As AI tools became more dominant in online business and content creation, I found myself questioning what happens when automation starts replacing creativity, voice, and human connection. This is my experience navigating AI as a systems-focused creative entrepreneur.

The Pressure to Embrace AI

It was 2023, I was sitting in an apartment in Brussels, preparing for the next round of Tech Witch School.

AI was all everyone seemed to be talking about. I felt pressure to learn about it... record modules about it. How can I call myself Tech Witch if I’m not embracing it?

There was all that fear marketing.. if you’re not an early adopter you’re gonna become obsolete. If you’re not embracing it, you’ll never get ahead.

In 2024, I went to one of Kerwin Rae’s (RIP) seminars... it was all about AI. I sat in the room while he shared his ChatGPT prompts.. showed us videos of his AI clone that had been trained to look and sound like him on video. I sat in that room nodding my head and feeling excited about the possibilities.

After the seminar he sent us all these resources so we could embrace AI more in our businesses.

My Experience Using AI in Business

I went on a rampage. Started building all these complex systems I had no use for. Feeling the need to prove that this Tech Witch was staying ahead of the game.

I started using more and more tools. Tools to optimise my content creation. Tools to automate my comments and messages.

Not only were all the costs adding up, but I felt like the human touch I loved was being removed from my creative process.

The more I tried to embrace AI, the more I felt like I was being stifled by this “Tech Witch” identity. And so I killed her! Last year I decided to just focus on my writing instead. I decided to commit to a year of writing every day on Substack.

Initially, I was writing everything myself. Why wouldn’t I? English was my top subejct in school. I studied Journalism and Creative Writing.

When AI Started Replacing My Creative Process

Why would I want to outsource my soul to a machine? Then.. as I started to take on more responsibility my writing suffered.

I was working full time. I was coming home exhausted from living a lie. But I didn’t want to give up on this daily writing plan I’d committed to. So some days, I would come home, dump my journal entries into AI, and ask it to turn it into something coherent and shareable.

But every time I did that.. I felt a little part of me die inside. I’d read the words back and they didn’t sound anything like me. All the soul and feeling... all my essence had been removed. It was tone policing me and I hated it!

In my job, I was asked to write content and copy and I would use AI... because I’m not a copywriter! I’ve always said, I can write for me and me only. I commend people who can write for others, it’s just not my style. I believe that’s the last thing we should be outsourcing.

My boss would get annoyed it sounded like AI, but she didn’t want to write it herself. It caused quite a bit of contention. Because I didn’t want to be putting my best writing efforts into someone else’s message, when it was making my own writing suffer.

Especially when that’s not what I was hired for. Since leaving that job I’ve got my love for writing back.

I’m not forcing or pressuring myself to put content out every day just for the sake of it. I’m writing when things are alive, just the way I’ve always done.

AI Content Started Feeling Soulless

I’m ignoring anyone that tells me I need to be using AI to pump out content.

If you want to be a soulless machine, be my guest. But eventually people are gonna become soooo bored of reading the same thing over and over. Feeling the same empty voices.

Seeing the same styles of brands. Maybe others won’t know they’re being fed AI content. Maybe it doesn’t bother them.

I notice, because I’ve tried to get behind it. And whatever it created, I hated. It lacked my essence.

I’d rather create my own messy brand until I can hire human help.

Am I completely anti-AI?

No, obviously it has merits. It’s helped me with website coding and to figure out complex automations for clients. It’s helped me write contracts. And helped me to think more strategically.

AI Cannot Replace Human Connection

But even then, I don’t think it can ever replace the support of working with a human who can actually get to the roots of what’s moving you. Who understands nervous system and somatics.

And I’m still gonna call myself a Tech Witch without feeling the need to prove I know everything about AI.

If I feel drawn to learn something, I trust it.. if I don’t, I trust that too.

Doesn’t make me any less of a witch with tech. I’m still living up to the name, in a way that’s true!

Honouring the humanness and magic that attracted people to me in the first place.

Am I worried AI is going to make me obsolete? Lol, no! As long as there are witchy, woo woo, magical humans in business... they’re gonna choose me over a machine any day!

No AI can replicate what I do, because no AI knows my stories or my feelings. No AI will get inside your brand the way I do, because no AI is doing ritual and magic behind the scenes. No AI cares about your humans and their experiences the way I do.

I’m Not Anti-AI, But I Am Pro Human Creativity

I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti adopting anything that feels forced or rushed because of pressure and fear based tactics.

For some people, AI is supportive.

In some ways, I like to work with it. Obviously I’m a tech and systems witch. I’m a big believer in automating certain aspects of business so you get to spend more time in your genius. But we were doing that long before AI became the hot topic.

I can get behind using AI to turn my scribbles into plans and maps and outlines. And I guess there’s really no avoiding it cos it’s literally built into everything now.

But I don’t want to outsource my creative power. I don’t like how easy it can be to let that temptation take over. I look at the way my courses shifted when I started adopting it. Something got lost. So I stopped using it.

I don’t enjoy seeing a feed full of AI clones.. of faceless accounts selling AI products.

I hate seeing people hand over their agency, be too afraid to express themselves. Feel like everything needs to be so perfect and polished.

We are creativeeeee. Let that be expressed.

I’m no longer worried my slow uptake on AI adoption is going to make me obsolete. Humans want to work with humans. If you don’t, you’re not for me. End of story.

The AI Tools I Still Use in My Business

I've used Claude to help me create contracts, checklists, and onboarding processes. Any document that isn't deeply creative, I like having a more strategic layer of support to review it.

And ChatGPT is great for helping me format my blogs better for SEO and has helped me add the right metadata and search terms to my site. And I love having a play with the image generator every now and then. Would I use AI instead of going to a real human photographer though? No!

When I'm doing super detailed workflows, I love the Zapier bot and other tools built into platforms that support me to map out more complex flows, and I’ve also had ChatGPT help troubleshoot code and customise websites for clients.

I'm always still walking that line of what's ethical... it's great to have these resources at our fingertips, but I also want to remain conscious of the humans behind creative industries and the value of real human craftsmanship.

I see AI as a support tool, not a replacement for human creativity, or emotional depth.