The Authenticity Tax

Two-thirds of business owners worry AI is making their company feel less personal, and we get why. Customers can spot generic AI writing fast: the recycled phrasing, the hollow enthusiasm, the “close enough” tone that makes a message feel like it came from a machine instead of a real person. When that happens, you pay what we call the authenticity tax, and the bill shows up in trust, warmth, and repeat business.

Jason Wright and Georgia break down a practical way to keep AI from flattening your customer experience without throwing away the speed and leverage that AI tools can bring. We talk about the “behind the curtain vs in front of the curtain” workflow: let AI help with research, sorting, and first drafts, then make sure a human makes the final call on anything that lands in front of a customer’s eyes. If your brand voice matters, that one rule does a lot of heavy lifting.

We also get specific about chatbots and why they’re the riskiest place to fake humanity. A bot answering “What are your hours?” is fine. A bot pretending to have feelings about a frustrating situation is where customers feel deceived. The real strategy is matching the tool to the moment and deciding where the seam is visible. We end with a simple question you can use as a safeguard: “Would this customer feel differently about me if they knew AI touched this?”

Plus, Jason shares a free one-page offer checklist to help you find leaks before you spend more on ads or content: highticketchecklist.com. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a business owner who’s wrestling with AI, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show.

If this sparked ideas for your brand or business, subscribe for more deep dives, share the show with a founder who needs focus, and leave a quick review to help others find it. Ready to explore your own AI-hosted podcast and growth system? Head to www.intentionallyinspirational.com, hit the blue button, and book a call with the human version of Jason Wright.

Transcript

The AI Authenticity Worry

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's happening everyone? Jason Wright here. Georgia's in the mix today.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hey everyone.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Another number I want to sit with today. Close to two-thirds of business owners worry that AI is making their business feel less personal or less authentic to customers.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

That's a big chunk of people carrying that worry.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

It is, and I don't think it's an irrational worry. People can spot AI generated stuff now. The generic tone, the same three sentence structures, the empty enthusiasm. Customers are fatigued by it, and when they catch it, they read it as lazy.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

So there's a real cost to getting

Paying The Authenticity Tax

SPEAKER_01 0:36

caught.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

A real cost, and I'd call it the authenticity tax. Every time a customer feels like they got a machine instead of a person, you pay it in trust, in warmth, in whether they come back.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

So does that mean pulling AI out of anything customer facing?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

No, and that's the trap people fall into. They swing all the way to no AI touches anything customers see. And that's overcorrecting. The real answer is using AI behind the curtain so the customer only ever feels the human part.

Behind The Curtain AI Workflow

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Give me an example of behind the curtain versus in front of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Sure. Behind the curtain, AI drafts a reply to a customer question based on their history and your tone. In front of the curtain, I write it, adjust it so it actually sounds like me, and I hit send. The customer gets something fast and accurate, and it's still genuinely from me because I touched it last.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

So the test is Did a human make the final call before it reached the customer?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

That's the test I use everywhere. Research, drafting, sorting, organizing, all fair game for AI, because the customer never sees that layer. Anything that lands in front of a customer's eyes gets a human pass first. That one rule protects the authenticity almost entirely.

Chatbots And The Visible Seam

SPEAKER_01 1:51

What about things like chatbots, though? Those are AI, right in front of the customer.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

They are, and that's exactly where the authenticity tax bites hardest if it's done wrong. A chatbot handling, what are your hours? is fine, low stakes. Nobody expects a human there. A chatbot pretending to have feelings about a customer's frustrating experience is where people feel lied to. Match the tool to the moment.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

So it's not AI bad human good. It's about where the seam is visible.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

That's it exactly. Customers don't actually mind AI helping behind the scenes. Most of them assume it already does. What they mind is being deceived into thinking a machine cares about them personally when it doesn't. Keep the seam invisible where it doesn't matter and keep a human where it does, and you never pay the

The One Question Before Sending

SPEAKER_00 2:39

tax.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

How do you personally keep this in check? Because it would be easy to slip.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I ask one question before anything goes out the door. Would this customer feel differently about me if they knew AI touched this? If the honest answer is no, they'd shrug. It goes. If the honest answer is they'd feel a little betrayed, I rewrite it myself.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

That's a real one, right

Free Offer Checklist Callout

SPEAKER_01 3:00

there.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

One quick thing before you go. If your calendar isn't as full as you'd like it to be, the problem usually isn't your marketing. It's your offer. I put together a free one page checklist for you. It covers twelve things your offer needs before you spend another dime on ads or another six months on content. Head over to highticketchecklist.com and grab it. It takes about two minutes to score yourself and you'll know exactly where the leaks are.

Closing Thoughts On Intentional AI

SPEAKER_00 3:31

See you in the next episode. Stay curious and stay intentional with AI in your business.