When I first started hearing about AI, I was working at WordPress.com as a Happiness Engineer.
Which meant one thing: I specialized in communication.
Every day I spoke with dozens, sometimes close to a hundred, different people through live chat and email. Each person came with a different problem, a different level of technical knowledge, and often a different level of frustration. My job wasn’t just to fix the technical issue. It was to understand the human on the other side of the screen.
The words I chose mattered. Tone mattered. Empathy mattered. A single sentence could calm someone down or make the situation worse. Words have power… and I saw it every single day.
Over time, communication became part art and part science for me. I learned how small shifts in language could completely change the outcome of a conversation.
So when AI writing tools started appearing, of course I tested them.
And my honest reaction was simple: I haaaaaated it. 😅
Not because it wasn’t useful. It was helpful in some ways. But it sounded robotic, generic, and flat. It was missing the warmth and nuance that I had spent years refining in my own communication style.
I didn’t know how to fix that, though. So my early experiments with AI writing were… lackluster at best.
When AI Started Making Sense
About a year later, my situation changed.
I had moved into a role as Marketing Director at a luxury real estate agency. Suddenly, communication wasn’t just about helping customers, it was about producing a huge amount of marketing content.
We constantly had new listings, which meant new content every week:
- MLS listing descriptions
- website pages
- blog posts
- email marketing campaigns
- social media captions
- direct mail pieces
If you’ve ever worked in marketing inside a small business, you know the pressure. There’s always more content to create than time available to create it.
At the same time, we needed to improve our search engine rankings. That meant producing more consistent content across our website and marketing channels.
That’s when I started experimenting with AI again.
But this time I approached it differently… which changed everything for me.
Instead of asking AI to “write something,” I started teaching it how we write. I trained it on past marketing materials. I showed it examples of our tone and brand voice. I refined prompts until the language matched the way my boss described luxury properties.
And suddenly something interesting happened.
The writing changed.
It wasn’t robotic anymore. It actually exactly sounded like him.
I felt like I had cloned his voice.
Why AI Writing for Small Businesses Matters
That moment completely changed how I think about AI writing for small businesses.
Most business owners approach AI the wrong way. They ask vague questions like:
“Write a caption.”
“Write a blog post.”
“Write an ad.”
Then they get frustrated when the results feel generic.
But the issue isn’t the AI.
It’s the instruction.
AI writes in patterns. If you give it vague input, you get predictable output. But when you guide it with structure, examples, and voice, it becomes an incredibly powerful writing assistant.
Instead of replacing your thinking, it accelerates it.
The Content Problem Small Businesses Face
Most small business owners I meet aren’t lazy.
They’re overwhelmed.
They’re trying to manage operations, serve clients, answer emails, update their website, post on social media, and somehow still grow the business. They should all put of Super Hero capes as far as I’m concerned. lol
And somewhere in the middle of allllll the things they need to get done… is the constant pressure to create content.
Because before someone hires you, books a call, or buys your product, they research.
They Google your business.
They scroll your Instagram.
They skim your website.
They’re looking for signals that you know what you’re doing.
Content builds trust before the first conversation ever happens.
Which means businesses that consistently produce helpful, thoughtful content gain a major advantage. That’s simply just how things work in our current market.
The Difference Between Generic AI Content and Human AI Writing
Over the past few years I’ve written hundreds of marketing materials.
Everything from MLS listing descriptions to email campaigns, social media posts, blog articles, and website copy.
Some pieces performed incredibly well. Others completely flopped. 😬
That’s part of marketing… the point is, is you learn from each of them and become better.
But one pattern became very clear.
Generic AI writing can help produce content quickly, and it can even help with SEO. But it rarely creates an emotional connection with the reader.
And emotional connection is what actually moves people to take action.
Whether someone is hiring a service provider, joining your email list, or buying a multi-million dollar property, the writing needs to make them feel something.
Learning how to guide AI to create strong hooks, emotional pull, and natural language has become an art form that I specialize in.
When done correctly, AI doesn’t replace your voice… it amplifies it.
The Competitive Gap That’s Forming
Something interesting is happening right now.
Two types of businesses are emerging.
The first group is still creating content the traditional way. They write everything manually, post occasionally, and struggle to keep up with the constant demand for new content.
The second group has started using AI strategically. They turn one idea into multiple pieces of content, test messaging faster, and publish consistently.
Over time, the difference becomes obvious.
AI doesn’t replace small businesses. But businesses that learn to use AI effectively will move much faster than those who ignore it.
Why This Matters to Me
I grew up in a family that owned a small business.
So I’ve always had a soft spot for entrepreneurs who are trying to do everything themselves: marketing, operations, sales, customer service, all at once.
That’s why I think AI writing for small businesses is worth paying attention to.
For the first time, small teams have access to tools that can dramatically increase their ability to create content, test ideas, and communicate clearly with their audience.
Used poorly, AI just creates more noise online.
But used well, it can help small businesses communicate more effectively and compete with much larger companies.
Where to Start With AI Writing
If you’re curious about using AI in your business, start small.
Don’t try to automate your entire marketing strategy overnight. Instead, focus on learning how to guide AI so it sounds more like you.
Experiment with prompts. Provide examples of your voice. Use AI as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for your ideas.
When you approach it that way, AI becomes something very different from the robotic writing most people complain about.
It becomes a tool that helps you communicate faster, more clearly, and with greater consistency.
And for many small businesses, that can be a powerful advantage.
Here is what I use for AI Writing
If you’d like to see the exact prompts I use to make AI writing sound more natural and human, I put together a short guide that walks through them step-by-step.
It’s the same framework I use when creating marketing content with AI.
With Aloha!
– Tish 🌺
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