Hi friends,
Welcome to week two of the Base AI newsletter. Last week you built a meeting brief in 20 minutes. This week we're teaching AI something harder: how to sound like your exec.
Writing in someone else's voice is one of the more time intensive parts of the job, and one of the least visible. When you get it right, nobody notices. When you miss it, everybody does.
But AI can remember a voice once you show it enough examples. If you feed it 10 to 15 things your exec actually wrote, it learns the patterns, and you save that as a reusable setup. After that, every rough draft you give it comes back closer to their voice on the first try.
You already carry their voice in your head. This week you're going to hand a copy of it to AI, so the first draft comes back sounding like them.
Let’s go!
Before we get started
You'll need an AI account and about 30 minutes the first time. A few things to know before you open a tab:
The cleanest way to do this is with a saved setup that remembers your exec's voice. In ChatGPT that's a "custom GPT" (needs a paid ChatGPT Plus account). In Claude that's a "Project" (needs a paid Claude account).
No paid account? You can still do every step below. Instead of saving a custom GPT, you'll save the voice profile as a document and paste it at the top of each chat. Same result, one extra copy-paste.
Week 1
Teach AI to Write Like your Executive Workflow
You know the drill. Your exec asks you to draft something, you write a promising version, and then you spend 15 minutes editing it. You change the opener, insert that one phrase they always use, but it still doesn’t sound quite “right.”
This week’s newsletter gives you an easy way to capture their voice, even on your first draft.
Here’s what that workflow looks like.
Starter: Teach AI to write like your exec (no integrations needed)
Step 1: Gather 10 to 15 writing samples
Collect 10 to 15 emails or messages your exec wrote themselves or heavily edited. The closer to their raw voice, the better. Aim for a mix. Five versions of the same note won't teach the AI much. Find a couple of short replies, a longer client message, a thank-you, an intro, an internal announcement. The wider the range, the better the AI learns how your exec shifts between a quick reply and a more formal one.
Good sources:
Their Sent folder, if you have delegate access
Drafts they sent back to you with edits
Messages they wrote directly in Slack or email
Anything they've published under their own name
Skip anything ghostwritten by you or someone else. You want to get as close as possible to your executive’s authentic voice.
Paste the samples into one document. Strip out anything truly sensitive (see the note below) before you move on.
Confidentiality
Remove anything sensitive before pasting in the samples.
You're working with your exec's real writing, so handle it with care.
Tell your exec what you're doing and get their okay first. Use your company's approved AI account. Free personal tools may train on whatever you paste, so keep your exec's writing off them. And pull out anything truly sensitive (legal language, compensation, deal specifics, or private details about a person) before you upload. You only need the style, so the sensitive content can stay out.
Pro tip
Try asking your executive about how they write and why:
How would you describe your communication style?
How do you want people to perceive you?
What are a few adjectives that describe you?
Is there any tone or person you never want to sound like?
Add these answers to the writing samples in Step 2 to get even closer to not only their voice, but how they want to sound.
Step 3: Ask AI to find the patterns
Open a new chat and paste in all the samples. Then ask:
Below are 10 to 15 writing samples from my executive. Read all of
them before answering. If I've also pasted my exec's own description
of their style, weigh that alongside the samples.
What are the characteristics, traits, and tendencies in this writing
that I should learn in order to write like this person?
Cover: tone, sentence length, level of formality, common phrases or
words they reach for, how they open and close messages, and anything
they consistently avoid.
Give me the answer as a short "voice profile" I can reuse. Organize
the output by style of writing (formal, internal, external..) Step 3: Review the output
What comes back is a description of how your exec writes. Read it. You'll probably agree with most of it and catch a couple of things you think are off.
If you notice that AI’s response is particularly weak in one area, try and find more examples of that style of writing to give it more to work with.
Step 4: Save it as a reusable setup
Now make that voice profile something you can use again without starting over.
ChatGPT Plus: create a new custom GPT, and paste the voice profile into the instructions. Name it something like "[Exec name]'s voice."
Claude Pro: create a new Project, and paste the voice profile into the project instructions.
No paid account: save the voice profile in a doc titled "[Exec name]'s voice." Paste it at the top of any chat where you need it.
Not sure how to save voice profiles? Ask your AI tool how to save the voice profile in a way that you can re-use any time you’re drafting for your exec.
Wherever you save it, keep a copy somewhere your exec and a backup EA can reach, like a shared drive. A voice profile that only lives in your account disappears the day you're out sick. Save it where the team can run it and it keeps working when you're not there.
Step 5: Test and iterate
Give your setup a rough draft and ask it to rewrite in your exec's voice:
Here's a rough draft. Rewrite it in [Exec name]'s voice using the
voice profile. Keep the facts the same. Don't invent details.
[paste your draft]Compare the result to how your exec would actually write it. If something is off, let your AI know and ask it to iterate based on your feedback. A couple of rounds of testing will help the voice profile get sharper.
You’re still the editor
The voice profile drafts. Us it for everyday, low-stakes messages. When something's delicate, bad news, anything legal, a tense thread, a note that will get forwarded around, slow down and write it yourself or do multiple rounds of testing and iterating
That judgment call is the part of the job you can do better than AI.
Advanced: Teach AI to write like your exec and keep the voice fresh
A voice profile gets better the more real examples it sees.
Every month or so, drop 5 new things your exec wrote into the chat and ask: "Based on these new samples, what would you update in the voice profile?" Paste the updates into your custom GPT or Project. Over a few months you'll have a setup that sounds eerily close to the real thing.
The fastest way to improve the voice profile: teach it based on your exec's own edits. Any time they rework something you drafted, feed both versions back in. The AI spots what changed and updates the profile, so it gets closer without you doing the analysis.
Try out this prompt:
Below are two versions of the same message: the draft I gave my exec, and
the final version after they edited it. Compare them. What did they
change, and what does that tell us about their voice? Then give me 2 to 3
updates to add to the voice profile so the next draft is closer.
DRAFT:
[paste]
THEIR FINAL VERSION:
[paste]AI Term of the Week: System prompt
Sounds technical. It's simple.
A system prompt is a set of instructions the AI reads every time, before it answers. It's the standing rule for the whole chat.
When you save a custom GPT or a Project, the voice profile you paste in becomes its system prompt. So you never have to explain the voice again. Every new chat already knows it.
Rule of thumb: anything you keep typing to the AI over and over belongs in the system prompt. Put it there once and you're done.
That's it for this week. Pick your exec's 10 best emails and build the voice profile. Even if you stop there, you'll have something useful.
One more thing: this kind of work stays invisible until you make it visible. Jot down the editing time you're saving, or keep the note when your exec says a draft nailed it. Bring it to your next review.
Looking forward to more next week!
The Base Team