Stop Blaming AI for Generic Content
- Sarah Varner
- Oct 14
- 4 min read
You've seen the posts.
"Writers need to stop using AI and start writing again!"
"We're losing the human element in content!"
"AI is ruining authentic communication!"
And then on the other side:
"Help, my AI content sounds so robotic."
"How do I make ChatGPT sound more human?"
"Everything it writes sounds generic."
Sure, this technology can feel overwhelming, especially if writing already feels hard. But here's what I think both sides are missing: The problem is that most businesses don't know their brand voice in the first place.
Why "AI Ruins Writing" Is the Wrong Conversation
AI is a tool. A really powerful tool, yes. But still a tool.
Blaming AI for generic content is like blaming a pen for boring writing or a calculator for bad math. The tool doesn't create the problem, but it does reflect how well you know what you're trying to say.
When someone says "AI writing sounds robotic," what they're actually seeing is:
Unclear input → Unclear output
Generic prompts → Generic content
No brand voice → No distinct voice in the results
It's garbage in, garbage out. Always has been, always will be.
Many people claiming AI is "ruining writing" are often looking at content created without a clear brand voice or message. The AI isn't the problem—it's just making an existing messaging gap more obvious.
Why Your AI Content Sounds Robotic
If your AI-generated content sounds like it came from a corporate press release generator, here's why:
You're Giving It Nothing to Work With
"Write a professional LinkedIn post about marketing strategy."
"Create an email about our new service."
"Generate a blog post on industry trends."
These prompts are the equivalent of walking up to a collaborator and saying "make me some content" then wondering why it's bland.
You Don't Have a Clear Brand Voice to Give It
What does "professional" mean for your brand? What's your perspective? Your personality? Your constraints?
If you can't articulate these things clearly, AI can't either.
Many businesses think they have a brand voice because they can say "we're friendly and approachable" or "we're professional but not stuffy." But that's not a brand voice. That's a vague direction that could apply to thousands of businesses.
You're Asking It to "Sound Human" Without Defining What Your Human Sounds Like
"Make it sound more human" is not useful direction.
Humans sound wildly different from each other. Casual, formal, direct, warm, technical, conversational - which human are we talking about?
Without specificity, you get the AI equivalent of "professional and friendly," which is to say, forgettable.
The Three Levels of AI Direction
Let’s look at how this plays out in real life.
Bad: The Vague Prompt
"Write a LinkedIn post about marketing strategy."
Result: Generic corporate speak that could be from anyone. It sounds robotic because you didn't give it anything to work with.
Better (-ish): The Endless Editor
You get generic output, then spend the next hour editing: "Make it warmer but still professional." "Less corporate, more conversational." "Can you make it sound more human?"
You eventually get something that sounds okay. But you'll do this same dance on every single piece of content you create.
You're creating brand voice guidelines, just the hard way. Trial and error, piece by piece, hour by hour.
Best: The Brand Voice Guide
You have your brand voice defined once—your perspective, your constraints, your patterns, the why behind your communication style.
You feed AI that foundation, and it gives you content that sounds like you from the start. No endless editing. No "make it warmer" feedback loops. Just consistently good output because it knows exactly who you are.
With a brand voice guide, you do the foundational work once and benefit from it every single time. Without it, you're reinventing your voice with every prompt.
Too many people think they're "not good at prompting AI" when the real issue isn't their prompting skills—it's that they don't have a defined brand voice to give it in the first place.
The Brand Voice Piece Everyone's Missing
You can't give AI good direction about your brand voice if you don't actually know your brand voice yourself.
And no, "friendly and professional" doesn't count. Everybody wants that.
Really knowing your brand voice means understanding:
The why behind your tone - Why do you communicate this way? What are you trying to make people feel?
Your specific constraints - What don't you say? What approaches do you avoid?
Your perspective - What do you believe that's different from others in your space?
Your values - What matters most in how you show up and communicate?
When you actually know this stuff, AI becomes a multiplier, not a replacement.
You can feed it your perspective, your voice, your constraints and it helps you get your ideas out faster and more consistently. It's not replacing your thinking. It's helping you execute on your thinking.
The Bottom Line
The AI writing debate is stuck on the wrong question.
It's not "should we use AI or not?"
It's "do we actually know who we are and how we communicate well enough to use any tool effectively?"
If you don't know your brand voice, AI will give you generic content. You were likely creating generic content before AI too. Maybe you thought it was due to not having enough time or not being a "good writer."
AI didn't create the generic content problem. It just made it more obvious.
When you really know your brand voice—the kind that goes beyond surface-level tone descriptors—AI becomes exactly what it should be: a powerful tool that helps you communicate more effectively, not a crutch that makes you sound like everyone else.
Ready to stop fighting with AI and start using it effectively? The first step isn't better prompts. It's actually knowing your brand voice. Figure out what makes your communication distinctly yours, so every piece of content (AI-assisted or not) actually sounds like you.
