Let’s be honest—AI writing is everywhere. Emails. Blogs. LinkedIn posts. Everywhere. Companies are racing to unlock the power of AI writing—and the results are staggering. Studies show AI-generated content increases engagement by 317% while reducing writing time by 64%.
The benefits are clear. The opportunity is massive. But there’s one problem—AI writing often sounds exactly like AI writing. The sentences are short. The tone is oddly dramatic. The phrasing feels familiar. And once you notice the patterns—you can’t unseen them.
(Yes, this intro was written entirely by AI.)
If you’ve spent any time reading AI-generated content, you know what those patterns look like:
The—too frequent—em dashes.
The Short. Choppy. Sentences.
The buzzwords. (How’s that unilateral growth across all verticals coming?)
It’s not just X—it’s Y.
The oddly confident statistics that have no real source (92% of all internet users do this!)
Generic business phrases (“unlock your potential” with this “game-changing innovation”).
👉 Emojis! ✅👇⚡🚀🤔✨🧠
The dramatic, one-sentence list.…Just like this one. 👆
And we’re SICK of it. We’re sick of seeing AI slop. A survey by NBC News found that Americans hate AI even more than they hate ICE or Donald Trump. In fact, the only things less popular in the poll were Iran and the Democratic Party.
Love It Or Hate It…AI Is Here To Stay
Yes, there are drawbacks to AI – layoffs, potential surveillance, and data centers eating up land and water. But AI can also do a lot of good. It’s already helped with medical advances, scientific discoveries and humanitarian missions.
AI writing tools can dramatically improve productivity. The real challenge is learning how to use them without sounding like a chatbot (or a lazy human).
Just like the internet didn’t go away after 1995, AI isn’t going anywhere. Rather than avoiding it, our goal is to shape the writing in a way that feels authentic rather than manufactured.
Monkey Read, Monkey Write
If AI is supposed to bring limitless creativity, then why does AI writing all sound the same?
AI writing tools are trained on MASSIVE datasets. (Basically, they swallow the internet.) That training gives them the ability to produce content quickly, but it also creates patterns.
When AI writes, it tends to rely on structures that frequently pop up in its training data. None of these elements are inherently bad: Human writers use them too (which is how AI learned about them). The problem is that AI tends to use them constantly, which creates a recognizable style.
As a result, there’s an increasing paranoia that pieces will be marked as “AI” and lose credibility. To avoid tells, writers have started skipping metaphors, cutting em dashes and even leaving in typoes (my high school English teacher is turning in her grave) to prove they are human. But is this really necessary?
AI Gives You a Draft, Not the Finished Product
AI writing tools like Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini are EXCELLENT brainstorming partners. They’re also great for creating an initial draft (after all, a blank page is crazy intimidating!) But they aren’t smart enough (yet) to produce a finished piece on the first go. You still gotta use that big beautiful brain!
Start by adjusting the style. Combine sentences that feel fragmented. Replace buzzwords with simpler language. Shorten ideas that feel to drawn out.
AI loves to spit out sentences that sound really good at first, but actually don’t provide any real value. If you aren’t sure if you should keep a sentence or cut it, ask yourself, “Does this add to the main idea? Or if I cut it and came back tomorrow, would I notice it’s missing?
Nine times out of ten, you can cut it. Snip, snip!
Beware of Buzzwords
Another giveaway of AI writing is the heavy use of trendy business language. Words like unlock, leverage, synergy, harness, transformative, and revolutionary appear frequently in AI-generated content because they appear frequently in marketing materials online.
Other words that signal AI are quietly, clarity, noise, delve and – funny enough – signal. Human readers trust content that sounds clear and direct. Replacing inflated language with plain wording instantly improves AI writing. For example:
AI version: “Organizations can unlock transformative growth through strategic AI adoption.”
Human version: “Organizations can grow faster when they use AI in the right ways.”
When editing AI writing, ask yourself, could I say this to a friend or colleague without sounding like a weirdo? If the answer is no, simplify the sentence. No need to use a $4 word when a $1 word will do just fine!
Adjust the Sentence Rhythm
When people say AI writing sounds artificial, what they’re noticing is the rhythm of the language. We humans naturally vary our sentence structure, but AI writing often produces sentences of similar length, creating a mechanical cadence.
Combine short sentences when they feel too choppy. Break up long sentences when they feel like they’re too much. If you’re ever in doubt, read the sentence out loud. This will help you catch any parts that sound odd or unnatural. When AI writing flows like natural speech, it becomes much more difficult to flag.
Use AI for Structure, Not Personality
AI writing tools are excellent at organizing ideas. Chatbots can outline articles, summarize complex topics and structure information in seconds.
But adding personality? Not so much. AI still struggles even if you “trained it to sound like you.” Elements like tone, humor, opinion and subtle judgment calls are what make your writing sound unique. AI can’t replicate that (yet).
For now, organizations get the most bang for their buck by letting AI handle structure (efficient) while humans shape the voice (authentic).
AI’s Surprising Parallel with Video-Based Microlearning
Just as readers respond better to authentic human writing, employees learn better from content that feels real and relatable.
That’s one reason why video-based microlearning is so effective. Traditional training (long presentations, dense manuals, overly scripted content, etc.) makes it difficult for employees to pay attention and stay engaged.
Video-based microlearning takes the opposite approach. Short, practical videos delivered in the flow of work allow employees to absorb information quickly. The format mirrors how people naturally consume information on YouTube and social media platforms.
When companies combine video-based microlearning with user-generated content, the results become even stronger. Employees learn from peers who intimately understand their daily challenges. The content feels direct and relevant rather than phony or overly produced.
Do More With Less and Avoid the “Ick”
AI writing tools can help you churn out content at an incredible pace. The problem is everyone is doing it, so it’s hard to stand out. Quality and originality are more important now than ever if you want to win attention.
When writers treat AI as a drafting partner rather than a drone that will do their work for them, the results become far more compelling and much less “ick.” Thoughtful human editing is absolutely needed to turn raw, “blah” AI writing into content that is credible, useful and distinctive.
The same principle applies to workplace learning. Whether it’s creating content or training employees, the goal remains the same: deliver information in a way that people actually want to engage with. Humans don’t connect with perfectly polished content. We connect with what that feels real.
If the content is useful, clear, and worth someone’s time, nobody cares how it started. AI can help you get there quicker, but it’s still on you to make it matter.
Learn how your organization can do more with less by incorporating video-based microlearning. Schedule a demo with a Tyfoom training consultant today!
P.S. ☝️ The rest of this blog was also written with AI. Can you tell which parts?
P.P.S. Here are 3 quick and dirty AI writing tips from my own personal experience. (I put them here because you’re more likely to read the postscript than the blog itself):
1. Ask for 20% more words than you actually need. It’s soo much easier to chop stuff out than have to add more in to hit your target length.
2. You don’t have to take the first response to a prompt. Never be afraid to ask for a rewrite or more output options.
3. Run the same prompt through multiple platforms (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) and compare answers. Take the best parts from each and Frankenstein them together.