Are you like me, thinking this AI thing is getting really out of hand? If you’re a human writer, then this blog will probably resonate with you. Every day, I see posts on LinkedIn from copywriters and content writers sharing horror stories about AI detection. Their work is getting kicked back. Clients are asking questions and, in some cases, even sending them reports that show that some AI detector out there is suggesting that their writing is not human.
Yuck. None of this feels good. If you write blogs for other businesses, you have probably seen these posts too. And if you have not, it might be time to scroll a little more closely.
AI detection is simply part of our reality now. Marketers are building it into their workflows, and clients and writers are discussing the use of artificial intelligence in contracts. But worse? Sometimes, the stuff that we write, as much as we write it on our own, gets flagged. Ugh!
So what really happens when your writing gets flagged for AI? And more importantly, how should you handle it?
I want to talk about it. Okay, not really. Let me clarify, I want to write about it.
Why Human Writing Is Getting Flagged More Often
One of the most frustrating parts of this whole conversation is that AI detection is not just catching AI-generated text. It is also catching writing that sounds too polished, too formal, or too uniform.
Writers are being told that em dashes are suspicious. Certain sentence structures are suddenly frowned upon. My favorite? Bullet points that have this type of structure:
Topic here: explanation here
It drives me batty! Formatting that used to be fine is now raising red flags. Even common phrases that we’ve been using for years in our writing seem to be coming under fire. Why? Because artificial intelligence tools are trained on human writing. They’re trained on the very words we have been writing for years! Words and phrases such as boost, ensure, durable, aesthetics, vibrant, and discover. Trust me, there are a lot more, but I don’t dare add them to this article for fear that this very post will get flagged by a detector.
I have personally spent hours (okay, maybe not hours, but sometimes it feels that way) rewriting sentences I wrote myself, not because the message was wrong, but because a detector didn’t like how they sounded. That is a strange place to be as a professional writer. And it’s time-invasive and encroaches on all the other things we need to do in a day.
The result is that writing fresh and engaging content might take you more time. This is especially true for formal writing and technical writing (at least from my own experience).
Honesty is Always the Best Policy
You probably learned at a young age about the value of honesty and integrity. Well, hold that close because one of the smartest things you can do as a writer is talk about AI before a project ever starts.
If a client says AI cannot be used, then do not use it. Full stop. Many businesses have agreements with their own clients that require human-written content. When you ignore that, you are not just risking your own reputation. You are putting your client in a very uncomfortable position, possibly even a legal one.
This is not about fear. It is about clarity.
Ask questions early:
- Is AI allowed at all?
- If so, where is the line?
- Are there internal rules or contracts involved?
And do the right thing. If your client doesn’t want AI, then why use it? Further, if you are out there pitching yourself as a writer only to go back to your laptop to tell ChatGPT or Jasper to write an article for you, are you really in the right profession? Because writing and content generation are not the same thing. Let me say it again, if anything, just for giggles. Writing content and generating content are not the same. Writing content and generating content are not the same.
Don’t Let Artificial Intelligence Control Your Writing
This does not mean you have to throw out everything you know about writing.
You can still use creative punctuation. Writing persuasively should still be a thing, because isn’t that what copywriters are paid to do? You can still sound professional. The difference is all in being aware. Take a look at how your writing is being interpreted by tools, platforms, and clients. Has it changed? Or rather, have you changed your approach? If it’s the latter, well, it’s up to you on how you handle it.
Here’s the thing. Your creativity as a writer still matters. I’d probably argue that it matters more than ever. Finding fresh ways to say familiar things is part of the craft. It always has been.
When a Client Questions Your Work
So here’s the thing. If you are writing 100% human content all the time, then it’s highly unlikely that you will ever have a client raise an eyebrow at you. Why? Most marketers and business owners today understand that, as with everything, you need to take it with a grain of salt. If they are running detectors and nine out of every ten articles is 100% clear (or at least fall under some threshold), you’re likely never to hear a peep.
So if they do reach out, take a moment to reflect.
Ask questions. Find out what tool they used and what the report actually says. Sometimes a single paragraph triggers a score that does not reflect the entire piece.
If you used AI in any part of the process and it was never discussed, be honest. This is not the moment to get defensive. This is your golden opportunity to course correct and reset expectations. Put clear rules in place going forward. And offer to rewrite the content. Trust me, rewriting content that has been written by AI is pretty easy to do. If you’re a writer.
And if you want that extra line of defense or want to understand what you might run into, run your work through multiple detectors. I personally use Quillbot and, as of just recently, Copyleaks. No tool is going to get it right every time, but when multiple detectors are sending you the same message, you really shouldn’t ignore it.
Yes, human-written content can be flagged incorrectly. I have seen it happen. But most of the time, these tools are directionally right.
How Many Writers Actually Use AI and How
Most writers I know have experimented with artificial intelligence in some way. I was completely against it when it first showed up. That stance softened after some hands-on testing and a difficult client conversation nearly two years ago.
My experimentation was brief. What I learned was this: AI is fine for brainstorming, outlines, light phrasing help, or organizing bullet points when your brain feels stuck. It is not something I use to generate full articles.
Could it do that? Sure. Should it? Not unless a client specifically asks for it. And even then, human editing matters. That is the job. That is the value.
Coaching Writers Through the Shift
These days, I spend time helping other writers (and sometimes, clients) understand where AI fits and where it does not. I also watch what writers are sharing on LinkedIn (see this example), Alignable, and Reddit. The rules keep shifting, and pretending they are not is not helpful.
Adapting does not mean surrendering your skills. It means protecting them.
The Bottom Line for Writers
If writing feels more fun when a machine does most of the work, this might not be the right business for you.
AI does not save me time. It slows me down. A lot. And much of that is because I have added originality and AI detection to my own workflow. For those curious, my workflow looks something like this.
Write the article -> run it through Copyscape to confirm originality -> run it through Quillbot for initial AI detection -> make any corrections if anything shows up -> run it through Quillbot again -> run it through Copyleaks.
And sometimes (though thankfully not all the time because I might just jump out a window), this is all rinse and repeat.
So here’s my bottom line. The actual act of writing is something I enjoy. When artificial intelligence becomes the main voice, that enjoyment disappears fast. I’ve tried it. An overreliance on AI simply leeched joy from my day.
This all said, do your homework. Be honest with your clients. Pay attention to how your work is being judged. And above all, write your own content.
Your clients deserve that. And honestly, so do you.
AI Detection at its Finest (insert sarcasm here)
PS… want to see something interesting? Here are the results of three different AI detection tools based on this exact article.
This first image is from Quillbot. 0% AI detection.
This next image is from ZeroGPT. No, I don’t typically use ZeroGPT, but I figured just for giggles, I’d give it a try. When I did the first scan, it came back around 7%. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t bother me. I’d be pretty pleased. But because this very article is about the use of artificial intelligence in writing, I figured I’d humor some corrections. I managed to get it down to 1.41% AI GPT, which basically says what we already know: I wrote it.
And now for Copyleaks. My jury is still out on this detector and in a big way. Last night, I ran a document through the tool that I wrote for a client. Quillbot told me that it suspected about 40% of the content was written by AI. But Copyleaks told me 100%. I even went through the process of cleaning up over 50 phrases that the tool said suggested were often used in AI writing. Still 100%.
And today? This article. Well, here you go. If there were an image to show me slapping myself on the forehead in frustration, it would appear right now. And which 23 phrases are it flagging? We’re talking things like “the value of honesty and integrity,” “are trained on human,” and “fresh and engaging content.” I don’t know about you, but I use those phrases commonly.
So, if I were to land a message, I’d say this. Write the stuff yourself. And if you get a flag here and there and know you were doing the right thing? Don’t let it get you down. This is simply the writing world we are living in today.
