Studies reveal a striking truth: most attempts to disguise AI-generated content fall flat, with consumers easily spotting the artificial touch.
But why is AI so detectable, and can it ever truly blend in?
We asked our powerhouse BoostMyDomain community of SEO and content experts, digital growth specialists, and business leaders to share their thoughts.
From the telltale signs of machine-made text to tried-and-tested strategies for humanizing AI output, this article dives deep into the challenges and solutions for creating content that resonates authentically in a skeptical digital world.
Read on!
Vassilena Valchanova
The key to AI content that doesn’t sound AI-generated is training it on your authentic brand voice. Start by analyzing your best existing content—export blog posts, newsletters, or social posts and ask AI to identify your signature style elements. Ask it to create a detailed voice and tone table with clear do’s and don’ts for each attribute.
When you feed AI your ‘signature pieces’—the content that best represents your voice—you can develop a scoring rubric to evaluate how closely AI-generated drafts match your authentic style. A scoring rubric is an academic term that AI understands and uses really well. You can refer back to that rubric and ask it to analyze the piece it wrote for you and improve it to score higher.
When sharing this system with teams, give them the voice and tone table and the scoring rubric. Give them a simplified prompt they can use consistently to analyze new writing. This approach ensures AI becomes a writing partner that amplifies your voice rather than replacing it with generic, easily-spotted AI content that readers immediately dismiss.
Vassilena Valchanova
Digital Marketing Strategist, Valchanova.me
Harry Fozzard
There are five approaches that have the greatest impact for handling AI content:
1. Use the paid frontier models where you can build projects that retain content for reference.
2. Load the following into the Project.
3. Invest time in building a style guide that includes:
– Develop your prompts with rhetorical direction as well as topical direction.
– Basic style info like the Economist style guide (we patterned ours on this + George Orwell’s comment on writing).
– Include suppression for AI tells like “It’s not about ___, it’s about ____.” or “In today’s increasingly ___ world…”
4. Define a tone and voice that reflects you or your brand. test this against output.
5. Edit rigorously and feed the direction back into the style guide. Do this iteratively.
Harry Fozzard
Director, Lumikha
Dan Lacey
AI is great, but once you are familiar with it, then it is extremely easy to tell the difference between human-written and AI. Even on social media now, you can often see a bunch of AI replies on popular posts. I would caution against the seemingly easy option of using AI when it comes to writing things for your personal brand, as once people can tell, they will instantly lose trust in you.
Part of the problem of all this is that these days so many people are attracted to scale, they want to scale as big, fast and as easy as possible – but it’s worth considering that small and highly-curated is often a much better option. In terms of implementing AI, I recommend using it for ideas and research, even article skeletons, but writing the content yourself, you can’t beat the authenticity of a human touch.
Spencer Romenco
On the most effective methods to subtly hide AI content, I think the recommendations given, incorporating humor or sarcasm that reflects reasonable starting points, as well as local parlance or slang, are spot on. I realized that contemporary artificial intelligence tends to grapple with the nuance of human humor and the intricacies of culturally specific language.
More specifically, I have discovered that while artificial intelligence can produce factually correct and grammatically impeccable literature, it generally does not possess the lived experience and contextual knowledge necessary to beautifully interweave words with layers of cultural significance.
Artificial intelligence programs also have a lot of trouble with the inclusion of sarcasm and real comedy. Comedy, I’ve found, typically relies on timing, irony, and shared cultural references—things that are hard to pin down and accurately replicate.
Particularly sarcasm relies heavily on context and tone, which a program that largely analyzes textual data without a good understanding of human emotion or social context can easily fail to catch. And so, by consciously piling information with local sentiment and witty humour, I think we can provide a level of human authenticity that artificial intelligence can struggle to reproduce.
Spencer Romenco
Chief Growth Strategist, Growth Spurt
Mark Sanchez
At Gator Rated, we use AI to support content creation—but never publish AI drafts without serious human editing.
The most effective way to “disguise” AI content is to stop thinking of it as final—treat it like a rough draft that needs rewriting in your natural tone, with personal insights and specific examples.
We also edit for rhythm, break up patterns that feel too polished, and inject opinion or humor where appropriate.
AI can speed up structure and research, but it still lacks nuance. Readers notice when content feels soulless or formulaic.
Mark Sanchez
Founder, Gator Rated
Jaymie Dean
Most people can spot AI content a mile off because it lacks lived insight and creative nuance. The tone might read well, but there’s a hollowness that kills trust.
In our business, we solve this by grounding every piece in real experience. We use a method I call “Insight Injection” – pulling direct quotes, raw voice notes, and stylistic fingerprints from founders and creatives to shape the narrative. You can not fake intuition, and our audience knows when something’s off.
We recently reworked a client’s About page that was 80% AI-generated. After replacing generic phrasing with real anecdotes and tactile details, bounce rates dropped by 22% within two weeks.
Jaymie Dean
Founder, J Aura
Paul DeMott
The challenge with AI-generated content isn’t just detection—it’s engagement. When text feels too sterile or formulaic, readers disengage, even if they can’t pinpoint why. The solution isn’t about tricking people into thinking AI content is human-written; it’s about making sure the final output has depth and authenticity.
One of the most effective ways to improve AI content is by layering in original insights. AI can structure information efficiently, but it lacks real-world experience. Adding proprietary data, personal observations, or industry-specific nuances transforms generic text into something valuable. Without those elements, content often falls flat, no matter how well-optimized it is.
Editing for voice and flow is another critical step. AI tends to produce overly polished or monotonous phrasing. Reading the draft aloud helps identify where the rhythm feels off. Shortening sentences, varying structure, and using natural speech patterns—like contractions or occasional sentence fragments—makes the writing feel less robotic.
Imperfections matter, too. Human writing isn’t flawless—it has personality, occasional digressions, and stylistic quirks. Deliberately adding those touches, whether it’s a conversational aside or a relatable analogy, bridges the gap between machine-generated and human-crafted content.
A smarter way to use AI is as a research assistant rather than a primary writer. Let it compile data, suggest angles, or summarize sources, then expand on those points with original analysis. This keeps the core of the content rooted in expertise while leveraging AI for efficiency.
Finally, real reader feedback is irreplaceable. Before hitting publish, sharing drafts with a small audience can reveal whether the content resonates or feels artificial. If something seems off, iterating until it sounds natural ensures the final version passes the human test.
AI is powerful, but it works best as an enhancement—not a replacement—for skilled creators. The most effective content balances automation with genuine insight, and that still requires a thoughtful human touch.
Paul DeMott
Chief Technology Officer, Helium SEO
Priyansh Kothari
You’re right in saying that raw AI content, especially from models like OpenAI’s, can often be detected. It sometimes has a certain feel to it. But yes, there are ways to make it sound more human, or disguise it better.
First, choosing the right AI model can help. I’ve found that models like Llama or Gemini sometimes produce text that sounds a bit more natural right from the start, compared to others, specifically OpenAI.
Then, the main trick is to avoid making the content too formal or perfectly “grammatically accurate”. Real people don’t write like that. For example, AI content often uses a lot of semicolons (;) and em dashes (—), and maybe too many commas. While technically correct, it can look a bit artificial or robotic.
Breaking up long walls of text is also important. Splitting lines and using shorter paragraphs makes it easier to read and feels less like a machine wrote it. We also try to remove too many special symbols or punctuation marks and use simpler connecting words instead.
Another big thing is to watch out for common “AI words”. There are certain words that AI models seem to love using, like “meticulous,” “navigating complexities,” “realm,” “dive deep,” “tailored,” “robust,” “unleash,” “embark on a journey,” and so on. We actually filter our content to remove these words as well as excess punctuation marks because they are often a giveaway.
Using different viewpoints, like writing in the first person (“I think…”) or second person (“You should…”) instead of just a neutral third person, can also make the content feel more personal and less like AI.
Some people I know even suggest adding small grammar or spelling mistakes intentionally to make it seem more human, but I’m not sure if I fully recommend that myself. The main goal is to make it sound natural and less robotic, not necessarily incorrect.
Priyansh Kothari
Founder, SpeechGeneratorAI
Matthew Oldham
At BipBapBop we produce hand-drawn coloring books which we sell on Amazon. I frequently review competitor books where it’s obvious the images are AI-generated.
The tell tale signs range from use of grey-scale, irrelevant scribbles in the images, bad hands and often poor formatting.
I have no doubt the quality of AI content will continue to improve until it’s undetectable.
Now you would still need a designer to trace the AI images, correct certain features, and vectorize the designs so they can be scaled up for use in a book.
Matthew Oldham
Founder, BipBapBop
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