I use AI.
There.
I said it.
I use AI these days.
But there was a time that I would have denied the use of AI no matter how minimal I use it or not.
But after reflecting on the matter, this is the same thing I did when Google Search came out, when Grammarly came out, when AHRefs came out. Every time something new came out, I was always one of those that resisted change.
Google Search helped me get information faster than a visit to an actual library. Grammarly helped correct lapses in grammar in what I’d written. I mean those tools helped me work faster.
When ChatGPT came out, I resisted.
But after reconsidering, I decided to give it a try. And I’d have to say I’m still not a fan of ChatGPT. I am, however, a fan of Google Gemini as a thinking partner.
And Claude.
Because at work, we use Claude, specifically.
And I’m writing about this on a blog about writing craft because I think there’s a conversation worth having that most people are either avoiding or getting completely wrong.
This isn’t about whether AI is good or bad for writers.
It’s whether you’re using it, or it’s using you.
The Trap Most Writers Fall Into
It usually starts innocently enough.
You’re stuck on an opening. You ask ChatGPT for a few options.
One of them is pretty good, so you use it.
Then you’re tired and the deadline is close, so you ask for a full draft.
You edit it, you change some words, you tell yourself it still sounds like you.
But does it really?
Is it still really you when you’ve outsourced the thinking to AI.
Using AI relieves you from wrestling with the ideas yourself.
But what happens to your voice?
Is it still your voice if AI is the one writing it?
Wrestling with ideas is where your voice lives.
The false starts, the crossed-out lines, the sentence you wrote four different ways before landing on the right one… it’s the process that makes the writing yours.
And if the process is outsourced, then what happens to your voice?
Skip the brainstorming process often enough and your writing starts to sound like everyone else’s AI-assisted content.
It may be good enough.
It may be smooth.
But it’s also completely forgettable.
How AI Helps
Used correctly, AI is genuinely useful.
As a writer, I use AI as a thinking partner.
Someone I can bounce ideas off.
Someone who wil write my tables for me based on the conversation we’ve had because Excel and I are not good friends.
When I’m stuck on structure, I’ll describe what I’m trying to say to Claude and ask how it might be organized.
And to be honest, how AI shapes it or angles it in a different way can sometimes be astonishing. Like “why didn’t I tink of that?” kinda things.
Mostly it’s just straightforward how I see it because I few it instructions.
And then there are times that it just sucks.
Maybe too many times.
And that’s why I’m still not too dependent on AI.
Or maybe I just don’t know how to make the proper prompts to get what others are getting. But to me, using Claude is mostly like
talking through an idea with a colleague who never gets tired of listening.
When I’ve written a draft and something feels off but I can’t identify what, I’ll ask Claude to read it and tell me where it loses momentum.
I get feedback, fast and specific, something that used to require another human being with time and patience.
Now, I can sit alone and just talk to Claude and organize my thoughts that way.
When I need to research something quickly, AI accelerates the groundwork so I can spend more time on the actual writing. Yeah, I still use Google but AI does make it faster by giving me a summarized answer when I d a search.
But I still check what AI gives me because AI does make mistakes.
The key in all of this: I’m still making every decision. The thinking is still mine.
Claude is a tool in the same way a thesaurus is a tool.
It may not write the sentence but it does help me find the right word for the sentence I’m already writing.
Where It Doesn’t Help
AI cannot replicate lived experience.
It can sound like you, approximate your voice enough if you feed it enough examples.
But approximation isn’t the same thing.
A reader who knows your work will feel the difference even if they can’t articulate it. They’ll know that there are specifics detail that only you would include.
The turns of phrases that comes from how you actually think.
Opinions that are genuinely yours because you’ve experienced it.
Those things don’t come from a prompt.
They come from you.
So here’s what I advice you to do:
Use AI to think faster.
Use it to get unstuck.
Use it to handle the parts of the work that don’t require your voice.
Then write the parts that do, yourself, slowly, with full attention.
That’s where the good stuff still lives.
Don’t be too dependent on AI.