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Humanizing AI content means editing a draft so it is clear, useful, and appropriate for its reader. Replace vague language with specific explanations, check the evidence, and add genuine experience where it helps. Do not invent a personal story or claim a background you do not have.
A conversational tone can help some audiences, while a formal tone suits others. The goal is an accountable finished article, not a universal writing style. Use the examples and review process below to improve a draft in the current RankWell workflow.
Start with the reader’s task
Before changing sentences, identify who will read the page, what they need to understand, and what action they can reasonably take next. A technical specification and an introductory guide need different vocabulary and detail.
Remove generic introductions that delay the answer. Keep necessary definitions and qualifications. You can make a sentence easier to read without making its claim stronger than the evidence allows.
Original editing example: “Businesses can leverage innovative solutions to optimize their operational workflows” becomes “List the tasks your team repeats, then choose one to improve.” The revision replaces an abstraction with a concrete action; it does not establish that a particular tool will automate the task.
Use a point of view that fits
Second person can make instructions direct: “Review your draft” tells the reader what to do. Third person is useful when describing a study, policy, or another person’s work. First person belongs where the author is describing their own actual observation or opinion.
Do not change every “businesses” to “you.” That can turn a limited finding about a group into an unsupported promise to an individual. Preserve the population and conditions of research claims.
Original editing example: “The reviewed teams reported lower preparation time” should not become “You will save hours.” A clearer revision is “The result concerns the teams in that review; test your own preparation time before forecasting savings.”
Clarify who does the action
Purdue OWL’s active-voice guidance explains that active constructions can make the actor and action clearer and reduce wordiness.
Original editing example: “The source links were checked by the editor” becomes “The editor checked the source links.” The revised sentence identifies responsibility directly.
Passive voice can still be useful when the actor is unknown or the result deserves emphasis. A sentence containing “by” is not automatically passive, and passive sentences do not always include “by.” Review the grammatical action rather than using a word-search rule.
Add genuine detail without inventing experience
Use approved process notes, a current screenshot, an attributed customer account, or a clearly labeled hypothetical example. Explain what the evidence shows and where its limits are.
- Experience: Describe something the author actually did or observed, with relevant context.
- Opinion: Label a judgment and explain its reasoning instead of presenting it as established fact.
- Customer result: Obtain appropriate permission and preserve its date, scope, and qualifications.
- Hypothetical example: State that the people, process, or numbers are illustrative.
Do not add “In my experience” to an AI-generated anecdote. If an author has no relevant first-hand account, a sourced explanation or transparent example can be more useful than a personal story.
Choose language and examples deliberately
Cut repeated conclusions, unnecessary adjectives, and jargon the audience does not need. Keep technical terms when they make the instructions more precise, and explain them at the point of use. Vary sentence length for clarity rather than forcing a pattern.
Contractions, humor, emotional language, and cultural references are optional choices. They should fit the audience and brand. An article about a sensitive decision may need restraint more than informality.
A competent editor familiar with the language, audience, and subject can review the work. Native-speaker status alone is not a measure of editorial skill or subject expertise. For regional or specialized content, ask someone with the relevant knowledge to check the details.
Review the draft in RankWell
Use RankWell in the current BrandWell portal to support preparing and editing the article. The Content Hub organizes article, strategy, queue, and calendar work. The editor includes the article, search preview, SEO recommendations, NLP, media, sources, and history.
- Check the answer. Confirm that the draft addresses the reader’s question before refining its tone.
- Check the claims. Open sources for facts, statistics, quotations, and instructions. Remove unsupported details.
- Check the voice. Review point of view, responsibility, vocabulary, and examples for this audience.
- Check the media. Confirm rights, captions, alternative text, and readable screenshots.
- Check the finished page. Approve the content, then inspect its layout and links at the configured publishing destination.
A generated draft or recommendation score does not replace factual review. Keep editorial ownership clear when the article moves into a publishing workflow.
A final clarity test
Read the article aloud or ask a reviewer to follow its instructions. Look for missing steps, unexplained terms, unsupported promises, and places where an example is mistaken for a real result. Ask what the reader can now understand or do that the first draft did not make clear.
Hypothetical example: A review identifies 10 unclear sentences. The editor clarifies 7 and sends 3 to the subject expert for missing information. That describes the review’s work; it is not proof of improved search rankings or conversions.
Explore RankWell to prepare and review articles with a clear brief, reliable sources, and an accountable editor.
Reviewed and updated October 3, 2026.
Written by
Julia McCoy has contributed articles to BrandWell on content marketing, writing, and search engine optimization. This archive retains her original bylines; individual articles may be updated by the BrandWell editorial team.
