For New Disruptors

Disruption Now® helps organizations build, train, and scale with AI from custom development to workforce transformation, making emerging technology human-centric and accessible.

This week I’ve been reflecting on a simple truth: we’re drowning in words but starving for meaning.

We keep asking the wrong question: “How can I get AI to write better?” The real question is, “How can I teach it what better means?” Here are the five rules every team must master to make AI writing actually valuable.

Rule 1: Define What “Good” Looks Like

The biggest barrier to effective AI writing isn’t the technology; it’s the vagueness of your own standards. Most organizations rely on intuition: “I’ll know it when I see it.” This worked in the past, but it does not work in the age of AI.  AI can’t read your mind; it needs clarity, not vibes. 

Defining “good” means translating tacit taste into explicit, testable standards. Is “good” concise? Data-backed? Emotionally resonant? Until you spell that out, you’ll get inconsistent results and wasted time.

When you stop treating quality as subjective art and start treating it as a shared language, your writing (and your thinking) sharpens everywhere.

Rule 2: Replace Templates with Business Logic

Templates don’t foster understanding; they teach box-checking. Hand an AI a structure without logic, and you’ll get lifeless prose that looks right but says nothing.

Your structure is your business logic. Every section should answer a clear question: What decision does this document enable? Who is it for? What action should it drive?

Amazon’s PR/FAQ format works because it encodes purpose, forcing clarity about customers, metrics, and objections. When you give AI that kind of logic, it doesn’t just generate sentences; it helps you think strategically.

Rule 3: Teach “Bad” First

If you want AI to write well, start by teaching it what “bad” looks like. Most teams do the opposite.

Negative constraints are your secret weapon. Tell the AI what to avoid: the hype, the vagueness, the fluff. Define red flags like: “Don’t use buzzwords,” “Don’t hedge the conclusion,” or “Don’t overexplain.”

When teams clarify their failure patterns, they dramatically shorten feedback loops. Teaching “bad” first isn’t about being negative; it’s about precision. It helps your AI (and your people) learn faster.

Rule 4: Reclaim Your Conviction

Lyndon Johnson once said that what convinces people is conviction, and he was right. This truth is even more pronounced in the age of AI. The default AI voice is a beige fog: polite, balanced, and utterly forgettable. If your writing sounds like it was produced by a cautious intern, your organization has lost its voice.

Great writing shows range. It can take a bold stance in one line and acknowledge uncertainty in the next, and that’s what earns trust. Calibrate your tone like a soundboard: assertive, humble, curious, and confident. Don’t let the machine flatten your perspective.

The cost of sounding neutral is higher than you think; it’s how conviction quietly dies.

Rule 5: Iterate with Discipline

Most teams tell AI to “make it better.”

Real iteration means diagnosing why a draft fails. Was it unclear? Too formal? Missing data? Each revision should map to a specific flaw. Keep a defect log, short notes on what went wrong and why. Then re-specify your fix.

The secret isn’t asking AI to improve; it’s teaching it how you define improvement. That’s when feedback becomes leverage instead of noise.

My Disruptive Take

Succeeding with AI writing means mastering the human work of defining and communicating intent. This is pushing organizations to face their own vagueness and turn hidden knowledge into clear, actionable standards.

People often ask me if this means we'll think less. I don't think so.  I challenge you to go through this process and truly define your intent, your business logic, and your failure modes, and tell me you’re thinking less.

Teaching AI to write is like teaching an apprentice blacksmith. You can’t just hand the hammer; you have to show it how to strike with intent. Every draft, every revision, every prompt is a swing of that hammer. Over time, the metal in your ideas gets sharper, cleaner, more purposeful.

You will think more. You will think harder. You have to do the work.

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MidwestCon 2026 at the 1819 Innovation Hub & Digital Futures Building

Disruption Now® Podcast

Disruption Now® interviews leaders focused on the intersection of emerging tech, humanity, and policy.

In our latest episode, we explore how AI fluency—not hype—is the new measure of organizational resilience. Learn how real teams are applying judgment, not jargon, to drive impact.

Keep Disrupting, My Friends.

Rob Richardson – Founder, Disruption Now® & Chief Curator of MidwestCon