Ideas, analysis and communication insight for strategic thinkers in B2B tech
LEADERSHIP COMMS
Technology & Leadership
To AI or Not to AI? Let’s Answer The Question.
Right now, there is a culture war happening over the use of AI in communication.
The thinking is, if you use AI to help you communicate, you can’t be trusted.
That’s because AI instantly turns our messy thoughts into coherent sentences. And that’s just too easy.
Human nature, being what it is, views ‘easy effort’ with suspicion. We subconsciously hold on to a deep-seated belief that excellence takes blood, sweat, and tears.
There is a famous quote attributed to different writers, and the short version is:
“Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.”
The perception (but not always the reality) is:
✅ Hard, painful, torturous work = quality, depth, and intelligent results
❌ Easy, effortless or minimal work = rubbish, shallow, or stupid results
Long before AI helped clean-up and smooth-out our words, published book authors had editors and journalists had sub-editors; many of these editors didn’t just proofread or edit. They often rewrote entire passages. They did the job that AI can now do instantly. But nobody complained.
I’m not saying that AI doesn’t turn your writing into slop. It can if you rely on it too much.
But here’s a contradiction emerging in the research on AI and communication.
On the one hand, research suggests that “linguistic diversity is shrinking”, blandifying our words and making us sound the same. On the other hand, research suggests that AI improves our communication and helps us sound more authentic and trustworthy.
This illustrates that AI doesn’t automatically make communication worse. Sometimes it clearly makes it better.
When it comes to the business world, we should stop pretending bland leadership communication started with ChatGPT.
In the past, leaders had their words polished by legal, HR, marketing and corporate affairs. Usually with good intentions: protect the company, avoid ambiguity, minimise risk. Taken too far, though, potent words turn into corporate speak, devoid of personality.
I saw this myself years before generative AI. A CEO speech we had helped craft in Australia went through a global communications team and came back so over-engineered that much of the CEO’s personality had disappeared. We had to insist that some of the rawness and individuality be restored.
The scary thing is that AI can now do the same over-engineering in seconds. It shouldn’t mean that we clutch our collective pearls and shun AI; it should mean that we need to be more responsible in how we use it.
To borrow and slightly twist a line from Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.” With AI, I’d argue it’s: “With great freedom comes even greater responsibility.”
Scroll down to the ‘Something Extra’ section for tips on how to generate AI content responsibly so you still sound like yourself.
REVENUE COMMS
Communication That Earns Influence
Tech Buyers Don’t Trust Your Content. They Trust Your Expertise.
According to this article, “the easier AI makes content to produce, the less buyers seem to trust it. This is probably why they're leaning harder on human expertise, not less.”
The article cites some research: “Edelman and LinkedIn surveyed nearly 2,000 executives for their 2025 B2B Thought Leadership report and found that strong thought leadership makes the vast majority of so-called hidden buyers (the finance, legal and procurement people who rarely talk to a salesperson but can quietly kill a deal) far more open to hearing from a vendor. Those people are looking for proof that somebody on the other side actually understands the problem.”
This means that having a strong point of view coupled with deep technical, industry, or delivery experience can help a smaller tech player with almost no brand recognition win deals against larger, industry-recognised competitors.
You may have noticed the trend among tech buyers for more rigorous demonstrations of your software products or solutions. They don’t want your weasel words or smooth-FM talk. Just clear explanation of proven experience, contexualised to the buyer’s objectives and environment.
The amount of proof points and evidence buyers now ask for is insane. So if you’re not developing indepth success stories, scenarios and use cases or keeping a detailed written track record of how you implement and support tech projects, it’s time to get cracking.
Case in Point
I recently supported a client in that regard. My job initially was to help the technical team land on the story wireframe (introduction/body/conclusion) and then get out of the way while they did the deep work. Finally, I then stepped in to help them contextualise the solution, case studies/previous experience for the buyer, their business, industry, and unique situation. Headings such as “Relevance to Company Xxx” or “Similarity to Your Proposed Solution” helped us demonstrate how our past experience, knowledge, and expertise were directly aligned with the potential buyer’s objectives. No mincing of words; plain English applied.
Content is the Support Act
The PowerPoint presentation was the support act, the minor player in this real-life drama. The main act was the actual live product demo, a real-life Proof-of-Concept (POC) the team developed and presented. Arduous and detailed. All the individuals on the vendor’s side who were presenting in front of the buying team were on notice. Their expertise and opinions needed to withstand scrutiny and questioning.
When it comes to live presentations of your proposal/tender, the norm now (and not the exception) is that it will be a highly interactive process, with the buyer team asking many more questions, even challenging presenters about key points, so preparation is key.
Being prepared is table stakes; what is truly valued by buying teams is interacting with vendor presenters who demonstrate thought leadership, which comes from deep experience sharpened by a thirst to keep acquiring knowledge. Expert opinion is also highly regarded. Tech vendor representatives that appear neutral or noncommittal when asked to offer an opinion are downgraded. Buying groups often don’t have confidence that they’re making the right decision, one way or the other. They need to see that the vendor pursuit team has a confident point of view. Of course it’s important that confidence doesn’t spill into arrogance.
A question for you: “How well are you protecting and supporting the subject matter experts on your team across technical, delivery and industry know-how?” They’re your sales superstars, not the sales team.
MARKET PULSE
In The News
Tim Cook Officially Hands Over the CEO Role to The Engineer
Tim Cook has handed the CEO role to Ternus after 15 years at the helm, leaving behind a company that is far bigger, richer and more valuable than the one he inherited in 2011. Cook remains executive chairman, while Ternus takes over at a moment when Apple is under pressure to prove it can regain momentum in AI and define what comes after the iPhone. Ternus is not a typical celebrity CEO. He’s a low-key engineer who has spent much of his career deep inside Apple’s hardware organisation. Former colleagues describe him as technically obsessive, approachable and unusually comfortable in the details. He’s known for his relaxed, understated manner and for sitting among rank-and-file employees rather than disappearing into executive offices.
My POV
Technology is becoming more complex, more interconnected and more deeply embedded in how companies operate. Customers increasingly need people who genuinely understand what sits underneath the technology, not just people who can explain the commercial proposition. That’s why I think engineers are becoming increasingly powerful leaders and communicators. Ternus fits that shift.
Phrase of the Week
Earned intellectual Authority: the credibility to influence how others think because you’ve demonstrated genuine expertise, judgement and original thinking over time.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
”Assume you’re as smart as anyone in the room, but never assume you know as much as they do.“
SOMETHING EXTRA
How to Use AI in Communication And Still Sound Like Yourself
Here are 9 practical ways to do that:
Use AI to test your thinking before it writes anything. Give it your argument and ask: Where is this weak? What assumptions am I making? What would a sceptical employee, investor, buyer or customer challenge? What am I avoiding saying? That preserves your point of view because the thinking starts with you.
Use AI for research, not opinion substitution. Ask it to find evidence, contrary views, examples and data that strengthen or challenge your position. Then decide what you think before asking it to help structure the message.
Give it samples of how you actually communicate. Feed it several speeches, emails, LinkedIn posts, or transcripts, and ask it to identify your recurring characteristics: sentence length, humour, bluntness, vocabulary, rhythm, use of anecdotes, and level of formality. Then tell it explicitly to preserve those traits.
Ask for a ‘corporate clone' test. A useful prompt might be: Highlight every sentence that could plausibly have been said by 100 other CEOs / AI engineers / tech sellers. Don’t rewrite it yet. Tell me why it feels generic. That forces AI to diagnose blandness rather than manufacture more of it.
Run a language-cleaning pass. Ask it to flag corporate filler, management clichés and language you would never use in conversation: leveraging, unlocking value, accelerating transformation, navigating complexity, driving outcomes. Then replace those with language you’d actually say aloud.
Protect the irregularities. Tell AI not to automatically smooth out short sentences, fragments, humour, unusual analogies or slightly unexpected turns of phrase. Those ‘imperfections’ may be the most recognisable parts of your voice.
Ask: “Does this sound too polished?” Have AI identify places where the prose feels rehearsed, overly symmetrical, too perfectly structured or unnaturally diplomatic.
Use a disagreement check. Ask AI: Have you softened any of my original claims? Have you turned a strong opinion into a balanced corporate statement? Show me where. This is particularly useful for thought leadership.
Do a human test as the final pass. Read it out loud (whether you wrote it or someone else has on your behalf). If there’s a sentence you’d never actually say, change it. The spoken test catches a huge amount of AI blandification.
If this helped you think differently about communication, forward this newsletter to someone who leads, sells or explains complex ideas in tech.
For a different perspective, subscribe to my other newsletter, THE STATIC, a weekly, 5-minute read that decodes the nonsense in tech hype and comms.
