Yes, I said it.
AI could actually be the thing that is killing your Instagram growth.
Now, before I dive in, let me be the first to say I love AI.
In fact, I can confidently say I am likely among the top 5% of people with the highest knowledge and use of AI. I do not say this to brag, but I will tell you that I’ve spent 10,000 hours in the depths of it. I’ve got an operating room of AI agents in my home, and I am very much pro-AI. (For the most part. I won’t get into the doomsday of it all right now.)
Two pics to help paint the visual:
I wanted to preface this so you understand what I’m about to say is not because I am trying to ring the alarm on AI or urge you to stop using it altogether.
Instead, I hope that you read this and actually learn a better way to use it in tandem with your day-to-day to reach your goals faster.
Ok, now that’s all out of the way…
The Mistake Agents are Making with AI
A lot of agents are leaning heavily on AI to create content. Captions, hooks, ideas, even full strategies. And on paper, everything looks better than it used to. It’s cleaner, more structured, technically “correct.”
But the results don’t match.
Engagement feels off. Conversations slow down. Content starts to blend in instead of stand out. And most agents have no idea why.
Here’s what’s actually happening: the content stopped sounding real. And even worse, it stopped appealing to real people.
You might be getting a “good hook” generated for you, but it’s rarely emotionally connecting with the person you want it to reach. Pair that with the stiff phrasing, the perfectly structured sentences that sound like a press release, the hooks that all start the same way…consumers are catching on faster than you think. They’re scrolling past you without even registering your name.
And if you think getting someone’s attention is hard now, try re-earning it after they’ve already written you off because they assume everything you post is AI-generated. That is a much harder problem to solve.
So let’s talk about what’s going wrong at the root level:
Most agents are using AI like a vending machine: put in a vague request, get out a caption, post it, wonder why nobody cares.
It looks something like this:
“What should I post this week”
“Give me 10 hooks”
“Write me a caption about the spring market”
When you prompt it with nothing, you get content built from nothing. No voice, no perspective, no you. And no amount of editing a generic caption is going to fix that because the foundation was never yours to begin with.
How to Train AI for Outputs that Sound Like You
Untrained AI prompt: “Write me a caption about why now is a good time to buy”
What you get: something flat, generic, and identical to what 400 other agents in your market could post today.
Trained AI with your actual voice, your real opinion on the market, a buyer conversation you had last Tuesday, and the specific fear that a client was dealing with. Suddenly, it sounds like you wrote it at 11 pm because you actually cared. Because in a way, you did.
That’s the difference. And your audience feels it every single time.
Here’s how to train AI to sound like you:
Build a custom project.
Claude is my personal favorite for this, but most major models have this feature now. This is where you actually teach your AI who you are before you ever ask it to help you create anything.
Not sure what to put in it? Start here:
- How you talk to clients (your tone, your phrases, your energy)
- Your real opinions on the market… not generic takes, YOUR takes
- Your ideal client’s fears, objections, and the exact language they use when they’re stressed
- Real conversations or moments from your business that shaped how you think
- Content that has performed well for you and why you think it resonated
The more specific and real you get, the sharper your AI becomes. It’s not magic, it’s training.
Talk to AI regularly like it’s a teammate.
Share your real thoughts, your frustrations, what’s exciting you right now. Don’t just show up when you need a caption.
(Pro tip: I use Wispr Flow to do this hands-free. It captures your actual voice and all your quirks vs. regular voice-to-text that strips your personality out completely. Game changer.)
Share real stories and real situations.
The convo you had with a nervous first-time buyer this week. The question you get asked on every single consultation. The moment that shifted how you explain something to clients. That is the content gold your AI needs to actually help you show up differently.
Use it as an editing team, not a starting point.
This one is everything.
You come up with the concept first. Think about how it connects to your ideal client, then bring it to your trained AI and ask it to help you go deeper. What objections might your audience have? What angles did you overlook? What hooks come out of that? Then, take the output and put your final personal touch on it.
The idea is yours. The perspective is yours. The AI just helps you sharpen it.
The Bottom Line
The most effective way to use social media is as an extension of yourself. The goal is for someone to meet you in real life and feel like they already know you because of what you’ve been sharing online. That kind of connection is what actually turns followers into clients.
If you rely entirely on AI to mass-produce soulless content, you lose that connection. And once it’s gone, it’s really hard to get back.
The difference between content that converts and content that gets scrolled past almost always comes down to one thing: did a real human with a real perspective create this… or did someone just outsource their thinking?
There are plenty of things worth outsourcing, but now more than ever, there are key pieces that are essential to retain real connection.
Try it out this week and be sure to send me a DM to let me know how it goes.
