Authenticity and trust in times of ai
Asserting your personality when the world is becoming more impersonal than ever
AI has become one of the most talked-about subjects in the creative world. Many fear it'll take their jobs. Many worry about artistic integrity, the theft of original artwork, the increase in misinformation due to AI, and then there's the matter of environmental impact, where drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce, and electricity prices are skyrocketing in areas where AI data centres are located.
Yet, it is hard to deny that it is here to stay, whether we like it or not; it is increasingly difficult to avoid, and we're finding it integrated in almost all aspects of our online existence.
My own relationship with it is conflicted. I see the power of it as a tool. It has helped me get ahead in areas that are confusing to me, such as SEO. And it has aided me in doing complicated translations when dealing with tax issues in Swedish - a language that I do not fully have the grasp of, especially when the language is official and speaks of matters I already have a hard time comprehending, no matter the language. Just to mention a few examples. But at the same time, I worry about the state of our world, our environment and our social cohesion that is all being disrupted hugely by the swiftness of how AI have swept through our society. My conclusion is simply that I am a hypocrite.
When it comes to the matter of photography and AI, it is a tad more straightforward for me. Image generation is directly eroding consumer trust, and it is making it incredibly hard to believe anything you see online. What we would usually consider proof is no longer a valid source, and this is troubling and telling of the direction society is going. We simply cannot believe our own eyes anymore. So, as business owners, how do we combat that?
In the matter of Personal Branding and Headshot photography, showing yourself as you are is more important than ever. Authenticity is a word being thrown around endlessly, but for good reason. It is something that builds trust in a way that AI can never do.
The other day, I was sitting on the phone, doomscrolling, as one does, and a post with an image came up. It was a local politician talking about her values and ideas, but when I scrolled down to the image, it didn't feel quite right. It was somewhat too "perfect", somewhat too smooth, and I was quite sure that it was AI. I might have been wrong; it can be difficult to tell these days, but even if it was real, the style of the image, oftentimes seen in AI-generated headshots, had put me off, and as a result, I had zero trust in what she had written. That image removed all credibility simply because I couldn't trust that it was her showing up. So how could I trust her words? How could I actually know that she was who she said she was?
The experience stuck with me and made me think about how we show up online as well as how we are perceived when we do show up. Do we come across as real? As human-like? Authentic? Honest? Sincere?
I've spoken with many different people, doing many different things about this exact thing, and they all have the same experience. They do not trust a brand when the words and the images are clearly machine-generated. Sometimes they cannot put a finger on why, and sometimes they feel so strongly repulsed by the whole thing that the trust is forever gone.
In my career as a photographer, for the longest time, people wanted their images quite edited - the skin corrected, blemishes removed, and some even wanted to look many years younger than they were. Techniques were developed in Photoshop to enhance and change the skin to perfection, but now that style of editing kinda connects with how AI is generating images. Too perfect and too smooth. Not quite real and lifelike. Not really trustworthy.
I believe we are moving towards a tendency to show up as business owners and professionals even more naturally and authentically online. We need to show our faces more or less as they are if we want to be trusted. And trust is more important than ever.
Our own words have to be used, and we ought not to keep repeating the same patterns AI-generated text has.
Even when you've tried teaching it how to sound like you, there are tell tales. A certain cadence and pattern that keeps repeating. An excessive use of emoticons and bullet points. Not to mention the overuse of em-dashes that have now made it nearly impossible to use them in "natural, self-written” text.
Personally, when I sense that the text has been generated, I move on swiftly. Not necessarily because I am not interested in what the person, the business or the brand has to say, but because I lose attention. I get annoyed by reading the same thing over and over again, just in a slightly different package. It lacks depth and originality.
Maybe AI has its time and place. It can be useful and help people get ahead who don't have the money to pay for the help. It can be an equaliser. But it can also do the opposite if we allow it. And honestly, we're allowing it.
The way we use it is careless, and on top of it, it is making us all seem quite too similar when we show up online. Everything that separated us from each other is becoming more conform, more colourless. The generated images kinda all seem the same with slight variations.
So, what can you do as a small business owner to stand out in the crowd of AI-generated personalities?
Simply put, you can become uncompromisingly human.
Humanity and authenticity are not only becoming scarce, it is also becoming invaluable. It is the one thing we have that sets us apart from the machines. Our weirdness. The quirks that we've always tried to hide. Our struggles and our joys. So many of us have spent our lives trying to fit in, going with the stream and doing what everyone else is, but now, more than ever, the things that set us apart should be celebrated - our humanity should be celebrated.
In my opinion, take it for what you will, your best bet to market your business and your brand is to show up as yourself at any given chance. Use your own words as much as you can. Speak about your experience fully and from the heart. And maybe allow vulnerability to seep into your brand a bit.
And for those of you who just needs headshot for professional reasons and aren't necessarily running a personal brand and business, allow yourself to show even more of you than before.
Forget about the crossed-armed pose on a white backdrop, forced smiles and stiff business attire. Explore what it means to bring your own unique personality with you into your images, even when they are for business purposes. Show your future workplace what they win from hiring you. Not just another robot but a human with complexities that bring life into the workplace.
Maybe it's time to relax the outfit, add colour or work with a photographer who has a different touch than what you usually see.
I also believe that the future of marketing is increasingly to be found in our personal relations. As business owners, it is becoming more and more difficult to separate our business life from our personal life, and from my perspective, the two are finding themselves intertwined.
What that means for marketing is showing up in person, which is the only way we can know and verify that something is actually real and start building that vital trust that will help generate growth.
Have in-person conversations. Network in person. Connect with your local community in a way that you might not have done before. Grab that cup of coffee you talked about forever with your neighbour, over the hedge.
More opportunity is to be found in your personal network than I think most of us believe or are aware of.
Now, this is coming from someone who have rebuild a life and a business twice in two different countries. Both were places where I barely knew anyone.
I am finding that this time around, as I am building my business in small-town Älmhult in Sweden, people here increasingly rely on their local community to help build trust in brands.
Recommendations are being listened to at a much greater rate than I ever experienced while living in the US.
Read more about how to network differently when you don't necessarily like or have access to traditional networking events, here:
Anywho, in my opinion, more awareness has to be made over the impact of our increased use of AI. The toll on mental health has to be studied. Protections for artists and writers have to be put in place, and the environmental impact has to be changed in order for it to become a tool we can actually benefit from.
It seems to be here to stay, and it does feel like we cannot do much about it. But we can try to safeguard ourselves and our businesses as much as possible, and embracing your own humanity is just one of such ways.
And maybe, when you consider generating a headshot of yourself based on a selfie, consider how this will be perceived by your target audience. Does it help your brand, or does it go against it? Will you be seen as trustworthy, or will you disappear in the cacophony of AI-generated content?
I'll leave you to be the judge of that.