You can spot AI-written text in one sentence. Not because AI is bad at writing — it isn't — but because it reaches for the same 47 words every time.
"We leverage cutting-edge solutions to seamlessly empower your team to unlock their full potential."
That sentence was written by nobody. It has the shape of meaning without the substance. Readers feel it instantly, even if they can't explain why.
Here's the full list — organized by type, with plain-English replacements — so you can clean your copy before it goes out.
The AI-Speak Hall of Shame
These are the highest-frequency offenders. If your text contains any of these, it probably sounds AI-written.
Action words that mean nothing
| Word | Replace with |
|---|---|
| leverage | use |
| empower | help, enable |
| unlock | open, give access to |
| unleash | release, use |
| harness | use, apply |
| streamline | improve, simplify |
| revolutionize | change, transform |
| dive into | look at, explore |
| delve into | look at, explore |
The test: can you replace the word with "use" or "help" without losing anything? Then the original word was filler.
Adjectives that pad without adding
| Word | Replace with |
|---|---|
| cutting-edge | new, modern, current |
| best-in-class | excellent, top, leading |
| world-class | excellent |
| robust | strong, reliable |
| holistic | complete, full |
| game-changing | significant, important |
| seamlessly | (remove it — things either work or they don't) |
The test: if you remove the adjective and the sentence means the same thing, the adjective was decorating, not describing.
Phrases that delay the point
| Phrase | Replace with |
|---|---|
| it's important to note that | (delete — then say the thing) |
| it's worth noting that | (delete) |
| at the end of the day | (delete) |
| in today's fast-paced landscape | today / now |
| in conclusion | (delete — your conclusion should be obvious) |
| to summarize | (delete) |
| needless to say | (delete — if it's needless, don't say it) |
| that being said | (delete) |
| with that in mind | (delete) |
| having said that | (delete) |
| as mentioned earlier | (delete) |
| it goes without saying | (delete) |
These phrases are throat-clearing. They signal that something important is coming, without making that something more important. Cut them and start with the substance.
Hedges that undermine your credibility
| Phrase | Effect | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| I think | Makes you sound uncertain | State the claim directly |
| I believe | Same | Same |
| sort of | Weakens the point | Remove or commit |
| kind of | Same | Same |
| basically | Condescending or vague | Remove |
| essentially | Same | Remove |
If you're writing "I think the product is good," you either believe it or you don't. "The product is good" is more honest.
Why AI defaults to these words
AI models are trained on a huge corpus of text that includes a lot of marketing copy, corporate communications, and SEO content — all of which overuse the same vocabulary. The model learns that "leverage" appears near business context, that "cutting-edge" appears near tech products, and so on.
It's not that the model thinks these words are good. It's that they pattern-match to the training data.
The result: AI-generated text is statistically average. It writes the way the average piece of writing about that topic has been written before.
Human writing sounds human because it's specific. "We cut deploy time by 40%" is specific. "We leverage cutting-edge DevOps solutions to seamlessly streamline your workflow" is the statistical average of a thousand press releases.
A fast way to clean your text
The manual pass: after writing anything, do a find-and-replace for the 10 worst offenders: leverage, cutting-edge, seamlessly, empower, unlock, holistic, robust, game-changing, "it's important to note", "at the end of the day." That catches most of the slop.
The tool pass: paste your text into De-Slop — it scans for all 47 terms and flags them in about two seconds. Free, no login, works offline.
The Claude Code pass: if you use Claude Code, the /anti-slop skill does this semantically — it rewrites awkward replacements, not just find-and-replace. Free download here.
The real rule
Every word should earn its place. If you remove it and the sentence means the same thing, remove it.
"We help teams ship faster" beats "We leverage cutting-edge AI to seamlessly empower your team to unlock their full shipping potential" in every possible dimension: clarity, trust, length, memorability.
The goal isn't to sound smart. It's to be understood.
De-Slop is a free browser tool that removes AI-speak from any text. Try it here →
The /anti-slop Claude Code skill does the same thing inside your workflow. Free download →
The Solopreneur Skills Pack includes 4 more tested Claude Code skills for solo builders — $24 one-time.