To date, around 83% of content writers and marketers are using AI writing tools to generate articles faster and more efficiently. With this increase, we're also seeing a declining trend in organic traffic due to algorithm updates like the Helpful Content and Core Spam updates.
No wonder—the internet is crowded with low-quality, mass-produced AI content that aims to manipulate Google rankings without providing any real value to readers. Here’s how the concept of humanizing AI content becomes the focus.
In this article, we’ll explore practical ways to add a human touch to your AI-generated content, ensuring it’s valuable for your readers and meets Google’s guidelines.
What is AI-generated content?
AI-generated content refers to text, images, videos, or any other form of digital media created using artificial intelligence technologies. AI tools are evolving fast. These days, they can do a lot more than just generate content.
For example, an AI and SEO writing tool like SurgeGraph allows you to write various article types, optimize for search engines, and personalize the writing depending on your needs.
The strategic use of AI has helped 81.5% of B2B and 87.7% of B2C businesses achieve their goals better and faster. For writers, AI helps beat writer's block and spark fresh ideas. Google's John Mueller recommends using AI for inspiration when writing too.
Importance of adding a human touch to AI content
People often think humanizing AI content is about dodging AI detectors. But those tools are unreliable, and Google has said they're not against AI content.
If you want your content to read like it's human-written—whether for yourself, your audience, or search engines—here's what you should aim for when humanizing AI content:
Strengthen and demonstrate EEAT
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google established it in 2014 as part of its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. Content that provides users with valuable information through E-E-A-T usually ranks better.
Humanizing AI content sets your content apart from generic AI-generated text by showcasing the in-depth knowledge and insights that AI alone can't provide.
AI can't demonstrate E-E-A-T because:
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Its training data is limited and not up-to-date.
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It lacks real-world experience.
Sure, AI knows textbook stuff, but it can't match the expertise you get from actually working in an industry. Some things you just learn by doing.
Avoid low-quality AI content
Low-quality AI content is usually bland and repetitive. It's easy to spot; you, your readers, and search engines can tell it's AI-made right away. They don't flow well, miss important context, and feel disconnected.
Here’s an example of AI-generated text you commonly find used in low-quality content.
Notice that the underlined sentences are just broad statements without any supporting details. The wordy sentence structure doesn’t help get the point across directly.
“Embracing ongoing refinement and adaptation” can be simplified to 'continuously improving,' and "cornerstone of a robust SEO strategy" can be replaced with 'key part of a strong SEO plan.'
Humanizing AI content helps you avoid bland text by adding your own flair. Personal touch is something AI can't do on its own. Its training data doesn't capture the nuances and emotions that make unique opinions, thoughts, and ideas.
That's where we have the edge.
11 ways to humanize AI content
Here are 11 strategies you can use to humanize AI content to demonstrate personal experience and expertise, and avoid low-quality content.
1. Refine your prompts
The quality of your prompts dictates the quality of your output. Therefore, being specific in your instructions helps generate content that aligns with your objectives.
To create content that connects with your audience and gets your message across, include these in your prompt:
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State the purpose of the content.
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Set the tone, such as formal, conversational, etc.
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Outline key points that should be covered.
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Include examples.
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Specify word count limit or range
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Include any specific elements such as CTA, quotes, etc.
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Specify a readability level such as 10th grade, college-level etc.
Remember that dull AI-written content from earlier? Here's how it looks after the prompt is refined:
This is the raw output. Although it could use some improvements, it's already way better than before.
But let's be real—writing detailed prompts repeatedly for different content can be a pain, especially if you're producing content at a high volume.
That's why Surge offers a streamlined prompt system. The built-in and custom prompts help you humanize AI content without the hassle.
Before generating your article, you can:
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Specify the content goal or let it be automatically set based on your title.
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Choose the writing tone, word-count range, and readability level.
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Outline key points, include examples, and add any specific elements to be generated as complete paragraphs.
Every writer has their own style and way of getting their point across. By giving clear instructions, you can create content that's more like you and hits the mark with your audience.
2. Share personal experience and insights
Real stories add to your content’s authenticity, credibility, and depth. They’re perfect for your E-E-A-T, and they resonate with your readers.
When you read the introduction about social media strategy on SparkToro below, it's immediately clear this is written by an industry expert with firsthand experience.
To make your content unique, share your own stories and explain why you think what you think about a topic.
As you can see in the first two paragraphs, she shares a personal experience that demonstrates real-life strategy implementation and success.
In the final two paragraphs, she boosts her credibility by sharing her expert opinion related to the topic.
It’s simple yet effective.
If you're concerned that your storytelling won't be as impactful as your insights, you can use AI to handle the writing. Surge has a designated feature for this.
Just input your professional opinions, brand knowledge, or any other information the AI doesn’t know about, and Surge will generate the content for you.
This way, you can still deliver insights without sacrificing credibility.
3. Include facts and statistics
Incorporating facts and statistics can counter repetitive AI responses. They enhance the human touch by making your content sound well-researched.
You can add facts and/or statistics as the main idea
Or use it as supporting details.
Pro tip: Use anchor text to link to the sources of facts or statistics. You’ll get plus points for E-E-A-T by directing users to additional resources and verifying the authenticity of data.
Sourcing for relevant facts to add to your content can take up valuable time (believe me, I've been there). With Surge, you can easily extract relevant facts from SERPs based on your target keyword.
This means you can write and add credibility to your content on one platform. No outsourcing needed.
However, be sure not to compromise your credibility with outdated or inaccurate information.
4. Fact-check sources from AI
If you decide to use AI to source facts or statistics, make sure to perform your due diligence before using them in your content.
AI tends to manipulate facts simply to provide suitable answers to your input. Suitable isn’t always accurate. Here’s what I mean.
I asked ChatGPT for statistics on veganism causing diabetes. Initially, it claimed that a vegan diet could cause diabetes, citing web sources.
However, after the response was regenerated, it stated that there was no evidence to support the claim.
Sometimes the information doesn’t even match the cited sources. So, always verify facts and web sources provided by AI.
5. Avoid or rewrite overused AI terms
Repetitive and unnecessary bombastic terms like “delve,” “plethora,” “tapestry,” or—the most cliché one yet—“Let’s dive into the ever-evolving realm of the digital landscape” are a dead giveaway of AI-generated content.
ChatGPT often overuses these terms; readers know this too.
To make your writing sound more human, rewrite the overused AI terms. Or, you can prompt the AI to exclude or avoid certain terms.
This Redditor made a long list of AI terms in case if you need inspiration on what to skip.
To be transparent, it's a hassle to list out the terms every single time you’re generating a text. You might even hit your account's rate limit pretty quickly.
If you’re writing with SurgeGraph, you don't have to rewrite the prompt each time.
You can specify and save prompts for future use with the Custom Commands feature.
Simply apply the saved prompt—either for the entire article or specific sections—before generating your content.
6. Use real-life examples
Concrete illustration sticks better than abstract concepts when communicating your content’s message. One way to use real-life examples is by incorporating images, videos, or infographics to support the text.
Instead of…
"Best B2B Marketing Campaigns
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Target competitor’s audience
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Show ease of use
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etc."
…this article by Directive shows examples of actual campaigns by actual businesses to help you see its practical application.
Breaking up big chunks of text with engaging visuals makes for a better reading experience. The better the experience, the longer users dwell on your site, the more Google sees your content as helpful and valuable.
You can also use this in different types of content, such as tutorial articles or case studies. For example, a case study from LinkVector uses a chart to effectively convey data to users.
A diagram is much more impactful than having readers paint a mental picture of what “2,110 out of 3,908 visitors” vs. “999 out of 3,916 visitors” looks like.
As you might have noticed, we're also using real-life examples throughout this article to deliver our points better.
7. Remove fluff
Delivering your message in a roundabout way will dilute its impact. Ask yourself if the message remains clear when you remove jargon, filler phrases, and unnecessary adjectives from a sentence.
For instance:
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Sentence A: “In order to facilitate a seamless user experience, our innovative platform leverages cutting-edge technology to synergistically optimize the overall workflow efficiency.”
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Sentence B: “Our platform uses advanced technology to improve workflow.”
Sentence B still conveys the message clearly even after removing the filler phrases found in Sentence A. The key to communication is conciseness.
AI-generated content is known for being full of fluff, so it's important to spot and remove it to avoid your content being flagged as low-quality.
8. Vary the length of sentences and paragraphs
AI often produces overly long paragraphs. To make it sound more natural, balance the mix of long and short sentences. The secret trick is to write like you naturally speak.
This paragraph from the Local Business Client Meetings article on Moz is a great example of writing like you speak. You can feel the rhythm in her writing—something AI lacks.
What I like about this example is that it mimics natural speech patterns.
The flow feels natural from the mix of short and long sentences. Expressive text decorations like all caps, italics, and exclamation marks help express the author's emotions, making it feel like a real conversation.
9. Use first-person pronouns like “I” and “we.”
Including the reader in your narrative helps establish a connection with them. This personalizes your content, making it feel like a one-on-one conversation.
Look for places in your content to directly address the reader. Commonly used first-person pronouns include “I,” “you,” and “we.” The impact that these words carry may differ based on context, but generally, using
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"we" creates a sense of shared experience. It shows that you and your readers are in this together.
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“I” and "you" creates a conversational tone. It engages readers personally, making them feel valued.
Readers are more likely to relate to…
"You can benefit from our weekly newsletter."
…than
"Subscribers can benefit from our weekly newsletter."
The former feels like a direct communication, while the latter sounds more detached and impersonal.
You can use AI to generate or rewrite your content using first-person pronouns. For longer content, generic AI might lose momentum and miss some words.
That’s why Surge created a built-in POV prompt.
Just pick your pronouns from the dropdown, and the AI does the rest. You never have to run your content through different tools to get your desired outcome again.
10. Adapt to your audience
Write what the audience wants to read. Most ranking factors boil down to reader satisfaction, so content that resonates will automatically be in Google’s favor.
Raw AI content always shows off its intelligence with jargon overload. Your content might sound credible, but do the readers want to and can read that?
Each target audience has its own readability, tone, and writing style preferences. Find out what your audience likes and match your writing to their expectations.
Use industry lingo for experts, and keep it simple for general readers.
For example, tech-savvy folks understand “cloud computing” and “API.” But the average Joe? Not so much. If you're selling software to non-techs, drop the jargon. Using it means losing customers before they even understand your product.
Whether you're writing for conversions or to educate, speaking your audience's language gets results.
11. Choose the right AI writing tool
ChatGPT's popularity doesn’t make it suitable for every task. Rapid developments in AI have birthed ChatGPT alternatives that cater to different uses. Whatever you need, there's probably an AI tool for it.
Of course, using AI humanizers to humanize your AI content may work. But passing text through more AI filters is not a good idea, especially for long articles. They have character limits and can’t magically make your content high-quality.
Instead, choose a writing tool that promotes content personalization and high-quality writing. That includes everything you need to rank your content high on SERPs.
Unlike ChatGPT, SurgeGraph has editorial features that go beyond generating text. It helps you write and humanize your content by
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Customizing writing style, tone, and focus to adapt to different audiences
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Maintaining the human touch throughout your content using customized instructions
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Allowing you to input your expert knowledge or opinion that demonstrates E-E-A-T
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Automatically optimizing your content for readers and search engines
What’s important is using a tool to boost your skills, not completely replace them. When you know where AI complements your flair for writing, you can generate high-quality AI content while maintaining your human touch.
Final take
Using AI to create writing materials is pretty common now. But while AI content can tackle common writing issues, it often misses the nuance needed to really resonate with readers.
You can use the tips in this article to achieve high-quality content that bridges the human touch gap. Or leverage the human essence in you to judge what speaks to your readers the most.
Remember, content should be written for the readership, not just for search engines or rankings. If it doesn't resonate with readers, it won't rank well, even with the perfect SEO.
