Most people think of writers as simply wordsmiths, but a true writer is the person who can take knowledge, shape it and move it through the organisation so it actually changes behaviour. Image: jmlacey.com.
Anna Mullens explains why, in the age of artificial intelligence, the value of professional writers has never been greater for leaders who want their communications to be something more than ‘’finding the right words’’.
During a discussion at a recent business event, an executive leader was asked what his most valuable hire had been in the past three months.
“A writer,” he said.
First of all, an excellent choice. Second, why were so many others in the discussion so surprised?
This is because many employers have been getting it wrong about writers for years, and especially now in the wake of artificial intelligence.
Writing isn’t the talent. Writing is the evidence of the talent. The real talent of a writer is that they can think in a way other people can make use of.
That looks like turning a big, collaborative vision into one clear, consequential thought line.
Or hearing the ‘’holes’’ in your message before your team, market, or board does. Or knowing which sentence creates trust, and which one quietly erodes it. Taking what you know and arranging it so someone else can act on it.
Most people think of writers as “the ones who find the words”, or simply as wordsmiths. However, within any enterprise, a true writer is the person who can take knowledge, shape it and move it through the organisation so it actually changes behaviour.
That’s not a content function — that’s a thinking function.
AI can generate words, and often perfectly coherent ones, in fact and at scale. What AI can’t do is decide what your organisation should mean to the outside world or feel where a message will land in someone’s nervous system. It can’t sense when a team will hear “you’re safe” against “you’re replaceable”.
Nor can it notice that one phrase in your executive memo that will blow up trust. A professional writer can do all these things because they don’t just understand why you want to speak. They understand how other people will hear you based on fear, context, history, politics, ego, hope or world events.
That’s their real job: Not arranging pretty sentences but designing the experience of being in conversation with you.
So, artificial intelligence does not make writers obsolete. If anything, AI has exposed the difference between people who produce language and people who produce meaning.
When you hire a writer, you’re not hiring a wordsmith. You’re hiring the person you trust with your thinking.
The writing is just how you know it’s working.
Anna Mullens develops products and platforms that elevate voices and expand influence, coaching leaders and creators to articulate ideas that stick and scale. She can be contacted at annamullensofficial.com.
