How to remove AI slop from your marketing copy
You can spot AI writing from across the room. Not because of some magic detector. Because it all sounds the same. The same filler phrases, the same hedging, the same structure repeated paragraph after paragraph. Readers notice it instantly, even if they can't articulate why.
I've read thousands of AI-generated landing pages, emails, and blog posts while building AstroMVP. The patterns are so predictable that I started keeping a list. Here are the 10 worst offenders and how to kill them.
1. "It's important to note that..."
This is the number one AI tell. Real humans almost never write this phrase. It's padding. It adds zero information. Every time you see it, delete the entire lead-in and start with the actual point.
Before: "It's important to note that startup founders often struggle with early traction."
After: "Most startup founders struggle with early traction."
Same meaning. Half the words. Twice the punch.
2. "In today's rapidly evolving landscape"
AI loves opening paragraphs with vague references to how fast things are changing. Nobody talks like this in real life. If you told a friend about your startup, you wouldn't start with "in today's rapidly evolving landscape of digital transformation." You'd say "so here's what I'm building."
Before: "In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses need to adapt quickly."
After: "Things move fast. If your product isn't shipping this month, someone else's will."
3. The triple adjective pattern
AI text loves stacking three adjectives before a noun. "A comprehensive, innovative, and robust solution." Nobody writes like this except AI and people who've read too many corporate memos.
Before: "Our comprehensive, intuitive, and powerful platform helps teams collaborate."
After: "Our platform makes team collaboration dead simple."
4. "Leverage" and "utilize"
Real people say "use." That's it. If you catch yourself writing "leverage" or "utilize," replace it with "use" and move on. Same goes for "facilitate" (help), "implement" (build), and "optimize" (improve).
Before: "Leverage our platform to utilize cutting-edge AI capabilities."
After: "Use our tool. It works."
5. Hedging everywhere
AI hedges constantly because it's trained to be safe. "This can potentially help," "may be beneficial," "could potentially lead to." Strip the hedging. Take a position. If you believe your product works, say so directly.
Before: "This approach can potentially help founders who may be struggling with user acquisition."
After: "This approach works for founders who can't get users."
6. Starting every paragraph the same way
Read any raw AI output and count how many paragraphs start with "This" or "The" or a gerund ("-ing" word). It's usually 80% or more. Real writing varies the openings. Start with a question. Start with a number. Start with a short punchy sentence. Start mid-thought.
7. The "not only... but also" construction
AI uses this constantly. "Not only does this improve performance, but it also enhances user experience." It's grammatically correct but it's a crutch. Say one thing at a time.
Before: "Not only does our skill improve code quality, but it also reduces development time."
After: "The skill improves code quality. It also cuts dev time in half."
8. Perfect grammar everywhere
Real writing breaks grammar rules. Sentence fragments. Starting sentences with "And" or "But." One-word paragraphs. These aren't mistakes. They're rhythm. AI writes like a grammar textbook because it was trained on formal text. Real copy needs to breathe.
9. Lists of exactly three
AI defaults to three items in every list. Three benefits. Three features. Three reasons. Real lists have whatever number of items actually exist. Sometimes it's two. Sometimes it's seven. The forced symmetry of three is a dead giveaway.
10. No specific numbers or examples
AI generalizes because it doesn't have your specific data. "Many businesses have seen significant improvements." How many? What improvements? Replace every vague claim with a specific one.
Before: "Many startups have found success using this approach."
After: "47 founders used this approach last quarter. 31 of them shipped within a week."
How the Humanizer skill fixes this
I built the Humanizer skill specifically because I was spending 45 minutes per article manually fixing these patterns. The skill instructs your AI agent to write with varied rhythm, specific examples, genuine opinions, and natural language from the start.
It's not a post-processing filter. It changes how the AI approaches writing in the first place. The agent learns to use contractions, vary sentence length between 3 and 25 words, avoid the filler phrases listed above, and include the kind of specific details that only a real person would know.
cleanmyaislop.com was built entirely with this skill. It's a tool that detects and rewrites AI-generated text, and the irony of building an AI-detection tool with an AI skill is not lost on me. But that's the point. The skill makes AI output sound human enough that even AI detectors can't reliably flag it.
The real test
Read your copy out loud. If any sentence sounds like something a corporate VP would say in a quarterly earnings call, rewrite it. If you stumble over a phrase while reading it aloud, your reader will stumble over it too.
Good copy sounds like talking. Short sentences mixed with longer ones. Opinions stated directly. Specific numbers instead of vague claims. That's what the Humanizer skill teaches your AI agent to produce.
Your readers can tell when a human is behind the words. Give them that.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AI slop in writing?
AI slop refers to the generic, repetitive patterns that AI language models produce by default. Filler phrases like "it's important to note," hedging language, identical sentence structures, and buzzwords like "leverage," "delve," and "robust." It makes text sound corporate and impersonal, and readers tune out fast.
Can Google detect AI-written content?
Google has said they don't penalize AI content specifically, but they penalize low-quality content. Since most raw AI output is generic and repetitive, it tends to perform poorly in rankings. Humanizing AI content to add genuine voice, specific examples, and varied sentence structures fixes the quality issue.
How do you make AI writing sound human?
Strip out filler phrases, vary your sentence lengths dramatically, add specific examples and numbers, include genuine opinions, use contractions, and break grammar rules occasionally the way real writers do. The Humanizer skill automates most of this process.
Is it worth paying to humanize AI content?
If you're publishing content at scale, absolutely. Manually editing AI drafts takes 30 to 60 minutes per article. A humanizer skill reduces that to about 5 minutes of review. Across 10 articles per month, that's hours saved, and the quality is more consistent than manual editing.