The other week, the comic Speed Bump ran this panel. It showed a man, presumably on his death bed, surrounded by relatives and turning to AI to help him craft his final farewell.
Given how we’re starting to lean on AI to communicate in our most human moments, the cartoon was barely an exaggeration.
AI isn’t just writing meeting summaries and marketing plans, but eulogies too. Yup, there’s an app for that.
One AI eulogy generator positions its offering as “a stress-free way to commemorate a lost loved one”.
You just enter their name and some details about their life, and select a tone of voice that will resonate, i.e. casual, friendly, inspirational, etc. Click away and you have what they call a “bespoke” and “personalized” result. It’s a different sort of ghostwriter.
In the prompts for information, the eulogy generator asks users to include qualities that made the deceased unique. But one of the things that makes us unique as a species is our ability to convey our response to a loss to others as part of a shared experience.
Communication is about connection. So why might people turn to AI when called upon to write about the dearly departed?
Not everyone feels they have the capacity to craft the right message with the right feel. It can be overwhelming when someone close dies, and AI offers a useful tool when your brain is scrambled.
Still, if you’ve ever done a eulogy, you know that writing it can be an important part of processing grief. We’re talking to ourselves.
There’s a reason eulogies can be hard to write, and it’s the same reason why the effort is worth it: we need to face what hurts.
Why public speaking feels like life or death
Writing isn’t the only daunting part of a eulogy; there’s also standing up to read it. Which may explain why some people want to lean on the crutch of an AI-crafted eulogy. Presumably, that will make the words easier to say.
I get it. Many people find it uncomfortable to speak to a crowd at the best of times, let alone when emotions are heightened as with a funeral. An article in Psychology Today noted how some surveys show that our fear of public speaking eclipses even our fear of death. The two are connected.
The piece describes how we evolved by living in groups, allowing us to stay alert to predators and fight them off. We learned to collaborate. So ostracism wasn’t only a form of social death; it could also result in actual death by being left alone to fend for ourselves.
Whatever threatens our status in a social group can feel perilous – and public speaking brings the same primal response, with the risk of rejection.
But this isn’t a performance. Do we really need a eulogy to be as polished as, say, a business pitch?
At a funeral, we expect to see eulogists in all their vulnerabilities. Being nervous, sweating and fumbling through – all the things we might worry about when speaking in public – is normal. It’s human. If anything, it makes a eulogy feel more genuine.
A matter of authenticity
The question of authenticity isn’t confined to eulogies. People are using AI to write their wedding vows, notes of apology, love letters, break-up messages and toasts at life milestones.
Sure, AI can smooth out the rough edges. It also strips away the humanity that makes for the most powerful ways of communicating. We trade heartfelt reflection for speed, and the result is soulless.
Remember, AI doesn’t write the way humans do. It mimics form, not feeling. AI doesn’t actually write at all. It imitates, stitching together language patterns without ever understanding the weight of the words.
AI copy is to human expression what a statue is to a living person, or what lip-syncing is to singing – convincing from a distance, counterfeit up close.
While AI can be a great time saver with certain tasks, it shouldn’t be the death of human expression. It may be able to help us say the words, but only we can mean them and make meaning together.
Perhaps we draw the line at outsourcing our emotional labour. And our goodbyes.
Stuart Foxman is a Toronto-based freelance writer, who helps clients’ products, services, ideas and organizations to come alive. Connect with me here on LinkedIn, or check me out at foxmancommunications.com where I share these blogs too. More original posts coming regularly about communications, information, motivation, writing, branding, creativity, media, marketing, persuasion, messages, learning, etc.
Oct. 15, 2025