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Can Your Clients Trust What They Read Online?
- Social B
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
Let's face it – AI is everywhere now, churning out blog posts, product descriptions, and even medical advice at a crazy alarming rate. As someone who's spent years analyzing digital content, I've watched this transformation with equal parts fascination and horror (I'm often shaking my head in disbelief of the laziness). The internet is becoming flooded with perfectly structured, utterly soulless writing that masquerades as human thought.
And the uncomfortable truth: most people can't tell the difference.
Why Should You Care?
In healthcare especially, AI writing tools are deeply troubling. When your clients are reading about treatment options or medical advice, don't they deserve to know if those reassuring words came from an experienced professional or an algorithm optimized for engagement?
We believe they do. The source of healthcare content matters profoundly when:
You're trusting advice that might impact your health decisions
You're seeking genuine expertise from someone who's faced similar challenges
You're looking for innovative thinking rather than a rehash of conventional wisdom
When practices quietly substitute AI for human expertise, they're not just cutting costs – they're breaking an unspoken contract of trust with their clients.
How to Spot the AI Imposters
I've developed a sixth sense for spotting AI written content. Here are the dead giveaways:
Oh, The Perfection
Human writing breathes. It has rhythms, quirks, and moments of brilliance mixed with occasional errors. AI writing, by contrast, maintains an eerie perfection – like a face with too much Botox. Every paragraph hits the same length, transitions flow with mechanical precision, and the pacing never varies. It's writing that never risks anything.
When was the last time you read something by a passionate human that didn't occasionally break the rules for emphasis or clarity?
Let's Not Forget Those Empty Examples
Nothing exposes AI like its examples. When I read about "Sarah, a 35-year-old marketing professional who struggled with time management," I roll my eyes. Real experts draw from genuine cases with specific, sometimes messy details that couldn't possibly be invented.
AI examples exist in a sanitized parallel universe where everyone is a professional aged 30-40 with a generically relatable problem.
The Both-Sides Blandness
Pay close attention to how AI approach to complex topics. You'll get immaculately balanced viewpoints, presented with lots of passion, but on truly contentious issues, AI takes refuge in listing every perspective without having the courage to prioritize what actually matters most.
Real expertise means having informed opinions and the confidence to express them. It means telling readers what they should focus on, not just what they could consider.
The Knowledge Time Capsule
AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude have specific knowledge cutoffs. They'll reference "recent studies" without dates and miss critical developments from the past year. When writing about evolving fields, this creates content that sounds authoritative while being dangerously outdated.
The Echoing Voice
Listen for these phrases, and you'll start hearing them everywhere: "In today's [insert industry] landscape, "revolutionary," "It's important to note," "keep in mind," and "it's worth mentioning." Real writers vary their language naturally, but AI systems fall into predictable patterns that echo across paragraphs.
Once you tune your ear to these patterns, you'll hear them in countless articles across the web.
The Rise of the Hybrids
What makes this landscape even trickier is the emergence of hybrid content – AI drafts polished by human editors or human writing augmented by AI tools. This collaboration can be valuable when done transparently, combining efficiency with authenticity.
But too often, it's used as a fig leaf. Companies can claim "human oversight" when they're really just having someone proofread AI-generated content without adding meaningful expertise or perspective.
Where Do You Go From Here?
I believe we're approaching a critical juncture where digital literacy must include the ability to evaluate the source of what we read. This isn't about rejecting AI entirely – it's about demanding transparency so we can contextualize content appropriately.
Practices that use AI to create content should be required to disclose this fact, especially in fields where expertise and personal experience matter, such as healthcare. Masquerading machine-generated content as human insight isn't just misleading – it's a fundamental breach of reader trust.
As readers, we need to become more discerning, questioning content that feels too perfect, too balanced, or too generic (I know I do). We should reward healthcare content creators who bring genuine human insight and experience to their work.
Because in a world increasingly filled with artificial voices, authentic human perspective becomes not just valuable – it becomes essential.
Social B is dedicated to your practice's success,
This communication is intended for educational purposes. All marketing strategies should adhere to ethical guidelines for behavioral health professionals in your jurisdiction.
