Stop writing like a robot: ban these AI words and phrases

Stop writing like a robot: ban these AI words and phrases

From How I Work by Amantha Imber

March 29, 2026 · 19 min

About this episode

Amantha Imber and Neo discuss how to maintain a human voice in writing when using AI tools and identify overused phrases to avoid.

Download Inventium.ai 's anti-AI slop prompt here: https://amantha-imber.kit.com/d5f746bd3e You can always tell when something's been written by AI. The LinkedIn post that opens with "in today's fast-paced world." The article that ends with "it's not about X, it's about Y." Technically fine, but somehow hollow. Like it was written by nobody in particular. The frustrating part is that this can happen even when you're doing the real thinking. You write the ideas, hand it to AI for a cleanup, and it flattens your voice, packs it with em-dashes, and strips out everything that sounded like you. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I get into the specific instructions you can give AI to keep your writing sounding human, and share some of the most overused AI words and phrases worth banning from your prompts entirely. Neo and I cover: Why sounding like AI is a credibility problem, even when you've done the actual thinking and are only using AI to refine and edit your work. The single most important instruction to give AI when asking it to clean up your writing. Why em-dashes are so hard to eliminate from AI output, and the specific phrasing (including pasting in the actual dash character)…

People in this episode

Host: Amantha Imber

Guest: Neo

Topics covered

  • AI writing
  • human voice
  • writing tips
  • credibility
  • language accessibility

Keywords

  • AI words
  • writing style
  • em-dashes
  • credibility problem
  • language level

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Inventium.ai

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