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NewslettersSUBSCRIBE TOP STORIESTOP VIDEOS INC. BEST WORKPLACES Awarding Excellence in Company Culture! Preferred-Rate Deadline: February 7, 2025 Apply Today Money The 5 Most Anticipated IPOs of 2025 Innovate How Rebelstork Built a Platform to Save Millions of Pounds of Baby Gear From Landfills Inc. PremiumLead Craig Newmark: The Most Famous Accidental Entrepreneur’s 7 Steps to Success Technology What to Watch: Climate and Renewable Energy in 2025 Inc. PremiumStartup How Should You Get Ready for 2025? Start by Setting an Ambitious Goal and Working Backward NewslettersSUBSCRIBE A.I. Accelerated USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR SPEECH WRITING? HERE’S HOW TO OVERCOME AI’S BIGGEST DEFECT Artificial intelligence can’t hack authenticity. Here’s how to make sure you are connecting with people even if you’re getting help from GenAI. * * * EXPERT OPINION BY JOEL SCHWARTZBERG, AUTHOR, "GET TO THE POINT” @THEJOELTRUTH JAN 5, 2025 Photo: Getty Images Generative AI is no longer a foreign concept to even the most tech-averse professionals, and the tools making it available have been thoroughly applauded, criticized, glorified, and demonized. Each of those takes is defensible, depending on how the tool is being used and by whom, but there’s one editorial quality GenAI can’t and will never be able to master: authenticity. Artificial intelligence can read prompts and parrot human speech, but it can’t read minds or access lived experiences. As a result, the outputs can’t escape being generic. Think of GenAI like the greeting card aisle of a drugstore or supermarket—a few cards come close to capturing your sentiment, but none speak from your soul. My colleague Allison Shapira, a longtime speaker and writer in the field of leadership communications, has spent several years researching ways people can use artificial intelligence to help them become more effective communicators without sacrificing authenticity. She created an “AI Authenticity Loop” that threads vital human communication roles like identifying specific needs, detailed assessment, and capturing and sustaining an authentic voice, with time-saving and productive AI capabilities like brainstorming, drafting, research, feedback, and editing. YOUR AUTHENTICITY AND EXPERTISE “You can use AI tools to efficiently brainstorm, develop, fine-tune, and even practice your message,” Shapira told me, “But make sure to filter and present it through the lens of your unique authenticity, expertise, and humanity.” FEATURED VIDEO The Man Behind the Wheel of Driverless Trucks The Man Behind the Wheel of Driverless Trucks For Don Burnette, the autonomous vehicle debate was always about cars, but what about trucks? That thinking helped his startup, Kodiak Robotics, to become No. 20 on our list of the 5000 fastest growing companies in America. More Videos 0 seconds of 1 minute, 49 secondsVolume 0% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease Volume↓ Seek Forward→ Seek Backward← Captions On/Offc Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf Mute/Unmutem Decrease Caption Size- Increase Caption Size+ or = Seek %0-9 Next Up From the Inc. 5000 to Industry Leaders: The Journey of Iconic Brands 01:56 Subtitle Settings OffInc 5000 Company Highlights Kodiak Font Color White Font Opacity 100% Font Size 100% Font Family Arial Character Edge None Edge Color Black Background Color Black Background Opacity 50% Window Color Black Window Opacity 0% Reset WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25% 200%175%150%125%100%75%50% ArialCourierGeorgiaImpactLucida ConsoleTahomaTimes New RomanTrebuchet MSVerdana NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop Shadow WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan 100%75%50%25%0% Live 00:00 01:49 01:49 Digital marketing guru Neil Patel says authentic communications create impact by meeting a need for transparency and humanity. “The more virtual our lives get, the more we hunger after something genuine… an experience more honest and transparent, more authentic,” he writes. “Being authentic means staying true to who you are, what you do, and who you serve. In an environment in which more human elements matter, it creates value and benefits for your followers.” Patel’s list of communication authenticity benefits includes having a stronger and more influential brand identity, having audiences better relate to and understand your business, reinforcing your company’s reliability and trustworthiness, and increasing your ability to turn audiences into advocates. This Achilles heel in GenAI creates an opportunity—and an obligation—for communicators to be more authentic. But is tactical authenticity an oxymoron? Not necessarily. Here are five ways you can ensure you’re using GenAI appropriately and being the “truest you” when expressing your ideas. 1. REMOVE PHRASES THAT DON’T SOUND LIKE YOU. This tactic is harder than it seems because we read and write differently than how we speak, but if something produced by AI sounds foreign or stilted coming out of your mouth, that’s a red flag for inauthenticity. It’s also easier to spot something you wouldn’t say than something you would. As a speechwriter, I once proudly offered my client a creative play on words, but she rejected it, saying, “I’m not this clever.” She struck it correctly because even the most creative and compelling language can fall flat if audiences perceive it as inauthentic. Always prioritize clear and personal over clever and poetic. 2. DON’T READ YOUR SPEECH. Reading from a word-for-word script—produced by AI or you—can severely diminish your passion, energy, and eye contact, all of which are crucial to project authenticity. Reading also changes the perception of your moment from a live presentation to a staged performance. You may think reading is the best way to be perfect and avoid nervousness, but neither is relevant because perfection is not the goal, and your anxiety is more about how you feel than what you say. Instead, stick to very basic notes—which AI can help you create—that keep you on track and remind you of details you might otherwise forget. 3. SHARE YOUR STORIES. Most of us already recognize the power of personal stories to elevate authenticity, but stories do more than captivate; they also increase oxytocin levels, which correlate with feelings of trust, empathy, and generosity. Recognize that the words “I” and “my”—and to a lesser degree, “we” and “our”—are authenticity superconductors, commanding attention and building trust at the same time. AI can suggest relevant stories, examples, and case studies documented elsewhere, but they’ll never be as powerful as your own stories. 4. ALLOW IMPERFECTION. Some communicators overfocus on perfection, misjudging how much their audience will react to a word fumble, typo, clothing stain, tech snafu, or tussled hair. Psychologists call this hypersensitivity to how you’re perceived by others “the spotlight effect,” warning that it can lead to increased anxiety and excessive apologies. If you make a mistake, remember that what you gain in authenticity may be more valuable than perfection points you lose. But don’t call attention to errors by apologizing. Quickly correct yourself and move on. The mistakes AI makes are far less forgivable. 5. USE AI TO SUPPORT YOU, NOT SCRIPT YOU. To be clear, AI can save communicators valuable time and energy. You can use AI to discover relevant research, compare and contrast ideas, copyedit your text, create notes, suggest action steps, and do anything else you might have a dutiful assistant do, but never treat AI text suggestions as gospel. As much as these databases know, they will always fail at authenticity. Review and edit every AI output to ensure it makes sense, matches your needs, and—crucially—sounds like you. The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com. Top Tech Weekly roundup of the latest in tech news * This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Sign Up Privacy Policy This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Privacy Policy 1. Startup 1. Best Industries 2. Funding 3. Incubators 4. Business Plans 5. Naming 6. Home-based Business 7. The UPS Store 2. Grow 1. Strategy 2. Operations 3. Sales 4. Marketing 5. Customer service 6. Franchises 3. Lead 1. Black in business 2. Your next move 3. Female founders 4. Best workplaces 5. Company culture 6. Public speaking 7. Hiring 8. Hr/benefits 9. Productivity 10. All the hats 4. Technology 1. Digital transformation 2. Artificial intelligence 3. Bringing innovation to market 4. Cloud computing 5. Social media 6. Security 7. Data detectives 5. 1. Inc. Premium 2. Subscribe 3. 6. Innovate 1. Creativity 2. Invent 3. 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