A word on AI

You can’t talk about being an ace writer, editor, and content leader without talking about AI. I’ll be honest: My feelings about gen AI depend on the day and depend on the context.

I use it every single day for a host of tasks, but I think that if you want to build a distinctive, shining brand, you need to be discerning about how and when you use AI platforms like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Writer.

All of them proliferate bad writing, and all of them are sloppy. Every time I use a gen AI platform, I’m overcome by both wonder and scorn — wonder that it’s so fast and so magical, scorn because it sucks the marrow out of ideas and only perpetuates the tragic sameness that was already a huge problem in marketing, long before ChatGPT made its debut.

And yet.

If you’re short on time and wordsmithing isn’t your jam, gen AI is great. Or if you’re just need a draft to capture your ideas that you’ll pass onto an editor, using gen AI is absolutely the right choice. Or if you have low standards and don’t care.

Sometimes a shortcut is exactly what’s needed, in which case, by all means go for it. But if you care about making a good impression with your words and ideas, either dispense with AI altogether or tap the expertise of someone who knows what they’re doing.