The 70/30 Rule
I want to start this chapter by giving you something practical: a framework that can guide how you use AI in your content creation. I call it the 70/30 rule, and I think it captures what we're trying to do.
Here's the basic idea: 70% AI draft, 30% your refinement.
AI handles the logistics—structure, formatting, variation, expansion. You provide the insight, the voice, the credibility, the soul.
I know this might sound like a rigid formula. But it's not. It's a principle. And the principle is: AI does what it does well. You do what only you can do. And that balance preserves your voice while gaining efficiency.
What AI Does Well
Let me be clear about what AI actually does well, because I think there's some confusion about this.
Structure: AI is excellent at organizing information, creating logical flow, building coherent arguments. It can take scattered ideas and structure them clearly.
Formatting: AI can handle the logistics of presentation—headings, bullet points, paragraphs, visual organization.
Variation: AI can take content and adapt it for different contexts—turning a sermon into a blog post, adapting an article for different audiences, creating variations for different formats.
Expansion: AI can take core ideas and develop them—adding examples, explanations, elaborations that make the content more accessible.
Research assistance: AI can help find relevant information, organize sources, check facts, and surface connections.
Editing and refinement: AI can improve clarity, fix grammatical issues, suggest stronger language.
These are real strengths. And leveraging these strengths can make you significantly more efficient—freeing up your time and energy for the things that only you can do.
What AI Can't Do
But here's the other side: there are things AI can't do. And I think we need to be honest about these limitations.
Insight: AI can structure arguments, but it can't generate genuine insight. It doesn't have the lived experience, the deep reflection, the hard-won wisdom that creates real insight.
Voice: AI can mimic styles, but it can't create authentic voice. Your voice emerges from your perspective, your experience, your formation—things AI doesn't have.
Credibility: AI can sound authoritative, but it doesn't have credibility. Credibility comes from track record, from relationships, from demonstrated trustworthiness over time.
Theological judgment: AI can cite Scripture, but it can't exercise theological judgment. It doesn't have the formation, the discernment, the wisdom that theological judgment requires.
Relational wisdom: AI can generate responses, but it doesn't understand relationship. It doesn't know when to speak and when to listen, when to push and when to comfort.
Soul: This is the hardest to define, but I think the most important. There's something about human expression—the weight of lived experience, the authenticity of struggle, the depth of conviction—that AI can't replicate.
These are real limitations. And understanding them helps us use AI well—leveraging its strengths while preserving what only we can provide.
The 70/30 Balance
So here's the balance: 70% AI draft, 30% your refinement.
The 70% includes:
- Initial structure and organization
- Formatting and presentation
- Variation and adaptation
- Expansion and elaboration
- Research and fact-finding
- Editing and refinement
The 30% includes:
- The core idea and insight
- Your distinctive voice
- Your theological judgment
- Your relational wisdom
- The personal story or example
- The soul of the content
When you maintain this balance, you get the efficiency benefits of AI while preserving what makes your content valuable. You're not letting AI replace you. You're letting AI amplify you.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Let me give you some concrete examples of what this looks like in practice.
Example 1: Writing an Article
You start with an idea—something you've been thinking about, a question you've been wrestling with, an insight from your experience.
You share that idea with AI. AI helps you structure it, develop it, find relevant examples, organize the argument.
You then refine what AI produced. You add your voice. You inject your perspective. You share your story. You make it yours.
Result: An article that's well-structured (AI's strength) but distinctively yours (your contribution).
Example 2: Adapting a Sermon
You preach a sermon on Sunday. It's your message, your voice, your insight.
AI helps you turn it into a blog post—adapting the structure for written format, adding subheadings, creating a clear introduction and conclusion.
You then refine what AI produced. You make sure it sounds like you. You add elements that translate better in writing. You preserve what made the sermon powerful.
Result: A blog post that captures the sermon's message while working as written content.
Example 3: Creating a Framework Resource
You have a framework you've developed—something you've tested, refined, taught over years.
AI helps you turn it into a comprehensive resource—organizing the framework, adding explanations, creating visual elements, developing application questions.
You then refine what AI produced. You make sure the framework is accurately represented. You add the nuances that only you know. You preserve what makes the framework valuable.
Result: A resource that's well-organized and comprehensive while being authentically yours.
Why This Ratio Works
You might be wondering: why 70/30? Why not 50/50 or 80/20?
Here's my thinking: 70/30 captures the realistic balance between what AI can handle and what requires human input.
AI can handle more than 50% because structure, formatting, variation, and expansion are significant portions of content creation. If you're doing all of that yourself, you're spending a lot of time on tasks AI can help with.
But AI can't handle more than 70% because the remaining 30%—the insight, the voice, the soul—is what makes the content valuable. If that 30% isn't present, you don't have distinctive content. You have AI-generated noise.
The 70/30 ratio acknowledges both realities: AI can do a lot, but the distinctively human elements matter more than their percentage suggests.
Sustainable Content Creation
Here's something important about the 70/30 rule: it makes content creation sustainable.
Many movement leaders I know are exhausted. They have so much they want to share—decades of insight, frameworks, wisdom—but creating content is overwhelming. The time required, the energy demanded, the ongoing pressure—it's not sustainable.
The 70/30 rule changes that equation. If AI handles 70% of the logistics, you can create significantly more content without significantly more effort. You can share more of what you know. You can reach more people. You can multiply your impact.
And you can do it sustainably—not by working more hours, but by working smarter.
The Danger of Sliding
I want to be honest about a danger here: it's easy to slide from 70/30 to 80/20 to 90/10. It's easy to let AI do more and more, and to do less and less yourself.
This slide is dangerous because it erodes what makes your content valuable. If you're only providing 10% refinement, you're not preserving your voice—you're editing AI content. And that's not the same thing.
So here's how to guard against it:
First, be intentional about what you provide. Don't just edit AI content. Actively contribute your insight, your voice, your soul.
Second, maintain the balance. If you notice you're spending less and less time on refinement, that's a warning sign.
Third, evaluate regularly. Ask yourself: Does this sound like me? Does this reflect my voice, my perspective, my formation? If not, you've slid too far.
A Word About Efficiency
I know there's a temptation to push the ratio further—to let AI do 80% or 90%, to maximize efficiency, to create as much content as possible.
But here's what I want you to understand: efficiency isn't the goal. Amplification is the goal. And amplification requires your voice to remain central.
If you optimize purely for efficiency, you'll produce more content but less impact. Your content will become generic. Your voice will fade. Your distinctiveness will erode.
The 70/30 rule is designed to give you efficiency without sacrificing impact. It's designed to help you create more while staying distinctively you.
A Word of Encouragement
I know this chapter has been about ratios and balance and guarding against slides. And that might feel technical or rigid.
But here's what I want you to know: the 70/30 rule is a guide, not a formula. It's meant to help you, not constrain you.
Some content might be 60/40. Some might be 80/20. The specific ratio will vary based on the content, the context, the purpose.
What matters is the principle: AI handles logistics. You provide soul. And when you maintain that balance, you can create significantly more content while staying distinctively you.
That's the goal. That's what the 70/30 rule is for. And that's what makes it worth following.
Reflection Questions:
1. What does the 70/30 balance look like in your context? How would you describe it?
2. What tasks could AI handle for you that you're currently doing yourself?
3. What's the "30%"—the distinctively human elements—that you need to protect?