How to Write Like a Human — Not an AI

Ever wonder what makes human writing sound distinctly human, and not like a machine? As a writer and content marketer, I definitely have. So, to have a little fun—and also to prove the point—I asked ChatGPT to write the intro to this article for me, in my voice. Here’s what it produced: 

“In a time when AI-generated content is everywhere, it's more important than ever to make sure your writing feels genuinely human. Whether you're crafting a blog post, an email campaign, or a social media update, your audience should feel a real connection with your words. In this piece, I'll share some practical tips to help you infuse your content with authenticity and personality, ensuring you stand out in a world filled with machine-written text.”

I mean, the above isn’t incorrect, but does it actually sound like a real human to you? Despite having a lot of publicly available source material to pull from (I’m a published author and journalist), the phrasing just feels… flat. (It’s that last line for me—no one tries to summarize a point quite like AI!)

Humans vs AI: Here’s Where We Shine

Even as machines get better at synthesizing data and providing insights, they’re still pretty terrible at producing content that sounds like a living, breathing person. 

I’m guessing that the algorithm that allows an AI to put coherent sentences and paragraphs together doesn’t allow for wide variations in phrasing—unlike our natural human language, which flourishes with spontaneity, humor, and personal anecdotes.

While real people are still the winners at writing like humans, I’m definitely starting to notice a trend in humans sounding an awful lot like machines once we start typing. That’s almost certainly because many of us are using ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or other AI tools to support us with our writing. 

Can You Train ChatGPT to Sound More Human?

While these new AI offerings are amazing for overcoming blank page syndrome, it’s really easy to let them completely take over the way that we share our ideas. I mean, we’re only human—it’s natural to want to hand over a task that’s as time-consuming and brain-bending as writing!

The problem with outsourcing your writing to a bot? AI-produced content almost always sounds generic and formulaic—even if you try to fully train it to sound like you (most of us don’t even bother taking this important step). 

The resulting messaging probably won’t land with the audience you’re creating for, or have the desired effect, like someone booking a call or buying a product. Search engines probably won’t rank generic, non-differentiated content very highly (in fact, lots of AI content can actually harm your site). 

If you want to learn how to make ChatGPT write like a human, it’s possible—but you’ll still need to inject a lot of yourself into the process. Here’s how I’d recommend leveraging AI to fuel your writing process—while making sure the resulting copy sounds like a real person (you!). 

Imagine Your Audience 

When we work with clients on voice and tone, we try to differentiate how a brand (or in some cases, a person) would sound depending on the audience they’re speaking with or writing to. 

You probably wouldn’t use the same terminology or tone during a conference as you would over dinner with your closest friends—and you want to bring those subtle differences to your writing. That’s what makes it feel more human.

When writing or editing your next piece, try to imagine one person that you’re specifically writing to—rather than thousands (or millions) who compose an “audience.” I find that helps me tap my authentic, natural voice, rather than a generalized “business professional” voice.

If you share your desired audience with an AI tool, you’ll start out with a better first draft and have a stronger sense of what might read as “off” or too generic as you edit it for tone.

Generate an Outline with AI—Then Scrap It and Make Your Own

One of my favorite tricks: Ask AI to create an outline for my content and then eventually toss it out. The exercise helps get my creative juices flowing, but I almost never use what Gemini or Chat GPT produces verbatim. 

Typically, I’ll take the first outline or two as a starting point to come up with my own version, tapping ideas that I like and riffing on them—and adding plenty of new ones. If you stick with the exact framework produced by AI, you run the risk of creating content that’s duplicative or just feels, even subconsciously, like an AI-produced piece (even if your running text and examples are completely original). 

Focus Your Effort on the Intro

I’ve found over the years that where human writers struggle the most is their intros — and AI writers are no different (see case in point above)!

Now that voice is more important than ever in your writing, I strongly recommend using a personal anecdote or insight within your introduction. It’s something that AI just can’t do, and it will tell your audience right away that the piece you’ve created is coming from a human. 

You should definitely write the entire intro yourself, with no AI support, as it will tell your audience from the beginning that the piece was crafted by a human. Not only is this really important for SEO purposes, but if your intro doesn’t make a connection, you’ll probably lose your audience completely. Spend the time and effort here, and you’ll see the payoff.

Use Main Character Energy

Writing in the first person (“I”) or second person (“you”) gives you a leg up overwriting in the third person these days. Search engines in particular are looking for unique perspectives, and of course, it’s a lot easier to provide that when you’re writing as yourself! 

Depending on the style of your writing, you may choose to be self-deprecating or use genuine humor in how you approach your copy. If it makes sense to do so, I find that referencing a real-time moment from my life or in pop culture also lets my audience know the story is timely and human-created (since AI is based on large language models that aren’t updated daily).

Counteract the Cringe Factor

When I use AI to support my copy, it will either spit out super formal, robot-like explanations of things, or it will (at my request) try to be “casual”  by being way too familiar, flowery, and joke-y in a way that I’d be very embarrassed to publish or send out under my own name. 

If you spot any portion of the content that sounds like a groaner dad joke, an infomercial host, or, well, a machine masquerading as a human, get in there and completely change that phrasing! (With that said, I will say that every once in a while even AI can come up with a good turn of phrase, so it’s fine to leverage a line or two here and there—as long as you imagine that if a teenager read your work, they wouldn’t cringe!) 

Eliminate Bad Metaphors and Cliches

I’ve also noticed that AI absolutely loves giving me navigational metaphors in my copy (maybe it’s just me??), so when I see words and phrases like navigate, compass, roadmap, journey, set a course, or destination, it’s an immediate red flag to fix the copy. Keep a sharp eye for words and phrases that you’d never use, especially in a copy that’s designed as a call to action. 

Tone Down (or Remove) the Bullets 

By the same token, I’ve found that ChatGPT and Gemini are all about bulleted text, particularly within content that’s meant to explain or inform the audience of something. In fact, I’ve found it difficult to get AI to provide content for me that isn’t bulleted—even when I ask for other formats like descriptive running text. 

As a result, if your copy contains a lot of bullets, that can be a dead giveaway that you’re using AI to help you write. Rather than dropping them verbatim into your articles, you should think of the information AI provides as background material—a jumping-off point for original research and creative thinking.

And on that note, I want to take a moment here to add that you should always be doing your own research from trusted sources around topics you’re writing about. AI tools often hallucinate or simply provide incomplete or bad information, so make sure you’re the one providing the expertise—not the machine.

Add in Your Own Proprietary Data

By the same token, AI can’t offer up unique data and insights—LLMs can only poach older (often incorrect!) data that it trained on during its creation or updates. You can ensure your content is relevant, timely, and accurate by providing fresh information that comes from your company’s own tools and research. 

Wrap Up with a Human Touch (or Nothing at All!)

I’ve noticed that AI also loves to provide a summary of the preceding points as its kicker or conclusion, particularly when creating articles. 

In the “real world,” you rarely see this in writing that’s human created. I recommend either adding a unique personal insight to the end of the piece or—if you’re creating a listicle or piece with several subheadings—there’s really no reason to add an extra snippet of text at all. Just make sure you’re wrapping up a strong, unique point—and you’re good to go.