3 ways to add a human touch to AI-generated content

Seventy-two percent of B2B marketers say they use generative AI to create content, but 61% say their organization has no guidelines for its use.

This is a recipe for disaster.

AI offers unparalleled efficiency in content creation, but we’re still working to balance its convenience with the authenticity that only humans can provide.

Let’s dive into three simple ways to add a human touch to your AI-generated content.

1. Don’t use AI to generate all the content

It’s tempting to give AI a prompt or a keyword and have it generate the entire article or webpage with little input.

Depending on the topic, this usually results in subpar results. It typically requires a lot of editing to ensure it’s accurate and covers exactly what you want it to. 

Not only that, but it can lead to a world of misinformation.

Let’s assume for a minute that most website publishers begin to use AI-generated content for their sites. 

Let’s say the content the AI tools generate is either:

• Based on old information (as in the training data is from years ago).
• Based on current information in the search results – or both.

Except the information in the search results is flooded with AI-generated content. Are you starting to see what could go wrong? 

In either scenario, the information the AI tool uses to create content is flawed.

(By the way, Google has already run through these scenarios, hence its spam policies on AI-generated content.)

This article at Futurism.com talks about what happens when AI is trained on AI-generated data:

“Generative AI models don’t just cough up human-like content out of thin air; they’ve been trained to do so using troves of material that actually was made by humans, usually scraped from the web. But as it turns out, when you feed synthetic content back to a generative AI model, strange things start to happen. Think of it like data inbreeding, leading to increasingly mangled, bland and all-around bad outputs. (Back in February, Monash University data researcher Jathan Sadowski described it as “Habsburg AI,” or “a system that is so heavily trained on the outputs of other generative AI’s that it becomes an inbred mutant, likely with exaggerated, grotesque features.”)”

“When AI Is Trained on AI-Generated Data, Strange Things Start to Happen” by Maggie Harrison Dupré

At this point, it’s almost an ethical question: Do we allow ourselves to enter into this strange future?

If you want AI’s efficiencies but don’t want to relegate all your content to a machine, consider using AI as an assistant rather than a replacement. 

For example, use AI to help you accomplish your writing tasks. Map out the writing process from start to finish and identify where you can use AI to get things done faster.

Let’s look at some instances where AI can be that assistant:

• Helping with initial research.
• Generating content ideas.
• Fleshing out content outlines.
• Offering ideas (keywords) you may have missed.
• Proofing the content.
• Offering writing tips to enhance the content.
• Generating chunks of text that you can fact-check, edit and expand upon.

This first tip is about using AI to assist the writing process, not replace the writer.

Dig deeper: AI content creation: A beginner’s guide

2. Edit with your tone of voice, expertise and experience

People-first content and E-E-A-T are built on the notion that content is authentic, helpful and well, human. 

You can prompt AI all you want, but it’s no replacement for a brand’s unique point of view and expertise. Sure, it’s good enough, but it’s not authentic. 

If you decide to use large chunks of AI-generated text or even full articles, let’s go over some tips on making AI-generated content sound more like “you.”

Review the tone

Try as it might, AI often fails to nail your tone of voice.  

In some cases, the text is either too stuffy and professional, or it uses odd analogies and over-the-top expressions to illustrate a point.

You can train AI tools on tone of voice and it can get better, but it’s not 100%. 

So take time to edit the content to make it sound like you. 

The caveat? Depending on your AI tool, editing the content to your liking can take almost as much time as writing it from scratch.

Watch for AI fingerprints

There’s a phenomenon with AI-generated text: Its distinctive patterns, structures and quirks are obvious giveaways that it’s AI content. 

This can include repetitive phrases, unnatural syntax and predictable sentence structures and formatting.

(For instance, if AI generates any text about technology topics, you’re sure to see some form of this phrase: “In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, … .”)

I wonder if this phenomenon becomes a trap for Google spam algorithms that work to detect AI content. 

When you’re editing your AI content, read it out loud: 

• Does it sound natural or forced? Would you speak like that? 
• Does the flow of the article make sense, or do you need to move some things around?
• Is the text formatting OK, or do you need to modify things like the headers, bold font, bullet points and so on?

Incorporate subject matter expertise and experience

The fact is that AI excels at creating generic content. 

And if you didn’t know much about a specific topic, you might be reading an AI-generated article while nodding your head and thinking, “This ain’t half bad.” 

But, many topics have nuances that can only be understood by someone with subject matter expertise. 

If you’re embarking on AI-generated content, make sure it’s accurate. Have someone with subject matter expertise closely review the content (if that’s not you). 

Taking the time to implement the steps in this section ensures that your AI-generated content represents you – and has a better chance of surviving Google algorithms.

3. Integrate other uniquely human touches  

AI can generate paragraphs of text, but it falls short of any extras that make the content uniquely human. 

Here are some more ideas on incorporating that human touch in AI-generated content.

Case studies

If you’re discussing a topic where your business has real-world case studies, add those stories to the content.

The majority of B2B marketers (53%) say case studies deliver some of their best results in content marketing, according to CMI research (linked to earlier in this article).

Some of the benefits of case studies include:

• Enhanced credibility. Case studies offer tangible, real-world evidence that you’re an expert on what you’re discussing. 
• Practical application. Case studies help readers see how concepts are applied in real life and apply them to their situations.
• Demonstration of results. What better way to showcase your service/product/offering/authority than to highlight the results your solution can generate?

Statistics and quotes

One of the best ways to add credibility and a unique touch to your content is to research interesting third-party stats or quotes to support your content.

Consequently, if you subscribe to the idea of generative engine optimization (GEO), researchers found that adding stats, citing sources and including quotes were the three most significant optimization techniques that produced results. 

Images and video

Custom images help to bring content to life and support the story you are trying to create. Data visualization is among the top five content tactics for B2B and B2C content marketers, per the CMI.

Consider adding any of the following to your article:

• Custom graphics. Visuals can convey the main points of the story. Canva is a handy tool that offers endless options to customize images for webpages and articles in your brand colors and fonts. 
• Third-party data visualizations. Third-party research reports almost always have a visual that highlights the data. Download the image or take a screenshot and put that in your article. Be sure to credit the original source in your article.   
• Videos. Embed videos from YouTube that are relevant to the topic and help support a point you are trying to make.
• Other imagery. You can use GIFs to infuse a little humor, infographics to tell a story visually, or insert tables that organize data or compare two or more items.

Using a mix of these tips can add the personalized human touch that AI-generated content can lack.

Use AI as a tool, not a solution

Adding a human touch to AI-generated content isn’t just about making it look good – it’s about being authentic and helpful.

By treating AI as an assistant rather than a complete replacement for content creators, you can enjoy greater efficiency while still producing relevant and valuable content in the search results, ensuring our key information sources don’t devolve into machine-generated noise.

Dig deeper: How to make your AI-generated content sound more human