Content by AI is good and fast but cheap. Captions, product descriptions, emails, bios, pitches these can all be whipped up in seconds and make sense.
The unintended result of such efficiency is sameness. Flawless, perfect, and forgettable. If skill is needed is not costly, it ceases to be remarkable.
What then becomes exceptional? The evidence of someone who cares about coming to meet you.
Gen Z is good at detecting fakes online
They grew up with filters, influencer marketing, and transparent sponsorships. This generation is not against technology but uses AI daily. However, they have a strong ability to detect anything fake and without any real people behind it.
The things that get their attention are:
- Real and imperfect moments
- Behind-the-scenes videos rather than perfect ads
- Founders that show up in the videos and talk about their mistakes
- Answers that don’t seem scripted
If you own a brand, a store, or a startup, there’s always an opportunity hidden somewhere.Leverage AI to move faster. Use people to create trust. Delegate draft writing, formatting and other regular activities to the AI, while adding a touch of humanity where it matters:
Be visible yourself. Personal videos, voice messages and even weekly update from founders create more connection than any perfect advertisement. Show the development process, not only the end result. Sketches, failed attempts and images from workshops demonstrate that all these efforts are real. Respond as a human. Short and clear response will be more appreciated than long and polished but fake one.
If you’re going to delegate response to a bot first make it easy to switch to a human. Admit using AI. But everything is reviewed by a human” creates more trust than hoping no one will notice. Leave some activities not automated intentionally. A personal thank you message or onboarding call can become your unique touch point.
Anything can be built today. But why does the things that people actually make seem different?
A friend sent me a voice note last week. Ninety seconds of her walking to the train, breathless, giggling at her own story, being interrupted by a stranger asking for directions. It wasn’t anything fancy. I played it twice. The very same day, I got an email from a brand I follow. Beautiful language, perfect grammar, a little comment on valuing “my journey.” I deleted it before finishing it. They were both okay. But only one of them felt human.
Our Generation Is Weirdly Good at Spotting This. This does not mean that we expert in technology. We all use AI daily for our professional, academic and for boring activities. However, there is an unspoken line being drawn here; use it as a tool but not as a personality. The ideas we consider as human qualities such as friendship, creativity and taste should remain human.
Perhaps it’s just reminding us that connection has never been about saying the right thing but that I was there and made this because I was thinking of you.
– Aira 🌿
