Sometimes, things are not just one thing—they’re also another. This sentence construction has become so common in corporate communications that it's almost a surefire sign of synthetic writing.
According to Barron’s, the phrase “it’s not just this—it’s that” has more than quadrupled from about 50 mentions in 2023 to over 200 uses by 2025. Examples abound: “AI will be a collaborator,” “autonomy is already unfolding” and “DevOps teams are managing security compliance.”
This isn’t just a trend—it’s symbolic of how reliant companies have become on AI, though we can't say for certain if these missives were AI-assisted. Max Spero, CEO of AI detection tool Pangram, told TechCrunch, “The base rate of occurrence is high enough that its existence isn’t a smoking gun for AI use.”
The prevalence of this phrase is more than just a catchy construction—it might be symptomatic of something greater. So next time you see it, remember: it’s not just a sentence; it’s a sign of our future.
