When your AI communicates better than you do

When your AI communicates better than you do, it can raise an uncomfortable question for leaders. If AI helps you sound polished and articulate in emails, what happens when you’re in the room—under pressure, in conversation, without a script? In a recent session with finance professionals, that question surfaced directly, revealing a challenge leaders have faced for years: closing the gap between prepared messaging and real-time presence.

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Last week, while delivering a presentation on “AI for the Authentic Communicator” for finance professionals, one of the participants asked an important question:

What if your AI communicates better than you do?

I was sharing strategies from my new book, AI for the Authentic Leader, on how to use AI to bring out your best thinking and your authentic voice.

What he was really asking was this: if AI helps us show up at our best in emails, what happens when we’re in the room—and we can’t live up to it?

The gap between polished writing and live presence

This is not a new concern.

People often spend hours perfecting scripted presentations. This has been true for years—and it still happens. Every word is polished and memorized. But when it comes to Q&A, suddenly confidence unravels into filler words like “um” and “so,” and half-finished thoughts, because they haven’t practiced their impromptu speaking skills.

The human skills that build trust under pressure

Consistency builds credibility, which builds trust.

Used well, AI shows you what you could sound like at your best. What is increasingly important is closing the gap between that version and how you show up live—under pressure, in conversation, in the room.

Invest in the human skills that earn trust when the script disappears. That has always mattered. Now, it’s unavoidable.

Until next week,

~Allison

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