Your AI Tool Is Spitting Out Generic Crap. Here's How to Fix It

You've just asked your shiny new AI tool for a killer campaign headline. You pictured something sharp. Bold. The kind of line that makes a CMO weep into their oat flat white.

Instead, you get: "Unlock your potential with our innovative solutions."

Oh, marvellous. Exactly what the world needs - another slogan that could be about a bank, a gym, or a particularly ambitious dog-walking service.

Here's the thing: it's not that the AI is bad. It's just... average. Dangerously average. Trained to please everyone, so it ends up thrilling no one. Like that bloke in the office who agrees with every idea in the meeting, then emails you privately to say he's not sure about any of them.

The truth? Your AI is only as interesting as you make it. And most marketers - bless us - are treating it like a vending machine. Punch in "give me a LinkedIn post" and hope something decent drops into the tray.

But AI isn't a vending machine. It's more like a junior creative who could win awards one day... if you actually brief them properly, push them past the safe ideas, and occasionally tell them to stop sounding like a motivational fridge magnet.

This is the bit where we fix that.

Framing the Problem

AI isn't here to write your marketing for you. It's here to write with you. Trouble is, most people use it the way they'd use a toaster: shove something in, wander off, hope for magic.

The default settings in most AI tools are designed for mass appeal. And "mass appeal" is just a polite way of saying "no personality whatsoever." It's why you get copy that could belong to a SaaS platform, an artisan jam company, or a funeral director.

Why? Because AI models are trained on oceans of text from the internet - news articles, blogs, corporate comms, and yes, a terrifying amount of press releases that start with "We're excited to announce..." They're brilliant at producing a statistically probable sentence. Which is exactly the problem: good marketing isn't probable. It's specific. It's opinionated. It's got a pulse.

The sad part is, marketers who'd never settle for "meh" work from a human will happily accept it from AI. I've seen brilliant creatives - the sort who could turn "Sale now on" into a headline that makes you want to remortgage your house - type in a five-word prompt, get back something bland, shrug, and paste it into a deck.

And that's how we end up with campaigns that feel AI-generated, even if no one's admitting it. Lifeless. Generic. The marketing equivalent of a pub chain burger: technically fine, but nobody's writing home about it.

The fix isn't buying a "better" tool. The fix is learning how to brief the one you've got like you would a talented, slightly feral creative team who need a nudge in the right direction. And that's exactly what we're about to do.

Myth-Busting

Before we get into the fixes, let's kill a few persistent myths that are making your AI outputs duller than a Monday morning status meeting.

Myth 1: If the tool's good, it should nail it first time

Absolutely not. AI doesn't read your mind, it just guesses what you probably meant based on its training data. That first draft? Think of it as the warm-up sketch, not the final oil painting. If you're taking the first thing it gives you and running with it, you're basically serving undercooked chicken to your audience.

Myth 2: Better tools = better output

This is like thinking a more expensive frying pan will make you a better chef. Sure, the tech helps, but if you can't cook, you'll still burn the omelette. The magic isn't in the tool, it's in how you use it.

Myth 3: Prompting is just telling it what you want

If only. Prompting is briefing, and anyone who's ever briefed a creative team knows that "write me an ad" gets you nowhere. You have to feed it context, tone, audience, constraints, and maybe even the odd existential threat.

Myth 4: AI removes the need for creative oversight

Wrong again. AI is a brilliant partner, but it's a terrible boss. Left alone, it will churn out safe, middle-of-the-road ideas. Your job is to push it off the road (in a loving, productive way) and into something unexpected.

The sooner you ditch these myths, the sooner you stop blaming the software and start seeing what it can really do.

Practical Fixes: From Quick Wins to Pro Moves

Bad AI output isn't inevitable. You just need to stop treating it like a magic eight ball and start treating it like a creative partner with potential. Here's your step-by-step upgrade path.

Upgrade Your Inputs (The 2-Minute Fix)

Most people prompt like they're texting a mate: "Write me an Instagram caption." Then they act surprised when the AI gives them something beige.

Instead, give it the full brief:

• Audience: Who you're talking to, and why they should care.
• Tone: Sarcastic? Playful? Deadly serious? (And no, "professional" isn't a tone - it's a mood killer.)
• Constraints: Word count, banned phrases, or anything you'd slap a junior for suggesting.
• Examples: Show, don't tell. Paste in your best work and say "Do it like this."

And for the love of god, tell it what to avoid. If I see one more "Unlock your potential" in a headline, I'll start charging brands a fine.

Iterate Intentionally (Stop Settling for Draft One)

The first draft is never the one. Instead of hitting "regenerate" until you get something vaguely acceptable, try controlled iteration:

• Change one variable at a time - tone, length, structure - and see how it shifts.
• Ask for extremes: "Give me the weirdest version possible" or "Write it as if it's going on a pub chalkboard."
• Then pull it back until it's just the right side of brilliant.

This keeps you in control rather than letting the AI spiral into generic land.

Feed It Better References (Because Garbage In = Garbage Out)

Your AI can only be as good as the examples you give it.

• Drop in your brand's best past campaigns and say "match this energy."
• Use real-world benchmarks: "Write a product description in the style of an IKEA catalogue" or "Sell it like Apple in 2007."
• If you don't have great examples yet, borrow them from brands you admire.

Build Reusable Frameworks (Your Future Self Will Thank You)

Stop reinventing the wheel every time.

• Save prompt templates for recurring tasks - launch emails, ad headlines, LinkedIn posts.
• Create a "brand voice starter pack" the AI sees before every task.
• Keep a swipe file of killer outputs you can feed back into future prompts as style anchors.

The goal: turn your AI from a generic content machine into a customised creative weapon that's uniquely yours.

Show, Don't Just Tell

It's all well and good me telling you "feed it better inputs" or "iterate intentionally," but nothing lands harder than seeing the glow-up in real time. So let's walk through a few before/after examples.

Example 1 - Default Prompt vs. Context-Rich Brief

Prompt: "Write a headline for a coffee subscription."

AI Output: "Fresh coffee delivered to your door."Technically fine. Also technically the same as 6,000 other coffee brands.

Improved Prompt: "Write a headline for a cult-style coffee brand called VELÉN. It's rooted in underground art/skate culture, sources beans from small-scale Indian producers, and should feel like a limited-edition drop. No clichés about freshness. Short, punchy, bold."

AI Output: "Your Morning Just Went Limited Edition."Better - specific, ownable, and on-brand.

Example 2 - First Draft vs. Iterated Extremes

Draft One: "Discover our new AI copywriting course."Improved via extremes: "Write three headlines: one absurdly confident, one aggressively sarcastic, one painfully minimalist."

Absurdly Confident: "We Taught AI to Sell Better Than You."Aggressively Sarcastic: "Another Copywriting Course? Groundbreaking."Painfully Minimalist: "AI. Copy. Sorted."From here, you pick, tweak, and land somewhere fresh.

Example 3 - No Reference vs. Strong Style Anchor

Prompt with no reference: "Write a blog intro about AI in marketing."

Output: "AI is transforming the marketing industry by automating tasks and increasing efficiency..." (snore)

Prompt with style reference: "Write a blog intro about AI in marketing in the style of Jeremy Clarkson reviewing a sports car - over-the-top, opinionated, mildly ridiculous."

Output: "AI has roared into marketing like a Lamborghini on fire - brilliant, dangerous, and guaranteed to upset the neighbours."

When you show the AI what "good" looks like and push it past safe, you stop getting content that feels like it was written by a motivational fridge magnet.

Pro Moves (for the Nerds Who Stay to the End)

If you've made it this far, you're clearly not here for "five easy prompt hacks." You want the good stuff - the moves that take your AI from decent intern to award-winning creative director who never sleeps.

1. Run a "Pre-Brief" Session

Before you ask for any content, spend two or three prompts loading the AI with your world:

• Your audience (including what they hate)
• Your brand voice (with examples)
• Your competitors (and why they're wrong)

It's like warming up the band before the gig. The output gets infinitely better once the tool's already "in character."

2. Break the Big Ask Into Micro-Tasks

Don't throw "Write me a campaign" at it and hope. Instead:

• First, ask for 10 unconventional angles.
• Then, pick the best 3 and get 5 headline drafts for each.
• Then, develop copy around the winner.

Small asks = sharper outputs.

3. Chain Your Tools

One AI for research, another for style, another for polish.

• Use a data-focused model to pull the facts.
• Pass that into your favourite "voice" model.
• Then feed it into a grammar/style finisher.Suddenly, you've built your own creative assembly line.

4. Play With "Forbidden" Modes

Ask it to be too opinionated, too emotional, or too weird. Then tone it down. It's easier to rein in something wild than to breathe life into something dead.

5. Keep a Living Swipe File

Every time your AI nails it, save that prompt/output combo. Over time, you're building your own private training dataset.

These moves aren't just about getting better output - they're about making sure your AI consistently produces work that sounds like you and nobody else.

It's Not the Tool, It's You (Mostly)

If your AI is churning out generic, personality-free nonsense, it's not because the tool is rubbish - it's because you're letting it get away with it.

You wouldn't let a junior creative hand in the first thing they scribbled on the back of a Pret receipt and call it "the campaign." You'd brief harder, push further, and demand better. Treat your AI the same way.

Feed it context like you actually care about the outcome. Push it into strange territory. Make it work for you - not just with you. The difference between forgettable and unforgettable isn't the tech, it's the human holding the brief.

So next time you get a line that sounds like a motivational fridge magnet, remember: you've got the tools, you've got the know-how - now stop settling for crap.

Now I want to know: what's the worst piece of AI-generated content you've seen? Drop it in the comments. Bonus points if it's so bad it's brilliant.