There’s a certain irony in how easy it’s become to sound like everyone else.
AI can now write entire brand manifestos in seconds — full of “authentic storytelling,” “customer-centric innovation,” and “redefining the future.” Perfect grammar. Perfect cadence. Perfectly forgettable.
Because when everyone sounds flawless, no one sounds real.
While I built a personal brand on my personality, some leaders did not agree with my approach. They claimed I was too honest, too unedited. One interviewer asked if I was concerned that people would think I was not intelligent because I did not edit my blogs, and there were mistakes. I said I was not doing this for people to think I was smart; I was doing it to share a piece of myself, and people could either take that or leave that. Years later, that authenticity has proven to be one of my core assets. Authenticity is was drew people to my blog, not perfectly polished pieces with all of the roughness edited out. What if I had listened to that interviewer and edited my brand and personality to fit their opinion?
Using AI without applying the fingerprints of your brand is like editing out your entire personality, so only a cold robot comes through your marketing. It does not work as cold marketing immediately disconnects the brand from the customer.
The Comfort of Automation
Automation has made marketing more efficient than we ever dreamed possible.
You can queue an entire quarter’s worth of emails before lunch, segment audiences without breaking a sweat, and schedule 30 perfectly timed social posts while sipping your second colada.
It’s easy to start believing that brand voice — that messy, emotional, human thing — doesn’t matter as much anymore.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: automation doesn’t create connection. It delivers it.
And if the message it’s delivering is hollow, all you’re really doing is sending beautifully packaged emptiness.
The Problem With Sounding “Professional”
Somewhere along the way, “professional” became code for “emotionless.”
Brands stripped away personality in favor of polish. They swapped “real” for “refined.” They started using words that look good in a boardroom but fall flat in a browser.
And yet — every piece of data, every heatmap, every scroll-depth analysis — tells us the same thing:
People still buy from people.
They respond to warmth, to wit, to rhythm. They want to feel like the brand they’re interacting with gets them — not because it used the right keyword, but because it used the right tone.
Voice Is the One Thing AI Can’t Fake
AI can mimic. It can predict. It can remix a thousand data points into something that sounds eerily close to you. But it doesn’t know what your brand feels like.
It doesn’t know that your “thank you for being part of our journey” is really a sigh of relief after surviving a product launch.
It doesn’t know that your “we’re here to help” comes from the founder who once slept on a warehouse floor just to keep the company alive.
It doesn’t know that your confidence is hard-earned — not downloaded.
Voice is the bridge between your story and your audience’s trust. It’s the fingerprint that can’t be replicated — not by AI, not by your competitors, not by anyone who didn’t live your story from the inside out.
Where Brands Lose Themselves
The most significant danger of automation isn’t speed — it’s sameness.
When everything runs on templates and triggered workflows, brands start to blur together.
Scroll through your inbox right now.
How many emails sound like they were written by the same person in a different logo?
That’s what happens when brand voice gets diluted, when your copy becomes a product of process, not perspective, when your content is clean, clear, and completely devoid of character.
The Power of Voice in a Machine-Driven World
Your brand voice isn’t just how you sound — it’s how you show up.
It’s the consistent thread that makes people recognize you before they see your logo. It’s the reason your customers feel like they “know” you, even if they’ve never met you.
In a world of endless automation, voice is your anchor. It reminds your audience that there’s a person behind the platform — someone who sees them as more than a metric.
Brands with strong voices don’t just communicate. They connect.
They make people feel seen, not segmented. Heard, not harvested.
How to Protect Your Brand Voice in the Age of Automation
- Define it — then defend it.
Write down what your brand voice is and what it isn’t. Be as specific as possible. (Example: “We’re confident, not corporate.” “We use warmth, not jargon.”) - Use AI as a collaborator, not a ghostwriter.
Let automation help with structure, analysis, and ideas — but your voice should always have the final say. - Create a human checkpoint.
Every automated message should be reviewed for tone, empathy, and brand alignment. Ask: “Would I say this out loud?” - Train your team, not just your tools.
Everyone — from marketing to customer service — should understand your voice. Consistency builds trust; confusion kills it. - Leave room for imperfection.
The occasional typo, unexpected sentence, or unscripted post reminds people you’re human. And humans are still your best brand ambassadors.
The Future Belongs to the Brands That Still Sound Human
Automation isn’t the villain here. It’s the amplifier.
It makes your strong voice louder — and your weak one nonexistent.
So if your brand sounds just like your competitors, it’s not because automation took over. It’s because you stopped writing from the heart.
Your brand voice is the only thing AI can’t replicate.
It’s your heartbeat in a world of code.
And as marketing gets noisier, faster, and smarter, the brands that still sound like someone will be the ones that still mean something.
– Marji J. Sherman
