By Lucy Archer, Co-founder, Rev PR
We don’t know about you, but we’re playing AI Lingo Bingo these days in the office. There seems to be a new phrase doing the rounds every week. Whatever the latest acronym or initialism, the overall message seems to be “AI is changing everything”. And that point at least, we concede.
The problem is that this change is bringing with it a tidal wave of bland, interchangeable, slightly-too-polished content that all sounds the same. You’ve seen it, we’ve seen it and, take it from us, journalists have definitely seen it.
Some of the most common giveaways
- The “it’s not this, it’s that” structure: “It’s not just a business – it’s a lifestyle.” Or our personal favourite, “It’s not about profit – it’s about purpose.”, usually followed by another version of the same line.
- Over-polished, under-informative headlines like, “Revolutionising the Future of Franchising” or “Redefining Success in a Changing Landscape”. Big words and very little substance.
- Generic opening paragraphs, almost always starting with: “In today’s fast-paced world”, “In an ever-evolving marketplace”, or “As the industry continues to change”.
- Buzzword clustering. Phrases like innovative, scalable, dynamic, cutting-edge, best-in-class, industry-leading all crammed into one paragraph.
- The “motivational poster” tone. Everything sounds inspirational but nothing sounds specific because no one actually speaks like this in real life.
- Rev PR public enemy number one: the em dash. Not because humans don’t use dashes – good writers absolutely do. But AI tends to use em dashes very frequently, dropping them mid-sentence instead of restructuring for better flow, and often pairs them with grand, sweeping statements for added drama.
Granted, none of this is disastrous on its own. But when you stack several of these together, you end up with content that feels manufactured and laughably inauthentic. And right now, so many businesses (not just in franchising) are edging dangerously close to a credibility problem. Not because AI exists, but because it’s being used without proper guardrails in place.
• To read the full article, view Franchise World Spring 2026 issue, page 35.