It’s fair to say that AI-generated content is now just as common as human-created content. We can see how many brands and influencers have started using AI in influencer marketing. The biggest reasons they turn to AI are its convenience. It saves time and is always available, making it a go-to option when brands and influencers are short on time or fresh ideas.
There’s no doubt that AI excels at structuring sentences and delivering information quickly. No matter how much content you need, AI can generate it in seconds — be it captions, copies, blog posts, or video scripts.
But here’s the problem: relying entirely on AI for content creation means losing the human touch and emotional depth. While your audience may not always realize AI is behind the scenes, they’ll often sense that something feels off. It could be the unnatural tone, overly dramatic wording, or lack of personality. In marketing, speed isn’t always the most important factor. Authenticity, connection, and relatability matter just as much, if not more.
So how do we find the right balance between using AI while keeping content natural and maintaining a real connection with the audience? This is what you should know about humanizing AI-generated content.
Why Should We Humanize AI Content?
While search engines like Google is not ‘allergic’ to AI content and prioritize the content quality over how it is produced, social media as the main platform for influencer marketing is different. In influencer marketing, things are more complicated. You need trust, connection, authenticity, resonance, and personality to show your audience what kind of brand or influencer you actually are.
Our survey of 620 Instagram influencers found that most (76%) use AI tools mainly for content creation. Meanwhile, 7% use AI for analytics and performance tracking, 6% for audience engagement, 3% for scheduling and posting, and 2% for hashtag, trend, and competitive analysis. The remaining 5% use AI for other purposes.
This may not seem like a problem until users start relying entirely on AI-generated content without further checking or tweaking. AI content often feels “too machine” and lacks authenticity. But why is that?
In a brief conversation with ChatGPT, we asked how it crafts social media content, and the answer was exactly what we expected. First, they study a big amount of data to recognize common phrases, sentence structures, and content styles. Next, it generates text by predicting the most statistically probable words or phrases, rather than thinking creatively. Furthermore, AI follows pre-programmed guidelines that sometimes require it to avoid controversial, risky, or nuanced expressions that a human writer would naturally include in their writing. Lastly, since AI works based on mathematical algorithms, it can only mimic sentiment using given examples but doesn’t truly experience emotions.
On the other hand, people follow brands and influencers for their personality, stories, and expertise, which go beyond just providing information. Information is everywhere, but engaging storytelling and a distinct voice coming from real people who resonate with their audience are something that cannot be fully replicated by AI.
If brands and influencers rely too much on AI-generated content, there will come a point when their audience notices the shift and starts ignoring their content without engaging with it. Eventually, people may even begin questioning whether influencers are creating their content themselves.
With 81.5% of AI users utilizing the technology for different types of content creation, brands and influencers need to understand how to humanize AI-generated content. The main idea is not to use AI-created content blindly, but to carefully edit and adjust it to your values.
How to Make AI Content Less Robotic and More Human-like
Making an effort to keep people engaged with your content doesn’t mean you have to avoid using AI at all. The goal is to work with it and create content that is high-quality but still feels natural, relatable, and authentic. You don’t even need a special tool to humanize AI content. Here are some ways to make your content sound more like you.
1. Use a natural tone, just like you talk
The first way to humanize AI written content is using natural language and tone that sounds like you. When you get AI-written text, don’t rush to use it as is. Read it aloud and see how it feels. Edit parts that sound stiff, overly formal, or packed with jargon. Make it sound like a real conversation with your audience (or even better, a friend). Imagine how you would naturally say it to keep the engagement genuine.
Don’t be afraid to use abbreviations, be casual, or even write as if you’re texting a friend. As long as it aligns with your brand or personality, you’re on the right track.
2. Deliver opinions and express emotions
Facts are important, but opinions add authenticity, especially for influencers. Remember, there are people who follow you because they want to hear your voice and enjoy how you present your content. Adding personal opinions to facts can enrich your content and encourage more engagement from your audience.
Another element you shouldn’t overlook is emotion. Show your audience how happy, excited, surprised, or even disappointed you are in your content. Using the right emotions at the right time creates a stronger connection and helps shape how an influencer or brand is perceived. A brand, for example, can come across as cheerful, knowledgeable, elegant, or even sassy based on the way they write captions and copy.
3. Include stories that feel personal
Another way to humanize AI generated content is by including personal stories to create a real connection with people. When reading AI-written text, think of something personal you can add to make it more engaging for your audience.
For brands, consider sharing:
What motivated you to create this product?
What inspired your current brand values?
What challenges have you faced when creating the product and how have you overcome it?
How have you handled customer feedback?
Why did you choose this influencer to collaborate with?
For influencers, you can talk about:
What makes you love this brand?
What unique qualities do you see in this product?
How did you find the right product for your needs?
How does this product help you or solve a problem for you?
4. Share real experiences
No matter how well AI generates content, it will never have firsthand experience. Since shared experiences make writing feel more authentic, how can AI provide that when it hasn’t actually lived through anything? This is a gap that should and could only be filled by real humans.
Sharing experiences isn’t just about telling stories, but also about what you’ve learned from them—whether it’s something new or a valuable lesson. Connecting your experiences with your audience creates mutual feelings and contextual relevance. If your audience relates to your experiences, they are more likely to spend time reading and engaging with your posts. Many netizens, especially followers of niche influencers, are highly reactive. That’s why choosing the right experiences and highlighting the meaningful parts can help capture their attention.
Experience is also closely tied to expertise. If your brand relies on an influencer’s expertise to promote a product, make it clear that AI-generated content should include their real knowledge and personal experience. This ensures their recommendations are based on what they’ve actually gone through and understand. Not only does this make the content feel more real, but it also builds credibility and trust.
5. Always check facts and use valid information
It’s true that AI can generate content filled with facts in seconds, but remember that AI tools even come with a disclaimer. For example, ChatGPT clearly states at the bottom of the tool: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” So, besides thinking about how to humanize AI content, you also need to know how to deal with data provided by AI.
AI pulls information from millions of sources, but that also means it might pick up outdated or incorrect facts. That’s why you should always double-check that the facts, dates, and statistics in AI-generated content are still relevant until today.
Even worse, AI sometimes hallucinates data, generating numbers or sources that don’t actually exist. If you need help verifying facts, Perplexity is one of the best AI tools available. Additionally, if your brand has its own data from research, surveys, or internal reports, it’s always better to use those sources to maintain accuracy.
6. Humanize your AI prompts
There’s a saying that AI’s output is only as good as your input. This is 100% true because AI-created content largely depends on your prompts’ quality. You can’t expect AI to create content that suits your style without giving it clear guidance on the tone you prefer, the style you like, and the message that reflects your brand or personality.
Train your AI tool to write like you by specifying the persona it should imitate, adding jokes or specific details, excluding certain terms or phrases to make it sound more natural, and defining your target audience. Doing this increases the chances of getting content that suits your brand voice.
Keep in mind that refining prompts takes time and often requires multiple iterations, so be patient. Even after fine-tuning your prompts, the results may still need small tweaks. At this point, you may want to consider editing the content right from the start so you can infuse your own voice more quickly.
Can AI or Virtual Influencers Content Be Humanized?
We’ve covered how to humanize AI-generated content in influencer marketing, where real humans are usually involved in campaigns. But what about AI influencers or virtual influencers? Since they aren’t real people, is it possible to make their content feel “human” while staying authentic?
Well, the answer is yes.
If we look at some of their accounts, they can appear “real”, maintain authenticity, and be positively received by audiences for several reasons:
They have different personalities and backstories
The good thing about virtual influencers is that they often have a unique persona and identity, just like humans. This helps build a deeper connection with their audience. For example, Lil Miquela is portrayed as a 19-year-old Brazilian-American model and singer who engages with real-world issues and shares her personal life on social media.
This proves how important storytelling is. Even when a virtual influencer talks about their "life," they can still feel authentic and drive engagement by having a well-developed backstory and engaging with current issues.
They engage in real-world interactions
The biggest advantage of virtual influencers is that they can be anywhere, at any time, with anyone — something humans can’t do. Virtual influencers use this to their advantage by blurring the lines between the virtual and physical worlds through their content. They often participate in real-world events and collaborations to create the impression that they are just like real people.
Take, for example, Imma and Plusticboy, two virtual influencers who appeared in a surreal photo with renowned DJ Steve Aoki. We know that Imma and Plusticboy aren’t real, but the way their content is presented makes it well-received by audiences and drives engagement. This might be the closest AI can get to creating a human-like experience.
They stand for something
Designed to appear socially active with friends and public figures, some virtual influencers are made to seem socially aware and emotionally connected. They do this by supporting causes like diversity, democracy, and environmental sustainability. By addressing these issues and showing how they "participate," they create the impression of making an impact.
For example, Miquela presents herself as a young activist who cares about the environment. She even "participated" in a beach-cleaning activity, which received positive feedback and improved her reputation. This is a unique case, proving that someone doesn’t even have to be real to stand for a good cause and gain support for it.
They are honest about their virtual nature
It may seem strange that openly admitting their artificiality can actually be seen as a form of authenticity. Since they are not real people, virtual influencers are “authentically fake”, and they don’t try to hide about it. For example, South Korea’s first virtual influencer, Rozy, once showed her ID from Virtual Union while joking about her inability to vote because of her nature. Instead of facing backlash, Rozy was met with fascination, as people were impressed by her existence as a virtual being with real-life relevance.
Another example is Coach’s "Courage to be Real" campaign featuring Imma, a virtual influencer from Japan. The campaign followed Imma’s journey to find the courage to be real — despite the fact that she herself isn’t real. While the concept may seem unusual, the transparency about her virtual nature makes it easier for audiences to connect with her on her own terms.
Consistent and relatable content creation
Just like human influencers, virtual influencers also consistently share content that aligns with their established personas. For example, Aitana Lopez often posts about hanging out with friends, attending podcasts, going to festivals, and exploring new places. Her consistent lifestyle content makes brand collaborations feel natural.
Because she shares content regularly, her posts feel like glimpses into a real human life; even though they aren’t. In the end, this approach helps generate genuine engagement and bridges the gap between virtual creation and human connection.
After all, virtual influencers are created and managed by real people, which explains why they can present a sense of authenticity. On the other hand, AI-generated content for human influencers can feel inauthentic without human input and judgment. This proves that humans should be the ones to finalize and decide whether a piece of content feels human enough.
Conclusion
Humanizing AI content isn’t difficult, but brands and influencers need to be mindful of where to insert their own identity into the text. While AI can generate content in seconds, refining it takes more time. That’s why balancing AI-generated content with human input is important. Finding the right proportion helps prevent over-reliance on AI while maintaining an authentic and credible brand voice.
We’ve also seen how virtual influencers can create content that feels human, casual, and relatable; purely through the power of words, despite not being real. If the people behind these virtual influencers can make AI-driven accounts feel authentic, then humanizing AI content for brands and real influencers shouldn’t be that complicated. Do you agree?
