Cutting Edge or Cringe? AI is Shaping Your Language.

How fares thine health? May this missive find you in good spirits, and that the coming Spring brings forth bountiful blessings.

Wow – the English language has changed a bit since the 1700s, huh?

It’s natural for language to change and evolve over time, and one thing that’s been on my mind this month is how AI is (unnaturally) changing our language.

To be honest, it’s shaping our language in ways that drive me bonkers – especially in business.

Here’s a recent LinkedIn post that caught my eye that really brought the issue to light:

This LinkedIn post from Namrata Kothari reveals the conflict business owners, marketers, and writers have to deal with:

Do you use a word that makes sense in context and risk it getting flagged for AI OR do we use a different word that isn’t as great but at least it won’t be seen as AI?

Here’s my two pence: AI is trying to sound like us, remember? So, let’s stop letting it decide what words we can and cannot use…with the following caveats:

• There are some words that are overused in our language and AI is aggravating this fact. Words like: transform, cutting-edge, crucial, groundbreaking. Maybe cool-it on these words for a bit. They don’t add much to your message anyway.

• An overused word doesn’t mean that we are never allowed to use it again. (I’m personally thinking about bringing back “Hail to thee!” as a greeting.)

• If you have well-done brand voice guidelines in place for your brand voice, you should have a bank of words that embody your brand, are impactful, and get to the point, helping you avoid problematic words…like breakthrough. Sadly, everyone has already “broken through.”

The best way to stop AI from weakening your brand voice is to strengthen your own writing muscle by using it.  

A Writing Exercise A Day Keeps The Atrophy At Bay

The human brain is a magnificent, God-given gift that is not only capable of coming up with new, fresh, and innovative ideas, but is strengthened by our experiences and emotions.

If we stop exercising that muscle – if we stop writing on our own accord and always default to AI – that muscle will atrophy.

I challenge you to open a Word or Google doc (or even better, a pen and paper) and write something, anything. It will only take a few minutes.

• Journal about your day.
• Bullet journal what you are thankful for this week.
• Reflect on a past experience that was meaningful to you and why.
• Write a letter to someone special to you.

And then do it again tomorrow.

The benefits to writing are endless: stress relief, emotion processing, improved communication skills, memory retention, enhanced self awareness…just to name a few.

I’m not saying you can’t use Chatgpt and other AI platforms – but please don’t let your own creative writing muscle atrophy in the name of time savings.

If we aren’t careful, AI will wash our collective words until the boring shade of sameness covers every inch of digital paper.

And that doesn’t bode well for your messages’ effectiveness this year…or the English language 100 years from now.