Look, I'm not saying not to use AI tools to draft. Some of my best friends (literally) do it. But I'm begging you to revise it before it tanks your reputation. Here's why and how.
genAI content has a sneaky habit that's eroding your authority, credibility and overall reputation. It creates content that looks and sounds like anybody else's. And you're not necessarily going to even know it unless you read a lot of other people's stuff. Like your boss does.
For people using AI
For the last two weeks, I've been revising a series of reports for an advisory firm. Each had a different author, yet all reflected the same sentence patterns. The biggest culprit is the it's not x, it's y construct. Not a problem used once or twice and presented in different terms. But it's everywhere in these reports. It's annoying enough to read the exact same pattern multiple times in a single document. It tells me you either didn't notice (lack of attention to detail) or didn't think it was a big deal (lack of awareness). When it's all over different documents by different authors, though, it can signal that you're not an original thinker and communicator, and neither are the others. It reinforces that you didn't put in extra work to revise the content and make it your own. That's not a good look. And that's just the impact of one of the AI issues. It compounds when you leave the rest unaddressed, too.
Your action item, then, is to use the time AI saves you getting started to read your copy closely (out loud is good, too) and revise it carefully. I've got some suggestion for where to start.
For people supervising AI users
You may not think your reputation's at risk just because your employees are using AI wrong. Ooops. Not the case. When your board or leadership team, customers, prospects and investors read work from your company, they see the patterns, too. And it puts the same level of doubt on you (and your firm) as it does on the individual writers. It also makes us wonder why you're not doing something about it.
Your action item is to make revision a core competency for yourself and your direct reports. Follow my advice for getting started. You may be able to address this on your own. Or make a deeper investment by hiring a writing instructor to offer a group training for your team or individual coaching for high-potential employees or those who need the most scaffolding.
Using AI to draft can be a smart move, but it will generate better returns if you invest effort into tuning it up before turning it in.