7 Signs of AI-Generated Text (and How to Fix Them)

In the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone, a man walks into a diner that looks perfectly normal. The coffee is hot, the jukebox works, the stools are the right height. Everything checks out on the surface. But something feels wrong, and he can’t name it until he looks closer.

That’s the experience of reading an AI draft that hasn’t been edited. The grammar is clean. The structure is logical. And yet experienced readers sense the seams within a few sentences. Knowing how to tell if content is AI written is an editing skill, and recognizing the signs of AI-generated text is the first step toward fixing them.

Here are the 7 tells, each with a repair:

1. Uniform sentence length
2. Throat-clearing phrases
3. The summary conclusion
4. Repeated filler adjectives
5. Elevated register in casual copy
6. Generalities replacing specifics
7. The opening that delays its point

AI detection tools produce false positives and false negatives at rates that make them an unreliable quality gate. I don’t recommend them. The skill worth building is editorial reading judgment: learning to spot these patterns in your own drafts and fixing them before you hit publish. When your content reads like a real person wrote it, trust is the real competitive advantage.

Why do these patterns exist at all? AI generates text by predicting the statistically most likely next token. That process produces grammatically correct prose that defaults to averaged, consensus phrasing. The output is safe. It’s also flat. What you’re reading below is a repair manual for that flatness.

The 7 Tells, Each With a Repair

Every tell below includes a before-and-after AI content rewrite example. The examples are editorial illustrations I’ve constructed to make each pattern visible. None represent a real customer or a real draft.

1. Uniform Sentence Length

AI optimizes for local coherence, which means it produces sentences of similar length with no rhythmic variation. The result reads like a metronome ticking through paragraphs. This is a consistent AI writing pattern, and it’s often the first thing an experienced editor notices.

BEFORE: Content marketing requires a clear strategy and consistent execution. Businesses need to understand their audience and create relevant material. This process takes time and resources but delivers measurable results over the long term.

AFTER: Content marketing takes time. There’s no shortcut around that. But businesses that know exactly who they’re writing for, and commit to showing up consistently, build an audience that paid ads can’t replicate.

2. Throat-Clearing Phrases

Phrases like “it is worth noting” and “it is important to remember” function as structurally safe transitions. They fill space without carrying meaning.

BEFORE: It is worth noting that email marketing continues to deliver strong returns. It is important to remember that segmentation plays a key role in this success.

AFTER: Email marketing still delivers strong returns, and segmentation is a big reason why.

I’ve written more about these filler constructions and how to cut them in sentences worth cutting from every draft.

3. The Summary Conclusion That Replays the Article

AI defaults to closing paragraphs that restate what the article just covered. A skilled writer uses the ending to leave the reader with something the body didn’t say.

BEFORE: In this article, we explored the importance of brand voice, the role of consistency, and the value of authentic storytelling. By focusing on these three areas, businesses can build stronger connections with their audience.

AFTER: The real test of brand voice is whether a reader could identify your company with the logo removed. If the answer is no, the voice isn’t doing its job yet.

For more on how to close an article with a sentence that earns its place, see ways to end an article so it leads somewhere.

4. Repeated Filler Adjectives and Adverbs

A small set of words appears disproportionately in AI output because they’re safe, high-frequency qualifiers. This is where you’ll find what words AI overuses in writing: the same handful of adjectives doing the work that a specific detail should be doing instead.

BEFORE: Our comprehensive platform seamlessly integrates with your existing tools to deliver robust analytics and help you leverage data-driven insights for crucial business decisions.

AFTER: The platform connects to your existing tools and gives you analytics you can actually read without a data science degree.

5. Elevated Register in Casual Copy

AI defaults to a slightly impersonal, elevated register even when you prompt it to write casually. The sentences are too polished, the contractions are missing, and the voice sounds like a press release dressed in jeans. These are consistent AI content tells across every model I’ve tested.

BEFORE: One must consider the implications of publishing content that does not align with the established brand identity. Failure to maintain consistency may result in diminished audience trust.

AFTER: If your content doesn’t sound like you, readers notice. Maybe they can’t name the problem, but they feel it, and they bounce.

6. Generalities Where Specifics Should Be

AI produces general claims because specific details require real-world knowledge it doesn’t have. Knowing how to spot AI-written content often comes down to this: where a human writer would name a tool, cite a number, or describe a situation they lived through, AI gives you a placeholder disguised as a sentence.

BEFORE: Many businesses have found success by implementing data-driven marketing strategies. These approaches have led to significant improvements in customer engagement and overall performance.

AFTER: When I switched our email sequence from a generic welcome series to 3 behavior-triggered messages, reply rates went from negligible to a consistent weekly conversation with new subscribers.

7. The Opening That Delays Its Own Point

AI intros restate the question before answering it, or set the scene for a full paragraph before getting to anything useful. The fix is simple: cut everything before the first sentence that actually says something.

BEFORE: In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses of all sizes are grappling with the challenge of creating content that resonates with their target audience. As technology continues to advance, the question of how to produce authentic, engaging material has become more pressing than ever.

AFTER: Most AI drafts bury the point under 2 paragraphs of setup. Cut to the sentence where the article actually begins.

For more on rewriting AI-style intros, I’ve collected stronger opening hooks that work across formats.

Make This an Editing Pass, Not a Rewrite

These 7 tells work as a single editing pass. Read through your AI draft once, flag each pattern, and fix them in order. The goal is targeted repair: rewriting AI-generated content where the patterns show up, and leaving the rest alone. You don’t need to start from scratch every time.

If you want to understand where AI copywriting is heading in 2026, this editing skill is the foundation.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How can you tell if content is AI written?

Look for uniform sentence rhythm with no variation for pacing or emphasis, throat-clearing phrases like “it is worth noting,” conclusions that restate the article instead of adding a new thought, and repeated filler adjectives like “comprehensive” or “robust.” These patterns for how to tell if content is AI written appear consistently across AI tools. Each one can be fixed with a targeted edit rather than a full rewrite.

What are the most common ChatGPT writing giveaways?

Consistent ChatGPT writing giveaways include throat-clearing phrases, uniform sentence rhythm, and conclusions that replay the article rather than adding anything new. These appear because the model defaults to safe, formally structured prose. If you want to make AI content sound human, run through each of the 7 tells above and fix the ones you find. It’s a 10-minute pass, not a rewrite.

Do AI detection tools work?

They produce false positives and false negatives at a rate that makes them an unreliable quality gate. A tool might flag a paragraph you wrote by hand, or miss an entire AI-generated draft. The skill worth developing is editorial reading judgment: learning to spot the structural patterns in your own drafts and fixing them before publishing. That’s what the 7 tells in this article are designed to build.