How to Outsmart the AI Wave

(Category | Writing, Creativity & Craft)

AI is slowly taking over most mundane and irrelevant jobs, as seen through the eyes of the forces pushing society toward faster automation, whether we asked for it or not. The writing world is not exempt from this new wave. Like most things, there are positive and negative sides to what is happening all around us. Saving time, managing small businesses, or even helping you to understand and overcome accounting processes that you never thought you would, if you consider all this, then AI is the most fantastic tool ever developed.

The negative is that AI tools can now outline novels, generate blog posts, and mimic different author styles with alarming accuracy. Younger children are also using it, and parents who don’t recognise the bigger picture — or the long-term impact — may unintentionally create problems for future generations. What seems helpful at first quickly becomes a shortcut: using AI to complete homework, assist with complex school tasks, or summarise study material.

These choices, although convenient, can slowly replace valuable parent–child interaction and create a generation that struggles to train their minds, work through challenges, or adapt when life becomes difficult, leaving them far more vulnerable to outside influence.

Easy answers can unintentionally weaken the skills that grow only through challenges and patience. Thus, it creates a dumbed-down society that would be easier to control and manipulate in the long run.

Whichever side of the spectrum you are standing on, it is a fact that this reversed programming model - now called AI - is fast, convenient, and impressive, but it is also missing something fundamental:

A real soul. A real spirit. A human mind that can think and reason.

Readers may enjoy convenience in the sense that reading material is now much easier and more accessible than it used to be. The problem with this greatness is that interactions with other humans are sometimes out of reach, creating an unbreakable barrier that becomes harder to overcome the longer people get sucked into technology.

People need interaction; we all need genuine emotion, raw memories, lived experiences - something AI is unable to reproduce, no matter how well the human input is.

As a writer, your edge moving into 2026 must not be only about using this machine to produce more, but about producing higher-quality products with your voice. Leaving your fingerprint on a world that no longer seems interested in perfection, that is called You. Verisimilitude is key.

1. Your Voice Is Your Power

Using your God-given voice, your thoughts, and your vision is your power. It is essential to keep your focus on what you can bring to the table, as AI cannot do it.

AI can imitate sentences, but it cannot imitate your childhood, your heartbreaks, your victories, your tears on the steering wheel at 2 a.m., or the unexplainable moments that shaped who you are.

Those experiences infuse your writing with something AI cannot replicate: pure, honest human emotion.

Your voice matters not because it's perfect, but because it's yours. It is unique and cannot be replicated.

2. Depth Counts

The depth of who you are as a writer is priceless. Building shallow AI-generated work is easy for anyone to accomplish. Even a small child can achieve this, but giving words depth takes courage, talent, and the ability to put yourself out there.

One of the main goals of AI is to move faster than any human is possible, quantity and not quality at best. The idea is to replace human input over time, creating a genetically modified new era in which all that is good, pure, and great is banished to the outskirts of humanity, replaced by a high-tech world leaning heavily towards automated thinking, where human depth is overshadowed by efficiency.

We, as writers and readers, can put a spanner in their big wheels. Slow the process, because stopping it entirely would ask for more than most are willing to give.

The longer we stay true to our roots, with strong moral principles and godly convictions, the less likely it is that our characters will be corrupted, and the truth will be seen and understood by many more.

More people will start to back away from "hi-tech" and begin to move back to the good old days.

As a writer, your strength does not match the AI output.

Your strength is to go deeper than AI ever can.

Ask yourself:

• What truth am I trying to reveal?

• What emotion am I willing to expose?

• What human experience can I translate into a story?

• Who is my audience?

• What am I trying to achieve?

Asking these questions will determine the Why? And the Who? that will lead you straight to the Why not?

3. IMPORTANT: If You Use AI - Use it Only as a Tool, Not a Replacement

Most of us are not chasing technology hype: new phones, computers, or tablets. We only buy them because the systems that control most of this world have placed us at a disadvantage.

If you do not purchase the latest product, you cannot upgrade the software, leaving you empty-handed and unable to do your job, connect, or even read.

Unfortunately, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The best is to make use of the tools given to us (new bling that is expensive, not needed but created without our knowledge or consent), until it is time to dispose of them - for now: use them to the best of your ability, without losing your soul.

Learn how to control AI before it controls you.

Let AI help with:

• research

• brainstorming

• organizing

• outlining

• checking grammar

But the heart of writing — the message, the tone, the worldview — must remain human.

Let AI or reverse computer programming (seeing that we once used humans to build websites, and now we can do it ourselves with the help of "AI" input), because the actions seem the same, only the way we receive it is different - hence a brand new marketing name - AI, and not only the word "computers" anymore.

It seems as if this "new" technology was always there - when the first computer emerged, we did not know any better, or understand the depth of the 'where' and 'when' behind technology.

Writers who comprehend the bigger plan and master the balance will stay at the top of their game, not bowing their knees to an instrument that is not human.

4. Readers are Human

It is important to remember - readers are human, and when they buy a book - paperback, hardcover, or softcopy in the form of an Epub or PDF, they are purchasing the work of the person who invested their ideas and energy in creating something only possible, because they are human as well.

People need and want connection - even if it's digital, we crave interaction, because that is the way God created us.

No machine, no matter how advanced or "intelligent" it is, can create what God's creation can do. Even AI is operational because of the human input it receives.

Perhaps a machine can mimic language, but it cannot mimic the quiet courage, emotions, and memories that shape real stories.

Luckily, readers know the difference.

Closing Thought

Any writer/author needs to stay focused on who they are, their objective, and why they write. The audience they want to attract and the message they are trying to convey with their words. Not to be intimidated by an entity designed to overtake the human workforce over time, to wipe truth, moral character, Godly knowledge, and wisdom from the table, without anyone noticing.

You don't need to fear AI, not try to out-write AI — you need to out-human it. Bring quality work back to the table. Impact with human emotion and start showing the obvious strength that has always originated there.

Your unique voice, lived moments, and honest stories will always be the one thing technology cannot replicate.

Build on that. Use this as your point of contact and move forward.

Your readers will follow.