How to Use AI Without Sounding Like a Robot

The tells that give AI writing away

Readers rarely think “this is AI”. They think “this is boring”, and scroll. Four patterns cause most of it: symmetrical sentence lengths, abstract nouns instead of concrete detail, hedged claims with no stake, and a summary paragraph that repeats what was already said.

The loop: brief, draft, cut, specify, read aloud

1. Brief with constraints, not adjectives

“Make it engaging” produces nothing. “Second person, max 90 words, one number in the first line, no words from this banned list” produces something you can edit. Constraints are the only part of a prompt that reliably changes output.

2. Draft three, keep parts

Generate three variants and take the best hook from one, the best structure from another. Choosing between whole drafts is slower and usually worse than assembling from pieces.

3. Cut the first two sentences

AI warms up. Deleting the opening almost always improves the hook, and it forces the post to start at the interesting part. Check the result in the caption optimizer so the hook survives the feed preview.

4. Add one thing only you know

A number from your dashboard, a customer's exact phrasing, the thing that went wrong last Tuesday. This single edit does more for authenticity than any tone setting, because a model cannot invent your specifics.

5. Read it aloud

If you stumble, rewrite that line. Spoken rhythm is uneven; AI rhythm is even. Uneven wins in a feed.

What to never delegate

• Claims about results, pricing, or availability.
• Anything involving a customer's story or words.
• Crisis or sensitive-topic responses.
• Your point of view — the reason someone follows you.

A workable division of labour

Use AI for volume tasks: variant hooks, repurposing a long post into five short ones, first-pass alt text, and turning a transcript into a carousel outline. Keep strategy, specifics, and judgement in human hands. Start with a batch from the post idea generator, then run this loop on the ones you keep.