AI tools became mainstream in 2025, but they were hardly static. New designs and features have given rise to all sorts of trends, fads and fashions. More enduring or noticeable trends have had a real impact on my life, sometimes in obvious ways and sometimes in ways that I only notice in retrospect.
Here are some of the best and worst, or at least annoying, ways AI trends have affected me this year.
1. I now double check every realistic photo taken by artificial intelligence.
Until recently, finding a photo created by artificial intelligence took me very little time. I didn't need to check for a watermark; it was just always obvious. But as AI image generators have gotten more powerful this year and people have gotten better at encouraging them to simulate reality, I sometimes need a few seconds, and sometimes more than a few, for particularly good images.
Capturing perfect sunsets on imaginary beaches and taking pictures of non-existent people can be a very difficult task. This means that if I have any doubts, I can't just look for obvious signs of synthetic origin. I have to check shadows, folds of clothing and other subtle indicators.
It's only because I constantly check AI trends that I realized that technology has reached a point where I can't always assume that I can perfectly differentiate AI-generated images from real photos. I couldn't trust my instincts anymore because the visuals are too good to be noticed while scrolling quickly.
I haven't had any noticeable confusion with video AI yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have to double-check movies soon, too, especially on social media. To be fair, most AI image generators have a small mark indicating that AI has been used, but not all of them do, and it's easy to cut off. I wouldn't say I'm paranoid about this, but a watchful skepticism seems appropriate.
2. Online writers have a trust problem.
Trust issues are not limited to images. You may have noticed an increase in “AI slop” in blog posts and articles of all kinds. Some of the most obvious problems are evident in the recipes. The average reader can no longer assume authenticity based on surface polish alone. It's easy to create content with AI, but that doesn't make it good. And untested advice on everything from cooking to home renovations can be a real pain.
It's worth digging deeper, especially if you notice any telltale signs of unedited AI-generated content without an identifiable voice or story. Now, unless a post links to a real person, cites real sources, or includes comments from people who have tried the thing being described, I get suspicious. I still use the Internet all the time, but I no longer assume that what I read was carefully written by real people, no matter what it claims. Whether AI tools will learn to transfer metadata tags that indicate human authorship is still an open question. However, until then, I will continue to verify everything I read with trusted sources and real-world testing.
ChatGPT's advanced voice mode was one of the many features I tested as soon as it became available. OpenAI claims that the voice conversation feature is as good as talking to a person and more flexible than simply transcribing a written response. While trying it out as a home helper, I found that it actually works quite well as an organizer. I could simply talk about the things I put away in the closet, or what shelf and drawer in the freezer I put food on, and ask for a chart of everything I described. Then I just had to refer to it to add, remove, and reorganize things around the house.
I would say something like, “The winter coats are in the hallway closet, on the second shelf, next to the board games,” or “The peanut butter is in the pantry, behind the cereal,” and see a sheet with everything I said, ready to be exported to Google and I will share it with my wife.
I used to spend so much time looking for things that I swore I would put in the “smart place.” Now I can either look at the table or just ask the AI. It has made real, tangible changes in my daily life. And it feels like the best version of AI: quietly helpful, never intrusive, built on my habits rather than imposing its own.
4. I rarely need human customer service anymore.
I used to groan when a customer service chat window opened with a bot, or when a phone call threw me into a maze of confusing automated responses that apparently confused my accent. At best, they were all painfully limited.
They offered boilerplate answers, misunderstood basic requests, and made every problem worse before finally admitting defeat and handing you over to a human. But the AI-powered bots used in most cases today don't make me rush to call a human operator.
Now I expect a bot or artificial voice on my phone to solve my problem. And that's usually the case. There are still times when I need to talk to a human when the underlying problem is more complex than even the best AI can understand, but they are rare. I became pleased with the efficiency.
Of course, I hope there are real people available when needed, because when AI can't help, that means something is really wrong.
5. I stopped using em dashes when writing.
I've always liked using em dashes. They have style and add a nice rhythm to complex sentences. Unfortunately for me, the AI models love them too, much more than I do. This year, the em dash has become one of the most prominent stylistic markers in AI-written content. This has become the choice of AI models that don't know how to break sentences or use semicolons.
Paranoid about unfair accusations about my own writing, I almost removed the em dash from my punctuation. I get creative with my grammatical structure to avoid this. I shorten sentences or even resort to parentheses when I feel the urge to use an em dash. It's a small but unfortunate change in my life brought about by artificial intelligence that I definitely didn't expect a year ago.
Other writing methods that are quite suitable, according to some devotees, are also AI-only, and I suspect that I will have to be prepared to make more adjustments to my composition style in the next year.
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