Why it's never been a better time to be absolutely and uniquely yourself in the age of AI

And that doesn't mean becoming an exaggerated version of yourself either....

Jay Kettle-Williams | Unsplash.com

This is one of those blogs that isn't strictly work per sé, but then again it kind of is. It is linked to your own personal brand, so I guess you could argue that it is. The age of AI is upon us. It improves at an alarming pace. However, this isn't going to be a blog that tells you how not to use it, but instead suggest how being original and unique might work in helping you stand out from the crowd.

As freelancers, we are on the cusp of seeing our working lives changed irrevocably by AI. We are going to have to live with it, but to survive, we are going to change how we work and perhaps who we work with and how we show up online.

On a LinkedIn post recently (there's always a post discussing AI somewhere), someone pointed out that the problem with AI and freelancing wasn't AI itself that people needed to fear, but "the collapse of scarcity." He went on to argue that "When competence becomes ubiquitous, the market doesn't reward "good', it rewards what cannot be commoditized.

And YOU cannot be commoditized -

Because what this gentleman continued to argue was that (and I'm looking at you, Mark Kerchenski) is that to survive the wave, writers needed to lean into what AI and low-cost competition couldn't replicate.

And YOU cannot be replicated.

Basically, write about something rather than everything. Have a point of view, know the industry you work in extremely well, and create your own ideas rather than produce text-to-order.

Be completely original.

Have opinions, but don't deliberately antagonise people (please tell me, Bro Hussle, "I'm going to tell you something that's going to make me unpopular" days are over. ). No performative outrage. Ensure you're recognized for having your own thoughts and ideas, and people will remember you, but don't say everything you think to prove you're real.

Don't be obsessed with em dashes and exclamation marks, and don't replace them with endless swearing and cussing - in an effort to prove you're not a bot.

Be culturally aware without being a slave to ongoing trends. Read and read widely, expose yourself to things outside your comfort zone.

Having personality and being uniquely different in an all too crowded marketplace will be essential in the coming months. But don't become too obsessed, strike a balance. Consider your digital self and how you show up online. Consider tailoring your messages to each individual you respond to.

Don't outsource your authenticity. Be yourself, make people want to deal with you, because once everything becomes automated, the way you deal with clients and your peers will stand out. Care about the people you deal with, don't make yourself easy to automate because you've allowed yourself to become swallowed up by software sameness.

In an article written in Forbes (21st September 2025), the writer Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic argues that while once we compared ourselves to animals, now in a "reverse Turing test" we are proving to other humans we are real and comparing ourselves to machines.

Interestingly, he quotes from a book by Brian Christian that says -

"....the human’s job is not to act naturally, but to act in ways a machine would not. That paradox is the new normal. As AI becomes more human-like, people feel pressure to become more deliberately human, which, ironically, means being less spontaneous and more intentional, for instance, by faking incompetence (inserting deliberate typos or grammatical errors in text created by generative AI) and imperfection (by swearing, which polite and politically correct AI rarely attempts). Authenticity used to involve self-expression. Increasingly, it involves self-selection."

This kind of goes against some of what I've said, but I don't think we should take this literally. I guess what it means for me is to be uniquely ourselves by not letting it be forced. In layman's terms, don't try too hard until you look like you're faking it to others.

He also raises the question of whether AI systems can imitate what it is to be human, and if so, then what remains? What is it that makes us distinct?

What remains distinctive about YOU?

There's been plenty of talk about letting AI do our thinking, and how this will degrade the brain, making us lazy, and that eventually it will lead to us losing our creativity, and Chamorro-Premuzic reflects this when he suggests that "If tools take over the interesting parts of thinking, we may unwittingly train ourselves to become standardized and replaceable."

He advises us to use AI for prep and drafting and allow humans to make the decisions - especially when considering ethics and fairness. It will take tremendous self-discipline to make sure we don't become too reliant on AI. It will take more of that to remain unique and authentic and to be the person you've known you always were, real, unique, and unapologetically yourself, without it being forced.

But I think as humans, as freelancers, to save ourselves and our livelihoods, we owe it to ourselves to try. I've discussed some ideas and asked some questions, and I'd love to know your thoughts. Comment below or email me at gillianjonescopywriting@gmail.com

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I'm ready to take on clients from January 2026, and small one-off jobs up until 15th December. Take a look at my services and packages to see what services I provide. I also do brand story and messaging. You can email me here: gillianjonescopywriting@gmail.com

I'm particularly looking to work with businesses that do good and charities and nonprofits that work with those who need help, whether that's through residential care or providing products and aids that enhance daily life. It doesn't have to be neurodivergent, it can be anyone with different forms of disabilities or mental health conditions/chronic health conditions.