Episode #368: AI Created Content Is Average So Add Your Storytelling

Why does AI make most business content feel the same?

AI has removed the barriers to producing text at scale, so almost anyone can publish “expert” content instantly. That sounds convenient, but it creates a new problem: sameness. When every competitor can generate decent articles in minutes, social platforms fill with a grey blur of interchangeable ideas.

Mini-summary: AI raises the volume of content, but lowers differentiation because everyone can produce similar material quickly.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a great reminder that writing skill isn’t the only path to influence. He’s famously prolific, even though he admits he doesn’t read or write well. His edge is speaking: he shares ideas out loud, teams transcribe and refine them, and his content engine keeps running. A funny twist is that when he records audiobooks, he doesn’t read the text — he re-speaks the book, so the audio and print versions differ.

This method works because the raw material is still him: his voice, his lived view, his timing, his energy. AI can mimic tone, but it can’t recreate today’s reality from your perspective.

Mini-summary: Gary’s advantage isn’t perfect writing; it’s capturing real, personal insight at scale.

The difference between “content” and “credible content” is not grammar or structure anymore. It’s ownership of experience. AI can generate generic frameworks, but it can’t supply your specific mistakes, wins, surprises, client moments, or cultural context in 東京 (Tokyo).

If your goal is to signal expertise — especially to 日本企業 (Japanese companies) or 外資系企業 (multinational companies in Japan) — your rivals will look just as polished if they depend only on AI. Credibility now comes from showing what you actually saw, did, and learned.

Mini-summary: Expertise is no longer proven by writing ability alone, but by lived, specific insight.

Why is storytelling the “secret sauce” AI can’t copy?

AI pulls from shared public sources. That means your competitors and you are effectively remixing the same library, producing mass-plagiarism-adjacent content without trying. The one ingredient AI cannot access is your story.

Stories create difference because they contain:

• your observations

• your emotions

• your context

• your examples

• your timing (“this happened today”)

This is why storytelling craft matters more than ever in leadership, sales, presentations, communication, and DEI. It’s easy to pontificate; it’s hard to bring an argument to life with a personal scene.

Mini-summary: AI creates scale, but storytelling creates distinction because only you own your experiences.

What happens when people publish without real stories?

You get what we’re already seeing: floods of competent but forgettable articles. Think of “Mr. X” — the guy whose article sounded brilliant until you learned it was ghostwritten. AI is basically the new ghostwriter, except cheap, fast, and endless.

So the risk isn’t that AI produces bad content. The risk is that AI produces average content everywhere, making average the default.

Mini-summary: Without authentic stories, AI-assisted content becomes polished noise.

How do you build a personal story bank for content?

The practical move is simple: start collecting stories as raw material. If something happens in your day — a client insight, a team moment, a mistake turned lesson — write a quick note.

Gary built “The Daily Vee” by documenting reality nonstop. Most of us don’t have a 30-person crew, but we do have daily life. The key is to stop letting those moments disappear unrecorded.

Ways to do it:

1. Keep a “story notes” file on your phone.

2. After meetings, jot “what surprised me?”

3. Capture other people’s experiences you witness (with respect and anonymity if needed).

4. Tag stories by theme: leadership, 営業研修 (sales training), プレゼンテーション研修 (presentation training), DEI研修 (DEI training), etc.

Mini-summary: Storytelling isn’t a talent you wait for — it’s a habit you build by recording real moments.

In Japan’s business environment, trust and credibility grow through sincerity, context, and human texture — not just theory. Whether you’re speaking to executives in 日本企業 (Japanese companies) or 外資系企業 (multinational firms), your ability to anchor ideas in lived experience is what makes you memorable.

That’s exactly why Dale Carnegie Tokyo emphasizes practice-based learning in リーダーシップ研修 (leadership training), エグゼクティブ・コーチング (executive coaching), and communication programs: people don’t change through concepts alone, they change through stories, practice, and reflection.

Mini-summary: Japanese business audiences respond strongly to grounded, human examples — storytelling makes expertise believable.

• AI will flood social media with competent, generic content.

• Your competitive edge is your stories, not AI’s structure.

• Build a habit of capturing real moments and turning them into lessons.

• Storytelling keeps you differentiated in a world of AI sameness.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.