5 ways to make your AI drafts sound more human – keep the magic!
AI is amazing at coming up with ideas and getting you started with your writing. As you know, it can turn a blank page into a first draft super quickly…helping you structure an idea or give you something to work with when you’re short on time. But that’s exactly what it should be treated as – something to work with!
Unfortunately there are many people not following that principle and simply copying and pasting what it gives them. The problem with this is, it usually sounds like AI.
The reason that’s a problem is not necessarily because it’s bad writing – it’s that it can fail to connect with people. Often, it’s because the language is just a little too polished, predictable or… well, generic!
The good news is – a few simple edits can make a big difference and this doesn’t require you to become an AI prompt expert. Here are some key ways that you can make AI’s first draft sound a little more human and relatable:
1. Make it sound like you – delete the words you wouldn't normally write or say
AI loves power words like delve, leverage, navigate, elevate, unlock, robust, seamless and transformative. If you wouldn't use those words yourself, don't use them in your writing – replace them with words that you do usually use.
Read it out loud. If you find yourself thinking, “I wouldn't actually say that”, change it.
2. Make the sentences less perfect – polish it so that it is less polished!
AI tends to create overly-balanced sentences – for example lots of 4-5 word short sentences that are broken up with a line break between them. Human writing is a bit more ‘all over the place!’
Human writing has rhythm because some sentences are short and some are longer. You might even start a sentence with “And” or use dashes. Your punctuation is likely to be sloppier and overall the piece is less polished when a human has written it. You don’t have to go so far as deliberately inserting typos or other things to make it more human – just consider how you might have phrased or formatted it differently.
3. Replace general statements with something specific
You can probably make the biggest improvements in this area. I think this is the main reason AI written articles can feel a bit “blah” – the writing is often just too generic and doesn’t add enough value.
For example, AI might write:
“Businesses need to adapt to changing customer expectations.”
Even though that’s true, it could apply to almost every business, so where is the value of this statement to the reader? If you’ve ever read something and felt it was a bit soulless or lack lustre, it’s probably because there wasn’t actually a soul behind it…it wasn’t written by a human!
You need your writing to bring things to life, just like a great novel does. Create images in the readers’ minds, get them thinking about their own situation or asking themselves questions. The way you can do this is through proper storytelling. This includes the use of quotes from people such as what the CEO said or the Google review. Give a real example to bring your explanations to life – even if you use anonymous labelling such as “client A” and “client B.”
My biggest tip on this is to be less generic and more specific.
4. Make sure YOU include YOUR opinion (AI can’t add it in for you!)
Relating to the above point about being less ‘blah’ (generic) – you really need to make sure your opinions come through when it is relevant to express them.
If you leave it to AI, unfortunately it is just going to write five different sides of an argument to create balance and avoid taking a position because it appears to be very good at being “reasonable.”
You need your content to sound like you, not to sound like it was written by a committee. The bit that AI cannot replace about you is your experience and judgement, so don’t forget to use it – often that’s where your value comes in to clients. You need to demonstrate your critical thinking through your writing, as well as your unique personality.
5. Leave some of yourself in it – this is the authentic, magic touch!
Perhaps the most important edit is simply to ask: “Could this have been written by anyone?”
If the answer is yes, go back and add something only you could have written – an observation, an example or use of scenarios, a phrase you hear yourself saying in meetings often, an anecdote or small story or even just the use of the words “I think” every now and then!
So, the moral (oops I nearly wrote "morale", a genuine typo I corrected because I don't want you to think I added it in deliberately!) of this article is – please don’t just paste or post your AI drafted articles or text without tinkering with them. I cannot stress enough, AI drafts are just something to work with and if you let them do too much of the heavy lifting, your customers, your prospective customers or whoever your audience is, will soon tune out. This is what is meant by authenticity in your marketing…it was a huge theme when I was at a digital marketing conference in London over a year ago. Authenticity was the word on everyone’s lips and I really hope the tips and messages in this article have communicated to you how important it is for establishing a genuine connection with your audience and how easy it can be.
If you have any questions or need some help making your brand voice feel authentic again, get in touch – I love to help with words and can assure you that as a copywriter, I will only ever use AI tools as exactly that…a tool, not a complete solution. The magic will always come from the human touch in my copywriting.
About Andie Johnson
Andie is the owner of Flex Marketing. Flex Marketing helps businesses grow by allowing them to have the help of senior marketing resource without needing to employ a full time marketing manager. How flexible! Part of this work involves copywriting – not only do we have expertise in it, we really enjoy it. We take on copywriting projects such as re-writing copy for websites or creating client case studies as one-off projects. We also help businesses formulate their content strategy. You can enquire about project based copywriting here. Flex Marketing has been helping businesses in this way to tell their stories and communicate their messages since 2011 and is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
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