When I opened my inbox this morning, I deleted five emails after reading the first paragraph because they were clearly AI-generated. And while I’m a fan of outsourcing many tasks to AI, I cannot support “writing” major components of your story through Chat, Claude, or Gemini. As a reader, I deserve more, and as a writer, I don’t want to see you forfeit the tone and voice that is uniquely you.

8 Signs You’ve Outsourced Some (or All) of Your Writing to AI

1. Repeated sentence structures and familiar transitions.

2. Language that summarizes what someone might say but doesn’t say anything you’d actually say.

3. Over-structured delivery. Lists, tidy frameworks, and those neat sets of three that show up a little too often. (Gag me with a spoon.)

4. No real examples, no concrete details, or texture that feel like a human experience. You could swap in a different topic, and the paragraph would still work.

5. Flat voice. No variation in tone, no sense of the person behind the words. Everything feels smoothed out and slightly overhandled.

6. Repetitive rhetorical patterns, especially contrast statements and reframes.

7. Clichés that feel familiar because you’ve seen them everywhere else and cannot unsee them.

8. Writing that could belong to anyone and therefore doesn’t feel like it belongs to anyone. Especially not you.

Words and phrases that often appear in AI-generated work (along with the aforementioned patterns)

The four biggest offenders in bold.

quietly

gently

dramatically

not this but that

whether you’re… or…

have you ever wondered

if you’re anything like me

unpack

it’s important to note

it’s worth mentioning

what this means is

the truth is

in today’s fast-paced world

now more than ever

at its core

in many ways

game-changer

powerful

seamless

unlock

elevate

transform

you’re not alone

I see you

it goes without saying

The trick isn’t banning these words from your vernacular. It’s noticing these patterns. If you read something and feel like you’ve heard it before… you probably have.

P.S Here’s an article I wrote for Science of People with 40 Jargon Words to eliminate.

This was originally posted on Substack.