The Trust Deficit
What they built
A photorealistic Gotham City. Every building rendered. Every light source calculated. Technically flawless.
What was missing
Trash cans. The ordinary signs of human life. And the audience would have felt it — even if they couldn't explain why.
The Insight
Your audience always knows when there are no trash cans.
They may not have the vocabulary to tell you. But they feel it. And once they feel it, you've lost them.
Why This Matters Now
Corporate comms has the same problem.
The production values have never been higher. The messaging is on-brand. The strategy decks are immaculate.
And none of it lands.
Because the human signals are gone. Polished out. Managed away. Replaced with language that sounds right but feels wrong.
We live in a post-truth era. Facts no longer change minds. Emotion, identity, and lived experience do. Which means authenticity isn't a nice-to-have. It's the whole game.
The AI Problem
AI is making everything sound the same.
Content that is technically perfect and emotionally void. Thought leadership without the thought.
And there is a tell. A small one. But it's everywhere once you see it.
—
The Em Dash
A punctuation mark humans almost never consciously choose. AI uses it constantly. It is the trash can that isn't there — the signal that no actual person wrote this.
How to Spot It
Seven signs the person didn't write it.
1
Em dash overload
Where a comma would do — but everywhere.
2
Excessive hedging
"It's worth noting…" "Generally speaking…"
3
No breathing room
Every sentence connects. No gaps, no silence, no tension.
4
Pseudo-philosophy
"In today's fast-paced digital landscape…" Every. Time.
5
Mimicking literary style
Thoughtful. Considered. Unnaturally so.
6
Perfectly balanced sentences
A symmetry and variety that feels machine-clean.
7
Zero mistakes
Not one typo. Not one moment of personality. Sterile.
What It Looks Like
AI-generated
"In today's rapidly evolving corporate landscape, trust has emerged as a critical differentiator — one that separates high-performing organisations from those that merely survive. It's worth noting that authentic leadership is no longer optional; it is, in many ways, the foundation upon which sustainable growth is built."
Human-written
"Christopher Nolan walked out of a Gotham City review because there were no trash cans. No one in the room understood why it felt wrong. He did. Your audience is Nolan. They always know."
Same subject. Same intent. One feels like a person wrote it. One doesn't.
The Test
Run the trash can test.
Find a piece of recent communication from your organisation — an exec post, a press release, an internal update.
Read the first three sentences. Ask yourself: could I tell who wrote this if the name wasn't on it?
If the answer is no — there are no trash cans. That's where you start.
This applies to AI-assisted content and human-written content equally. Voice is the signal. Its absence is the problem.
MrMcK · The Trust Deficit
Your audience always knows when something feels fake.
They don't need the vocabulary. They feel it before they think it.
Polish is not the same as trust.
The more perfect the content, the less believable it becomes. Trust lives in the rough edges.
AI is making everyone sound the same.
Which means the last competitive advantage is sounding like yourself.
Use AI to lift the load. Not erase the hand.
The thinking has to be yours. The voice has to be yours. That's what gets believed.
mrmck.com