We were so excited to go out to dinner the other night. Our friends took us out for our anniversary to one of our favorite Italian restaurants. We hadn’t been there in a while, and it used to be so good. The kind of place where you’d take a bite and close your eyes and say “mmmmm …” from the goodness. And the service was always impeccable.
About halfway through dinner, my husband and I exchanged a glance and did that thing that people who’ve been married for 20 years do… we had a full conversation without saying a word.
“What happened to this place?”
The menu was still Italian dishes, but the Italian vibe was gone.
The service staff had clearly never worked at a high-end restaurant before. They were inattentive, made a bunch of mistakes, and pushed us out the door the second we finished eating dessert.
The food was not bad, just … forgettable. No flair, no style. And for the prices they were charging? This was a disappointing experience.
We found out the restaurant had changed owners, which explained why it felt so different.
Since owners aren’t usually right there observing, we felt like giving some feedback so they could fix these issues if they chose to.
My husband wrote a review. He laid it out clearly: What was off. What used to be better. Where things were disappointing.
And the owners responded almost immediately.
Their response was long. Polite. Full of apologies. But the second I read it, I turned to my husband and said, “This was written by ChatGPT.”
And here’s the thing—nothing in the message was wrong. But there was no human element to it. No soul.
They could have asked follow-up questions. They could have edited the response themselves to personalize it.
Instead, they just copied and pasted, then moved on.
Honestly? That turned us off more than if they hadn’t responded at all.
And here’s the part that matters—because this is exactly what I see happening inside companies, too.
They buy AI tools. They give everyone access. And they assume people will figure it out.
But most employees are slammed. They’re doing their best just to stay afloat. So what happens? They start using AI like a shortcut instead of a skill. They let it write responses and post them without reading them. They ask vague questions and settle for generic answers. And the output ends up sounding like … well, like that restaurant’s response. No soul.
AI isn’t the problem. It’s an incredible tool—when you know how to use it. But just like a car, it’s powerful. I wouldn’t want to be without it, but I also know if I’m not careful, it can cause real damage.
This is why your team needs AI training.
Because AI can help your people work faster, think more clearly, and handle more without burning out. But only if they know how to direct it. Only if they’ve seen what “good” looks like. Otherwise, they end up creating more noise, more rework, and more emails that feel like no one’s actually listening.
That dinner didn’t fall apart because the food was bad.
It fell apart because the heart was gone.
And AI—when it’s not used well—can do the same thing to your business.