“The Diary of a CEO” star Steven Bartlett has enthusiastically embraced AI — with one big exception.
His media company, FlightStory, stopped using AI to make LinkedIn posts after noticing a lot of AI “slop” on the platform. His team felt human-written ones would have more emotional resonance and break through the noise.
“You can really see the AI slop,” Christiana Brenton, FlightStory’s CRO and cofounder, told Business Insider in a recent interview. “What Steven detected very early on, and as we did for all of our creators, is that when the world swings left, the opportunity is right. What’s going to cut through on LinkedIn now more than ever? Actual human-written words. So he now personally and the team write every single piece of social copy and content that goes out into the world.”
Human-made posts take longer to write, but have performed better than AI ones, Brenton said.
“You’ll even notice now if you do follow Steven, there’s spelling mistakes and errors, and he doesn’t fix them by design,” she said. “When you’re inundated with AI content, it starts to feel less human.”
LinkedIn has taken steps to protect the authenticity of users’ feeds, cracking down on artificially boosted posts and automated comments, the company said in recent blog posts.
FlightStory’s big AI push started last year, when Bartlett challenged his staff to a two-month competition to use AI agents in their work. Since then, FlightStory — a unit of his holding company, Steven.com — has implemented AI across its operations, including an AI content effort it calls “Project Gutenberg,” a nod to the inventor of the printing press.
LinkedIn isn’t the only part of the company’s work that’s still handled by humans. For example, the final editing stage of AI-produced content, including the forthcoming animated show, “Steven’s World,” is also done by staff.
“Things within that stage, like the flow and the dynamics, and the pacing, and human-engaging emotional elements, cannot be replicated, particularly not right now,” said Isaac Martin, director of innovation at FlightStory.
FlightStory is also thinking about other ways to leverage the value of the human touch. It’s looking at making new content in the style of Bartlett’s “Behind The Diary” series, where he walks around and shares business lessons and advice in minimally produced videos.
Brenton said she sees the opportunity for more “raw and human” content if AI keeps expanding.
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