Everyone’s talking about AI like it’s the best thing since sliced bread.

And you know what?
I’ve never really understood that phrase.

Maybe because most of the best bread I’ve eaten is actually unsliced.

Anyway, I’m looking around at the moment and suddenly I see every business is AI powered and every fan as LinkedIn talks about leading with AI as if it’s this groundbreaking strategy.

Now, AI has been around for decades, but it’s just that now there are some crazy powerful tools that are easy accessible to us all and it’s making people feel somewhat superhuman.

I’d say the problem is, while these lot are banging on about innovation, their brand voices are quickly disappearing and their quality is tanking.

And guess what?

Their audiences can feel it too.

So in today’s episode, we’re sniffing out the bullshit around the way entrepreneurs are using AI.

We’ll talk about why the hype has gone too far, how using AI for everything is quietly damaging your brand, and what it actually looks like to use AI properly.

Because let’s be honest, AI isn’t replacing good thinkers.

It’s actually exposing those who can’t think at all.

Hello and welcome to Sniffing out the Bullshit podcast for ambitious entrepreneurs who want help wading their way through the bullshit jungle of entrepreneurship and then the tools, skills, and mindsets that actually required for success.

I’m your host, Sabrina Chevannes the no bullshit entrepreneur.

So let’s start with the myth.

AI is the future.

If you’re not using it, you’re falling behind.

We have all heard this one.

You open LinkedIn and it’s full of people saying things like AI is the biggest opportunity of our lifetime or founders that don’t adapt.

It will be behind something like that, right?

And that there’s some truth to that.

AI is powerful, but the narrative that’s you’re somehow behind just because you’re not using it for every part of your business, that’s the bullshit to me.

Like AI has become more like a panic button.

People are scared of missing out.

So instead of asking like, oh, how can I use this new thing?
Well, like they just dive in and throw it into absolutely everything.

So now you’ve got AI written copy, AI generated images, AI created strategy, AI videos that look so ridiculous and you just don’t even know where to begin.

And suddenly we’ve got founders who are using AI to create 100 LinkedIn posts in a week.

But in those posts they haven’t actually said a single thing worth listening to.
It’s ridiculous.

They’ve lost the ability to think.

And this isn’t just individuals either, it’s companies too, because everyone wants to look innovative.

So they slap AI powered on their websites like it’s some kind of premium feature.

And now there are actually so many agencies out there who claim to be like AI driven and brag about how they use the latest technology for everything, which means they can get your work done in half the time, but yet somehow they’re charging twice as much for this innovation.

So let me just translate that for you.

They’ve replaced their strategists and copywriter with ChatGPT.

They now type prompts into like whatever software is to create graphics.

And I call that branding.

They don’t use any of their own actually creative input and instead they charge you double for the luxury of their port work.

But they position it in the way that if you use them, you’re going to be more advanced than the rest.

Because AI is the future now.

I swear this is like buying frozen meals, heating them up and an opening restaurant serving these meals, calling yourself a chef and then charging double the rates of a Michelin star restaurant for this innovation.

Like it blows my mind.

Now me the dishonesty around how AI is used is what really gets me.

Now we all want to use the latest tech to get better results in faster time.

Obviously that’s that’s fine.

Like I said in that previous example of agencies, if you’re genuinely producing better work in faster time, of course people are going to pay a premium for that.

But the problem is they’re not getting better work, they’re getting subpar work.

Like it’s, it’s way better if the human just did it themselves.

So the main problem is that it’s not like that we actually get better results in faster time because we often don’t get this.

The way that AI is used is it’s the opposite.

The main problem is that AI isn’t actually creative, it’s predictive.
For example.

Like because I’m probably confusing about that ChatGPT doesn’t actually understand meaning what it does.

It just predicts patterns of words that sound right together.

So when you give it a vague input, you get a vague output.

And when you give it your entire voice and let it run wild, then well, your brand starts to sound like everyone else’s.

Now let me give you an example because I hear all these people telling me they train their GPT to sound just like them and it’s really good and they’ve given them hundreds of their things.

But what they don’t realize is that their GPT may sound a little bit more like them than others, but it just sounds like everyone else as well because that’s what it’s trained to do.

And now they’ve convinced themselves that that’s why they sound and it’s really good and actually they sound like everyone else and they think that’s what you’re supposed to sound like because other people are doing it and they seem to be doing well.

It’s honestly crazy.

So let me tell you about this this this founder that I know because a little while ago I was approached by a founder who was super frustrated that their engagement dropped and their sales basically non existent.

And they’ve been using ChatGPT to basically write everything for them, all the newsletters, the social media posts and even client proposals.

And they then told me, but my content sounds so professional now.

And that was actually the problem.

It sounded too professional.

It had lost all the personality that made people want to work with them in the first place.

And it keep trying to tell them their clients don’t want like a perfectly phrased essay.

They wanted them, their quirks, their perspective, the human bit that builds connection.

And that’s the thing that I think people forget sometimes that AI doesn’t know you.

He doesn’t know what you believe or what you’ve lived.

It has no idea what experiences you’ve had and how you can help give values to the world.

And then you know what you fed it.

So when you hand over your communication to it, it’s like you’re handing over the soul of your business.

And that prediction thing that I mentioned earlier, well this in this case, AI was predicting what another band of a drinks band, because that’s basically all they define themselves as, would write on social media and guessing what people may want to hear from that band of a drinks band.

But they had no idea what that founder has actually experienced and what made people want to buy their drinks in the 1st place.

And if you think about it, it makes sense because AI content is supposed to be genetic.

The way that LLMS work is that it’s trained to predict the most statistically likely next word.

And so it literally erases originality.

It’s built to sound average.

And is that how you really want your band to be average?

Well, if so, then continue using AI to write your content.

But if, like me, you rather stand out and start doing what actually wins business, then you need to just actually be you.

I know that’s terrifying.

I know the whole thing has been exhausted to death, but I mean, really you, Not an authentic you that you’re, you’re performing for others, just you because that’s how you’re going to turn up on your sales calls.

That’s how you’re going to turn up every other time.

If you’re going to meet the person in person, please don’t tell me you’re going to sit there with your phone and use ChatGPT to answer questions when you’re having a coffee.

And I have seen that done.

So I’ve been to dinners where they can’t answer questions.

Are they on their phones honestly?

So right, as I said, for me, the real danger isn’t something that people are widely actually talking about.

It’s not just that the quality of the content is declining, right?

It’s actually that the quality of thinking is completely plummeting.

If I’m be honest, we’re like creating this generation of founders who can’t think for themselves.

They’ve become so rely on an AI that they don’t even try to come up with original ideas anymore.

Instead of brainstorming, they just prompt.

Instead of problem solving, they just ask.

Instead of creating, they just copy.

It’s it.

They’ve lost all like not automation is the word autonomy instead of the replacing with automation.

I think that’s why I won’t game for and I had a a conversation with the founder recently and kind of scared me to be honest.

Like they said to me they were like Sabrina.

I feel like I just can’t come up with any good ideas anymore unless I start with ChatGPT.

So that sentence genuinely scared me for so many reasons.

They like legitimately believe they can no longer come up with any good ideas themselves.

Now they claim it’s because they’re so busy and they have so much going on that actually they need the prompt for their brain to kind of get in kicked into the gear.

Now look, I’m all over the shop most weeks.

Why?

I have a gazillion ideas in my head at any one time.

I’d love for people to give me a head start with stuff, but I am also still great at coming up with ideas.

That’s probably my weakness too.

I have too many ideas.

But this is what fans are supposed to be great at.

They’re usually the visionary within the business, right?

And without that, what are you doing?
So when this founder said this, I really wanted to shake her.

She definitely can come up with good ideas, but she now doesn’t feel like she has to even try because she’s got this cheat so to speak.

And that’s fine, right?

If you then, you know, use that cheat and also then utilize your brain as well from time to time, that’s OK.

But she truly believes she can’t do it anymore.

So ChatGPT has actually made her lose confidence in herself, which is the really sad part.

And it’s also scared me because creativity isn’t just about like writing words, it’s about thinking differently, which is what obviously I always try to do and try to get people to try and do.

And hot on my content is designed for that is to help people stay creative.

It’s connecting ideas that shouldn’t connect.

It’s finding the unusual angle.

The human story and AI can’t do that.

It only draws from what already exists, so when you rely on it too much, you’re not just automating work, you’re outsourcing your entire imagination, which is utterly terrifying.

And this lack of creativity seeps into absolutely everything, including decision making now.

So this founder lost her confidence in creativity.

But AI is making people second guess themselves in all sorts of areas.

They just don’t trust their instincts anymore because they think that every answer is hidden in a prompt, so they never actually learn how to think on their feet.

Now, I’m going to give you another painful story to illustrate what I mean.

Have some coffee first, because I remember when you’ve told me this story like a can’t.

Hi.

So a friend of mine, let’s call him Dan, right?

Obviously not Dan.
He runs a creative agency.

You know, it’s Myspace agency owners.

We’re very good with each other most of the time and, you know, support each other and how much of the bags listen to the heartbreaking stories and, you know, it’s like therapy because it’s so painful being an agency owner.

Well, Dan, he’d been using ChatGPT for everything for a while now.

He, he’s, he’s one of these guys that again, he likes to feel cool, likes to feel like he’s ahead of the curve, like he’s modern, he’s quirky, he’s, you know, whatever.

So it’s been easy for everything from research and strategy to all his marketing content to even proposals and client negotiations.

Now one day a big potential client got in a call with him to discuss like pricing and next steps and all that sort of stuff.

And the client was like, well, you’re quite a little bit high.

Like what flexibility do you have?

Now normally Dan’s pretty sharp.

He’s persuasive too.

He’s been in this game a long time.

He’s done the budget dance with many a client.

This time he froze.

And guess what he told me happened?

Like afterwards, in the moment, he told me what happened in the moment.

And he said he just kept asking himself in the moment, what would ChatGPT say?

He was obsessed with finding the perfect answer, which he just knew ChatGPT knew.

And so he panicked in that moment.

He just panicked.

He mumbled something about wanting to build a long term relationship and then ended up offering them a 40% discount. 40%, not 20, which is our kind of usual go to 40.

He panicked.

He was like, OK, I don’t want to lose his client right now.

Oh my God, I’m going to lose it.

And he didn’t just assess with his like always years of experience and, you know, instincts of reading people, which he’s got good instincts.

He was just like, I need to know the perfect answer, which ChatGPT has.

And so we just thought, I don’t want to lose them, so I’ll give them the most ridiculous discount ever.

And so obviously the client happily accepted.

And I’m just got off the court and felt sick.

He realized he hadn’t negotiated, he’d just outsource his thinking to a machine that wasn’t even in the room.

And that’s exactly what happens when you use AI for every decision.

You lose that gut instinct, that confidence and coming like that comes from like, you know, knowing your own value.

And that’s terrifying because negotiation, persuasion and intuition are basically what makes entrepreneurs humanly powerful.

And we want that.

We want to be human because those are great, great skills to possess.

And AI can never replicate that.

But do you know, do you know, I know the the saddest thing about all of this, right?

So I was chatting through the situation with him and like he’s painfully reminded every day while working with his client about his stupidity.

He’s resenting himself all the time because he’s not actually making any money money from this project because it’s the ridiculous discount.

And that’s because of his own obsession with AI.

So I said to him the other day, I was like, does that mean you’re now going to realize that there are some things that AI just can’t do?

And actually don’t you want to just ensure that you don’t lose those great skills that you have as human too?

So William, do about it.

He was like, no, it means I’m going to get that new software that allows you to look up stuff while you’re on calls.

It like listens to your calls while you’re on it, right?

And it and you can essentially use ChatGPT live to help you while you’re doing the call and the other side doesn’t even know.

It’s amazing.

I am never going to let that happen to me again.

I did not know what to say when he acted like this.

He was so excited and he just didn’t see anything wrong with what he just said it.

For me, it was like this major face palm moment.

And you know, Needless to say, I speak to Dan a lot less and less about stuff these days as we just don’t have the same outlook on some of these things.

And he’s still a great guy, but this whole approach is not my vibe.

I want things to still be a lot more human.

And you know what doesn’t sound human these days?

Or the LinkedIn content that’s floating around.

I mean, most of the content on any company or personal brands, social media channel these days all just sound exactly the same.

Like exactly.

It’s ridiculous because when you let AI run your content, your tone of voice becomes watered down.

Every post start sounding like the, you know, those next, those the next 10 lessons I learned as a founder like carousels that you scroll past on Instagram.

It’s horrendous.

It’s actually what I call the beige effect.

It’s smooth, clean, but totally forgettable.

And it’s also ironic because beige has become such an it’s colour lately, right?

So many influencers love it and then others try to replicate their look, but then they end up just looking exactly like everyone else.

And hence the bloody irony of it.

It’s really funny and that’s why I call it the beige effect.

And you know what?

It’s not just about tone, right?

When it comes to the brand voice, it’s about trust.

Now, yes, lots of people are buying into the bullshit and they seem to engage with it.

But many people are also very sharp.

They know when something’s off.

And those who have been following you for a while, you can easily then turn them off.

And they are going to like go away when they notice this change.

Because when your words don’t sound like you, it creates a disconnect.

The warmth, the humor and the emotion that used to exist, it’s all gone.

And you might think you’re saving time, but what you’re really doing is chipping away at the authenticity that you’ve spent years building.

Because trust is built on consistency of personality, not the consistency of posting frequency.

And sure, AI can help you post every day, but if every post sounds robotic, you’re training your audiences to scroll past you faster.

It’s not a case of quantity, it’s always the case of quality.

This has never changed.

And you know on that there is the issue of quality control.

AI doesn’t Fact Check properly.

It hallucinates data and I’m not joking it literally makes shit up.

I’ve seen it all the time.

I actually argue with it when I’m trying to help do some stuff for clients and they’re saying one list through AI and I’m like, look, I screenshot it and my AI makes this stuff up.

They’re like, it can’t just make stuff up.

So I run it through AI again, I show them and it goes, my bad.

Yeah, I made that up.

I couldn’t find any references.

And I’m like, are you actually kidding me?

And I’m like, please can you give me some actual references and they’ll give me some.

I’ll click it for a forever and I’m like, you made-up again.

So yeah, my bad.

I can’t find anything.

And I’m telling my client he’s like, I don’t believe you.
AI wouldn’t do that.

It shouldn’t do that.

And I’m like, you’re right, it shouldn’t do that, but it does.

There are references that don’t exist.

It spews out random facts about people.

Random stories are just completely made-up.

It literally makes up things to sound more credible in the moment.

It genuinely does it.

Please try it.

And when brands don’t review what it actually spits out, they’re then putting out misinformation, sometimes unintentionally.

But that kind of carelessness damages credibility far faster than missing posts ever could.

So you really really really need to go and check your stuff.

Because I do it all the time for clients.

I go and shove their stuff back through ChatGPT to show them that they just made it up and it doesn’t care.

It says sorry every time it does the classic like takes accountability for its mistakes and then just does it again.

So you really, really need to sort it out and actually not trust chat BT blindly.

And I’m going to address the big scary narrative out there, the one that says AI is going to take all our jobs because like, I’m a human and I was able to track check that.

But the AI doesn’t do that.

And I’d much rather have a human fat check the crap that comes out of ChatGPT.

And I see every single week there’s a new headline about some role now being automated or a robot replacing Hey, hey, humans.

And even my dad asked me about it this weekend, right?

He asked if I was scared that AI was going to threaten my livelihood.

And I said to him, the baton, if AI can replace you, then you’re not doing a good enough job.

And I genuinely think that’s true.

As harsh as it is, I know many people will be super offended by me saying this and they’ll say that I’m being disrespectful to their job, etcetera.

But if all you have to offer is what a machine can do in seconds, then you’re just not adding enough value to your team and you should be replaced.

Just like I should be fired by all my clients.

If all I’m producing is what AI can churn at, why bother paying me a pretty healthy retainer for that?

Because look, AI is replacing tasks, not thinking.

It’s replacing all the repetitive stuff.

Not creativity, not judgement, not taste log.

The ability to be able to read emotions, to be supportive, to motivate the team around you, to proactively do something that will help you rather than just be purely reactive.

Now, great human employees do all of those things and AI cannot.

So that’s what I mean, because no matter how good you are at your job and I saying you could be the best copywriter in the world, you could be the best graphic designer in the world.

But if AI can then start producing some stuff that is mildly close to, you know, you then in seconds, then some people are going to compromise on quality for the sake of cash because some people are like that.

But if you’re able to then utilize the AI and still Add all of your human aspects, all the ways that you are better than the AI, then that’s a great combo.

And I find that the situation is really quite different when it comes to AI anyway.

Like, you know, this whole AI is going to take our jobs.

It’s not quite like that now.

Have you ever read the book A World Without Work by Daniel Suskind?

You absolutely need to.

I finished it just a couple of weeks ago and the book actually talks realistically about the situation between AI and the job force.

The guy is like legit, he’s a like he’s, he does research and economics at like King’s College and he’s like, you know, long, glorious past working for I think the government and everyone.

Like he’s he’s he’s a very legitimate individual rather than these people who just scaremongering on social media.

And he’s researched this in such depth.

And he explains in the past, jobs have actually risen when there’s been like technological advancements.

And it’s not quite the same case that AI is just going to purely take our jobs.

It goes into a lot of detail.

I’m not going to bore you with it here.

I think you should read the read the book.

And you know, it goes along with actually McKinsey as well because they also recently released some research showing that roles will actually evolve and not disappear.

And the skills that will be in demand will be things like emotional intelligence, leadership and problem solving, similar to the things that I just mentioned earlier, right?

Which is what the things I would think of when I’m thinking of good human employees.

So no, AI isn’t taking your job, but someone who uses AI intelligently might.

Like I said, that combo is a killer.

So if you’re the person who knows how to use a tool strategically, how to edit, challenge and elevate the output, you become more valuable, not less.

So I like to think of AI like a mirror.

It reflects your ability to think clearly, to question and to guide.

If you don’t have that ability, the mirror just shows you mediocrity.

Now let me be clear, I’m not anti AI use it myself.

It saves me hours each week, but I use it deliberately.

For example, here are some of the ways that I actually use AI.

Get it to summarize my client calls and compile action points and what to do after those calls, right.

It picks out bits of my podcast script that thinks will be most interesting for my audience, and so then I create snippets of that particular scene.

Sometimes I remember something I’ve read in a book and I want to go back and find it so I can read more on it again so it tells me what page or chapter it was in, which is super useful.

And it helps me find any errors in code when I have to do coding and I find them a lot quicker.

So I’m pretty rusty when it comes to coding there.

And sometimes I do use it to brainstorm, but honestly I don’t even like most of the ideas it gives.

I find them incredibly generic and boring, and I don’t even use it for research either because the results it brings back are highly inaccurate and so I have to be super intentional with my use because I really care about quality.

I never let it write my content because I feel that my tone of voice is too unique to replicate.

But if you do choose to use to use it to write content for you, then this is what I’d recommend.

Use it to accelerate, not automate.

So let it just let it speed up the parts that don’t need your genius.

But still review everything.

And #2 I’d say always rewrite it in your own tone.

Like completely rewrite it.

Don’t let it flatten your voice.

Make sure you add your phrasing, your examples, your own rhythm.

Like don’t just have the AI kind of standard structure because it just doesn’t sound good #3 Absolutely check for accuracy, especially stats and sources.

Don’t assume it’s right.

It most of the time isn’t.

And #4 is like myself, be intentional.

Ask yourself why you’re using AI.

Because if it’s just a save effort, it’s not really a strategy, is it?

Because ultimately, if you outsource your voice, then you’re outsourcing your connection to your audience too.

And that’s the bit that actually drives your business.

So I guess the question is, what’s the real future of AI then?

Well, I think the entrepreneurs who thrive aren’t going to be the ones who are shouting about leading with AI think it’s going to be the ones who are quietly mastering it, like blending human creativity with machine efficiency.

Because innovation isn’t about automation, it’s about application.

So if you’re using AI to sound like everyone else, you basically already lost.

But if you’re using it to extend your creativity, amplify your thinking, and actually helping you challenge your own ideas.

And that’s where the magic happens.

Because AI isn’t the one killing creativity.

People are always the way because they’re the ones using it as a shortcut instead of the powerful tool that it really is.

So next time you see someone bragging about being AI powered, ask them.

Powered How?

Because shouting about AI doesn’t make you innovative, it just makes you loud.

And AI is only as good as a person behind it, so if you want to stand out, you can’t afford to sound like everyone else.

Now, I hope this episode has helped to flag some of the warning signs around AI.

I know it’s super tempting to play around with it and feel super productive, but you need to think about what it’s really doing to your band.

So that’s it for me.

I will see you guys next week.

Until then, keep sniffing at the bullshit.