TL; DR
AI-generated comments on social media aren’t building relationships—they’re creating distrust. When “comment a lot” became the go-to growth advice, busy professionals reached for the easy button and handed their voice to AI, but buyers and peers can smell performative engagement a mile away.
The result isn’t networking or new business; it’s credibility leakage and an ecosystem of empty calories. The fix isn’t spending hours online—it’s showing up like a real human in about 60 seconds. Use AI to summarize and sharpen, sure—but don’t let it wear your name tag.
Key Insights
- AI-written comments don’t create connection—they create credibility leakage (and people can tell).
- The “comment more to grow” advice pushed busy leaders toward automation, turning engagement into performance instead of relationships.
- Generic comments flatten your POV into beige mush, which attracts bots and algorithm-chasers—not buyers or partners.
- Comments are trust signals: low-effort engagement builds a reputation debt that’s hard to undo once you’re filed away as spammy or lazy.
- You don’t need hours a day to win on LinkedIn—you need 60 seconds and the 3S Comment: Specific, Signal, Step.
- Use AI for leverage (summaries, drafting help), but never as your public voice—AI can assist, not represent.
AI Comments Don’t Build Relationships
There was a time—not that long ago—when social media was…human.
Messy. Specific. Occasionally unhinged. Sometimes genius. Often both.
Sometimes we see glimmers of the olden days, but today? It’s more AI-created junk than real humans engaging with one another. And I’m not talking about the bots that troll you on X or TikTok or the funny Sora-created videos of talking animals.
I’m talking about the real humans who use AI to write comments in places like Reddit and LinkedIn.
Blech.
I’m sure you’ve seen it. Someone posts something thoughtful, and the comments are rife with a regurgitation of what was posted, followed by an “insightful post!” Or “So valuable—thanks for sharing!” Or “Great perspective. Really resonates.”
Here’s the thing: we know what you’ve done. We know you asked AI to summarize our content and write a comment. And, look, I’m a huge fan of AI. It has made me incredibly productive. So, using it to summarize the content is fine. But for the love of all things, don’t have it write the comment, too.
I get why this happens.
Social media gurus have spent the past few years yelling the same advice through a megaphone: “Spend hours commenting!” As if you’re supposed to treat it like it’s your full-time job—when you already have, you know, an actual full-time job.
So people look for the shortcut. The efficiency hack. The easy button.
And that’s how we got here: platforms full of comments that sound supportive, but don’t actually say anything. A sea of polished, pleasant, empty calories.
The problem isn’t that AI exists.
The problem is that the second your comment stops sounding like a person with a point of view—and starts sounding like a participation trophy (and I know how much we all love our participation trophies)—you’re not building relationships. You’re building a paper trail of inauthenticity.
And yes, people can tell. Even the ones you think are “too clever” to detect.
We know.
The Growth Advice That Broke LinkedIn
A few weeks ago, Katelyn Bourgoin posted on LinkedIn that she’s started calling out people who use AI for their comments. I’m not quite there, but I have stopped responding to their comments.
The trouble, as I mentioned earlier, is we’ve been sold a growth strategy that sounds simple on paper: comment a lot, get noticed, build relationships, and win customers.
And yes, commenting works. In the same way that networking works. Or showing up consistently works. Or being a recognizable, helpful human works.
But somewhere along the way, “commenting” stopped meaning having something to say… and started meaning being present in the room—even if you’re not actually in the room.
Because the gurus didn’t just tell people to comment. They told people to comment a lot. Every day. For an hour. For two. As if the rest of your life is just…waiting around for your next opportunity to write “great point!” under someone else’s post.
Most smart, successful people don’t have that kind of time. They’re leading teams. Managing customers. Building actual businesses.
So the advice turns into a problem.
And when the tactic becomes impossible, people do what people always do: they find a workaround.
They outsource it. They automate it. They hand it to AI.
Not because they’re lazy or bad people—but because the strategy was never designed for normal humans with full calendars.
This backfires for two reasons:
- The people you actually want to work with—buyers, peers, partners—can smell it a mile away.
- The people who are also trying to hack the algorithm will happily engage back.
So you don’t reach your goals. You don’t network effectively. You don’t bring in new customers.
You get a comment circlejerk.
Which is exactly why Katelyn’s point lands: she’s not trying to embarrass anyone. She’s trying to keep them from quietly setting their credibility on fire in public.
The Trust Math
Let’s make this painfully simple: people buy from other people. That’s it. And when AI is writing comments for you, they backfire—almost every time.
A thoughtful comment is a tiny act of respect. It says: I read this. I understood it. I have a point of view.
An AI-generated comment says: I skimmed nothing, but I’d still like credit for being here.
If you’re not willing to put in 30 seconds of thought on someone else’s ideas, why should they trust you with their business, their budget, or their reputation?
To boot, AI comments flatten your point of view into beige mush.
Real relationships are built on specificity: a sharp observation, a lived example, a “we tried this and here’s what happened”, a respectful disagreement, or a question that proves you’re actually thinking.
AI comments strip all of that out.
What’s almost worse, when you comment like a bot, you attract bots. Or humans who behave like them.
So instead of pulling in clients or peers, you end up in a little ecosystem of people who are also doing performative engagement for performative engagement.
It looks busy. It feels active. It is not revenue.
Every time you leave a comment that clearly wasn’t written by you, you create a tiny trust penalty.
People start to file you away as:
- “not actually thoughtful”
- “kinda spammy”
- “here for the algorithm”
- “probably selling something”
- lazy
Once you’re in that mental folder, good luck climbing out.
Start Building Trust
At this point, I’m sure someone is thinking, “But Gini, I’m busy. I don’t have time to write thoughtful comments on 12 posts a day. I can barely keep my head above water as it is.”
Correct. Same.
And to be clear, I am not anti-AI. I’m not even anti-efficiency. I love efficiency. I love tools. I love anything that helps smart people move faster without losing their minds.
What I am anti- is outsourcing the part that makes people trust you: your brain, your voice, your point of view.
Of course, LinkedIn matters. Social proof matters. Relationships matter. Visibility matters. And in a world where we’re all drowning in content, showing up consistently is still one of the best ways to stay top of mind.
But there’s a difference between using AI to help you show up, and using AI to pretend you showed up.
One is leverage. The other is performance. Performance is exactly what buyers are exhausted by.
So the question isn’t, “Should you comment or not?” The question is, “How do you scale presence without faking connection?”
If the only way your strategy works is by sounding like a beige robot who “really resonates” with everyone, it’s not a strategy. It’s reputation sabotage with better grammar.
The good news is you don’t need hours a day. You don’t need a comment farm. You don’t need to treat LinkedIn like a second job.
You need a simple approach that lets you show up like a real human—with a point of view—in about 60 seconds.
Which brings us to the part that actually helps.
The Rule: AI Can Assist, Not Represent
AI can help you think. AI can help you draft. AI cannot be you in public.
Because the minute a tool is speaking for you—especially in a place where relationship-building is the whole point—you’ve crossed from “efficiency” into “misrepresentation.”
If your comment implies you read the post, understood it, and have a take… and you didn’t?
That’s not harmless. It’s credibility leakage.
Here’s a quick gut-check:
- If you didn’t at least read the AI summary, don’t comment.
- If you didn’t understand it, ask a question instead of dropping a compliment.
- If you don’t have a point of view, say something smaller but real: what stood out, what you’re curious about, what you’ve seen that supports—or challenges—it.
Here’s a quick and easy way to comment all on your own.
The 3S Comment
The 3S comment stands for specific, signal, and step.
For specific, pull one real thing from the post. If it’s an article or newsletter that was posted, you can ask AI to summarize it for you. And then pull something that you liked: a phrase, point, or line that made you nod.
This proves you read it—and it shows the writer you actually saw them.
For signal, add your point of view. This is a “we’ve seen this too,” a counterpoint, or a nuance. This is where your expertise lives.
And then for step, end with something that invites a real response. A question. A “how are you seeing this play out?” A “what would you do if…?”
That’s it. It takes 60 seconds. Less if you type fast. And it works because it creates a moment of actual connection.
It works because it does what AI comments never can: it creates a moment of actual connection.
Because people don’t remember the person who comments the most.
They remember the person who sounds like a real human—who pays attention—who has something to say.
Use AI for Speed—Not Personality
If you’re going to show up in someone’s comments, show up like you. Use AI to save time, sharpen your thinking, and help you get to the point faster—but don’t let it wear your name tag.
The algorithm isn’t your customer. The people reading your words are.
In a world drowning in synthetic noise, the most strategic thing you can do is sound unmistakably, stubbornly human.
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