I Use AI Every Day – Here’s Where I Draw the Line

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

If you’ve read my last couple of blog posts, you might think I’m not a fan of AI. In reality,  I use it almost every day.

Before AI, I could spend an entire afternoon staring at a blank screen trying to decide what to write about next. Now I can have a conversation, with my AI blogging bot, pick a topic, bounce some ideas around, and create a rough structure in half an hour, which gives me a framework for me to add my individuality and creativity to.

Most recently I have used this method to plan a series of longer blog posts, including this one, which will hopefully flow naturally from each other, and touch upon a lot of things that small business owners are worried about right now.

The articles are my own, but AI helps me to organise my thoughts, brainstorm ideas, identify themes and turn a jumble of notes into a structure that makes sense. It even corrects my typos…

This is exactly why I find AI so fascinating.

Used well, it can be an incredibly useful tool. Used badly, it can become something altogether different. I am comfortable enough in my own writing abilities, that I can take what AI gives me and inject a giant dollop of my own style, perspectives and personality into the writing, and hopefully I finish up with a blog post that sounds a bit more human than some AI articles and adverts I’ve seen recently.

When I was in primary school (rather too many years ago now), I loved doing creative writing, and my teachers praised me for it, and said that I should become an author. But when I got to university and had to write essays, I got frustrated with all the research and cross referencing that needed to be done, ahead of the actual creative part.  I loved writing. I just wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic about the subjects I was expected to write about, and so I drifted into a different career path, and only stumbled into blogging years later.  

As someone who has spent over twenty years working online, I have watched technology transform the way we communicate, work and do business. I’ve seen blogging arrive, social media explode, smartphones become an extension of our hands and now artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday life.

However, unlike some people, I am not frightened of AI.

AI is Already Part of Everyday Life

Whether we realise it or not, most of us are already using artificial intelligence every day.

• Search engines use it.
• Social media platforms use it.
• Online shopping uses it.
• Streaming services use it.
• Email systems use it.

In many ways, AI has quietly become part of the digital infrastructure we rely on. For small business owners and bloggers, AI can be genuinely helpful.

I use AI for:

• brainstorming blog ideas
• researching topics
• identifying questions readers might ask
• organising article structures
• improving grammar and spelling
• overcoming writer’s block

When used this way, AI feels less like a replacement and more like a very efficient assistant, one that never gets tired and never asks for a tea break.

AI is not the Problem

I sometimes think we’re having the wrong conversation right now. The problem isn’t that artificial intelligence exists. The real question is how we choose to use it.

• A calculator doesn’t replace a mathematician.
• A camera doesn’t replace a photographer.
• A word processor doesn’t replace a writer.

In the same way, AI doesn’t automatically replace human creativity. It can do, of course. You can type into an AI screen “Write me a 2000-word blog about XYZ, and you will get exactly that in less than a minute, but it is likely to be a piece that is quite generic, and easily identifiable as machine-generated content.

But if you use AI carefully, and fully spec out the parameters of the proposed article before you begin, it can amplify whatever intentions you bring to it and produce a framework which can then be shaped and moulded by the human author. At its best, AI can ask you questions, to help you decide exactly which areas of your chosen topic you want to concentrate on, the arguments that you wish to discuss, and the final conclusions you wish to reach.

The Things AI Helps Me Do

One of the reasons I have embraced AI is that it removes some of the tedious parts of content creation. Anyone who has ever stared at a blank screen trying to start a blog post will understand this.

Sometimes the hardest part of writing isn’t the writing, it’s figuring out where to begin, and what your ideal reader might be looking for right now. There are huge numbers of blogs out there, and it’s increasingly hard to stand out in a huge field of parenting or business blogs for instance.

AI can help generate ideas and can help identify common questions. It can even suggest SEO keywords that readers in your niche are actively searching for. Once you have put together a first draft it can proofread both the grammar and the content and suggest improvements.

For bloggers, small business owners and content creators, these are useful tools. They free up time and mental energy for the parts that really matter, like the storytelling, the opinions, the authenticity and the personal experiences which set one blogger apart from the others.

The Yacht Test

I mention authenticity on purpose because I think this is the difference between sensible and sloppy use of AI in blogging and in business.  This is where things get interesting, and where I draw my own personal line in the sand for my blog and my business…

Apparently, if I upload a few photographs of myself to certain apps, artificial intelligence could create new photos, showcasing an entirely new version of me, potentially younger, slimmer, richer and leading a more glamorous lifestyle. I could be standing on a luxury yacht, relaxing beside an infinity pool, working from a private jet…

The technology is undeniably impressive, yet every time I see those types of images, I find myself asking the same question. Why? The garment I’m wearing in the photo I used for this is a hoodie I wore to the gym, and everyone who knows me, knows that I don;t dringk…

Why would I want a photograph of myself living a life I have never lived?

Why would I want to present a version of myself that doesn’t exist?

How is that going to convince my readers that it’s possible to build a successful business from an ordinary home, with an ordinary family and an ordinary life?

More importantly, what happens when everyone starts doing exactly the same thing? There aren’t enough fancy yachts for us all to own one…

The Strange Thing About Getting Older

Perhaps this is partly an age thing. When I was younger, I was probably far more critical and self-conscious about my appearance than I am now. Like many women, I spent years noticing every flaw, and every wrinkle that wasn’t there yet.

I disliked every photograph and found it hard to pose nicely and smile, then I looked at every perceived imperfection and believed that I wasn’t good enough.

Then something unexpected happened. I got older, and somewhere along the way, I became more comfortable in my own skin.

My children grew up. Life happened. Experience happened. Perspective happened.

I do have real saggy bits now, wrinkles and grey hairs (or silver sparkles as I call them), but I actually love who I am right now.

And so just as I have reached a stage where I genuinely feel comfortable being myself, technology is offering me endless opportunities to become somebody else.

And honestly? I don’t want them. That’s not me.

The Difference Between Enhancement and Replacement

This is where I think many of us are still figuring things out. Using AI to improve productivity is one thing but using it to replace your identity is something else entirely.

• I have no problem using AI to help structure a blog post.
• I have no problem asking it to help me research a topic.
• I have no problem using technology to make life easier.

What I am less comfortable with is the growing pressure to become an artificial version of ourselves.  I have always hated Photoshop on photos, and now AI is going further, removing all the perceived flaws, changing the face, the clothes and the lifestyle depicted, to create a more polished personality.

At what point do we stop being ourselves and start becoming a character?

What AI Cannot Do

For all its strengths, AI still cannot do some very important things.

It cannot raise children, with all the high and low points that this brings. It cannot spend years caring for a parent.  It cannot navigate grief or disappointment when things don’t turn out as planned.

It cannot learn wisdom through experience, nor build genuine friendships. It cannot make mistakes and learn from them. It cannot accumulate a lifetime of memories. It cannot ponder the origins of the Universe, and choose independently whether or not to embrace a spiritual path or religion.

It can imitate those experiences remarkably well. But it has not actually lived them, and that matters, because our culture, upbringing and human experiences are what make our voices unique.

The stories I tell today are shaped by decades of life; by motherhood, by friendships, by successes and failures, by joy and by sorrow. No algorithm can generate that.

Why Authenticity Still Matters

One of the principles of business I keep coming back to is this: People still connect with people.

Not perfection, nor flawless branding. People connect with honesty, with real life stories and with vulnerability. They connect with the small details that make us human.

Ironically, I suspect authenticity may become more valuable as AI becomes more common. The more that artificial content fills the internet, the more noticeable genuine voices become, and I hope that I am still blogging when that time comes.

Using AI Without Losing Yourself

I think AI is here to stay. The technology will improve, the tools will become more sophisticated, the opportunities will expand. And that’s fine.

I will continue using AI myself as I do currently. In many ways, it helps me become a more efficient writer, but I insist that it will remain my assistant, not my replacement.

The experiences in these articles are mine

The opinions are mine.

The stories are mine.

The photographs are mine.

The wrinkles are mine too.

And as long as I continue writing this blog, that’s one thing artificial intelligence won’t be taking over.

Final Thoughts

Artificial intelligence is one of the most significant technological developments of our lifetime. For bloggers, content creators and small business owners, it offers enormous opportunities. It can save time, increase productivity, improve efficiency, generate ideas and support creativity.

But technology is only ever a tool.

The question is not whether AI will change the internet. It already has.

The real question is whether we can embrace the benefits of artificial intelligence without sacrificing the things that make us human.

For me, that’s where the line is. And it’s a line I intend to keep firmly in sight.

If you are interested in the AI tools that I personally use for blogging and social media, please take a look at Mum’s the Boss Business and Blogging AI toolkit. The Blogging Goddess in that set of tools is the most useful thing I have found to help me with my writing without changing who I am .

Here are some more posts you may enjoy:

• Why Women Are Quietly Falling Out of Love With Instagram
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• How to use AI in your Blog Without Losing your Voice
• How to Use Faceless Marketing to Promote Your Business
• How to Grow your Blog in 2025
• Should you be Building an Email list?