Authentic AI-assisted writing isn’t a myth, but it does require careful forethought and deliberate decisions. AI can be used for speed and structure, but the writer must supply the expertise, opinions, and voice. For marketers, this means nailing down three essential habits: editing out common AI giveaways, adding original insight a model can’t generate, and making sure a human owns every final draft.
As a human, one of the biggest flexes in my life is that I have done what we all hope to do at some point in our tenure on Earth: achieved a childhood dream. I am a professional writer! Though I didn’t expect at age seven that I’d be a Senior Content Specialist at a B2B SaaS PR agency, I am still delighted every day that I get to do the thing I’ve aspired toward since I was a little kid penning stories about haunted houses and writing profiles on teachers for the school newspaper.
Don’t get it twisted, though — there are some days that the concept of putting words into a GDoc feels wildly daunting and borderline unattainable. These are the days I turn to genAI, my first mate in my writing voyage. As a reminder, I am the captain, but who among us hasn’t gotten by with a little help from our (LLM) friends?
As an agency, we always want to use the tools at our disposal that can help augment our work, but the key is to use them ethically and conscientiously so that we can continue to create the kind of content that delights both clients and readers.
Why does authenticity matter in AI-assisted content?
Generic, boring content erodes trust, and trust is what clients and readers are looking for. Yes, AI is awesome, but too much of a good thing doesn’t end up benefiting anyone. How tired are you of seeing a piece conclude with something like, “In this era defined by AI, the winners won’t be those that (X). The winners will be those that (Y)”?
We’ve been there, we’ve done that, we’ve bought that metaphorical t-shirt. There is some language that, at this point, glares from the page as an AI adage, and no one wants to read that. Additionally, if your content lacks an original perspective, firsthand experience, or clear expertise, search engines and answer engines are less likely to surface it. Copy that could have been written by anyone gives these tools little reason to cite you.
What are the most common signs of AI-generated writing?
Most readers have learned to spot AI patterns, and once they do, they stop trusting the rest of the piece.
Em dashes were one of the first, most noticeable tells, as LLMs dropped them throughout content like sprinkles on a cupcake. (Did you notice my em dash there at the start of the third paragraph? Please give me a break because a) It’s just one and b) I went to college to be a poet.) This is not to say you can’t use em dashes. Sometimes they’re the perfect piece of punctuation to play up a point. But, as they can now be viewed as an AI indicator, these lovely little lines should be used sparingly and with purpose.
There are plenty more AI-isms where that one came from. Overly formal, buttoned-up phrasing has always been boring to read, but now a sentence like, “An organization poised to disrupt this ever-changing business landscape…” screams, “I pasted this from ChatGPT!” This bit of text is lifeless, stale, and frankly, sounds like a robot wrote it.
These robots have some more subtle structural signs, too. Circular reasoning that “proves” a claim by restating itself is essentially just one idea wearing two outfits. Give the actual reason instead. LLMs are also infamous for incessant repetition and including sentences that add nothing. If you can delete a sentence from your piece without actually changing anything, you should delete that sentence.
The point of any kind of writing is to get unique, authentic thoughts from that big, beautiful human brain onto a page. That’s what readers are after. Be a storyteller! Don’t automate your interesting ideas away.
Trust your gut. If it sounds canned to you, it most likely will sound like that to your reader, too. Here are a few more AI-isms that your gut should be aware of:
- It’s important to note that…
- Let’s delve into…
- Navigating the complexities of…
- A rich tapestry of…
- Highlighting/ underscoring/ emphasizing
- Valuable insights
- Despite these challenges…
As with the em dash, I’m not saying you can’t use these words or phrases in your writing. What I’m saying is that you need to use discernment with language like this to keep your content feeling like it came from a real person, not a machine.
Here’s the skinny: AI and authenticity are not at odds. Use the tools. Trust your gut. And though it may seem obvious, if your draft starts sounding like it was written by a robot, it’s time to take the wheel back, captain…But I think even seven-year-old me would know that.