In an age where emails, texts, and social media posts shape how we connect and communicate, the way we write matters more than ever. But somewhere along the way, we started confusing “professional” with “impersonal” and “polished” with “forgettable.”
By Julianne Hudson
In an age where emails, texts, and social media posts shape how we connect and communicate, the way we write matters more than ever. But somewhere along the way, we started confusing “professional” with “impersonal” and “polished” with “forgettable.” Whether it’s a school newsletter, a thank you message for a colleague, a classroom update, or a student’s essay, writing that lacks voice often also lacks impact. As AI tools become more prominent in our daily lives, both personally and professionally, there’s a growing temptation to let them take over, but when we do, something essential gets lost.
Why Messages Fall Flat When They Don’t Sound Like You
Think about the last time you read an email or post that felt off - maybe even robotic or disconnected. Maybe the words were polished and professional, but the message didn’t sound like the person you know. You immediately knew AI wrote it, and the moment that thought crossed your mind, the message lost its meaning.
These days, so much of our connection happens through a screen. While technology has undoubtedly made communication faster and easier, it has also made it easier for messages to lose their authenticity, and when that happens, people stop paying attention.
How Overly Polished Messages Lose Their Power
Over time, readers, whether they are colleagues, clients, or friends, get used to how you communicate. They know your tone, your phrasing, and the small quirks that make your writing sound like you. When your natural voice disappears, the trust you have established with the reader also starts to disappear. The words feel distant and less sincere. Generic language makes the message read like manufactured text rather than genuine communication, and even important points lose their weight and become forgettable.
The impact goes beyond tone. When a message feels inauthentic, people disengage more quickly, and the ability of your words to influence, connect, and build relationships weakens. Overusing AI amplifies this problem; the qualities that make communication meaningful, such as authenticity, trust, connection, and a human voice, all begin to erode when your writing feels more machine than human.
Sometimes, AI-generated messages come across as oddly poetic or overly philosophical, flowery in tone but cold and disconnected. While that might be appropriate for a speech or a reflective essay, it feels jarring in a quick update, email, or text. When the tone doesn’t match the moment, it creates confusion instead of clarity, and your message just might miss the mark.
There’s also a time and place for thoughtful messaging, and not every note needs to be “elevated” and run through AI to ensure perfection. We can’t claim perfection, and the moment our writing becomes perfect, in stark contrast to the imperfect person behind the screen, the message becomes meaningless. For simple, non-technical communication, like a meeting reminder or a casual check-in, it’s okay to sound like a real person. In fact, that’s often what people want.
The Risk of Leaning Too Much on AI
A pivotal MIT Media Lab study, first released as a preprint on June 10, 2025, in Tech and Learning Magazine, explored how heavy reliance on ChatGPT affects writing and thinking. Over four months, researchers tracked 54 participants who wrote essays either entirely on their own, with Google, or with ChatGPT, while monitoring brain activity using EEG.
The results were striking; ChatGPT users showed the lowest brain activity, especially in areas linked to creativity and decision making. Their writing was often described as “soulless,” showed less originality, and many users struggled to recall what they had written. Even weeks after they stopped using AI, participants still showed lower engagement and slower recovery of their creative abilities. While the study is still under review, it highlights a real risk. Over reliance on AI doesn’t just flatten how we sound; it can dull the skills (skills that many of us have spent our whole lives refining) we need to communicate and think effectively.
Finding the Right Balance
AI can be an incredibly helpful tool for brainstorming, organizing, or polishing a draft, but it should never replace your voice. The messages people remember and trust carry your tone, perspective, and emotion; they sound like the person they would talk to face-to-face, not just through a screen.
People do not connect with perfect sentences. They connect with real ones. The messages that make the biggest impact are the ones that sound like you.
What This Means for Educators
As educators, we’re not just shaping students’ academic knowledge; we’re also helping them find and refine their voices. In a world where AI tools are readily accessible and tempting to overuse, we have a responsibility to teach students when to use them and when to pause and think for themselves.
Students need to know that voice and authenticity matter just as much as grammar and structure. When we teach writing, we can't forget the human side of communication: how to express ideas with conviction, how to sound like yourself, and how to write in a way that builds connection and trust with the reader.
We should also model this ourselves. Whether we’re sending messages to families, posting online, or giving students feedback, our words should feel real. Not overly polished. Not templated. Not disingenuous. Just human.
AI can undoubtedly support writing, but AI should not co-opt our true voice - arguably the only thing we have that AI cannot replicate. As educators, and as humans, our job is to help students, and ourselves, stay grounded in that truth, not losing sight of the intangible parts of our humanity that separate us from machines.