If it smells like AI, they won’t touch it
I recently read a LinkedIn post from a coach I respect.
But his post was so obviously written by AI, it’s put me off him. If he can’t be bothered to write it, I can’t be bothered to read it.
One bad experience can lose your audience.
That can hurt if you’re posting on LinkedIn.
But it can be career-limiting if you’re writing a board paper.
Taste is the new black
People are becoming much more sensitive to AI slop.
As Wharton professor Ethan Mollick says, the new way to stand out is (surprise, surprise) your humanity: your experience, judgement, taste, style, viewpoint, distinct voice.
If everyone can write at a technically decent standard, then technical proficiency no longer sets you apart.
Spotting AI patterns
So what are the patterns that scream ‘AI-generated!’? Because (the haters will love this) if you can spot them and edit them out – and add your voice, experience, humanity – you can still save (a lot of) time by writing with AI.
You’ll be injecting more ‘you’ into your writing, which is what we all want.
(Reminds me of an old George Burns line, ‘Once you can fake sincerity, you have it made.’)
SMELLS LIKE AI: Catch & fix patterns like these
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, AI writing often starts with a sweeping, generic statement (like that).
Furthermore, it overuses transitions like ‘furthermore’, ‘moreover’ and ‘ultimately’.
It delves into topics, underscores key themes and weaves rich tapestries—because three fancy words beat one.
And an em-dash—like this—beats a comma every time.
AI also likes neat groups of three:
polished structure,
sophisticated vocabulary, and
predictable conclusions.
It repeats the same point in different ways. In other words, it restates an idea. Put simply, it repeats itself.
It calls things ‘pivotal’ and ‘transformative’ without explaining why.
It can’t resist the ‘It’s not X, it’s Y’ line: It’s not just writing—it’s a paradigm shift.
And every sentence runs the same length. With the same rhythm. In the same shape.
Ultimately, it’s polished, sensible and utterly forgettable—it sounds human, but nobody’s home.
Developing taste: Read a lot. Write a lot.
Inexperienced people in any domain fall too easily into the AI ‘trust’ trap. They lack the experience to judge if AI results are hot or not.
As author Stephen King said in his fine book, ‘On Writing’, you must ‘read a lot and write a lot.’
In other words, there are no shortcuts. If you haven’t done much reading, it’s time to start. Not other people’s average emails. You need to regularly read quality writing.
Here’s a good place to start: Our recommended reading list.
Want to turbocharge your ‘writing taste’ development? Check out our courses.
And if you’d like to dial up the human in your AI output, try Magneto Mentor AI. Our tool teaches better prompting and lets you share your best prompts with your team.