AI content that does not sound like AI

Readers can tell. Not because AI writes badly, but because it writes in a recognisable register. Here are the patterns that give it away and how to strip them out in one editing pass.

Last updated 2026-07-22

The tells

Openings that restate the question. Triads everywhere ("faster, smarter, better"). Hedging on every claim. Transitions like "moreover" and "in today's fast-paced world". A closing paragraph that summarises what you just read instead of asking for anything.

None of these are wrong. They are just uniform — and uniformity is what reads as machine-made.

Fix 1 — Cut the first paragraph

AI almost always warms up before it starts. The real opening is usually the second or third sentence. Delete everything above it.

Fix 2 — Put one specific thing in

A number, a place, a name, a date, something that could only come from your business. One concrete detail does more for credibility than three paragraphs of positioning.

Fix 3 — Break the rhythm

AI defaults to sentences of similar length. Vary them deliberately. A short one lands harder after a long one.

Fix 4 — Take a position

Hedged writing is safe and forgettable. Say which option you would actually choose and why — including who your product is wrong for. Nothing signals a real author faster than admitting a limitation.

Fix 5 — Read it aloud

Anything you would not say out loud to a customer does not belong in an email to one. This single test catches most of what the other four miss.

The workflow that actually works

Let AI produce the draft and the volume — that is what it is good at. Spend your time on the five edits above rather than on writing from a blank page. The output stops sounding generated at roughly the second one.

← All guides · Home · Pricing