- The phrase “It’s not just a [X], it’s a [Y]” appeared in roughly 208 corporate documents in 2025, up from approximately 46 in 2022 — a fourfold increase.
- Barron’s searched the AlphaSense document library, which indexes press releases, SEC filings, and analyst conference transcripts from major U.S. companies.
- Usage doubled in 2024 to about 100 occurrences, then doubled again by end-2025 to about 208.
- A Muck Rack survey cited in the analysis found three-quarters of PR professionals now use AI tools at work, primarily for writing and editing.
What Happened
Barron’s published a language-frequency analysis using the AlphaSense corporate document library showing that the filler construction “It’s not just a ___, it’s a ___” — a pattern widely associated with ChatGPT output — appeared approximately 208 times in press releases, SEC filings, and analyst conference transcripts in 2025, up from roughly 46 in 2022. The Decoder reported on the analysis on April 21, 2026. No individual byline was attributed to the Barron’s piece.
The count held near baseline at about 49 in 2023, then roughly doubled to 100 in 2024, and doubled again by the close of 2025 — a fourfold increase over three years that tracks the period of rapid ChatGPT enterprise rollout.
Why It Matters
The data adds quantitative grounding to anecdotal observations that corporate communications teams are deploying AI writing tools without editing out characteristic stylistic markers. AlphaSense indexes investor-relations outputs including SEC-regulated disclosures, which carry legal accuracy standards even where style is unconstrained.
A Muck Rack survey cited alongside the Barron’s findings reported that 75 percent of PR professionals now use AI tools at work, predominantly for writing and editing — a figure consistent with broader enterprise adoption surveys conducted in 2025.
Technical Details
AlphaSense’s library covers press releases, SEC filings, and analyst conference transcripts produced by publicly traded U.S. companies. Barron’s searched for the exact pattern “It’s not just a ___, it’s a ___” across that corpus. Reported yearly counts: approximately 46 documents in 2022 (baseline), 49 in 2023, 100 in 2024, and 208 in 2025.
The analysis identifies a correlation with the period of mass ChatGPT adoption — the model launched publicly in November 2022 — but does not establish that any specific document was AI-generated. The phrase is a pattern observed in ChatGPT output, not a cryptographic fingerprint. Barron’s demonstrated the phenomenon by prompting ChatGPT to comment on its own analysis; the model responded: “This analysis is not just a study — it is a wake-up call for corporate communications.”
Who’s Affected
Investor-relations departments, PR agencies, and communications teams at publicly traded U.S. companies are the primary actors in the dataset. Institutional investors and sell-side analysts who receive these materials — and who increasingly use AI summarization tools themselves — are on the receiving end of AI-assisted language at scale.
The presence of the pattern in SEC filings, including earnings call transcripts and shareholder letters, is the most consequential finding: those documents are subject to disclosure-accuracy requirements regardless of how they were drafted.
What’s Next
The Barron’s/AlphaSense analysis covers through end-2025; no 2026 tracking has been published as of April 21, 2026. AlphaSense and competing financial-intelligence platforms have been adding AI-detection and content-classification features, which could make longitudinal phrase-frequency tracking more systematic going forward. Barron’s did not indicate whether it plans to repeat the analysis.
