EP #076 - Why AI-Generated Content Falls Flat (And How Your Audience Can Tell)

Here's the thing: AI is transforming how we communicate. It's about embracing innovation while maintaining authenticity.

The gap between strategy and execution continues to widen.

We need to shift our mindset and cut through the noise.

Simple.

If you just cringed reading that, your bullshit detector works. That's what AI-generated LinkedIn content sounds like, and your audience has learned to spot it just as quickly as you did.

Six months ago, executives would publish AI-generated posts and get away with it because the technology seemed impressive and people gave it a pass. But those days are over. Audiences can now tell when content is AI-generated, even if they can't articulate exactly why it feels off. 

They just scroll past, and your engagement drops while profile views and comments disappear.

The Problem With Everything Sounding the Same

Executives scrolling LinkedIn can now recognize AI content instantly through its tell-tale patterns - the "here's the thing" openers that promise insight and deliver nothing, the "it's not X, it's Y" false contrasts, the buzzword soup of "shifts" and "gaps" and "cutting through noise," the dramatic bold formatting followed by one-word sentences, and the AI-generated images that looked cool for three weeks but now just look fake.

The individual posts might read fine on their own - the grammar is clean, the formatting looks professional, and the topics seem relevant. But scroll through fifty of them in one feed and the sameness becomes suffocating. Every post sounds like it was written by the same person because, functionally, it was - the same algorithm trained on the same corpus of business content, spitting out the same patterns.

AI can imitate a voice if you give it enough examples, include specific details if you tell it what to include, and generate content that reads professionally on its own. But the problem with this is that every other executive is using the same tool with the same training data, producing the same generic output.

This is where professional writers create value that AI can't replicate.

What Professional Writers Actually Do

Professional writers do something AI fundamentally can't - they tell stories that hook you from the first line (remember that opening you cringed at?), deploy sarcasm and personality that makes you want to keep reading, and translate your expertise into content that sounds like you are having a conversation rather than a robot executing a prompt.

AI-generated content, on the other hand, reads professionally but lacks everything that makes thought leadership valuable - the specificity, the perspective, and the evidence that an actual human with actual expertise wrote it.

The value of thought leadership comes from the leader's lived experience, unique insights, and stories - elements that can't be replicated by an algorithm. Professional writers draw out those insights through conversation and translate them into content that reflects your actual thinking, while AI just recycles generic business observations.

To be more direct, AI-generated content fails because it attempts to automate original thinking from credible sources, which is precisely the element that can't be automated.

Where AI Actually Helps

Look, not everyone is a grammar nerd who enjoys editing their own work. That's fine - the substance of your thinking matters more than perfect comma placement. My writers are weirdly obsessed with those details in ways that most executives (rightfully) don't care about, and this is actually where AI shines - catching typos, fixing awkward phrasing, smoothing transitions. 

But using AI to edit your writing is fundamentally different from using it to generate your thinking.

Leadership content requires what AI fundamentally cannot provide - the ability to draw out nuance through follow-up questions, connect ideas to what your specific audience cares about, and translate lived experience into insights that don't read like they came from a template.

Professional writers who specialize in executive content solve the problem AI was never designed to solve. They understand how to draw out the specific stories and perspectives that demonstrate your expertise, then turn those insights into posts that sound like you rather than like every other executive using the same AI prompt.

The Solution Executives Are Finding

The case for moving beyond pure AI is practical, not philosophical.

If your goal is generating meaningless volume, AI works perfectly. Call it what it is - the LinkedIn equivalent of elevator music. Posts that say nothing but look professional, content that fills space without creating any meaningful impression.

But if your goal is establishing genuine thought leadership that positions you as a credible voice worth listening to, you need content that reflects actual perspective and expertise that comes from your specific experience in your specific industry.

You want to be seen as a leader, but you're using the same AI tools sixth graders use to avoid English homework. You're asking your audience to trust your expertise while feeding them content generated by an algorithm trained on millions of generic business posts. 

Leadership means having something original to say.

The executives who establish real presence on LinkedIn work with professionals who understand how to surface the insights that differentiate you from every other executive recycling the same generic observations.

Your audience can already tell the difference between content generated by an algorithm and content that reflects actual thinking, and they're responding by scrolling past everything that looks like it came from ChatGPT.

At Executive Presence, we employ US-based professional writers who specialize in executive content - including people with journalism backgrounds and extensive writing experience. Instead of using AI to write posts, they listen to interviews, understand what matters, and translate your expertise into content that sounds like you, not like ChatGPT.

I'm lucky to work with writers who care this much about getting it right.

Next week, I'll show you exactly how that process works and why it produces content that AI never could.

— Justin

Justin M. Nassiri | Founder & CEO
M: 650.353.1138 | E: [email protected]
250 Fillmore St Suite 150, Denver, CO 80206
www.ExecutivePresence.io

Executive Presence specializes in helping top-tier executives boost their visibility, activate their network, and position themselves as thought leaders via our premium, fully-managed LinkedIn service.

Our unique process involves ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants conducting monthly hour-long interviews with our clients, and turning them into impactful daily LinkedIn posts to establish their unique voice and authority. On average, our clients see a 500% bump in engagement in their first 30 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve engagement and identify impactful messaging that you can use for conferences, podcasts, and internal communications.