If you’ve ever asked ChatGPT (or any AI tool) to draft something for you and thought, “Ugh, this sounds nothing like me,” you’re not alone.

It’s one of the biggest misconceptions I see with business owners right now… the belief that you can simply type in a prompt and get copy that’s ready to publish.

But here’s the truth:
👉 If you don’t train your AI, it has nothing to go on except generic internet content.
👉 And if you don’t keep training it, it will drift away from your brand voice over time.

So no wonder it spits out something bland, robotic, or something you’d never actually say.

The fix: train it before you trust it

AI is only as good as the inputs you give it. If you want it to reflect your tone of voice, your values, your message, you need to teach it those things first.

That doesn’t mean handing over your whole business strategy in one go. It can start really simply. I walk clients through a basic “Brand Voice Mastery” exercise that covers the essentials:

• Your positioning in the market
  
• Your unique points of difference
  
• Your brand story and themes
  
• Key phrases you use (and the ones you’d never touch)
  

Even this level of input transforms the quality of AI’s output.

[ GET THE BRAND VOICE MASTERY GUIDE ] 

Why I still keep a human anchor

In my own business, I’ve created a CustomGPT that only knows my business. It’s my best brainstorming partner. It drafts ideas, outlines content, and helps me save hours every week.

But here’s the key: I still keep one channel 100% human. For me, that’s my newsletter. Every word comes directly from me. Then I feed those newsletters back into my CustomGPT so it stays aligned with my voice.

That way, my AI doesn’t just sound “close enough.” It sounds like me.

The part AI will never do for you

Here’s the bit I feel most strongly about: AI can help us streamline tasks, speed up brainstorming, and tidy up the admin. But it can’t make someone feel understood. It can’t build trust. It can’t make your clients feel truly valued.

That’s still on us. No matter how smart the tools get, it’s the human touches people remember most.

So if your AI feels generic, the solution isn’t to give up on it. It’s to teach it. Train it. Keep feeding it your authentic voice and let it take the heavy lifting off your plate so you can focus on the part only you can do: connecting with your clients in a way no machine ever could.

This article was inspired by my conversation with Bec Sands on her Confidently Visible podcast. You can listen to the full episode here.