If your marketing feels worse lately, the fix is likely to be better briefing, which requires better thinking from you.

The prevailing complaint goes like this: “AI is flooding the market with bland, samey content.” But artificial intelligence hasn’t suddenly lowered the collective intelligence of marketers, advertisers, writers or brands. It’s simply removed the polite buffer used to conceal weak, lazy thinking behind time, effort and human labour.

In short, generic thinking has always sounded generic; it’s just taken us longer to notice.

Skimpy briefing

In the ‘old days’, when a human produced something mediocre, we blamed timelines, budget or burnout. But, when AI (free of the challenges of time pressure, cost constraints or stress) produces forgettable output, the illusion collapses because there’s no one to blame except the person in charge of briefing.

As a copywriter and writing trainer, an AI prompt I frequently see goes like this: “Write me something inspiring about growth.” That’s not a prompt; it’s making a wish. Then, when the result is decidedly beige, you’ll blame the tool, technology or the times.

The real issue sits a bit closer to home, though. Let me explain…

AI is exceptionally good at mirroring inputs. The problem is that most of those inputs are, well, thin. “Make it pop.” “Add some energy.” These have always been, and will always be, poor instructions — with or without generative AI (gen AI).

Flimsy strategy can’t be rescued by clever execution. Unclear positioning doesn’t become clear with a maritime or orchestral metaphor thrown in. Plus AI can’t (and doesn’t want to) save us from ourselves. So, when it comes to briefing, we need to move the communication conversation from optimisation to instruction quality.

Briefing my way home

The other night, I called an Uber to take me home from an event. When I confirmed the address for Musana, the driver, I added, “Take 11th Street.”

My suburb has community road closures everywhere and turns into a maze after hours. In my head, “take 11th” was very specific: 11th is a main arterial so it doesn’t get sealed off and there’s a side street, Elizabeth Avenue, that winds into my road.

The problem was, I didn’t say all that, because I was looking at my phone in the back. A few minutes later, we reached the first locked gate. Musana re-routed. Another gate brought the same result. And another. Musana was following the GPS — and my instruction — perfectly. But I’d been lazy in briefing him.

Eventually I said, “Sorry. When I say 11th, I mean straight to 11th and then ignore all the side roads until you hit Elizabeth. One block down, there’s an automatic boom.”

Musana adjusted his route and got me home. He hadn’t misunderstood me; I’d assumed local intuition and a shared mental map — that existed only in my head.

That’s how brands end up sounding generic.

Briefing specifics

When you tell AI to “write something inspiring about growth”, you’re assuming it knows which kind of growth, which audience, which emotional temperature and what inspiring means. AI will pick a route. It may be neat but it won’t be yours.

In the workplace, you wouldn’t say to a strategist, “Just do something clever.” You’d create a briefing, even a small one, on the audience, context, risk, tone, stakes. You’d explain what success looks like and what failure would cost. You’d say, “Avoid this road, this audience is impatient, and this message will irritate people if we get it wrong.”

If you don’t offer any of this upfront, a decent strategist knows to ask. I’ve spent 20 years training myself to ask and ask and ask until I get what I need to produce smart stuff. But AI doesn’t do that. It won’t challenge your assumptions, it won’t ask what you mean and it can’t tell which questions matter, unless you tell it.

Briefing example

Here’s a prompt you might think is adequate: “Write me an email about a change.”

The output will sound like this: “We’re pleased to announce an upcoming change designed to support our ongoing commitment to excellence. Thank you for your continued support.” It may be factually correct but it’s also emotionally vacant.

Try this instead: “Write a 120-word email announcing a process change that will frustrate people at first. The audience is busy, cynical and already overloaded. Acknowledge any irritation. Explain the reason once. Use plain English. Our goal is compliance without causing resentment.”

Same machine. Better briefing by you.

Clarity isn’t a writing skill; it’s a thinking discipline. It’s not glamorous. It’s repetitive and slightly dull. If your marketing feels worse lately, the fix is likely to be better briefing, which requires better thinking from you — because AI is an obedient driver and vague passengers don’t get to complain about the route.

Liked this? Good. Now stop lurking and browse my training options. Consider booking me to speak. Or let’s chat about a consult or some killer copy. Go on now; don’t be shy.