We've been living in two worlds lately. By day, we're marketing agency professionals crafting client content. By night (and lunch breaks), we're the team behind Good Bloggy, tinkering with how structured prompting can make AI writing sound less... well, AI-written.
After hundreds of collective hours testing various AI tools, we've identified a pattern: most content created with AI has a distinctly artificial quality. You know the type – perfectly balanced paragraphs, awkwardly formal transitions, and that subtly promotional tone that never quite captures a genuine human voice. Our clients can spot it immediately, usually with the dreaded question: "Did AI write this?"
The problem isn't actually the AI technology itself. Through our experiments, we've discovered that the difference between robotic-sounding content and writing that passes the "human test" comes down to how you prompt these tools. With thoughtful prompting strategies, even basic AI systems can maintain your brand voice without sounding like they're trying too hard to sound human.
These five prompting approaches have significantly improved our first drafts, cutting our editing time in half and producing content our test audiences engage with more naturally. They won't turn AI into a replacement for skilled writers, but they'll help you avoid those telltale AI fingerprints that make readers disconnect from your message.
1. Provide Context and Specific Details in Prompts
Vague prompts lead to generic content. For example, instead of asking for "content about our product," we'll write: "Create a blog post introducing our new eco-friendly water bottles, targeting environmentally conscious millennials. Mention the key features and how they reduce plastic waste." The difference in output quality is remarkable.
We've also found that including information about tone, format, length, and key points results in content that requires far less editing. This approach helps maintain consistency across multiple AI-generated pieces.
In short, the more context you provide, the more the AI can tailor its output to your specific situation rather than relying on generic patterns. Think of it as briefing a human writer - you wouldn't just give them a topic and walk away.
Context-rich content prompting framework
Topic: [specific topic]
Purpose: [blog post/email/social post/etc.]
Target audience: [specific demographic/persona]
Brand voice: [3-4 descriptive traits of your brand voice]
Key points to cover:
- [point 1]
- [point 2]
- [point 3]
Format: [word count, structure, any specific sections needed]
Specific examples to include: [real examples from your experience]
What to avoid: [topics, claims, or language patterns to skip]
Please write this in our team's voice - we use a conversational, practical tone with occasional humor. We prefer short paragraphs, concrete examples, and balanced viewpoints that acknowledge both benefits and limitations.
2. Use Conversational Language and Tone
One mistake we consistently see is people prompting AI with formal, academic language and then wondering why the output sounds stilted. AI tends to mirror the style you use when communicating with it. We've found that when we write our prompts in a casual, conversational manner, the AI responds in kind.
Instead of writing "Generate content regarding the benefits of social media marketing," try something like: "Could you help us write about why social media marketing matters for small businesses? We want it to sound friendly and approachable, like we're chatting with a client over coffee."
This approach works because AI models learn patterns from your input. When our team started using contractions, varied sentence lengths, and occasional questions in our prompts, the content immediately felt more natural. The AI began to include relatable examples and avoided those perfectly balanced paragraphs that scream "I was written by an algorithm."
Conversational content prompting framework
We'd like to explain [complex topic] to our readers in a friendly, approachable way.
Write as if we're explaining this concept over coffee to a smart friend who isn't familiar with the technical details. We want to sound knowledgeable but not academic.
Include:
- A simple explanation that avoids jargon where possible
- 1-2 everyday analogies that make the concept more relatable
- Common misconceptions we've encountered when talking to clients about this
- Practical applications that show why this matters
Our team has a conversational style with:
- Short paragraphs (2-3 sentences max)
- Some rhetorical questions (but not too many)
- Occasional contractions and informal transitions
- Specific examples from our collective experience
Avoid sounding like a textbook or marketing brochure. We want readers to feel like they're getting insider knowledge from helpful experts.
3. Incorporate Storytelling Elements
Numbers and features make for informative content, but stories are what readers remember. We've discovered that prompting AI with narrative frameworks yields content that feels more authentic and engaging. Rather than asking for a straightforward product description, we'll prompt with something like: "Tell the story of how our founder came up with the idea for our productivity app after struggling with burnout. Describe the 'aha' moment and the journey to bring the product to life."
This storytelling approach works particularly well because it gives the AI a human-centered structure to follow. Good stories include conflict, resolution, and character development – elements that break the AI out of its tendency to create perfectly balanced, emotionless paragraphs. When prompting for storytelling, we make sure to include emotional beats: struggles, breakthroughs, and lessons learned.
Even for technical topics, we've had success asking the AI to frame concepts as mini-stories or case studies rather than abstract explanations. This humanizes the content and makes complex information more relatable and memorable for our audience.
Storytelling content prompting framework
We need content about [topic] that's built around a narrative structure. Start with a relatable problem: [describe a specific situation your audience faces] Then introduce how we discovered/developed [your product/service/approach] while dealing with this same challenge in our own work.
Include these key turning points:
The initial struggle: [specific pain point]
The attempt at conventional solutions: [what typically doesn't work well]
Our realization/discovery: [what we learned]
The approach we developed: [your solution]
Results we've seen: [benefits without overpromising] End with practical next steps readers can take, whether they use our solution or not.
Use conversational language with specific details rather than general claims. Include at least one unexpected insight or counterintuitive point to make the content more interesting.
4. Encourage Opinion and Personality
AI tends to play it safe, presenting balanced views that offend no one but excite no one either. We've found that explicitly directing the AI to take a stance can transform bland content into writing with actual character. This approach has dramatically improved engagement with our newsletter content.
When we ask the AI to adopt a specific persona or express opinions, it breaks out of its neutral zone. For instance, we recently prompted: "You're a veteran social media manager who's seen every trend come and go. Give your brutally honest take on why Threads won't replace X." The result was refreshingly direct. Here's an excerpt:
Threads is polished, friendly, and has a massive user pool courtesy of Instagram. But replacing X isn't just about pretty UX or big sign-up numbers. It's about capturing the chaotic, fast-paced culture that Twitter has cultivated for over a decade. So far, Threads hasn't delivered enough chaos—and ironically, that chaos is exactly what keeps X alive.
The key is being specific about the perspective you want. Generic requests for "personality" often fall flat, while defined viewpoints or character traits yield more authentic-sounding content. Even when the opinions are deliberately exaggerated, they feel more human than balanced, neutral text.
Persona-based content prompting framework
For this piece, write from the perspective of an experienced [profession/role] who has worked in [industry] for over 10 years.
Topic: [specific topic]
Stance: [specific viewpoint to take]
This persona should:
- Speak from firsthand experience using "we" for our team
- Have a slightly [characteristic: skeptical/enthusiastic/practical/etc.] tone
- Challenge at least one common assumption about [topic]
- Use industry terminology naturally but sparingly
- Include 1-2 mini-anecdotes from "our experience" (no need to be specific about clients)
The content should express clear opinions while remaining grounded and evidence-based. Avoid dramatic claims or revolutionary language. Instead, focus on nuanced perspectives that come from years of practical experience.
5. Iterate with Follow-Up Prompts
One-shot prompting rarely produces truly natural-sounding content. We've found the most human-like AI writing comes from a back-and-forth conversation approach. Our team now treats AI content generation as a collaborative process rather than a single transaction.
When we want to create a comprehensive guide for clients, we'll start with a simple prompt: "Write an introduction to email marketing for small businesses." Once we have that foundation, we follow up with refinement prompts: "Great start! Now let's add specific examples of subject lines that have worked for small retailers." This layered approach produces much more nuanced content.
We've observed that follow-up prompts are particularly effective for adding personality to technical content. For instance, after getting a solid explanation of SEO basics, we might say, "This is helpful, but let's make it more conversational by including common frustrations beginners face."
The beauty of this method is that you can shape the content gradually, addressing specific weaknesses you notice. For example, when we spotted that our AI-written social media post lacked practical implementation details, a quick follow-up prompt filled those gaps without losing the original structure.
This approach mimics how human writers actually work - through drafting and revision rather than perfect first attempts.
Iterative content prompting framework
[Start with content from a previous AI generation] This is a good start, but we'd like to make it sound more natural and authentic. Please revise with these improvements:
Vary the sentence structure more - mix in some shorter sentences and occasional longer ones
Add more specific details about [aspect that needs elaboration]
Make paragraph 3 more conversational by including a brief anecdotal example
Replace the generic phrases [list phrases to change] with more specific language
Add a touch of personality in the introduction by acknowledging a common frustration people have with [topic]
Simplify the explanation of [complex concept] using an everyday analogy Keep the core information and structure, but make it feel like it was written by our team of experienced professionals having a direct conversation with the reader.
Conclusion
After nearly two years of working with AI writing tools, we've learned that creating human-like content isn't about having the most advanced AI – it's about how you communicate with it. The right prompting strategies can transform mechanical text into content that genuinely connects with readers.
We encourage you to experiment with different these approaches in your own work. The most effective prompting techniques often develop through trial and error, shaped by your specific audience and objectives. The goal isn't perfectly polished AI text, but rather content that sounds authentically human while saving you valuable creation time.