If This Wasn't My Voice, There'd Be No Point In It

I have never sat down at a desk and asked AI what article to write. In fact, I hardly ever sit down to write an article at all. The ideas come gushing out when I'm cleaning my teeth, while I'm creating a display, while I'm walking the dog, while I'm driving. usually they arrive so quickly that I have to stop what I'm doing and get them noted down before they disappear again.

In fact, one of my biggest challenges isn't generating ideas. It's catching them.

I'll be halfway through writing about one idea when another appears. Then another. I’m constantly breaking off to make notes for future articles while I'm still writing the current one because I'm worried they'll vanish before I get back to them. Even with AI helping me organise it, I still can't keep up. There are simply more ideas than time.

As they bubble up, I'll start throwing thoughts down onto the page and before I know it I've written thousands of words, gone off on three tangents, remembered something that happened twenty years ago, connected it to a book I read ten years ago and suddenly arrived at a conclusion I hadn't seen coming.

The words don't appear because I've finished thinking. The thinking develops because I'm writing. AI isn't generating those ideas. If anything, it's acting more like a patient sounding board while I work things out for myself. Sometimes I don‘t even bother to read the AI responses at all. I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I just keep writing and writing until the end result reads exactly how I want it to.

For years, if I was trying to find the perfect word to explain my meaning, I'd reach for a thesaurus. I'd try different phrases. I'd stare into space for ten minutes until the right expression finally arrived. Now I can throw a cluster of imperfect words onto the page and ask for alternatives. Not because I don't know what I mean. Quite the opposite. I know exactly what I mean. I'm simply trying to capture it more accurately.

What AI changes is scale. It hasn't replaced my thinking, it's allowed me to think more. Twenty years ago, if I wanted to publish this volume of content, I'd have needed a team of writers. But then it wouldn't really have been my voice, and if it wasn't my voice, it wouldn't be my unique point of view either. And if it’s not mine, there is no point.

Now I can capture more of the thoughts that are already there. Develop more ideas. Explore more questions. Share more experiences. Write about things that would otherwise have remained trapped in notebooks, scraps of paper, half-forgotten voice notes or somewhere in the back of my mind.

And even now, I still can't keep up. I have hundreds of embryonic ideas waiting to be developed. Some are little more than a title. Some are a paragraph. Some are thousands of words, covering multiple topics that now need a bit of untangling! The bottleneck isn't content creation. The bottleneck is time.

Which brings me to shopkeeping.

I think many people are asking the wrong question about AI. Instead of asking whether it will replace you or your shop, perhaps we should ask how it could give you more time and a louder voice.

AI can drastically reduce the admin burden. It can release you from the grind of data inputting, poring over sales reports, attempting cash flow calculations, endless accounting. It can help you make better use of everything you've already learned. And it can certainly help you produce results an awful lot quicker. If you want to check sales data, you don’t even need to look at a spreadsheet yourself. Generate it, pop it into AI and ask your questions. It‘s not infallible, but it’s certainly way more accurate than me punching figures into a calculator or just zoning out over the numbers like I used to.

And that sets you free. Free to do more of what only you can do. Free to say more of what only you can say. Because if it isn't your voice, there is no point. Only your shop can tell your stories, express your unique point of view, and now you can do it better, louder, clearer.

The value isn't in the tool. The value is in the perspective. AI can help you analyse the sales report. But it can't tell you what surprised you. AI can help you organise your thoughts. But it can't give you your experiences. AI can help you write faster. But it can't tell your stories for you. Those still belong to you. AI can amplify a voice. But it can't create one. The magic isn't in the tool. The magic is in the person using it.