Don't Outsource Yourself!
Human connection in the age of AI
By Bryan J. Kaus
I've spent years on LinkedIn because it used to feel like a marketplace of ideas. Lately, too much of it reads like a content mill - emoji-infested "insights," generic bullets, and the same recycled takes. The irony is we now have tools that can 10x our output, and yet the end product often feels smaller, safer, and same-ish.
I'm not anti-technology. I'm anti-hollow. Productivity still drives prosperity; I want more of it. But there's a difference between multiplying your thinking and outsourcing it. What I'm arguing for is simple: in a noisy feed, your unmistakably human voice is the scarce asset. It's also how we build companies people trust, teams that ship, and communities worth belonging to.
What I mean by "authentic"
I don't mean confessional oversharing or branding yourself as a slogan. I mean speaking from earned experience, naming trade-offs openly, and writing in a way that no one else could have written because they didn't live what you lived.
Authenticity is practical. It compels alignment faster, reduces rework, and improves decisions. People don't follow polish- they follow conviction. They follow the person who says, "Here's what I saw on the line at 2 a.m., here's the constraint, and here's the call I'd make."
That's how trust gets built. That's also where the beauty is. The human connection happens when a reader recognizes themselves in your specifics: the refinery scheduler's impossible handoff, the controller holding two truths at month-end, the flight ops lead balancing safety and turn time. Real details are magnets.
The authenticity gap (and why it's growing)
Here's what I see happening: people are trying to project expertise they don't have, in domains they haven't worked in, using language that sounds like everyone else's. It comes from a place I understand - the pressure to have something valuable to say, to look and feel validated, the fear that what you actually know isn't enough.
But here's the thing: what you actually know is enough. Your three years in procurement, your failed startup, your stint managing a night shift - that lived experience is more valuable than a thousand recycled frameworks. The exchange you have to offer is real. The insights you've earned through doing the work, making the mistakes, seeing the patterns - that's where power comes from.
When you meet someone who writes authentically, then meet them in person, there's alignment. They are who they say they are. When you meet someone who's been outsourcing their thinking to generic "best practices" and AI-generated insights, the disconnect is immediate. You can feel the gap between the persona and the person.
Where I put AI (and where I don't)
Have I used AI? Absolutely. I use it to scan sources, pressure-test an argument, tighten a draft, and systematize the work that used to steal my mornings - as well as building out processes. What I don't hand it is voice. I won't delegate my priors, my judgment, or my name.
AI is great for mechanics. It is not a substitute for worldview. If a paragraph could've been posted by anyone, it won't move anyone. Use the tool to clear the brush so you can write the sentence only you can write.
Think of AI as an accelerator, a research assistant, perhaps an editor - but not a replacement for your thinking. The moment you outsource your thoughts, you stop growing. And growth comes from authentic exchange: sharing what you've learned, wrestling with what you don't know, building on what others bring to the conversation.
The connection dividend
We talk about engagement and culture like they're side quests. They're not. When people can show up as whole adults who are allowed to tell the truth, three things happen:
Speed increases. Candid respectful debate surfaces risks early, and teams stop performing alignment while quietly disagreeing.
Retention rises. People stay where they can say what they see.
Trust compounds. Customers and partners can feel the human behind the logo. That's not "soft"; it's competitive advantage - especially now.
Authenticity is good business because it's good for humans. We do our best work with people we trust. That's not a nice-to-have; that's the engine. It's how you find the deal that makes your career, the job that fits your passion, the ideas that change the world. Real connection opens real doors.
How I actually work
I enjoy technology; I'm not a laggard and I'm not a zealot. I've seen the corporate version of "we bought AI" where the software arrives before the problem definition. You cut people, you chase a dashboard, you call it transformation, and six months later you're left wondering where the expected lift went. Rather than strategic execution and optimization, you end up with costly theater and holes in the boat.
The better path is capability building: use AI to clear the low-value work so humans can do the human work - conversation, judgment, coaching, collaboration across silos. Put differently: let the machine make room for the meeting. The real one. The one where someone says the hard thing and we leave with a real decision.
Connection design (don't leave it to chance)
Leaders: if you value authenticity (and you should), design for it.
Ritualize real conversation. Something real with your teams - every week. *I would say even do this with yourself, whether in a journal or in your thoughts.
Create small rooms for big candor. Give junior operators and analysts a safe path to challenge assumptions (and also learn). That's how you avoid groupthink.
Measure what you say you value. Track engagement and trust as seriously as throughput. If you don't measure it, you're not managing it.
Use AI to buy back time. Then spend the dividend on people - coaching, learning, cross-functional problem solving. Enriching the whole experience.
The Point Taken
I've been writing for years - long-form strategy memos for executives, thesis emails on market direction (sometimes to the chagrin of colleagues and friends), and now here on Substack. That experience taught me something: the difference between writing that moves people and writing that fills space isn't talent or polish. It's whether you're saying something only you could say.
Should we call out people faking expertise they don't have? I don't think public shame is the answer. But I do think we should stop rewarding hollow content with engagement. When someone recycles generic frameworks in your domain, when the insights could have come from anyone because they didn't come from lived experience - just scroll past. Engage with the people showing their work, naming their constraints, sharing what they've actually learned.
The world doesn't need more varnish; it needs more truth. What you are is enough. What you've learned matters. The exchange you have to offer - your three years in operations, your view from the trading floor, your mistakes in scaling a team- that's where the value lives.
Authenticity is beautiful because it's risky. We show up as ourselves and invite others to do the same. That's how real connection happens, how communities form, how companies compound, and how a healthy economy gets built: one honest paragraph at a time.