The Experiment | Can AI write human stories better than humans?

If you work in policy, strategy or other complex systems work, you’ll probably recognise this: 

• We’re getting pretty good at explaining things clearly. 

• We use Plain English. 

• We write better briefs. 

• We translate the jargon.

And yet… the human story is often missing.

When you live inside complex work for long enough, it starts to shape how you talk and write. You start speaking the language of feasibility, implementation pathways, constraints, deliverables. Even when the words are simple, the human meaning can fade into the background.

Here’s my somewhat controversial (and possible career-ending) hot take:

I think AI might actually be able to help us put the humanity back in. Not because AI is “more human” (it obviously isn’t) but because it isn’t necessarily steeped in institutional ways of speaking.

So I’ve decided to test this properly.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to run a public experiment: 

Can I collaborate with AI to tell more human stories about complex public policy than most institutions currently do?

I’m using Australia’s housing affordability crisis as the test case - a policy area that’s technically dense, politically charged and deeply human.

I’ll share the process, the stories, the visual framing and where this approach feels genuinely useful (or not).

If you work on complex issues and sometimes feel like the people behind the policy get lost along the way, you might find this useful.

I hope you will join me to explore what happens when we use a machine to help us remember the humans.