Recognising AI-Generated Written Content on Social Media

There’s no denying that AI is here to stay, and those who aren’t implementing its use into their marketing strategies will be left behind. But as its capabilities have grown, we have spotted an overreliance on the tool, creating generic, robotic social media copy.

With 33.4 million Instagram users, 38.3 million Facebook accounts, and 45 million LinkedIn profiles, it is clear that the UK public is undoubtedly active on social media, whether they are posting or viewing. On average, LinkedIn sees around 2 million posts, articles, and videos published daily – that’s a lot of content! In such a saturated space, there is so much noise when all you want is for your brand to be heard, so individuality is essential to capture attention across each platform.

When creating posts for social media, it is important that you know your audience and what they want to see. To really make your mark, you need a clear brand voice that your customers and audience can instantly recognise. When using AI to generate copy, you are confirming your brand voice is the same as every other person using the tools, from the structure and word selection to choice and use of emojis!

AI can be a fantastic tool to enhance your social media strategy – providing a list of ideas for posts, inspiring your copy when you’re stuck on where to begin, consolidating a piece of long-form content to be easily digestible for your audience, and much more. But without that human touch and input, you’ll sense a pattern between your own posts and many other users and businesses.

In this blog, we will highlight some recognisable features of your average AI-generated social media posts:

Here’s an example of a caption created using AI. Seems engaging right?

Some tell-tale signs of an AI-generated post are:

  • ⭐The emoji headline, before and after the text ⭐
  • 👉Emojis as bullet points
  • It creeps in quietly — the unsuspecting em dash — and changes the flow.
  • Over-embellished language – why say it in 4 words when you could use 15?!
  • American spellings by British brands – get rid of the ‘Z’
  • Rhetorical questions – doesn’t it just say more without answering?
  • Even the use of certain emojis (🚀 we’re looking at you, rocket emoji)

So that’s just one example. Let’s try again:

Notice the pattern yet? It’s almost like a checklist! Both proposed captions follow the same structure and while this may be appropriate for one post, it certainly isn’t going to feel as engaging on the 3rd post and beyond. You’ll notice it doesn’t feel like it was written by a human, missing that use of natural language, focussing on promotion over adding value.

We know the feeling of there not being enough hours in the day to fulfil all marketing plans, requests and requirements, so a tool that can create a month’s social media plan and its written copy in mere minutes seems like a no-brainer. But in a space that prioritises originality, authenticity and consistency, AI-generated content will not always align with your business, and its short- and long-term goals. You and your marketing team know the business better than anyone, and with access to a world of data from previous posts you can see exactly what works and what doesn’t.

Conclusion

Language is more than just well-structured sentences—it’s a combination of emotion, personality, and the small imperfections that make something feel real. Social media is all about bridging the gap between your brand and your audience, creating meaningful and long-lasting relationships and brand advocacy.

Yes, AI can generate captions that are grammatically flawless, but they often lack the quirks and nuances that make human writing stand out, and that make your brand sound like your brand.

It’s why even the most advanced AI tools still struggle to replicate voice—that intangible quality that makes someone’s words unmistakably theirs.

As AI-generated content becomes more common, the ability to recognise what feels authentic will only become more valuable. Because at the end of the day, the most compelling writing doesn’t just fill space and tick boxes—it connects.