How to write thought leadership with AI

How to write thought leadership with AI.

The short answer is: please don't.

Here's the long answer: please don't, because... According to some sources, 57% of online content is currently AI-generated and this figure is predicted to rise to 90% by 2026. Let's face it, long-form copy can be expensive: either in time if you write it yourself or in terms of monetary outlay if you outsource. In the race to grab attention and sign-up sales, opting for a fast and cheap AI solution may be tempting.

But what are the deeper implications for you, your audience and the market? Is it true that those not two feet into AI will get left behind? Are you missing a trick?

The word is that AI won't replace writers but writers who use AI will replace those who don't. I agree that there are tools out there that can help you to be more critical or succinct (and I won't go into these here) but that's not the issue.

It's not a matter of human vs machine. The issue is much broader than this. It's about whether we're losing touch with why humans learned to communicate in the first place.

How does any of this relate to how to write thought leadership with AI?

Years ago, I found myself on a dream project. Working for an agency at the time, I'd been handed a thought leadership brief that no other writer on the books wanted to touch with a barge pole (I was well known for doing this).

One of the executives of a large multi-national wanted a discursive but well-researched piece for their website. It was a passion piece and something he was really interested in, so I needed to get it right. What I put together stayed there for years, even when, being science-based, it was slightly out of date.

There was nothing fast or cheap about the process. It showed the deep compassion and understanding of the company along with its market position and authority. Although it was part of their SEO strategy, there was nothing salesy about it.

Classic thought leadership.

That was nearly ten years ago and I'm wondering whether the cost of jobs of that nature would be justifiable these days.

But then I started thinking about how we could replicate that article using AI. Could we? Would it have been the same article if we removed human inquisitiveness? The need to look around corners and beyond what's known? Inflections in conversations that get explored and 'hang on a minute' moments where you go back over what's been said because you discovered something shiny.

And here's where I believe machine thinking falls over

AI-generated long form is about the arrival, not the journey: the finished product rather than what has happened to get there.

Every story we write adds to our story and to that of the reader. These enrich other stories and so they grow. They're living creatures, these tales, organic and fecund.

When we nail something to a post and say 'it's done' but skip the fun bit in the middle, we've laid the process to rest before it's had a chance to live. We've also ignored the hard work of others that AI has drawn from without their direct permission. Their labour goes without acknowledgement or reward: there is only value in the result.

We enjoy the sum of someone else's silent and unchampioned effort and creativity.

What your thought leadership says about you

Thought leadership is long-game strategy. It's not fast: it's intentional and considered. Establishing territory, it's about developing brand identity and authority while raising your flag on what you stand for. There are entire books on this subject so I won't elaborate here but in a practical way, thought leadership has three main functions:

• To secure authority and position.

• To persuade.

• To connect.

Thought leadership develops the author as much as the reader: whether this is one board member of a huge organisation or a passionate entrepreneur on a mission. The process in effect transforms a personal bee in the bonnet into an impactful tribal call on a potentially global scale.

'Look what I found. Isn't it curious? It works like this. Isn't that awesome?'

So with this in mind, why would you want this process to be fast and cheap?

Fear maybe? That your competitors are in front of your ideal client's faces and you're not? They've been able to knock the content out and you're feeling left behind?

Take a step back and breathe

It's OK. Think of it this way.

What would cheap and fast say to your clients? Content is there to give them:

• Information.

• A feeling.

It's their reward for giving up their time and energy to read what you have to say. In effect, you're cheating them if you're giving them neither. It's not cricket if you're implying there's another human on the other end of the email when there isn't because it's just a campaign put together with a few human-generated sentences and everything else is synthetic.

What does that say about the quality of your service or products? Are they cheap and fast too? How about your relationship with your clients or customers? Is that also artificial?

The three reasons we communicate and why they're important

Here's where the discussion on how to write thought leadership with AI (or not) turns. I'm not one to dwell on the negative so let's pull away from fear here and start turning towards the light.

I believe there are three ways in which human-generated thought leadership has the edge on that generated by AI:

• When it connects with others.

• When it builds community.

• When it develops our thoughts.

Linguists and anthropologists will tell you that humans developed complex language, not to tell each other about stuff (or indeed sell each other stuff) but to tell stories. So while it's important to let your village know there's a snake down by the river, it's also vital to pass on stories about snakes so that culture, heritage and wisdom are passed on - and more importantly, delighted in.

Evolutionary speaking, our brains, mouths, ears and throats developed in unison as devices of transmission, reception and analysis. Language is organic. We found a way to digitise it into zeros and ones but it lives in our flesh. Words have meanings beyond their binary codes as they sit in our organs.

Today some of our wisdom stories are told through thought leadership: whether that's how to manage egos in high-stress corporate environments or the changing face of HR function. They're behind culture, processes, purpose, market placement and any other area you can imagine.

It's not just about the snake down by the river. We take the fear and make it human, painting pictures, telling stories and sewing it into our garments. Finding joy in it we come together, not just in protection but in happiness and fulfillment too.

There's a techy reason for more human-generated content

Your targeted SEO and proliferation of content may have driven you up the ranks and your reader is on your page but what are you going to do with them now? If your page has tickled the algorithm but doesn't engage your reader, they'll leave - and a high bounce rate won't help you.

In other words, if they've shown up and what they've found is plastic, for want of a better word, they won't be hanging around. They're even less likely to click your offer.

Equally, they may open your AI mass-produced email but if they feel little connection will they bother next month? Will it fall, unloved, into the junk pile?

Swinging this around to the positive again (because fear stinks doesn't it?) every word we write is an opportunity to uplift and fill someone with hope, pleasure, new knowledge or reassurance. If we've taken moments from their day with our website or an email, they deserve a reward.

And then there's the environmental cost

Most writers I know run on tea and biscuits. I don't know how that racks up against the rapidly growing data farms powering AI and housing its output but I'm guessing the planet does a better job of processing the level of manure and carbon dioxide human writers put out.

It all comes down to respect

It's not just about what level of AI we use in writing - whether it's there to generate the whole lot from just a few human musings or it's just a tool to be used with a light touch. I'm not here to judge who uses what and for what. That's your business.

There are fundamental wider-picture questions that deserve our attention. How much do we respect our reader, our potential clients and the planet? How much do we respect each other?

How much do we value the birthing process or are we only interested in the finished product? What about the original content that AI feeds on? The people who created it are ignored as unimportant. Controversial point: it's not artificial intelligence at all. It's made of the same stars that we are - it has just been stolen from humans who have had no say in the matter.

And why are we writing to our clients? Is it out of fear that we're missing out? That we fear we're losing a market share to someone else so we have to get in front of the wallet at all costs? Or do we have something enriching to say?

If we're cheapening our storytelling in order to stay ahead of the competition, what does that say about us? Are we synthesising the human element of the sales process to make a quick buck? What does that say about our mindset?

Asking what's behind our desire to write thought leadership with AI means asking some deep and reaching questions about what it means to communicate human to human.

It's not just a matter of audience respect, it's about self-respect too. It's about respecting the interconnectedness of our stories - in an organic as well as a digital way.

What do we value?

What could we stand to lose if we're not careful? This is a call, not to rubbish AI but to use it consciously just as we'd use any other tool like a car or a knife. We can use it for great good or if not used responsibly, for irretrievable harm. There are no hard lines and no black and white - it's a messy issue with no clear answers but the only way we're going to find these is by taking a moment to think...

...like a human.

Hiring a writer doesn't have to be expensive

I love working with coaches and therapists just launching themselves into the market. It's so exciting to be with them as they take their first leap beyond themselves, just as they want their clients to do. So if this is you I can write the emails, thought leadership, website copy or thought leadership but:

• If you don't have the budget I can coach you to do it for yourself.

• I don't believe in extortionate fees, upselling or stifling contracts.

• I also believe in transparency, so unexpected costs are a no-no.

And when I say a chat is no-strings-attached, I really mean it.