There’s an irony I never thought I’d have to write about:
AI is working harder and harder to sound more human… while far too many humans still sound painfully robotic when they speak.
Let that sink in for a second.
In a recent Harvard Business Review article by Michelle Taite, “What Should Your Company’s AI Sound Like to Customers?”, I’ll tell you that the conversation wasn’t just about technical accuracy.
The key was about how to get AI to project confidence.
- Certainty vs doubt
- Suggestion versus instruction
- Assessment versus hypothesis
- Conviction vs. indifference
The current obsession is around vocal tone, pacing, phrasing, and the subtle cues that shape how people feel when they hear a message, based on how it sounds like the speaker feels while they’re saying it.
In other words, the people building artificial intelligence have realized something I’ve been saying for years: delivery is not the icing on the message cake. It is the cake.
Communication is never just about whether the words are correct.
Sure, that’s fundamentally important too, but impact is about how the words land.
Traditionally, AI creators focused on getting the output right. That made sense. First make it accurate, then make it elegant.
But now they’re recognizing that elegance is not cosmetic; it’s functional.
If the AI sounds too cold, too rigid, too uncertain, too verbose, or too flat, users don’t trust it the same way. They don’t follow it the same way. They don’t feel guided by it.
So now the machines are being trained to sound clearer, calmer, warmer, more structured, and more confident.
This raises a very uncomfortable question:
If GenAI scientists have determined that these vocal and linguistic nuances are so important that they must be intentionally engineered into a machine… how much influence are YOU losing by leaving them in your blind spot?
That’s why identifying that blind spot is the focus of my most popular team training workshop, Speaking to Influence.
That’s the part that should make every leader, expert, and professional sit up a little straighter.
Because while AI is learning to scientifically simulate clarity, empathy, and executive presence, too many humans are still doing the opposite, either assuming their delivery is “good enough,” or otherwise staying in denial that you actually have to put conscious effort into doing this effectively.
Instead:
- They ramble.
- They over-explain.
- They sound emotionally flat or lacking in empathy.
- They speak in jargon.
- They deliver important ideas as though they’re reading error messages from a software update.
And under pressure? It often gets worse.
That’s when people default into what I call sounding like a human spreadsheet: full of data, facts, bullet points, and mentally retrieved content, but utterly disconnected from the audience in front of them.
Yes, they may sound smart. But do the listeners feel smart after listening, or just more confused?
More importantly, does the speaker sound clear? Trustworthy? Compelling? Memorable?
Do people understand what to do next? Do they feel anything? Do they want to follow?
That’s a different standard.
Which is why that’s the topic of my other favorite workshop: Breaking the Expert’s Curse.
And increasingly, that’s where AI may actually outperform people in perceived presence.
Think about how ironic that is.
Organizations are spending enormous time and money asking, “What should our AI sound like?”
But they’re not asking, “What should our people sound like—and do they?”
That should concern you.
After all, if AI is leveraged to do so much of the research, analysis, coding, drafting, and more, then what is left to truly distinguish you as a leader worth following?
It’s your ability to speak for yourself in a way that is credibly authentic, authoritative, empathetic, and clear enough to make people trust you—and trust you enough to genuinely want to follow you.
That does not happen through content alone.
It happens through the alignment of your message and your delivery.
Your words matter, but so do your vocal tonality, pacing, emphasis, pauses, facial expression, posture, gestures, and energy.
That is what makes people believe you mean it.
And no, the answer is not to “dumb it down.”
The answer is to translate complexity into clarity, and sound like you care about it when you talk about it.
In short: stop trying so hard to sound intelligent that you forget to sound human.
Because if the machines are learning how to sound more relatable, more persuasive, and more emotionally attuned, then the bar for human communication is not dropping. It’s rising.
If that hits a little close to home, be sure to check out a fun podcast I was just on: The Story Power Marketing Show with Tom Ruwitch. Our episode was called “How to Talk So People Listen.”
In our conversation, we dig into exactly this challenge, exploring:
- why experts so often sound like “human spreadsheets,”
- how to simplify data without dumbing it down,
- why storytelling elements make messages more memorable and actionable,
- and how tonality, body language, and delivery cues determine whether your point actually lands.
Catch it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
I promise – it is intended for human consumption and benefit!
