AI can help you write. In fact, you could ask AI to write you a thousand blog posts today, and it would. But most of them would be horrible: generic, with no point of view and no reason for anyone to trust you. That's AI slop.
The answer isn't to avoid AI. It's to give AI the right part of the job and keep the rest for yourself.
1. Learn to spot slop
Slop is easy to recognize once you know the signs:
- It avoids specifics: no real stories, names, or numbers.
- It opens with filler, like "In today's fast-paced world."
- It makes big claims nobody can check, like "industry-leading" or "unmatched."
- It says the same thing three ways, or makes a list just to have a list.
If your draft has these, the tool usually isn't the problem. Nobody gave it anything real to work with.
2. Keep the creative work human
Writing has always had two parts. Deciding what to say is creative: your opinion, your angle, your stories, what you know about your customers. Getting it onto the page is technical: spelling, grammar, typing, formatting, trimming.
We've handed the technical part to tools for a long time. Spell check underlined our mistakes long before AI, and people were dictating into tape recorders in the '80s. Nobody thinks a typed letter is less yours than a handwritten one.
AI does more of the technical side. The rule of thumb: the more technical or tactical a task is, the more it makes sense to hand it to AI.
Good jobs for AI:
- Turning your rough notes or a voice memo into clean paragraphs
- Fixing grammar, tightening wordy sentences, and checking tone
- Writing variations, like ten subject lines or three lengths of the same ad
- Reformatting one piece for email, social, and your website
- Summarizing customer feedback so you can spot patterns
Keep for yourself:
- What you actually think, and why
- Stories from your work and your customers
- The facts, prices, and details only you know
- What to actually publish
3. Start with your own material
Don't start with "write a blog post about X." That's how slop is born. AI will just give you the most average version of X.
Start with your own raw material instead. Talk through what you want to say into a voice memo or a dictation app, or jot rough bullet points. Include your own opinions, product knowledge, and actual customer stories.
Then ask AI to organize and clean up what you gave it.
Here's what that looks like for us. We walk around and talk through our thoughts with Wispr Flow, a dictation app. AI cleans that up into a draft we can read. Then we go back and forth with AI, editing until every line says what we think, in our own voice. It's literally how this guide was written.
4. Give clear instructions
If you can explain clearly what you want, AI can usually do it. Vague instructions get vague writing.
Tell it:
- Who it's for, and what you want them to do next
- The voice, with a sample of your own writing if you have one
- How long it should be
- What not to do: no new claims, no facts you didn't provide, no filler
For example:
Turn these notes into a 600-word article for homeowners choosing a roofer. Use only the points and examples in my notes. Don't add statistics, claims, or new advice. Write in plain language with short paragraphs and no buzzwords. Match the tone of the sample below.
Telling AI what not to add is what keeps your piece from drifting into slop.
5. Edit like a reader
A person should read everything before it goes out. Most AI slop exists because those who publish it never actually read it. And AI can sound very confident even when it's wrong.
When you edit:
- Check every fact, number, and claim. Cut anything you can't back up.
- Read it out loud. If you wouldn't say it to a customer, rewrite it.
- Run through the slop signs from step 1 one more time.
6. Aim at the right readers, not more of them
Slop comes from pointing AI at volume: more posts, more emails, more pages. The better use is precision.
Take cold email. You could use AI to email everyone, but it would be spammy, it wouldn't work, and a lot of it would end up in spam folders. Instead, use AI to find the people who'd actually want your offer, learn something real about each one, and write a short note that fits.
For a sandal brand reaching out to shoe stores, that might be:
- "We see you already carry this sandal. Would you be interested in carrying ours?"
- "We see you carry running shoes. Would you be interested in running sandals?"
Fewer, better messages are better for you and for the people you reach.
What not to do
Don't use AI to trick people. AI can get a bad rap, and it's not without reason. It's best to avoid the following:
- Fake reviews or testimonials, written by AI or anyone else
- Made-up stories to open a cold email, like "we just love your store"
- Fake urgency, like a sale that "ends tonight" every night
- Statistics or claims you haven't checked
- Publishing at volume without anyone reading it first
Questions to ask
When you use AI for writing, ask:
- Is this creative or tactical? Keep the creative work human. The more tactical the task, the more AI should do it.
- Is this still my voice? If the writing no longer sounds like you, that's not a good thing. Keep editing.
- Is it manipulative? If it only works because people believe something untrue, don't do it.
Mainsplash can do all of this for you.
Start with a free, 1-page marketing plan.