The Aftertaste of AI Writing

Lately, I’ve come across a lot of posts that say all the right things. Impactful. Well-structured. Professional. Written by people who clearly know what they’re doing.

But they still leave me feeling a bit detached. Like the person behind the words never fully made it in.

And the more I see it out there, the more I’ve started noticing it in my own work, too.

Because if anyone could’ve said it… did it really say anything at all?

So I was scrolling through LinkedIn the other day and saw a new creative agency launch. The visual caught me: A good photo of good-looking founders, cool layout.

For a second, I thought:
“Okay…wow, let’s see.” So I kept reading.

But right away, something felt off. That same weird tension. I’m not above it. It’s just, I’ve read so much of this stuff that I can almost feel when a post is running on auto-pilot. Not wrong. Just kind of… flat.

It’s like everyone internalized the voice of a millions AI-generated brand posts. Now it just spills out without thinking.

You know the ones:
“Here’s the thing” or “Here’s the truth.”
“But something’s shifted.”
“It’s the slow, quiet power…”
“Maybe…maybe….maybe…”
“It’s not just about X, it’s about Y.”
“Not just noise.”
“… and nothing sticks.”

It’s not that those phrases are wrong. They’re just… hollow now. Emptied out by overuse. I’ve done it too. More times than I’d like to admit.

Usually when I was tired, over it, or just needed to hit publish and move on. It’s hard to shake off that “voice”, or let’s call it an articifial pattern in the writing. Even when you try to retrain the machine, it’s still there.

This isn’t a war against AI writing. I love the tools. I just think we’ve started outsourcing the part that makes it worth reading in the first place.

And there’s something else happening, too: Branding used to be about carving a voice. Now it’s blending in.

We don’t really try to stand out anymore, we’re just trying not to get ignored. By whatever the algorithm thinks we should be.

You tell me what it is. Because I’m not even sure we’re thinking for ourselves anymore.

It’s not just the writing. We’ve gotten a little too comfortable. A little lazier with thought. Less curious.

A few lines in, I’m already thinking: “What is this person even trying to say?“

I know I’m emotion-first.
That’s how I read. That’s how I connect.

But somehow, the person behind the words is missing. There’s no real thought holding it together. Or maybe there was, but it never made it all the way through. That’s usually when I stop reading. People don’t talk like that! So why write like it?

We’re not going back to a world without AI. But what we need (urgently) is more judgment while using those tools. Treating AI like a shortcut instead of a thinking partner.

You still have to bring your own taste, your point of view, your sense of how it should sound. More now than ever.

You know this already. It’s always the how that sets things apart, not the what. That part doesn’t get automated.

So what now? I don’t think the answer is to be “edgier” just for the sake of it. It’s simpler than that.

Let them feel the person behind the words. The things you wanted to say, but didn’t, because you leaned too much on AI to do the work.

Don’t write only for impact. Write because it’s true to you. That’s exactly where brand voice starts.

And for the love of all things human, please… can we stop using sentence fragments as a personality shortcut?

Lately, I’ve been getting a little lost using AI to write my own thoughts. The back and forth, combined with that gut feeling:

“This is the 12th version and it still doesn’t sound like me.“

That’s when you know. You’ve been trying so hard to sound right, you stopped sounding like yourself.

But we’re not giving up on writing that feels like someone meant it, because what’s the point, if it doesn’t move someone, even a little, on the other side?

That still feels worth showing up for.

Still finding my voice with AI,
x My Van