Why AI writing sounds generic, and how to fix it
AI drafts sound alike because the model knows nothing about you. Here's what causes the sameness, and what actually changes it.
You can often spot AI writing within two sentences. It's rarely wrong in an obvious way. It's just smooth, balanced, and could have been written for anyone. That last part is the real problem.
The cause isn't that AI models can't write. It's what they're given to work with.
The model is guessing
A language model produces the most probable next words, given what it has seen. If you ask for "a post about our bakery", all it knows is the word "bakery". So it reaches for what's typical of every bakery post: passion, fresh ingredients, a warm invitation to stop by.
None of that is false, and none of it is yours. The same request from a thousand bakeries gets versions of the same post.
Generic input, generic output. Most advice about "better prompts" is really advice about supplying what the model can't guess.
The five signs of generic writing
Once you know these, you'll see them everywhere:
- Claims without evidence. "We're passionate about quality" could be anyone. "Our ovens go on at 4 a.m." can only be you.
- Announced structure. "In today's fast-paced world" and "Let's dive in" tell the reader that something's coming, without saying anything.
- Even rhythm. Sentences of similar length, tidy groups of three, and a neat summary at the end.
- Hedged opinions. Every point is balanced by another, so the piece never takes a position.
- Filler endings. A closing question or a call to "share your thoughts" added because posts are supposed to have one.
What actually makes writing specific
Specific writing has things in it that only you could know. There are four kinds, and a model has none of them until you supply them:
- Facts. Prices, times, names, numbers, places, and what you actually sell.
- Experience. What happened, what you tried, what surprised you, what customers really ask.
- Opinions. What you believe that others in your field don't.
- Voice. Your sentence length, your vocabulary, what you'd never say.
Compare these two:
We're excited to announce our new seeded rye! Made with the finest ingredients, it's the perfect addition to your breakfast table. Visit us today!
The seeded rye is back this Saturday, in the first batch out of the oven at 6:30. We only make 40. See you early.
The second one isn't cleverer. It simply has facts in it: the day, the time, and how many. Those facts also do the persuading, because "we only make 40" says more than "limited availability" ever could.
How to fix it
Give it your facts first. Before asking for anything, put your real details somewhere the AI can use them: your offer, your prices, your customers' questions. We cover this in how to give AI your business data.
Show it your voice. Describing your tone as "friendly and professional" tells it almost nothing, because that describes everyone. Real samples work better. See how to train AI on your brand voice.
Ban what you hate. Tell it specifically what not to do: no opening questions, no exclamation marks, no "in today's world". Rules based on real mistakes work very well.
Say what's new. Your request should contain the one thing it can't know: what's happening now, and why it matters.
Cut the ending. Delete the last sentence of most AI drafts and see if anything is lost. Often, nothing is.
Why repeating yourself doesn't scale
You can do all of this in a chat window. The problem is doing it again tomorrow, and for each kind of content. People end up keeping a document of prompts to paste in, and then correcting the same things anyway.
That's the idea behind DeepRit: your facts, voice and rules live in a writer you build once, so a request can be one sentence long, and the result already sounds like you. Whichever tool you use, the principle is the same. The model can only be as specific as what you give it.