From robotic to readable: how to humanise AI text

As LLMs (language learning machines) get more sophisticated, it’s only natural that businesses are turning towards generating AI copy in-house – but how do you humanise AI text so you can continue to connect with your audience effectively? 

As professional copywriters, we’re constantly watching as the world of AI copy evolves. While it’s definitely capable of churning out content, quality still has to be the watchword if you want to keep ahead of your competitors. The clue’s in the name: artificial intelligence. It may be able to put the words together, but it’s not able to truly replicate the many nuances of real human communication.  

People do business with people, so it’s essential that you learn to humanise any AI text you generate to ensure your efforts aren’t wasted because what you end up with sounds like everyone else. 

AI copy – when to fix it, when to throw it  

If you’ve spent hours prompting and preening your AI copy, editing may be all you need to bring it up to standard. However, there are lots of potential pitfalls that you need to be sure to avoid before you spend any further time on the output you’ve been presented with.  

You can edit your AI content to smooth out tone of voice flaws, sentence structure and flow to make it sound more human, providing: 

• You can be sure the LLM’s reference sources are sound  

• The depth of content is sufficient  

• The copy contains the specific details you requested 

• The content is structured well enough to tell a compelling story without a full re-write 

• You’re certain nothing contained in the AI copy is infringing on intellectual property rights 

Bearing in mind that AI never provides all its sources, and collates information from across the web including Reddit, Facebook, and non-specialist, low quality sites, you’ll need to spend some time cross-referencing and deciding if it’s evidencing your expertise appropriately.  

AI also has a tendency to hallucinate information, and stray off instruction – starting out well, then reducing in quality the further into the project you go.  

If the bones of the content you’re trying to produce are good enough, it’s probably worth running through and editing. If it feels shallow, generic, confusing, lacking in direction or any sense of audience empathy, it might be better to chuck it out and write from your heart. 

Here are some more risks of using AI for your business, so you can make a more informed choice. 

Why the human touch beats AI copywriting  

Having fixed some pretty substantial AI copywriting fails, we’d always advocate for human-made over artificial. Sure, you can spend time prompting, aligning, tweaking and editing AI generated content, but the cost in internal time and resources can soon mean you’re getting an inferior product without actually saving much money. 

So rather than working to humanise AI text, we’d always recommend working with actual human copywriters to ensure: 

• A professional consultation to identify objectives 

• A strategic approach built from firsthand experience 

• Deep, accurate and detailed research 

• Audience understanding and focused messaging 

• Clear storytelling structure for maximum engagement 

• Copy that fits the asset design/structure  

• Proven, results-driven marketing skills 

• A consistent, on-brand tone-of-voice 

Without the key skills a specialist copywriter brings, even editing your AI copy can leave it lacking – so if you want a professional to humanise your AI text, or even better, write it to your exact brief from scratch, drop us a line to book a free consultation.