You Only Notice AI Writing That Sucks

When AI can write better than you, getting good results means bringing your perspective.

You Only Notice AI Writing That Sucks
Trend to Watch · Edition #25

You're reading a report, but something feels off.

It's too polished and you've seen similar writing patterns before:

"It's not a budget problem, it's a priority problem—leadership must align spending with strategic objectives."

You know this is AI.

And you're probably right.

But, here's what you should be aware of:

You only notice the AI writing that sucks.

The good stuff?

You assume it's human without questioning it.

A recent study proved the quality of AI writing is more nuanced than we'd like to think.

The average reader can't tell the difference between AI and human writing.

Expert writers?

They're more complicated.

They strongly prefer human writing over general AI writing.

But this is where it gets interesting:

When AI is fine-tuned on an author's writing, their preference flips.

The experts end up favoring AI 8x more than the human writing of the author it was trained on.

Read that again.

When you pair this finding with the reality of AI producing copy 99.7% cheaper...

And its speed and personalization advantages...

Oh boy.

It's only a matter of time until processes restructure around this.


Good AI writing takes work.

How are early movers pulling this off?

It starts with fine-tuning.

Which isn't as technical as it sounds.

It just means training an AI model on examples and rules like tone, style, and standards.

Instead of having basic AI conversations, they're building systems that produce work that's indistinguishable from the best writers.

This isn't just for companies.

As an individual, you can create your own writing systems too.

Here are some simple tactics that help you avoid being labeled as slop by people with a developed AI radar:

  • Create a project with specific instructions and strong writing examples
  • Build custom prompts that produce outputs in your voice
  • Have AI ask you questions to get your perspective and inject it into copy
  • Edit and adjust the results until you're satisfied

Like other AI uses, good AI writing takes work.

There's no getting away from this: good results need good inputs.


Your job is changing from production to perspective.

This goes beyond AI writing.

It's a pattern across every domain where AI can increasingly handle execution.

These traits will keep you valuable:

  • Your ideas: Your unique perspective and the problems you choose to solve
  • Your taste: Your style and what you decide to ship
  • Your ability to iterate: Working with AI until it matches your standards

Remember: you only notice AI that sucks.

The good stuff already fools you.

It fools you because someone put in the work and maintains their perspective.

Build a Team of AI Superusers
Good AI results take work. Get your team the skills.
The 5-Day AI Advantage Challenge builds the skills to turn AI outputs into work that matches your standards.
See What Your Team Can Do →
Not a subscriber yet?
Join Your AI Advantage Weekly for practical insights on AI strategy and the changing workplace.
Subscribe Free →
Found this useful? Forward it to a teammate who’s figuring out AI too.