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Salespeople: if you use AI writing tools to help you “personalize” your messaging, you are lying at scale. Deepfake Personalization™️ is trash.
I receive a lot of sales emails. Send some, too. Over the last few months, I noticed a big uptick in messages that just felt “off.”
People who say they read a post I made. Or pulled some other snippet from my LinkedIn profile. But their phrasing is awkward and robotic.
It’s obvious they didn’t really read it. Skimmed it at best, but I doubt it.
e.g. “I really enjoyed your post on employer branding.” is how a bot talks. A human who enjoys my inane nonsense would say something “lol at how you took a fat dump on EB!”
But last week kicked it up a notch. This is a real message, word for word, with only the sender’s details redacted.
“New Favorite Movie – The Shellowners Association
James – congrats on the new movie deal! I know its been a while since you spoke with [redacted]. Wanted to see if we could find time to connect? We can swap tales of our own adventures – How about we grab a virtual coffee and share stories of cracked shells, monstrous clients, and the occasional beachside escapade? I promise it’ll be a cracking good time!”
What. The. F*ck.
For context: I started writing fiction as a hobby last year. I got my first story “The Shell Owners Association” published in an online publication, Sci-Fi Shorts. As a joke (and to encourage people to read my masterfully written 800 word satirical take on the housing crisis through the eyes of hermit crabs), I made the following post. It linked to the story (and included an AI generated faux Pixar poster – oh the irony.) Here.
Anyone with a human brain can tell my post was a gag. Who would actually take that seriously?
AI bots, that’s who. LLMs can’t detect sarcasm. They read and write everything literally. And their humor is sh*t. (Confirmed this was AI written by Sapling and Copyleaks.)
Here’s the rub. I don’t hate people trying to use AI to improve their writing. (I think it’s embarrassing that they need to, but that’s another rant for another day.)
But Deepfake Personalization™️ goes beyond writing assistance. It’s a misrepresentation. If you said “I read your post” but you didn’t read it (or not closely enough to comprehend the context), then you lied. Full stop.
In this example, I don’t blame the sales rep. It’s someone with 3 years of experience who is undoubtedly doing exactly what their sales manager told them to do.
👉Sales Leaders: Stop pushing AI shortcuts like this onto your team. Lying is the #1 thing you shouldn’t do in sales. Encouraging this to book meetings starts the buyer journey in the worst way possible.
That is all. Head over to LinkedIn and tag a salesbro influencer who encourages this garbage in comments.🍿
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
Repeat after me: do not talk politics at work. Or on LinkedIn.
Or in job interviews. Or on first dates. Or at Thanksgiving dinner.
Unfortunately for those of us in the business world, 2025 ruined it. There’s just no way around the fact that tariffs are the issue driving the business climate right now. Every client, candidate, and partner is asking about it—or struggling because of it.
So maybe, just maybe, talking policy isn’t just okay—it’s necessary. Dare I say, productive.
So get ready for a little nuance from Jeff Smith and James Hornick in The 10 Minute Talent Rant, Episode 107, “Talk Policy, Not Politics”
Episode 107