One sentence you can say out loud, without hesitating, when a client asks whether AI touched the work. Not a policy. Not a disclosure paragraph. One sentence, written before the question arrives.
Before your next proposal goes out. Before a first call with a buyer who has not worked with you before. Any time you notice yourself hoping nobody asks.
Think through one recent piece of client work and where AI actually touched it. Research, drafting, analysis, formatting, checking. Be honest with yourself first, because a sentence built on a softened version of the truth will not survive a follow-up question.
Help me write one sentence I can say to a client about how AI is used in
my work. Not a policy, not a paragraph. One sentence I would be
comfortable saying out loud in a meeting.
Interview me first. Ask ONE question at a time, no more than six:
- What is the deliverable a client actually pays you for?
- Where does AI touch it, specifically, step by step?
- What part of the work is entirely your judgment?
- What would you check before anything goes to a client?
- Who is answerable if the work turns out to be wrong?
- What is the version of this you would NOT want to say out loud, and why?
Then draft three options for the sentence. Each must:
- be honest about where AI is used, without listing tools
- name what I am personally answerable for
- be sayable in one breath
- avoid the words transparency, leverage, and cutting-edge
After the three, tell me in one line which you would use and why.
Run it, pick one, and then say it out loud. If it sounds defensive when spoken, it is wrong. The sentence should sound like a statement of how you work, not an apology or a legal position.
Use it in proposals and say it early on calls rather than waiting to be asked. Volunteering it changes what it signals.
A sentence that survives the obvious follow-up question. If a client can respond with "so what happens when it gets something wrong" and your sentence has already answered that, it is doing its job.
Hiding, which does not survive contact with a buyer who has used the tools themselves. Over-disclosing, which turns your process into the subject instead of their outcome. Naming tools, which dates instantly and invites the wrong conversation. Writing it for the page rather than for your mouth.
Question six is the one that matters. The version you would not want to say out loud is usually the true one, and the useful sentence is almost always adjacent to it rather than opposite to it. What the buyer is paying for is not the absence of AI. It is a named person who is answerable when the work is wrong.
Source: Build to Thrive, The AI Blueprint, week of August 10, 2026.