AI Writing Tells: How to Spot Bot Copy

Your readers can spot lazy machine prose faster than many teams admit. The problem is that AI writing tells now show up in marketing pages, founder posts, help docs, and even reporting, and they make solid ideas feel processed. TechCrunch’s piece on Opus 5.5 points at a familiar pattern: modern models often over-explain why something matters, then smooth every edge until the copy sounds safe, polished, and strangely empty. That matters for your brand because trust is fragile. If your audience senses that a bot wrote the piece and nobody edited it, they start doubting the claim, the product, and the person behind it. The fix is not to ban AI tools. It is to learn the tells, edit for intent, and put human judgment back in the sentence before you publish.

What stands out

• AI writing tells are patterns, not proof. They can flag weak copy, but they should not be treated as a courtroom test.
• Common tells include inflated stakes, tidy three-part lists, generic praise, and phrases that explain importance without adding evidence.
• Good editing means adding specificity, friction, names, numbers, and a point of view.
• The best AI-assisted writing still needs a human owner who can cut, question, and verify.

Why AI writing tells keep showing up

Large language models predict likely words based on training data and context. That makes them good at producing fluent copy, but it also pulls them toward safe rhythms that feel familiar across thousands of posts.

Look, this is not a moral failing by the model. It is closer to restaurant prep: if every dish starts with the same base sauce, you can taste it even when the garnish changes.

Fluent writing is not the same as credible writing. If a sentence only tells you that something matters, it has not yet told you why.

TechCrunch’s example around Opus 5.5 is useful because it names a habit many editors have seen for years. The model wants to frame, reassure, and signal importance before it gives you the hard material.

The most common AI writing tells to cut

Some tells are obvious. Others hide inside copy that looks clean at first pass, which is why teams miss them during fast publishing cycles.

1. The importance reflex. Phrases like this matters because often appear before the writer has earned the claim. Replace them with a concrete effect, such as revenue lost, time saved, risk reduced, or a user behavior that changed.
2. The balanced paragraph trap. AI tools love neat symmetry. You get three examples, three benefits, and three cautious caveats, even when the subject needs one sharp point and a receipt.
3. Generic authority language. Words like teams, leaders, businesses, and users can blur the real actor. Name who you mean: security teams, solo founders, claims adjusters, or front-desk staff.
4. Polished sameness. The copy flows, but nothing snags. Human writing often has a small angle, a strange detail, or a sentence that shows the writer has been in the room.
5. Claims without ballast. If a paragraph says a tool improves productivity, ask by how much, for whom, under what conditions, and compared with what.

AI writing tells are fingerprints, not verdicts.

How to remove AI writing tells before publishing

Start by asking one blunt question: would this sentence survive if the reader already knew the topic? If not, it may be throat-clearing dressed up as insight.

I use a simple edit pass for AI-assisted drafts. It works for blog posts, executive memos, product pages, and social copy (especially the posts that sound like every founder on LinkedIn).

• Cut the first paragraph if it warms up slowly. Many AI drafts begin with context the reader does not need. Move the useful sentence to the top.
• Replace abstract nouns with evidence. Swap transformation for a metric, workflow, customer quote, or named example.
• Add one earned opinion. A real writer makes choices. Say what is overhyped, what is underpriced, or what users should ignore.
• Vary sentence shape on purpose. Mix short statements with longer explanations. Do not let every paragraph land with the same rhythm.
• Read it aloud. If you feel like a keynote speaker with no audience, the copy is probably too smooth.

AI writing tells and trust

Readers do not reject AI-assisted writing because a model touched it. They reject writing that feels ownerless, vague, and allergic to risk.

This is where many companies get sloppy. They treat AI output as finished work because it is grammatically clean, but grammar is the floor, not the finish line.

For journalists, editors, and content leads, the standard should be simple. If you would not stand behind a claim with your name attached, do not publish it under your company name either.

What to do with AI writing tells in your workflow

You do not need a new bureaucracy to fix this. You need a short checklist and one person with the authority to say the draft is not ready.

A practical editing checklist

• Does the opening answer a real reader problem within the first few lines?
• Does every claim have proof, context, or a clear limit?
• Could a competitor publish the same paragraph without changing a word?
• Are the examples specific enough to show lived knowledge?
• Does the piece contain a point of view, or only polite summary?

If the answer to that third question is yes, rewrite. Bland copy is not safer. It is easier to ignore.

The next test for AI-assisted writing

The better models get, the less useful surface-level detection will become. The real test will be editorial: can you add judgment, reporting, and texture that a predictive system would not invent on its own?

AI writing tools can speed up drafts, outlines, and rewrites. But if your final copy still sounds like it is trying to convince everyone that the topic matters, your next step is simple: delete the explanation and prove it.