s the question. A better question may be, ‘how?’ Historically, writers have used editors, proofreaders, research assistants, speechwriters, writing coaches and sounding boards. We use spell-check. If an editor or a colleague sharpened up a paragraph, this does not make it invalid.
I’ve been doing this for many years for my clients, providing an external perspective, listening to what they want to express about their strategy and then helping them articulate it. It can be difficult to recognise patterns and synthesise ideas when you’re too close to them. To make implicit thinking explicit. And once finished, that clear strategy is still uniquely theirs.
How I write will always be grounded in my own original ideas and thinking. I’ve always had a knack for noticing patterns, synthesising ideas and thinking in systems. Using AI effectively helps me accelerate this. It also helps me learn and focus on where I need to improve.
Perhaps unusually for a consultant with twenty-some years of experience, I only started regularly writing about my work and how I see strategy and leadership about a year ago. In some ways, that makes me AI native. From the outset, I made a conscious decision that the thinking would always start with me. The observation, question or thesis is mine. AI’s role is to challenge my thinking, sharpen it and help me communicate it more clearly. Sometimes it confirms I’m on the right track. Sometimes it sends me back to start again.
So yes, I use AI in my writing. But the accountability remains mine.
Because if a tool helps me communicate my thinking more effectively, why would I hold that back from my readers?
This writing is inspired by my earlier article Leadership Attention
Image: Laura Sofia Martinez Agudelo / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
