On Authenticity and Writing with AI

I’ve been having more and more conversations about what it means to write in the age of AI, especially with marketers and fellow writers. There’s curiosity, excitement, but also hesitation. Beneath it all sits an old question: what makes something authentic? This reflection grew out of those conversations.

In many ways, what we’re really talking about is authenticity in writing with AI, how to preserve the human voice when our tools evolve faster than ever.

In recent months, I’ve had many conversations with marketers and other writers about AI and writing. It’s a topic that comes up again and again. There’s the intellectual debate about efficiency, creativity, and whether AI, humans, or some combination of both are most effective. And then there’s the emotional layer, the fear of losing ourselves, of being fake, or of being seen as fake.

It reminds me of when I first started writing at university. Back then, there were real discussions about the use of word processors, especially the spell checkers and grammar checkers. My first-year undergraduate essays were handwritten. People wondered whether the handwritten word was somehow more authentic than the typed and corrected one. I never thought so. Each step (handwriting, typing, formatting, editing) simply added another layer of craft and precision.

Every piece of writing starts with an idea or a message. The craft lies in developing it into a coherent narrative that fits the medium and the audience, and delivers the idea effectively. This is equally true for writing done with AI. Just as we’ve come to expect no spelling mistakes in word-processed documents, we’ll come to expect a certain standard of style and a certain speed in drafting that AI tools make possible. But the idea, the message, and the humans remain at the centre.

Authenticity comes from the voice, but even more so from the message and the idea behind it. So let’s not allow the authenticity debate to be dominated by a fear of the m dash.

If you have copy produced with AI, dare I ask, so what? Perhaps even, why not? The real question is whether the idea, the message, and the words used to convey them do their job. If the end product works, then embrace it (em dashes, icons, extra spacing and all). If it’s poor, it will sink, regardless of whether AI was involved. And let’s be honest, there was no shortage of poor ideas and poor writing long before AI arrived. So let’s not get too romantic about the past. It could just make us sound older than we are.

The printing press, the word processor, self-publishing and digital platforms all led to an explosion of content. Each wave made creation and distribution easier, so we ended up with more of it. AI is doing the same: more content, more variations, more personalisation. As with any bell curve, most of it is average at best. But none of these shifts replaced the consequential, the impactful, or the moving. The same will be true for AI. As we all get better at using it, it will stop being seen as a threat to authenticity and simply become part of our everyday toolkit, much like the word processor did.

For marketers and business leaders, that’s the real opportunity: to use these tools to sharpen our ideas, not replace them. Authenticity in writing with AI will come not from resisting the tools, but from how we use them to express better ideas (and better express ideas).

So don’t be afraid, and don’t go looking for the missing em dash as a tell-tale sign of AI. If you do, you might miss the message, or worse, the idea.

The tools have changed, from pen to typewriter to AI, but the heart of writing remains the same: an idea worth sharing.