As a middle-of-the-road Millenial, I'm learning that it is my duty to help both older and younger folks understand the ever-changing technology that surrounds us. In 2025, that changing technology is, without a doubt, artificial intelligence.

I work with AI tools a lot of my days, and I was an early adopter. I believe that AI may be one of the most powerful tools humans have ever wielded, and we don't yet fully understand its capabilities. We are more empowered than ever to make incredible things and to learn how to do even more. With a few years' experience under our belt with readily accessible AI tools, I want to call some of y'all out (and myself) for lazy prompting and forgetting the Golden Rule of AI, which is that this is a tool to be wielded, not a self-driving vehicle.

I'm begging, pleading, PLEASE put some effort into your work when you use AI.

Once you see these, you can't go back.

Here's some fair warning before you go further: once you see this, there is no returning to your world where you can't see that low-effort AI is becoming ubiquitous. It should be called out and shamed because it's quite simple to improve your work with AI if you try.

If you're sure you want to know what phrases you see every day are likely written by AI, let's take this red pill and get started.

#5: "Your [X] Superhero"

This is one of the first phrases I noticed ChatGPT LOVING to insert, especially when working on marketing tasks. It's cute, clever and millennials like myself are seemingly obsessed with superheroes.

#4: "Elevate Your [X]"

This one is definitely a self-own because I've certainly used this phrasing, and yes, it was written by AI. It sounded good, I liked it, and I hadn't seen it EVERYWHERE at the time. Forgive me, I have certainly sinned here.

#3: "Calling All [X]"

Check out pretty much any event on Facebook to find this phrase. "X" here can range from any type of enthusiast to lover, but it's made to gather a crowd. This one doesn't bother me too much, except when the X is truly wild (which it can be).

#2: "It's not just [X], it's [Y]"

This one is getting BAD, y'all. What started as a reasonably decent way to make a point that your product or service serves multiple purposes, is now perhaps the most over-used low-effort AI phrase around. It can't be unseen, and I'm sorry for that.

#1: "Whether..."

Whether you're just using AI to save time, or you're a superhero AI prompt genius pro, this phrase will give away your writing as artificial every time. Similar to #2, this method of phrasing allows you to provide exposition in a casual phrase that helps draw people in. It's a good one that is used by marketing agencies all around. However, the word got out to ChatGPT, and it LOVES using this phrase if you'll allow it.

Honorable Mentions — the em dash and way too many emojis

I've seen folks online calling out the em dash—perhaps it's warranted, perhaps not. The argument goes that there isn't an easy way for an average typist to use an em dash while ChatGPT seems to really enjoy it, thus the em dash is a dead giveaway for AI writing. I'm not really buying this argument since there are easy ways to use the em dash, but you can decide for yourself on this.

Having way too many emojis is another sign of AI writing when it's for marketing purposes. However, I am not sold on this either since I have specifically plugged something into ChatGPT to ask it to add relevant emojis for me. I'll mention for a third time in this article that I'm a millennial, so I was here a little too early to be confident and comfortable with the full emoji library.

What do we do?

I don't know that there's anything we can do or even needs to be done. My prescription is to advocate for responsible AI usage and call folks out when they're not putting the effort in. For any of these phrases, you can train your dragon not to use them. The important part is, though, that you're reading, proofreading, editing, and training for improvement. There is no reason for your voice to be completely lost because you're using an AI tool. Put effort into your work and watch it improve and resonate with your audience. Put no effort into your slop, and get called out.