We’ve all developed our own voice. Our own sound that is distinct to us. Our favorite artists are the ones we can name just by hearing their music or their voice reading a book (e.g. Morgan Freeman).

In our interactions with people, in person or online, we have mannerisms we’ve developed. Could be something in our phrasing, or our gesticulating or our practiced pauses. Could be something in all the exclamation points I tend to use or (as a gen-x-er) in the ellipses I include in my emails. Might even just be a tone of casualness or formality.

If you look back through my posts you can tell my voice pretty clearly. It is authentic.

So when we are using AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to help us craft messages, email responses, materials, etc. we have to be doubly careful to not lose our own voice. If we all just copy/paste what it spits out at us, we will all begin to sound like automatons!

It is our human-ness that builds trust with other people. And when we lose our own voice and human-ness to AI that trust becomes eroded. They can tell it doesn’t sound like me and then they begin to wonder if it was me responding. Or just get a sense that something is ‘off’ – whether or not the words are good.

So a word of caution as we use these tools. Don’t lose your voice in the process. Use them to help give you ideas/answers/bullets, etc. But put it in your own words and voice when you turn around and hand it over to someone who trusts you. Then they can be assured it really came from you. And you can be assured that you read it all and it’s what you actually intended to say in the first place.