AI-generated text is everywhere — in blog posts, emails, essays and marketing copy. Most people think they can spot it. Most people are wrong.
The reason isn't that AI writes badly. It's that AI writes consistently — and that consistency is exactly what gives it away. Here are the 7 most reliable signs.
1. Hedging Phrases Used Constantly
AI loves phrases that soften claims without adding meaning. Look for: "It is important to note that…", "It is worth mentioning that…", "It's crucial to understand that…". Humans use these occasionally. AI uses them in almost every paragraph. If you see three or more in a short passage, that's a strong signal.
2. Transition Words Everywhere
AI text is obsessed with transitions: Furthermore, Moreover, Additionally, In conclusion, In summary. These appear so frequently they become a fingerprint. Real writers use transitions sparingly — and when they do, they vary them.
3. Perfectly Uniform Sentence Length
Read a paragraph aloud. Do all the sentences feel roughly the same length? Humans write in bursts — short punchy sentences, then long flowing ones. This is called "burstiness" and AI has almost none of it. It produces consistently medium-length sentences: not short, not long, just perpetually average.
4. No Personal Anecdotes or Specific Details
This is the biggest giveaway. AI cannot draw on lived experience, so it gives you: "Many people find that…" and "Studies suggest…" Human writers say: "When I tried this last Tuesday, the first thing I noticed was…" Specific people, specific times, specific failures — almost never in AI text.
5. The Word "Delve" (and Friends)
The word "delve" has spiked since 2022 in direct proportion to AI usage. Humans almost never write it. AI uses it constantly. Same goes for "nuanced", "multifaceted", "comprehensive", "leverage" and "utilize". Their presence raises the AI probability significantly.
6. Balanced Lists of Exactly Three Things
AI has a pathological love of the rule of three. It structures almost everything as three perfectly parallel items. Humans make lists of four things. Or seven. Or two and a half. Real lists are messier.
7. No Real Opinions
AI is trained to be neutral. It will never say "this approach is genuinely bad" or "the conventional wisdom here is wrong." It hedges everything into meaninglessness. Human writing takes positions. When a piece has no real opinions — just "on one hand… on the other hand…" — that's AI.
Check Any Text Instantly
Reading for these patterns takes practice. Our free AI Content Detector scores any text on all seven dimensions in seconds. You can also test your own eye with the AI vs Human Quiz — 10 rounds of real text where you guess which was written by AI.
