Have you noticed the internet getting a little… well, generic lately?
We certainly have.
Everything has the same kind of sheen and luster to it — even the mechanic down the street suddenly has sharply polished prose flowing throughout his website.
But everything is also just…kind of the same. The verbiage, pace, flow. Heck, even visual design is all kind of starting to homogenize into this nondescript (but grammatically perfect) goo.
You probably have a decent guess why this is happening. It’s AI.
We’ve already shot way past the “should businesses use AI?” question. Spoiler alert: they are.
We’ve also spent time on this blog talking about the AI productivity trap, where AI isn’t quite saving us the time we think it is.
But this problem is something different.
Today’s businesses need to be careful that AI doesn’t eat their personality.
AI Tends Toward Generic Correctness
As AI seeps into more and more corners of businesses’ outputs (emails, marketing content, meeting summaries, helping with customer support), businesses run the risk of coming across like the helpful but uninspiring droids in Star Wars.
They have the statistically correct answers. They can do what people expect them to be able to do. But they just aren’t interesting.
Or, to keep the pop culture flowing: the villain in The Incredibles says, “When everyone’s super… no one will be.”
The business corollary: When everyone’s website, emails, and customer support chats are AI-driven, no one’s will stand out.
Your Business’s Personality Is What Makes It Stand Out
Here’s the thing: you need to do more than have the right answer. Your digital presence and online content need to stand out, and that requires personality.
Take a couple of AI-polished sites from competitors. If you swap out the titles and the graphics and can’t tell them apart, that’s a problem.
Think about why you like your mechanic (assuming you have one you like!).
If your mechanic has a website, you want that website to tell you why you should choose them over the shop down the street. And the answer has to go deeper than “we fix cars good” or “best service in town”. Something about the site should communicate the same why that you feel in real life.
Doing that well still requires people. Now, maybe it isn’t one of the auto techs doing the writing. It could be the shop’s digital marketing contractor. But hopefully it still says something interesting and unique and honest and , well, human about the shop.
Let’s jump back to your business now. Can AI crank out 25 polished social media posts in 4.7 seconds? Sure can. It can even generate an image to go along with each one.
But will they sound like you? Probably not.
So the risk is this: AI can speed up operations, including content generation. But it can easily damage trust and strip you of your personality.
Consider What You Like
Here’s a quick test: think about some businesses you like dealing with, and narrow down what it is you like about them. Is it useful advice on their blog? Clever, friendly emails? The way they handle customers who call in with questions?
Each of these is a process that AI can speed up. But each is also something that needs to involve real human touches.
So, if you use AI in use cases like these, then use it wisely. It can create drafts for you, structure your ideas, generate some visuals, and so on. But the end product still needs to look, feel, and sound like you. And that requires genuine human hard work.
Try to think of AI as an assistant, not a human-replacer, and you’re likely to avoid most of these traps.
Got questions about AI tools, usage, or general IT support? We’re here for you. Reach out anytime!