When You Should Draft it Yourself

It’s tempting to rely on AI to do your drafting. It’s efficient, polished and convincing. But there are times when it’s better to use your own words and use AI as a support or a partner. 

AI is very good at linking words in a convincing way, but it cannot think, and it doesn’t know your history. 

Here are some situations that benefit from an authentic human voice: 

When the relationship is on the line  

AI knows nothing of your personal or professional relationships. Only you know the context for situations like these:   

• Performance reviews
• Personal letters, apologies, thank you notes
• Executive messages during sensitive moments
• Speeches about values or culture
• References and recommendations for people you know 

You can use AI to explore options and give editing advice, but the final judgment needs to be yours.

When your thinking is the deliverable 

Writing is thinking, and some situations require your thoughtful solution. AI can help you, but the critical thinking that leads to the solution needs to come from you.

Examples:

• Strategy documents
• Recommendations and business cases
• Post-mortems and lessons-learned documents after a project
• Responses to a client's RFP where your differentiation matters
• Presentations where you'll be expected to defend your reasoning 

Use AI as a partner—it will improve the results and save you time. But remember that you’re the author of anything that carries your name, your values, or your ideas.