A colleague recently sent me an AI-written product description and asked a simple question, and asked me how it looked and did it look like it was written by AI.
The short answer was "Yes."
Not because it was bad - but because it was too good.
It was clean, well structured, easy to scan, and covered every point you’d expect. On paper, it did everything right ... and that’s exactly the problem.
AI content tends to give you the sam results. Same rhythm (same number of parapgraphs in each sentence). Same tone. Same balance. It’s designed to be easy to read, which sounds like a good thing, until you realise it makes everything feel, look and sound the same.
The problemmy colleague had here was that this was for website content, not only would it looks like everyone else’s, but it woud be obvious to a search engine that it was AI generated and they would therefore have a real reason to rank it.
I love AI, I love AI content, you just need to know how to use AI properly. I used to make the mistake of just asking AI to "humanise" content, the problem was, AI doesn't know how to humanise anything, we have to tell it.
Anyway, here’s what I shared with him.
1. Your prompt is really important
If you ask AI “Write me a product description for...” ... you’ll get safe, predictable copy back. It’ll be fine. It’ll also be forgettable.
Change the prompt, and everything changes.
Ask it to write like someone with 20+ years’ experience who’s slightly fed up with how these products are usually described. Suddenly the tone changes. It gets less polished, a bit more opinionated, a bit more real.
That’s where things start to feel human, you've given it something human to think about, and it will change the response. What I would say here is don't be over dramatic (unless the piece asks for it), just use enough to feel honest.
2. Add opinion. AI won’t do it unless you tell it to
AI plays it safe by default. It avoids strong opinions, avoids friction, and avoids saying anything that might be challenged, we don’t (even though maybe we should sometimes!)
So feed it lines like:
“We use these all the time here.”
“This is our Sales Manager’s go-to product.”
“You can buy cheaper, but it won’t be a as good as this.”
Or just be direct, like we can all be sometimes:
“We think this is the best option on the market right now.”
I suppose what I try to do with statements like this is get a bit of emotion into the writing, AI doesn't do emotion unless you ask it to and give it examples. This sort of language instantly changes the feel of the content.
3. Break the rhythm
AI loves consistency. Same length sentences. Same flow. Same pacing ... but humands don’t write like that.
So add this to the prompt:
“Vary sentence length. Mix short and long sentences.”
It sounds basic, but it works. But it forces the content out of that predictable pattern.
And don’t be afraid of a short sentence on its own.
Like this.
But don't overdo it, AI can something provide a piece of copy with a lot of short, choppy sentences, it makes sense because it is easy to read, but it is also a giveaway that it's AI written.
5. Edit it. Properly.
AI will get you 80% of the way there, the last 20% is all down to you I'm afriad.
Read it through. change bits, add some personal references, take bits out, reformat bits, It's your content, nobody know you better than you.
MY GOLDEN RULE: If you HAVEN'T edited it, DO NOT publish it.
AI is a brilliant tool. I use it all the time, but getting it to sound human isn’t about pressing a button and hoping for the best, it’s about knowing how to steer it in the right direction, and then putting your own stamp on the result.