Most of what’s flooding online content sounds like it was written by a robot. Viva la AI revolution.  It’s a fabulous tool but tools are only as good as the person wielding them. Yep, it can save you stacks of time. Got a last-minute award, whack in some prompts and info…and ta da, you’ve got yourself a 2000-word submission.

But…does that submission sound and feel like you? Did you just cut and paste it without infusing it with YOU? Or did you read it and think it sounded amazing? It probably did but to a judge or discerning reader, they can tell you’ve not put in the effort.

AI gives you perfect grammar, predictable structure and a shit ton of weasel words whirring around like a lettuce in a corporate word salad blender set your spinning after 3 Red Bulls. There’s zero sign that a real person with a spine, a story, or a soul wrote it.

It’s the curse of AI content. It looks fine… until you actually read it. Then you realise you’ve burned five minutes of your life on something that told you absolutely nothing and sounded like every other submission or article written by someone else using ChatGPT.

If you’re using AI to write your content and not checking for these red flags, you’re doing your brand a massive disservice.

The red flags look like this:

All air, no substance – AI loves to puff itself up like a puffer jacket everyone’s wrapped up in on a cold winter’s day. Like: “This ground-breaking solution empowers individuals to unlock their full potential.”

Sounds good but it doesn’t tell you what’s the solution, who it helped, why, what it changed or how it worked. You could swap out the business name, industry, or another galaxy and it’d still make sense. Which means it makes no sense at all.

Same thing four times – I’ve read pieces where I’ve scratched my head, thinking, no one talks like that. AI is brilliant at rewording the same bland, dull point from every possible angle, as you take a nanna nap mid-sentence and you forget what the original topic was.

All head, no guts – AI doesn’t swear, rant, use slang or feels like it knows what it’s like to fall down 50 times and still get back up. When it talks about struggle, resilience, bravery, transformation, it does it with the emotional depth of a shallow bucket. When you write from the heart it has punch. People can see your scars.

You say things like, “I nearly walked away because the pain of starting again was too much. But I realised I love what I do. It fires me up and gives me purpose helping others shine. I regrouped by reaching out to trusted friends who helped me see my skills are needed.

AI says, “The journey was difficult, but ultimately rewarding.” Yawn. Dull, hey?

Zero opinions – You can feel AI hedging its bets like a well-polished politician who doesn’t want to answer a question.  “While there are many perspectives on this issue, it’s important to consider all sides…” Huh? What does this even mean? What are you trying to say? Say what you mean. Have a point of view, and back it with proof of your experiences and lived insights. AI is allergic to friction.

Buffet of bland – Synergy. Solutions. Ecosystems. Empower. Leverage. Optimise. Individuals.  Foster. Meanwhile. Additionally. Therefore.  Words make your content sound like it’s been pulled from the corporate filing cabinet stored under ‘cliche’. That’s ok if you’re writing a corporate, government or bureaucratic document but you won’t stand out in an award submission or post on socials, if you sound like everyone else. That’s why AI content sounds that way because it’s trained by everyone else. Train it to sound like you.  If you use the paid version, you can do that.

Story desert – no camel in sight – AI can’t remember what it had for breakfast or about the time it called the director of public prosecution, the director of public prostitution (I really did that). It doesn’t have the capacity, yet, to write something with memory, tension, backstory, and emotional stakes. It’ll never write, “I cried in my car, remembering that horrible moment everything I’d built was cut off from me. No explanation or conversation.  It was gone. But I’m no quitter. I dug deep and got started on recreating my IP because my family’s life depended on it.”

It says, “Despite facing challenges, the entrepreneur remained committed.”

One you remember. The other, your eyes slide over like an egg off a Teflon pan.

Vanilla is only good on a slice – AI can’t take creative risks, make you laugh or cry. It won’t throw in a line that makes the reader pause to digest the enormity of what you’ve shared. When you play it safe, you’re playing the forgettable game. There’s 78gb of content bombarding our brains every day.  People are spoilt for choice.  Don’t you want them to give their valuable time to something that is real and raw? Forgettable doesn’t win attention, trust, or awards.  You have to go where AI won’t. Show your flaws, call something out and get uncomfortable. AI doesn’t do vulnerability, but it’s very good at doing summaries and generalities.

Army bed corners – sharp, neat and no give – Every AI-generated piece is a neat little essay, opening with the ever so polite “In today’s world…” or “In the modern business landscape…” then moves onto three tidy paragraphs before concluding with something inspirational enough to put on a mug you might give someone for a secret Santa gift. People don’t speak in perfect structure. That’s what makes us interesting. If your content reads like a WIP document for your boss, it’s trying way too hard to be professional.

No substance or facts – You’ll spot it when there are no names, numbers, or details… well, anything that says something with meaning and insight. AI says, “The team delivered exceptional results.”

What you want it to say is “After doing the four-week AI for Idiots training, Frank rewrote our marketing strategy to target the audience we really want to attract. For the past six months, our content has been missing the mark, and no one is engaging with what we do. His first piece, shared in our newsletter, saw a 50% increase in open rates leading to 25% more calls. These calls converted into $20k in sales, one of our best months ever. Frank has now set up weekly training pods to help others in our team with their sales content.”

Too smart for its own good – AI uses words like utilise, facilitate, and endeavour. It says, “we ideated a cross-functional solution.” It sounds impressive and articulate, but good writing is about being simple, clear, and honest.

What you meant to write was… “After analysing our drop in sales, we developed a new process called Bring Them In, with modules on how to write like a human, overcoming objections and turn conversations into sales. We trialled it at one location, seeing a 35% increase in conversions. Since June, we’ve rolled this out to our other 2 offices with 10% increases in sales over the past three months”.

Most people read at a grade 10 level; you don’t want them hunting down the words in an online thesaurus to understand what you’re trying to get across. There’s a difference between sounding important or wanky. Whatever you write, regardless of whether you think you can write or not, do it with heart.

• Say what you actually think.
• Say it like you’d explain it in a room, not on a stage or a brochure. Don’t generalise, be specific. Be messy, then edit.
• Start with something raw.
• If writing isn’t your superpower, record your words and feed that into AI.
• Before your click submit or send, ask does it still sound like you?

I’m not anti AI. I love it. But use it like a rough draft, like a tool, not the boss with the final word.