Is AI Costing You Time?

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere right now. From answering customer service questions to generating recipes, AI tools promise to do it all—faster, cheaper, easier. But here’s the big question for businesses: is AI really saving you time, or is it actually costing you?

AI Doesn’t Really “Know” Anything

The truth is, AI doesn’t really “know” anything. It generates responses by scanning vast amounts of internet content, which means it’s drawing from both correct and incorrect information, unable to tell the difference between the two. This is why AI has a habit of confidently presenting false information (sometimes called “AI hallucinations”). It will never say, “I don’t know,” but will instead churn out something that sounds plausible, even when it’s completely made up.

A Real-World Example: Imaginary Books in the News

Case in point: just recently, the Chicago Sun-Times confirmed that a summer reading list they published included several books that don’t actually exist. The article was created by AI, which fabricated fake titles by well-known authors and even provided descriptions of these imaginary books. Social media went wild, asking why a respected newspaper was recommending novels that had never been written. The paper later admitted this was a “learning moment” and promised to tighten its policies.

And this is the heart of the problem: AI is too polite. In an effort to be helpful, it fills in the blanks, gives you something that looks finished, and never tells you when it doesn’t have the facts.

Where’s the Personality?

Beyond accuracy, AI has another flaw that’s less obvious but just as costly: it flattens out personality. To be “correct,” AI often strips away quirks, humour, and point of view. The result? Content that sounds the same as everyone else’s. Bland. Homogenised. Like it was written by a robot (because, well, it was). Your brand’s unique fingerprint—its personality, tone of voice, its very soul—disappears.

The DIY Trap

At Social Media Tribe, we’re seeing this firsthand. More and more clients come to us after trying the DIY AI approach. They’ve spent hours wrestling with prompts, hoping to get high-quality content with minimal time and financial investment. What they get instead is a pile of factoids, graphics that look cheap, and copy that makes them scratch their heads. Most importantly, there’s no discernible brand personality. Nothing that makes their business stand out.

Instead of saving time, they end up wasting it. By the time they’ve reviewed, rewritten, fact-checked, and redesigned AI output, they realise they could have handed the job to a human professional in the first place, for a much better result.

Why the Human Touch Wins Every Time

Here’s the thing: if the aim of the game is to make your business stand out, AI can only ever make you look and sound like everyone else. It doesn’t know your customers. It doesn’t know your community. It doesn’t know you. Until one day that it does…

But until then that’s where the human touch matters. A human writer can tell your story with heart, humour, and personality. A human designer knows how to create something that makes people stop scrolling and actually pay attention. And a human team knows how to take your brand and amplify it in ways no algorithm can.

The Real Cost of AI

So before you ask if AI can save you time, ask this: how much is AI content really costing you?

If your brand or business is lacking in social media strategy or direction it might be time to book a 15-minute strategy session to find out how we can support your business growth.