Your AI Voice Print

From AI slop to signature style in surprisingly simple steps

🌸 ikigai 生き甲斐 is a reason for being, your purpose in life - from the Japanese iki 生き meaning life and gai 甲斐 meaning worth 🌸

I've been thinking about voice prints lately… what makes your words unmistakably yours?

The words you say faaaar too often that you wish you didn’t. A spelling you always get confused over whether it’s British or American. Your particular flavour of self-deprecating humour. That thing you do with punctuation and your distrust of colons.

All at risk of disappearing into a bland stew of AI generation.

You know the stuff I mean, posts that start with "In a world where..." or "It's not just about X, it's about Y..." Feeling like you're reading the same person, over and over and over and over and over… just with slightly different fonts.

AI slop. Generic, soulless and unmemorable.

I'm not worried about AI taking over, I for one welcome our robot overlords *grin* … but I AM scared that we're sleepwalking into our humanness being squished by convenience or lack of care or skill.

I started thinking about this in my essay the ikigai risk of AI … even in the optimistic scenarios where AI only enhances rather than threatens humanity, we still *do* face a unique challenge to what makes us fundamentally human, our need for meaningful work and contribution to give us a sense of purpose … and I worry that in our rush to be efficient, we accidentally edit out some of those tonal quirks that makes us brilliantly, sparkly us.

Your voice matters more than ever

Lots of people agree we need to resist the pull towards homogenisation... So how do we fight to keep our quirks and our edge? To gently educate that perhaps it’s not a great idea to flood the internet with even more content as thought leadership, that isn’t firmly grounded in actual real human thoughts and words?

I see people a little sheepish about owning up to AI assisted work. "Sorry, I used ChatGPT for help with this" they mumble, as if they've been cheating on an exam rather than using a tool to amplify their thinking.

Others over confidently posting AI generated articles without a second thought about whether it sounds like them or everyone else.

It’s super important we think about whose voices get heard, whose perspectives shape how these tools develop and who gets to define what "good" AI use looks like.

Diverse voices matter desperately in this conversation. We approach collaboration and ethics differently. We applaud inclusive tools that help people express themselves who might otherwise struggle. We need voices that see AI as a thinking partner more than a replacement… those attuned to the nuances of communication, the spaces between words, the emotional undertones that make writing actually connect with more than one type of human.

I especially want to help and inspire women and girls to harness AI and win with it!!… we SO desperately need gender balance in the decision making of what becomes our societal norms and the design of the tools we use daily… women are not a minority but we are often treated that way, as ‘other’, as an after thought and not the default. We need enough ammunition to keep ourselves safe and lobby for holistic, caring and purposeful oversight and regulation.

If we don't engage with AI tools we lose the opportunity to influence how they evolve… and the world can’t afford to lose that insight.

The surprisingly simple steps

Using AI tools to help enhance NOT replace your voice isn’t too hard. You don’t have to call yourself a prompt engineer and you definitely don’t have to memorise complicated frameworks or speak in code!

It's honestly mostly about getting curious about yourself… paying attention to what makes you you and being intentional with your collaboration, rather than just dumping requests and hoping for the best.

The methodology I've developed isn't revolutionary, it's just thoughtful… steps that lots of people skip because they're in too much of a hurry to get to the output.

Step 1 = Brain Dump

Start here. Always. Before touching any AI tool, spend 5-10 minutes getting everything out of your head about what you want to write and why. This can be as rambly, unstructured, poorly punctuated or badly spelled as it naturally comes out. You might prefer typing or writing with pen and paper. You could record yourself speaking your thoughts aloud. Some people love mind mapping to see visual connections between ideas. The key is accessibility, use whatever method suits your needs and helps you think most clearly. Don't edit, don't organise, don't worry about making sense.

Why this works AI is remarkably good at making sense of unstructured thoughts. Your messy brain dump contains the authentic insights, personal experience, quirky phrasing and unique perspective that no AI can generate. This becomes the foundation that ensures everything that follows sounds like you.

Step 2 = Deep Research

You can take your messy thoughts and use AI to help you identify what you need to research to ensure you are writing well on a particular topic. This is about spotting gaps in your knowledge and angles you might have missed.

AI prompt template to try;

“Based on this brain dump about the [state if it’s report, article, essay etc] that I'm trying to write: [paste your unstructured thoughts within the brackets]

Help me identify:

- What additional research would strengthen my understanding

- What perspectives or data I might be missing

- What questions I should be asking that I'm not asking yet

- How to structure this into an effective deep research prompt

Focus on research that builds on my existing idea rather than replacing it.”

Because you started with your own knowledge, words, ideas, this request understands your context, your values, your particular angle on the world, so the research should give you something good to work with.

Step 3 = Upload Reports AND Dump AND Keep Chatting

Take your research report (or several, run it in at least two separate models) and feed it into a fresh chat. Make sure you're using an advanced model (that means in ChatGPT you have to change from 4o to o3 (yes, weird numbering!), whereas Claude and Gemini tend to default to the best ones, well on the paid plans anyway!)... and then just have a natural chat about what you are trying to do, you can re-upload your original brain dump and ask for support to flesh it out without losing your words, tone or meaning… say that you’ve attached some best practice research to also take into account. The words should emerge through the filter of some of what makes you unique. It can take a lot of back and forth and don’t be afraid at any stage to say that doesn’t sound like me and tell the AI why!

Bonus expert step = Build a personal AI brain

If you create yourself a Claude or ChatGPT project, you can upload lots of examples of your best writing for AI to reference, and you can also add in custom instructions that always apply like ‘always use British English’ and ‘Don’t use words or phrases that AI overuses like; Delve, Dive, In a world where…’. Then when you start start conversations from within the project you can use phrases like "Using my usual style and tone..." or "In the voice you know from my examples..." which ensures it references the examples.

Building your voice print muscle

To reflect your tone, you can be intentionally yourself in conversation with AI, don’t speak stuffily or awkwardly! It takes a little practice, but so does everything worth doing.

I think about my friend who's dyslexic and uses AI to help structure her thoughts into strong and coherent proposals. The AI doesn't make her ideas less hers, it helps her express them in ways that land with customers. She's definitely not creating slop, she's creating clear communication that wins her business.

Or the woman I know taking some of my LearnAI.im courses, who's building a consultancy whilst juggling three kids and aging parents. AI helps her research market trends and draft initial frameworks, but every final piece sounds exactly like her… practical, no-nonsense, with just enough irreverence to make you smile.

This is what ethical AI use looks like to me. Not replacement, but amplification. Not generic output, but distinctly human thinking made clearer.

The GenX advantage

Those of us who remember life and work before the internet have a particular advantage here. We know what our voices sounded like before algorithms started suggesting our next words.

We've lived through enough technological shifts to know that the tools change, but the humans using them matter the most.

Plus, frankly, we're too old to care about being cool. We can admit when we need help, ask stupid questions and iterate messily without worrying about looking perfect on social media.

This matters more than you might think. AI tools work best when you're honest about what you don't know, when you're willing to experiment, when you can laugh at the ridiculous outputs and try again.

Protecting human voices online is protecting diversity of thought, preserving the quirks and edges that make culture interesting, ensuring that the future gets shaped by many different kinds of human intelligence rather than just the loudest or most technically confident.

Every time you choose to infuse your personality into AI-assisted work rather than accepting generic output, you're pushing back against homogenisation. Every time you bring your experience and perspective into the conversation, you're helping these tools become more nuanced and human-centred.

Your voice print isn't just about you. It's about making sure there's still room for all kinds of human voices.

Once you get the hang of it, it's fun. There's something deeply satisfying about using cutting-edge technology to become more authentically yourself, not less.

This is what ikigai is about. Finding your reason for being, your particular way of contributing to the world. AI doesn't have to diminish that, with a little intention it can help you find and express it more clearly than ever.

Your voice and unique perspective matter, let's make sure it’s not watered down!

Sarah, seeking ikigai xxx

PS - I’d love to hear from you in the comments beautiful soul!!!

What's your weirdest punctuation habit or writing quirk? I’m realising I’m far too liberal with ellipses and put them everywhere... probably far too much... but they feel like the pauses in my brain! *grin* What's yours?

PPS - If you fancy having an AI play >

The Voice Audit Prompt: "I want to understand my unique writing voice. Can you help me analyse what makes my communication style distinctive? I'll share some examples of my writing, and I'd like you to identify patterns in my vocabulary choices, sentence structure, tone, and perspective. What quirks or habits make my voice recognisable?"

The Context Builder: "Before we work on [your project], I need you to understand my context. I'm a [your role/situation] who cares deeply about [your values]. My audience is [describe them] and I'm trying to [your goal]. My perspective is shaped by [your experience/background]. Keep this in mind for everything we create together in this chat window."

Want to go deeper? In a rare day job/passion project crossover I wanted to share with you the online course I created this week that has short practical video guides for developing your AI voice print; Authentic AI Writing - Your Human Voice First

PPPS - Bullet Journal reflection prompt >

Create a spread to capture your voice print elements, it may contain;

• Quirky Words I Love: List your favourite expressions, made-up words, or phrases you use repeatedly

• My Punctuation Personality: Do you love ellipses? Em dashes? Brackets for asides? Document your patterns

• Topics I Get Passionate About: What makes you lean forward in conversation?

• My Communication Values: What matters to you in how you express ideas?

Use this as a reference when briefing AI tools - the more specific you are about your preferences, the better they can support your authentic voice.

PPPPS - As soon as I wrote over and over in the first section and it ran on in my head to ‘over and over and over and over and over’ I knew I wanted to share the awesome Hot Chip as this week’s soundtrack;