General information from a recorded webinar, not legal advice for your situation.

Should you use AI to write an obituary?

Quick answer · 0:49 · From Legacy Writing: Obituaries and Memoirs · Recorded Aug 27, 2026

Short answer

You can, but you will get a generic, cookie-cutter obituary. AI is trained on writing that came before it, so it can't capture the personality and flavor that make an obituary feel like the person. Writing it yourself, or with someone who knew them, keeps it personal.

Key points

  • AI output tends to be standard and flat.
  • Personal details and stories carry the flavor.
  • Remembrance is a human practice.

Kate LeibfriedWriter and ghostwriter, Click Clack Writing · Guest presenter

Read this part of the transcript

AI is really the anti-flavor of obituaries. Yes, it is possible to generate an obituary through AI, but what you will get is a very cookie-cutter version of an obituary. It will be completely standard. It will be based on all the writing that came before it because AI is inherently not creative. It is trained on all the writing that came before it. So the other part of this as a writer and an artist, a fiction writer, I struggle with AI because it has been trained off of the writing of authors, without our permission and without our compensation. So I have personal feelings about AI as well.

Created automatically from the recording. Full transcript on the webinar page.

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