How to Humanize Your Content While Using AI [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 8]

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We hear this all the time: Keep your content human, even if you’re using AI. But people are never very specific when it comes to how. 

For all the potential AI brings, it comes with an equal number of concerning drawbacks. If you’re using AI to help produce content for your brand, you need to be concerned about plagiarism, duplicate content, and unverified facts that can damage your brand and destroy your trustworthiness.

But that shouldn’t keep you from experimenting and using AI to get you through tasks on your to-do list.

In this episode of Endless Customers, IMPACT content and video expert Mandy York breaks down the steps every marketer should take to balance AI efficiency with human authenticity. Drawing on client coaching experience, we share a checklist and practical tips you can apply immediately.

First off, remember the why behind your content

Before you create anything, remind yourself of why you’re doing this in the first place. Mandy tells her clients all the time: "Your content exists to help you build trust with your audience." 

AI can certainly help you produce content faster, but if it’s not content that accomplishes this core goal, it’s not going to help your business. 

So, we need to put in place a checklist of sorts to make sure anything we generate stays true to our purpose:

• Will this provide value to our audience?
• Will it build trust?
• Does this sound like me/us?
• Have we verified everything in it?
• Can we stand behind it?

Everything you publish needs to check all these boxes. The question is how. 

Pick a good tool, write a good prompt

Trustworthy content starts when you pick the right tool, train it on your brand voice, and write the best prompt.

Like anything else, the quality of the output depends on the quality of the input.

Personally, Mandy uses ChatGPT, but many people swear by Jasper, Writer, or another tool. (As we all know, there’s no shortage of tools.)

To get what you want, you need to work with the tool. Jasper has a brand voice section. ChatGPT has custom instructions you can put in about tone and personality. You can also build a custom GPT for specific tasks. Don’t skip these steps. The more training you do, the better the output. The more detail you can provide, the better. 

Be clear about the output you want. Not just tone and style, but structure. If you need a chart, ask for a chart. If you need an article with clear H2s, ask for it. If you’re unsatisfied, ask again more specifically.

AI’s output is just the beginning

What you get from AI is never a finished product. It’s now up to you to add all the things that make your content feel authentic.

Turning an AI-generated draft into a polished, final piece is where the real work is. 

Here’s a look at what Mandy does:

1. Scrutinize the syntax. AI, while incredibly powerful, often falls into the trap of using the same recognizable phrases. It can vary, but always on the lookout for phrases like "From X to Y" or "as a _______, I am here to tell you...". These become glaringly obvious once you know what to look for. These phrase patterns can make your content feel impersonal and stale. Find and replace them with more natural, on-brand expressions. (But remember, you can’t make something sound like your brand if your brand doesn’t have a style and personality.)
2. Refine the Structure and Semantics: Use the Yoast plugin, which can be a content writer's best friend. It highlights missing transitions and extra-long sentences, helping you make the writing more smooth and user-friendly. Also,  always run your writing (AI or otherwise) through Hemingway. This will help ensure you’re not unintentionally talking right over the heads of those you are trying to reach. 
   
   (As a matter of fact, did you know that the average reading level in the United States is around 7th grade? It’s totally possible to write an article about quantum physics at a 5th-grade level, or an article about the color red at a 12th-grade level — but gut-checking your writing either way is important.)
3. Fact-Check what’s been written: AI models might not always be up-to-date with the latest trends or realities. For example, Mandy recently asked AI to estimate the cost of a wedding photographer, and it came back with a range of $1500-$3000, which is way below the current market rate. It's your responsibility to make sure anything you publish is accurate, so this is not a step to skip. 
4. Personalize the final draft: Add industry jokes, quotes from colleagues, or any personal touches that make the content uniquely yours. Meld the AI and your unique brand to build something that’s truly yours — not the same as what anyone else has who typed the same prompt. 
5. Optimize for SEO: Although we’ve put this last, it should be on your mind throughout the whole editing process. Keyword and intent research, tweaking headers, and adjusting wording to hit SEO goals ensures that your content is discoverable. AI plugins such as AISEO are great for helping out with this and ensuring that you begin with a good baseline.
   

Don’t think of AI as a writer. Think of it as a writer's assistant. It’s not going to produce your final content, but it can get you started — and this will help you get to the finish line that much quicker. 

Remember, AI is only a tool

If you were a carpenter in the olden days using a handsaw, a power saw would triple your productivity. But a power saw will not build a house on its own. You need a blueprint. You need a strategy. 

Mandy tells her clients the same.

Treat AI like a very powerful tool. Don’t expect it to solve every problem you face. 

As such, I ask you to keep the same precepts in mind when using generative AI:

• Think of it like adding an intern. It’s going to do some of the grunt work. It may even get certain projects 75% of the way there, but that last 25% is where the magic happens. You would never have someone brand new to your business speak on behalf of the CEO — and that’s really what your written content is doing for your business. 

• Don’t ask AI to write anything that counts as a cornerstone of your business. Your web copy, service pages — all of those things are so nuanced that you’re better off starting from scratch. But if you’re stuck, AI can help. It can spit out 20 different versions of that headline. It can comb through your text and see if there are any gaps. Just keep in mind what it can’t do. 
• Always seek a balance between efficiency and inauthenticity — and this goes beyond written work. AI can supercharge your efficiency, but it can easily go too far. You might end up with content that’s interchangeable with 10 of your competitors. Or, you might be tempted by digital avatars or deepfakes in video, but the potential damage to your brand is too great. 

When in doubt, don’t. If something feels icky or too slick, it’s not worth it. Keep your core principles in mind and remember why you’re producing content in the first place. Everything should be in the interest of building trust with your audience. With AI, it’s easy to overshoot your goal and do more harm than good.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can leverage AI in a way that’s ethical, complementary, and delivers results, talk to us! We help businesses just like yours find the solutions they’ve been looking for.

Connect with Mandy York

Mandy York combines her experience as an award-winning educator and thriving business owner to help others take creative and actionable steps toward their content and video marketing goals.

Connect with Mandy on LinkedIn

Keep Learning

• Watch: The Future of AI: The ChatGPT Experiment

• Read: How to Build a Brand that AI Loves

• Free assessment: How Does Your Sales & Marketing Measure Up?

FAQs

What are the biggest risks of AI-generated content?
The top risks are plagiarism, outdated facts, robotic tone, and eroded trust. These can all be avoided with editing, fact-checking, and personalization.

What’s the best way to train AI to match my brand voice?
Use the custom instructions or brand voice settings in your AI tool. Provide sample text and outline tone, vocabulary, and style rules.

How do I know if AI content still feels human?
Read it out loud. If it sounds like something you’d naturally say to a customer, you’re on the right track.