Some captions give themselves away by the second line: AI wrote this. It isn't magic. AI text repeats patterns, and audiences, after seeing so many, have learned to spot them. When they spot them, trust drops.
The most common tics
1. The introductory opening. "In today's world...", "Have you ever wondered...", "Let's talk about...". Nobody starts a conversation like that.
- Replace with: the concrete situation. "Yesterday a client came in with chipped nails."
2. The trio of adjectives. "A unique, transformative and unforgettable experience." Three words that say nothing.
- Replace with: a real detail. "The dough rests for 24 hours before it goes in the oven."
3. The "it's not just X, it's Y". "It's not just a cake, it's a moment." Once, it passes. Repeated, it gives you away.
- Replace with: saying directly what it is.
4. Brochure words. "Elevate", "unlock", "journey", "empower", "revolutionize". Nobody says these at the counter.
- Replace with: the word you'd use with the customer in front of you.
5. Overworked punctuation. Too many dashes, colons in every sentence, rows of emojis at the end of every line.
- Replace with: simple sentences with a period.
6. The generic question at the end. "What do you think? Let me know in the comments!" after every post.
- Replace with: a specific question, or none. "Do you wash before or after applying the oil?"
7. The conclusion that sums it all up. "In summary, taking care of your skin is essential to...". The reader just read it; they don't need the summary.
- Replace with: ending on your strongest point.
The read-aloud test
Read the text aloud as if you were talking to a customer. Any sentence you wouldn't actually say is a candidate to cut. This test catches most tics in seconds.
Keep a banned list
Write down the expressions you'd never use and check every text against that list. Over time, you won't even need it: your ear catches them on its own.
Text that doesn't sound like AI
Creathoria writes against AI writing tics, with automatic quality checks and a human voice reviewer on every post.