By Shaina Mishkin
There's a familiar ring these days in some of the wording on company conference calls, shareholder letters, news releases, and other corporate communications. ChatGPT, is that you?
If you think you know insurer Progressive's corporate mission, think again. "Our purpose is not just a statement; it's a guiding principle that shapes everything we do," the company wrote in its 2025 annual report's letter to shareholders.
While you're at it, check your assumptions about Citizens Financial Group. The growth at its private banking franchise is "not just a win for the private bank -- it's a win for the entire enterprise," CEO Bruce Van Saun wrote in a 2025 shareholder letter.
There's an echo from your financial advisor. "Independence is not just a business model -- it's a mind-set," Jon Beatty, head of Schwab Advisor Services, said in a September press release.
If the phrasing pings on your internal generative AI radar, you're not alone. "The sentence construction 'it's not X, it's Y' is one of the biggest tells in AI," says Jeff Gaunt, founder of Gaunt Strategies, a firm that specializes in crisis communications, media training, and integrating AI into corporate communications.
As one might say: It's not just selection bias, it's a sentence structure that blew up in popularity over the past several years, data show. After noticing similar phrasing in news releases and other corporate communications, Barron's scanned AlphaSense's library of company documents such as news releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and earnings call transcripts. We limited results to U.S. companies with market capitalizations over $10 billion, and searched for occurrences of the phrase "not just a" within four words of "it's a."
The results show an intense ramp-up of the sentence structure in 2024, following about two decades of a handful of mentions quarterly. The phrasing hit its zenith in the second half of 2025, with AlphaSense logging 73 documents with such sentence structure in the final quarter, or more than once a business day.
Some large U.S. companies are embracing the tech. Citizens, in response to a Barron's query about its use of AI in communications, said the company is building generative AI into its workflows across the bank, a process that is expected to last years. Its corporate communications "was an early adopter and leverages the technology in a number of areas including copy-editing and proofreading, complementing rigorous team member reviews."
Still, "Bruce personally authors the chairman's letter, reflecting his unique perspective on the bank's achievements, strategy and market position, and he remains closely involved throughout a comprehensive review process managed by the corporate communications team."
Tech engineering company Synopsys also employed the phrasing recently, with CEO Sassine Ghazi noting that "engineering AI's future is not just a software challenge, it's a physics challenge" in prepared remarks during the company's December 2025 earnings call.
" Synopsys' corporate communications, including prepared remarks for earnings, are human led with AI assistance for clarity and brevity," a Synopsys spokesperson said in response to a Barron's query. "Regardless of whether AI assisted with this sentence, it's an accurate and well-made point."
When I asked OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to generate a press release emphasizing the importance of human writing for an imaginary communications professional, it gave me the following quote to attribute to my expert: "Writing is more than just assembling words -- it reflects critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and lived experience."
If the bot is fond of the phrasing, it's because humans are, too. In a statement to Barron's, a Schwab spokesperson said the company is "exploring various ways to use AI responsibly and effectively across our firm, but this quote you are citing was 100% human generated." A Target spokesperson said similar about the line "It's not just a display -- it's a vibe, a destination and a reason to return again and again" in a recent press release.
Progressive, when contacted by Barron's about the phrasing in its shareholder letter, said "the 2025 Annual Report Letter to Shareholders was not generated by AI. Of course, like many other companies we are leveraging AI for some content creation, such as brainstorming, editing and proofreading of various communications."
Whether by humans or robots, the phrase is used a lot more now. By examining bodies of written work, linguists can track the rise of such language quirks, says Kimberly Becker, a linguist and co-host of the "Women Talkin' 'Bout AI" podcast. "But what this tells us is just what is happening," she says. "It doesn't tell us why it's happening."
How to detect AI-composed text -- and whether humans or software can tell the difference -- is a subject of academic debate. AI detectors, for example, have a tendency to erroneously flag essays written by speakers of English as a second language, a 2023 Stanford analysis found.
But, as house hunters, clothing shoppers, and investors increasingly bring AI along for the ride, so do communicators. Three quarters of public relations pros surveyed by Muck Rack say they use AI on the job, with editing and writing among the most frequent uses and greatest timesavers.
No matter the source, the phrasing has staying power. Usage continues from every corner of industry, AlphaSense results show.
At cruise operator Royal Caribbean Group: "Disruptive technology is not just a tool," CEO Jason Liberty said in prepared remarks on the company's January conference call. "It's a capability that we have been building for more than five years." The company didn't respond to a request for comment.
At water heater manufacturer A.O. Smith: "Sustainability is not just a goal," CEO Stephen M. Shafer says in a quote on the company's website. "It's a core part of who we are and what we do every day." The company didn't respond to a request for comment. Coca-Cola and Dollar Tree, which Barron's also queried about corporate communications, didn't respond to requests for comment. Starbucks didn't comment.
There's a healthy place for AI in business communications, Gaunt says: crisis communicators can use it as a "devil's advocate" when evaluating approaches or stress-testing strategies. It can serve as a place to brainstorm or even draft an early version of a press release "as long as there is a significant, significant editing process," he says.
But communicators should avoid outsourcing too much thinking to the tools. "Good public relations is built on trust and it's built on relationships, and the concern is when the industry leans too hard into tools that they can use as a shortcut or a crutch," he says. "AI has tremendous benefits for the industry, and there are ways to use AI responsibly and appropriately, but it can't be a substitute for good thinking and it can't be a substitute for good relationship building."
As one might say: this isn't just a one-off occurrence across a small handful of companies -- it's an evolution in the way people are communicating in the age of AI.
Write to Shaina Mishkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 14, 2026 02:30 ET (06:30 GMT)
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