Using AI for Writing Without Losing Your Human Touch

1. Start with Your Voice, Not a Prompt 

This is super important! Most people fire off a prompt like: “Write a blog post about why customer service is important.” 

That’s the fastest way to get a low-quality piece of content. Instead, feed ChatGPT your ideas in your own words. Think about this like you’re explaining it to a friend… 

“I want you to write a post about how good customer service builds loyalty more than discounts do. I’ve seen this with my own clients. Maybe add a small anecdote and contrast it with a brand that doesn’t care.” 

Now you’re giving the AI direction and a little personality, not just a task. You’re telling it how to sound and what you believe. 

For bonus points try and write the foundation of the writing yourself first, and then you could feed the AI a prompt like… 

“You are a copywriting and marketing professional. I’ve written the below article, but I need you to make it better and add more sizzle. Sharpen the language, tighten the flow, and rewrite any parts that sound clunky. Keep my voice and tone, but elevate what I’ve written. 

<”THEN PASTE WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN HERE IN QUOTES”>” 

This is how you use ChatGPT as a collaborator, not a content vending machine. When you bring the raw ideas and your unique voice to the table, the AI becomes a powerful tool for refining your thinking and amplifying your writing talent. 

2. Rewrite the First Draft, again and again 

Think of AI’s output as a rough draft. It is definitely not a finished product. 

Once you get a decent chunk of text, go in and: 

• Delete clichés like “In today’s fast-paced world…” or “That’s why it’s more important than ever…” 

• Rewrite the intro to sound more like you. 

• Inject your actual experience, not generic statements. 

• Break the structure if it feels too “template-y.” 

Ask yourself… “Would I say this out loud in a conversation?” If not, fix it. 

3. Prompt it to Break the Rules 

One of the biggest giveaways of AI-generated text is its predictability. You can change that by forcing it to break patterns. 

Try prompts like: 

• “Write this in a sarcastic tone.” 

• “Make this sound like a rant.” 

• “Tell a short, real-sounding story to illustrate the point.” 

• “Add personality, like this was written by a founder who’s been burned before.” 

It might not get it perfect, but it’ll give you something far more human-sounding to work from. 

4. Inject Personal Stories or Specifics 

AI can’t replicate your unique experiences, so make sure you use this to your advantage. 

Let’s say you’re writing a piece on handling difficult customers. Instead of letting ChatGPT say, “It’s important to stay calm and listen to feedback,” 

Add something like: 

“One time, a client ripped into me on a Zoom call over something my team didn’t even do. Instead of arguing, I let them vent, and then calmly walked them through the timeline. That client is still with us three years later.” 

Now you’ve made a real story which beats out anything generic AI can spit out. Your authenticity as a person will trump AI every time. 

5. Avoid the ChatGPT Giveaways 

Watch out for: 

• Overuse of phrases like “In conclusion,” “Moreover,” or “It goes without saying…” . Another example is “From x, to y, we are experts in this area”. I had one of the team ask me, “but don’t some of those lines still sound good?”. 
  
  My opinion is, they absolutely used to, but just like that food you once loved, but ate so much of it, you don’t like it anymore. That’s what’s happening with writing right now. Everyone’s using AI-generated content, and we’re seeing the same phrases recycled again and again. What sounded clever or polished last year can start to feel a bit stale and overused. So be mindful of the content you’re creating.

• Overly formal structure (especially intros and conclusions) 
  
  
• Overuse of brand Introductions like “At Outsource2Us….”. People know who you are if it’s a social post or blog, no need to tell them again.

• Empty statements that say nothing new, for example – “Marketing is important for business success.” 

Use tools like Hemingway Editor or Grammarly to tighten it up, but then make sure you go over it again. Read it out loud and adjust anything that sounds off. 

6. Add Visual and Formatting Style 

AI tends to write in chunky paragraphs. Humans skim. 

• Break things into short paragraphs. 

• Use bullet points and subheadings. 

• Highlight key phrases. 

• Remove any double hyphens—this is a dead giveaway. 

• Also keep an eye on the line breaks and overuse of emojis. To the trained eye, these are instantly picked up, and your credibility for writing an original piece of content goes way down  

Hopefully this all helps you to produce better sounding content! 

ChatGPT and other AI sidekicks are powerful writing partners, but they should never replace you. You, your personality, your writing style, your quirks, your mistakes… will always make any price of content you write shine much brighter than if you completely leave it to AI. 

The best AI-assisted content still needs: 

• Your voice 

• Your perspective 

• Your editing eye 

Use AI and ChatGPT to amplify, not replace, what makes your content human. 

Because if it looks or sounds like it was written by a robot… people will scroll right past. 

By the way… yes, AI helped me write this. I used the same principles I’ve shared here, ran it through an AI detector, and Grammarly rated it 0% AI-written.

AI should be used to amplify your writing talents, not replace them. When you write like a human, people will notice.