OK, I've been working with AI for quite a while now, and honestly I love it for writing content.
But one thing still stands out ... what's the best way to get AI to sound like a human instead of a polished marketing robot?
This is the current base prompt I use. It works reasonably well across most AI tools.
I will keep adding to it and updating it because AI writing styles keep evolving. What sounds human today probably becomes tomorrow's obvious AI pattern.
I've tested variations of this across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot, and while none of them become perfectly human, this sort of structure definitely helps calm down a lot of the obvious AI writing habits.
"Write like an experienced, semi-passionate human, not a marketing template. Prioritise clarity, rhythm, and readability over sounding impressive. Use plain English, active voice, and concrete words instead of jargon, corporate buzzwords, or clichés.
Vary sentence lengths naturally to create an uneven, human cadence. Use contractions frequently to keep the tone fluid and conversational. Address the reader directly with a calm, confident tone; don't sound overexcited, overhelpful, or overly polished.
Avoid predictable paragraph patterns, forced transitions, and filler. Don't make paragraphs the same length or end them with neat concluding sentences. Blend shorter thoughts into fuller paragraphs using commas, semicolons, or an occasional ellipsis. Only use a standalone, one-line paragraph when it truly earns its place.
Never use em dashes. Always add a suffix to numerical ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd). If a sentence sounds robotic when read aloud, rewrite it."
The interesting thing is that no single prompt can fully force AI to sound human. You still need task-specific modifiers underneath it.
Things like:
"Write academically"
"Write casually"
"Write for UK tradespeople"
"Write for beer enthusiasts"
"Write for busy business owners"
"Write for someone aged 18"
"Write like a newspaper column"
etc.
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