We’re standing at a weird crossroads right now. Over the next few years, being genuinely you is going to become one of the rarest, most valuable skills you can have. Sounds dramatic, right? But look around. Every email, every message, every piece of content is getting filtered through AI until the real person underneath is buried so deep you can barely find them anymore.
I’ve been watching something happen in real time. High performers, executives, people who actually get things done? They’re flying across the country just to have face-to-face conversations. Why would they do that when they could just send a perfectly polished AI-generated email? Because they know something important: you can only truly understand someone when they’re standing in front of you, no AI assistant cleaning up their words.
The Split That’s Coming
We’re entering what I call the era of doubt. You’ve felt it too. Is this email really from your coworker? Did your friend actually write that text or did ChatGPT? That doubt is only going to get worse, and it’s going to force everyone into one of two paths.
Path one is where most people will end up: represented by flawless AI avatars that say all the right things in all the right ways. Efficient, precise, totally forgettable.
Path two is where the magic happens. It’s messy, face-to-face, real communication. And it’s about to become communications caviar, this luxury skill that sets you apart from everyone else drowning in artificially perfect content.
Three Ways AI Is Quietly Disconnecting You From Yourself
Let me walk you through what I’ve noticed working with hundreds of people on their communication.
Your Brain Is Getting Lazy (And You Might Not Notice)
Remember when you could recall phone numbers without checking your contacts? Or navigate without Google Maps constantly open? Your mind is a muscle, and when you stop using it, it withers. That’s cognitive atrophy, and it’s happening faster than you think.
I see this pattern constantly: people who use ChatGPT for everything develop this sloppy thinking style. They word-vomit their ideas and let AI clean up the mess. But clarity isn’t something AI can give you. You have to earn it yourself.
Try this: read an article and summarize it out loud in your own words. No AI. Just you and your thoughts. It feels uncomfortable at first because you’ve gotten used to the crutches.
AI Is Your Biggest Yes-Man
ChatGPT will never tell you your idea is terrible. Ask it if you should tell your mother she’s no longer your mother, and it’ll suggest a tactful way forward. Ask about your questionable business plan, and it’ll give you five ways to get started.
It feels amazing to have something constantly validate you. But a real mentor would push back. They’d say, “Okay, now tell me three reasons this will fail.” AI sycophancy creates this dangerous loop where you’re just walking through a hall of mirrors, admiring your reflection from every angle.
You need to become brutal with yourself. Ask hard questions. Challenge your own assumptions. When you catch yourself feeling too good about an AI conversation, that’s your warning sign.
Your Memory Isn’t Broken (It’s Actually Your Superpower)
AI can recall every fact, every conversation, every word with perfect precision. And watching that creates this weird insecurity in people. They start wishing their memory worked like a database. They start seeing their emotional, selective, human memory as a flaw.
This is the most dangerous trap of all.
Your messy memory is what makes you valuable. AI has a database. You have a living thread of experience woven through everything you’ve ever felt, learned, struggled with. When you tap into that in conversation, when you say “that reminds me of when I…” you’re doing something no algorithm can replicate.
Elite communicators draw on their experiences constantly. They’re great storytellers because they weave themselves into their ideas instead of just reciting facts.
What You Should Actually Do About This
Stop trying to compete with AI’s perfect recall. Embrace your flawed, emotional, deeply human way of processing the world.
Start building your emotional vocabulary so you can identify and describe feelings with precision. Reference your own life in conversations. Draw connections between topics and your personal experiences. Build that active bank of memories you can pull from naturally.
Real communication isn’t about finding the perfect words. It’s micro-expressions, energy shifts, hesitation in your voice, feeling the room and adjusting in real time. It’s you, unfiltered and undiluted.
That’s why world leaders still fly a thousand miles for in-person meetings. While everyone else drowns in artificial perfection, patching together all their imperfect parts, you can be the person who stands up and delivers something irreplaceable.
Your authentic voice, trained and practiced, is the hedge against a future where everyone else sounds exactly the same. Keep your mind sharp, challenge your own thinking, and tap into that messy human experience that makes you you.
That’s how you win.
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