We aren’t living in a black and white world anymore. AI isn’t coming, it’s already here, woven into the fabric of our everyday lives.
My daughter avoids it at all costs, yet when we were locked out of her laptop last weekend, AI saved the day in 30 seconds.
My mum, navigating a complex health journey, now uses it to decode medical reports so she can have empowered, informed conversations with her specialists.
As a business leader and communication strategist, I use AI daily to lighten my cognitive load. I build systems around it to streamline operations.
However, in service-based businesses where client trust is paramount, there is a dangerous line being crossed.
When businesses outsource their outward facing touchpoints to AI, audiences feel it instantly. It triggers the “uncanny valley” of marketing, the content that sounds polished, synthetically perfect, but utterly devoid of soul.
The boundary line I advocate for:
The Inward Facing Rule (Maximum AI Leverage)
Anything behind the curtain is fair game for AI. Use it to brainstorm, organise messy thoughts, test structural frameworks, and speed up administrative friction.
The Outward Facing Rule (Zero Tolerance for Outsourced Voice)
Anything that touches a human heart must remain human. Your origin story, your keynotes, your direct client communications, your lived experience, and your core brand stance.
How I Applied This Rule to Build My Brighton Summit Workshop
I’m hosting a workshop at this year’s Brighton Summit on 15 October titled Crafting Your Business Origin Story.
Here is the behind the scenes breakdown of how AI helped me build it, without stealing my voice:
- Concept & Proposal: I used AI as an ideation partner to explore session angles, but wrote the actual proposal email myself.
- Session Architecture: I dumped 20 years of my speaker coaching frameworks, TEDx methods, and messy notes into AI to help me map out the 75 minute workshop timeline.
- Slide Generation: I fed raw prompts into Canva AI to generate a slide deck template, then manually adjusted every layout, colour, and word to fit.
- The Script & Delivery: I wrote out the rehearsal notes and workshop prompts in my own words.
AI helped me gather my thoughts and construct the scaffolding, but the soul, voice, and lived experience belong entirely to me.
As AI continues to make content creation seem easy and effortless, our deeply human communication becomes priceless.
You cannot outsource your origin story. Which is why I’m so passionate about speaking on this topic!
If you want to step out of the daily grind and learn how to use your lived experience as your greatest business asset, join me at the Corn Exchange in October.
Get your Brighton Summit tickets here: https://bit.ly/4pxd9Rt
Want to remember your unique, artisanal voice before then? Send me a DM, I’ve got something that will help.
#BrightonSummit #AI #Leadership #Storytelling #PersonalBranding #HumanConnection
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