You Can Thank AI For Creating This Opportunity

If you don’t create and publish any new thinking, or if all you do is come up with chip thought-leadership-ish advice with no personality, the kind you find in fortune cookies, then you might soon be in a tough spot.

But if you put just a little bit of effort into writing more authentically, with a bit of wit, you might, in fact, create a huge advantage for your business.

A few weeks ago, I started to run into ads wanting me to try a robot able to write my emails to you.

At first, I thought it was a joke. Then, I responded with a condescending “ridiculous, that doesn’t make any sense”. Finally, I wondered, “Is AI going to put me out of a job soon?”.

So I decided to look into this more closely, and I did a test:

• I signed up for ChatGPT, a prototype artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI specializing in dialogue. It was launched in November.
• I asked the bot to perform the following: “Write a blog article about how to reflect on this past year.”

It took 1 minute 18 seconds for ChatGPT to write the article below:

As the year comes to a close, it's natural to look back and reflect on all that has happened over the past twelve months. Reflection can be a powerful tool for personal growth and development, and can help us to understand our experiences, learn from our mistakes, and make plans for the future.

Here are some tips for reflecting on the year that just passed:

1. Take some time to yourself. Reflection is a personal process, so it's important to set aside some quiet time where you can be alone with your thoughts. This could be a few minutes each day, or a longer period of time such as a weekend retreat.

2. Think about the major events and experiences of the year. Take some time to reflect on the key events and experiences of the past year. What stands out to you? What was most meaningful or significant? What were the challenges and opportunities you faced?

3. Consider your personal growth and development. How have you changed over the past year? What have you learned about yourself? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What new skills or knowledge have you acquired?

4. Reflect on your relationships. Take some time to think about the people in your life and the relationships you have with them. What has been most rewarding about these relationships? What have you learned from them? What do you appreciate about the people in your life?

5. Identify areas for improvement. As you reflect on the past year, consider areas where you could have done better or where you would like to make changes. What are your goals and aspirations for the coming year? How can you improve in the areas that are important to you?

6. Practice gratitude. As you reflect on the year, it's important to focus on the positive aspects of your experiences. Take some time to think about the things you are grateful for and express your gratitude to those who have made a positive impact in your life.

7. Make a plan for the future. After reflecting on the past year, use what you have learned to make a plan for the coming year. This could include setting goals, making resolutions, or simply identifying areas you would like to focus on and improve.

In conclusion, reflection is an important tool for personal growth and development. By taking some time to think about the past year, considering your personal growth and relationships, identifying areas for improvement, practicing gratitude, and making a plan for the future, you can use reflection to help guide you towards a more fulfilling and rewarding future.

What do I take away from this experiment:

• First, although AI can produce decent content, it’s also bland and has no warmth because AI can’t use humor (for now…)
• This type of content is the level of what I’ve seen many consultants, coaches, experts, or professional services firms create for many years. It tells me that competition with AI-generated text is getting tough. There was already so much mediocre content available online. But now that we can create standard content for free in a minute, the market will be even more inundated with vanilla ideas.
• So, writing authentically, with humanity and imperfection, will be an even more fantastic opportunity to differentiate.
• You have a responsibility, AND an opportunity, to tell the truth, that everyone is afraid to tell in your industry and that AI cannot tell because it doesn’t know how to recognize it. Yet another way to differentiate and cultivate your expertise.
• Build a unique perspective. Robots can’t do that.
• Publish often, on the same focus. You can explore nuances and make connections that only you can make. AI repeats what non-subject-matter experts are teaching it.
• Develop your voice to own your ideas, like you put your fingerprints on your belongings. You communicate your energy through writing, and that’s often what your clients want to buy - your energy signature. AI has no energy signature.

And that’s it for now.

I’m not going to write a conclusion like a good student or ChatGPT would because I’m not a bot.

I am an expert on a mission to help other human professionals become experts on a mission to live meaningful, successful lives and build thriving businesses.

AI has yet to prove that it can do that.