Smoke, Mirrors, and Thought Leaders

I did an experiment and ran long-form LinkedIn posts in my feed through an AI writing detector. 30% of the posts failed.

I picked posts that used emojis like 📈💰🚀📊📌, used depersonalized language, gave shallow actionable steps, and frankly, ones that sounded like a machine.

It was disappointing to see so many users with thousands of followers with nothing to say. Ironically, one of the posts that failed the test outright was about the personal importance of authenticity. It's a reality check to discover that a lot of self-proclaimed marketing gurus are really just cranking out Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V "wisdom" that you could've easily gotten yourself using ChatGPT.

Are AI writing tools helpful, powerful, and part of the future? Absolutely. It's an incredible resource for synthesizing information, connecting dots, finding inspiration, and generating fresh perspectives. It's ok to use new tools— that's embracing the future. This is especially true for medical fields, technology, data processing, and SEO. But using it to spew out shallow marketing insights? Let's listen to people with real experiences, not ones with 80% of the post written by AI.

It's easy to see people cranking out endless amounts of insights seemingly based on personal experience and feel like you're miles behind. The truth is, a lot of it is smoke and mirrors. Choose your mentors carefully and don't let LinkedIn influencer culture make you feel like you're getting left in the dust.