AI TOOLS AREN'T THE PROBLEM. BUT PERFECTION IS KILLING YOUR VOICE.

I’ve worked in kitchens where everything was chaos, in nonprofits and startups where resources were thin, and in rooms where words actually mattered because real people were listening. So when I hear people say AI is “coming for our jobs,” I can’t help but smile a little.

Not because the fear is silly.

Because that feeling is familiar.

Every time new tools show up, we panic. We protect the old way like a recipe passed down by memory, the one that starts with “I don’t really measure” and somehow always turns out fine. We convince ourselves this is the thing that finally breaks the industry.

And then, slowly, we adapt.

AI tools can draft a blog or a press release. They can help organize messy thinking, summarize information, surface patterns you didn’t even realize you were missing, and clean things up so everything sounds very professional. (Oftentimes, too professional. You know the ones. Technically fine, but utterly hollow. Polished within an inch of their life.)

And I’ll be honest. I use AI tools almost every day, and I love them.

They help me think through ideas. Catch patterns. Move faster on the parts of the job that used to drain energy instead of creating value. They’re genuinely useful.

But they don’t understand people.

They don’t know what it feels like to read a room. Or to tell a story when the stakes are real. Or to choose one word over another because you know how it will land. (Which, to be fair, not everyone pauses to think before they speak.)

That part still comes from lived experience. From judgment. From paying attention.

What I keep noticing, and what years of studying communication have consistently taught me, is that the harder people try to sound “perfect,” the less human they come across.

Audiences feel it immediately. Marketers, PR professionals, journalists, hiring managers. Younger generations especially. They don’t need to be told something was AI-assisted. They can hear it. They can read it. The sameness. The safety. The lack of a real point of view.

That said, I don’t think AI tools are here to replace us. I think they’re here to make our lives easier. To help with the busywork so we can focus on the parts of the job that actually require thought and human judgment.

Because people don’t connect with efficiency.

They connect with intention.

So please, get used to using them. Learn the tools. Play with them. Let them push you a little. But don’t hand over your thinking and call it progress.

Used well, AI tools don’t change who you are at work.

They just give you a little more room to do it well.