AI-assisted writing has a recognisable texture — balanced hedges, tidy three-part lists, a slightly generic warmth — and once you notice it, you see it everywhere. That's not a reason to avoid the tools; it's a reason to treat their output as raw material rather than a finished draft.
Feed it your patterns, not just your topic
Instead of asking for "a paragraph about deadlines," give a tool a paragraph you've already written and ask it to match that rhythm and vocabulary. Generic prompts produce generic prose. Specific input — your actual phrasing, your actual opinions — pushes the output closer to something recognisably yours.
Cut the tells
Certain patterns show up constantly in AI drafts: sentences that open with "in today's fast-paced world," rule-of-three lists where two items would do, and conclusions that restate the introduction almost word for word. Read your draft looking specifically for these and rewrite them in your own phrasing. It takes minutes and removes most of the flattening effect.
Keep the opinions, lose the hedging
AI tools default to balance — "there are pros and cons to consider" — because they're not built to have a stake in the answer. You are. If you think one approach is clearly better, say so plainly instead of laying out both sides evenly. That confidence, more than any specific phrase, is what makes writing sound like it came from a person with a point of view.
Use AI drafts as a fast first pass, then edit as if a colleague wrote them and you're making sure the final piece sounds like you — because that's essentially what's happening.
