In 2025, Oxford’s Word of the Year was “rage bait”. The year before, it was “brain rot”.

I’m not a gambling woman but, if I were, my money would be on “AI slop” for 2026.

And LinkedIn has just improved my odds.

About a month ago, their Chief Product Officer, Hari Srinivasan, announced the launch of a new way for us all to flag “AI slop”: low-quality, AI-generated posts or comments that offer little in the way of value. Within two weeks of its introduction, over a million people had clicked the “seems like AI slop” button.

As Srinivasan put it, “AI slop is a top priority for all of us. We really care about this. People come to LinkedIn to connect with real people and share their real perspectives, ideas, and expertise.” Hear, hear.

But, when you’re running a busy advice/planning business, finding the time and inspiration to share consistently human-first, high-quality LinkedIn content isn’t easy.

AI has its place on LinkedIn, but so do you.

Here are 15 ideas to help get the balance right.

AI ≠ slop

There is one thing worth noting before we dive in: “AI and slop are not the same thing”.

Srinivasan’s words, not mine. But we agree.

When it comes to ideation and research for your LinkedIn content, AI can be incredibly useful. The problem comes when we ask it to form an opinion on our behalf, leave a generic comment on another post, or turn every passing thought into suspiciously polished prose.

So, first off, here are five ways to make AI useful without letting it take over the bits that need you.

5 smarter ways to use AI

1. Decide what you want to be known for

We’ve been advocates of “content pillars” for years.

Essentially, they’re defined themes that guide what you write your content about. We’d recommend choosing a handful and posting consistently around those topics. This helps LinkedIn’s algorithm understand your specific expertise and, in turn, show your content to more relevant people. AI can absolutely help identify your content pillars.

Try using this prompt in ChatGPT or similar:

“I am a [insert job title] based in [location] and I help clients with [X, Y, and Z].

My ideal clients are aged [X to Y] and are [financial situation/business circumstances].

They value [insert client priorities in life, e.g. family time, travel, freeing up time for business.]

They also worry that [insert main worries/fears/challenges].

Please generate 3-5 content pillars I can use for social media posts that will stand out to my ideal clients and encourage them to reach out and book a meeting. For each one, briefly explain why you have recommended it.”

2. Use AI to develop ideas, not write them

Your content pillars will give you a great starting point, but “retirement planning” or “exit advice for business owners” aren’t LinkedIn posts in themselves.

This is where AI continues to be useful. Give it your post idea as part of a detailed prompt and ask it to:

• Work out whether, and how, an idea connects to one of your content pillars.
• Play devil’s advocate and challenge your argument, so you can decide whether it really stands up.
• Suggest areas where your own specific knowledge, experience, or examples could make the post stronger.
• Recommend the clearest structure for communicating your idea, such as a listicle-style post or step-by-step explanation.
• Find relevant research or statistics to enhance your point (but always check the original source; AI hallucinations are alive and kicking!)

You’ll still need to decide what you think, what you want to say, and then actually write the post (of course). But you’ll be starting with a much better-developed idea than the one that first popped into your head.

3. Think carefully before using AI-generated images

AI-generated images are everywhere. Especially that particular style of poster for an event, a restaurant, a bar – I think you know the kind I’m talking about.

I’m not saying they’re a complete no-no. If you’re trying to illustrate a ridiculous or abstract concept – let’s say your post calls for an image of an elephant riding a unicycle – then your audience will appreciate that it would be rather difficult to capture that on your recent safari holiday.

However, more often than not, we’d recommend using real photos you’ve taken yourself.

A team photo, a picture from an event, your office, a client gift, a book you’re reading, somewhere you’ve visited. Those images add context and credibility in a way that AI can’t replicate.

Indeed, the latest research reports that personal photos outperform stock and AI-generated images, and that a weak visual can undermine a strong post.

4. Never outsource comments or connections

Every LinkedIn veteran has felt their blood pressure rise at an automated, AI-generated comment or connection request.

LinkedIn is a social networking site. Using a robot to automate the actual networking rather defeats the point. So, when it comes to writing a comment, sending a connection request, or replying to a DM, please do it yourself.

Respect the time they’ve taken to engage by actually reading what the person has written. Respond to the point they’ve made. Add your own experience or perspective. Ask a question if you genuinely have one and want to spark a conversation.

It might take a little longer, but isn’t that the point?

Relationships are built through real conversations, not a robot having them on your behalf.

One top tip: consider using Wispr Flow to dictate your comments. As most of us speak faster than we write, this can be a huge time saver, helping you write longer comments or generally leave comments more frequently. If you click here to use our referral link, you can try it out with a free month of their Pro membership. We’re big Wispr fans.

5. Don’t let AI polish away your personality

Ah, those telltale AI giveaways.

• “It’s not X, it’s Y”
• Rhetorical questions
• Excessive use of em dashes
• Shoehorned suspense (“But here’s the thing…”).

There’s nothing wrong with asking AI to proofread a post, tighten a sentence, or help you find a better way of explaining something, particularly if it’s technical.

Just make sure it still sounds like you when it’s finished.

Your turns of phrase, sense of humour, and the way you naturally tell a story are exactly what AI shouldn’t edit out. If every post is perfectly polished, you risk removing the very things that make people want to read it.

As we always say: write like you speak.

If you read your finished post out loud and think, “I’d never say that over a coffee with a client”, I’d suggest it needs a rethink.

10 post ideas no robot can write quite like you

One of the most common things we hear from advisers and planners is that they want to post more often, but simply don’t know what to write about.

You’d be surprised at how many ideas are hiding in plain sight: your day-to-day conversations with clients, meetings with new prospects, and conversations with colleagues.

So, if you’d like to post twice a week, these ideas will keep you going for over a month.

1. Tell a story only you can tell

Think about a memorable conversation, meeting, or moment from your career. What happened, and what can other people learn from it?

2. Answer questions from clients and prospects

What did somebody ask you in a meeting this week? If one person wants to know the answer, chances are that other people, who could potentially become clients, will too.

3. Explain something people rarely ask but should

Turn the tables and share the answer to a question you wish more clients asked you, then explain why the answer matters.

4. Talk about something you’ve learnt recently

Share something you’ve picked up from a recent client conversation, conference, book, podcast, or even a mistake you made. How will what you’ve learnt impact the service you provide to clients, prospects, and professional connections?

5. Share something you’ve changed your mind about

What do you believe about financial advice or planning today that you didn’t five years ago? Explain what changed your mind and what it means for your clients and the work you do.

6. Take your connections behind the scenes

Show people what actually goes into your work. It could be how you prepare for an annual review, build a cash flow forecast, or get ready for a first meeting.

7. Give your perspective on something topical

Don’t just tell people what happened in the Budget, markets, or financial news. Add your own perspective and explain why it’s relevant to the people you work with.

8. Explain something through a real example

Take an anonymised client situation and use it to bring an otherwise complicated or abstract financial planning point to life.

9. Challenge a common misconception

Pick something you regularly hear from clients that isn’t quite right, from “I need £X to retire at Y age” to “investing is basically gambling”, and explain what they’re missing.

10. Let people get to know you outside of the day job

Not every post needs to be about financial planning. I appreciate you might want to keep your business and home life separate, but the occasional glimpse of your life away from the office helps people get to know the person behind the job title. Share the marathon you’re training for, the holiday you’ve just taken with the family, or the restaurant you can’t stop talking about. No tenuous financial planning lesson required.

“Real people and real perspectives”

In a recent poll Phil put out, only 7% of his audience had clicked LinkedIn’s AI slop button. 36% didn’t even know it existed.

Those numbers might look rather different in a few months’ time.

Either way, its introduction doesn’t mean you should stop using AI to aid your social media strategy.

It does, however, tell us something about the direction LinkedIn wants to go in, and what its users value when they’re there: “real people and real perspectives”.

By all means, use AI to research and develop ideas. Just don’t let it replace your expertise, opinions, experiences, personality, or the conversations you’re there to have. Those are the things that will make somebody stop scrolling, remember your name and, eventually, feel confident enough to get in touch.

Of course, knowing what good looks like doesn’t magically create the time to make it happen. If you want to use LinkedIn more effectively, our talented (and very human!) social media team are here to help. They take the time to understand you, your business, your clients, and what you want to be known for. Then, they use your ideas, expertise, and experiences to build a consistent LinkedIn presence that genuinely represents you.

To find out more, email me at abi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 896 5300 and we’ll compare diaries.