How to NOT Sound Like an AI Tool Wrote Your Pitch

I assume people are being hounded by AI-generated emails like I am. Extrapolating my experiences to a reporter’s, can you imagine how many AI-generated emails reporters are receiving? They are already bombarded by spray-and-pray pitches. Now AI makes it easier to send out even more pitches and from what I’ve seen, AI is not doing our profession any favors.

What may be driving some of this is that PR platforms are embedding AI into every layer of their services and I’ve seen several that offer to simplify pitch writing and build reporter lists.

I don’t consider myself anti-AI, nor am I a luddite. Some applications of AI have been helpful to me in some processes, but never do I use AI to write. It seems to me that some practitioners use AI features like a magic bullet, hoping that the AI knows more than they do. In truth, AI might reduce their workload, but it tends to increase someone else’s. Simply turning a task around faster or producing more does not equate to greater success.

If you want to stand apart and be better in media relations, then make sure that your pitches do not look like an LLM wrote them. Here are some tips.

Customize pitches to the reporter and don’t get cute. Trite openings and attempts at joking with a reporter will not win a friend and could tip off that AI wrote the pitch because it has a disassociated sense of what constitutes humor. Instead, stick to the basics. Pick a likely reporter based on their STATED BEAT and examples of recent writing. Pay attention to small clues like if they mentioned a recent job change. If that happened a few weeks ago and you consult the last 6 months of articles (which is what an AI would do), then your pitch will miss the mark. You have to do the work of figuring out the angle and crafting an email the reporter will read without cringing.

Avoid implying that you are brilliant. I’ve seen AI (and people for that matter) write pitches that make ridiculous claims about the importance of a product. Don’t assert that using a particular math curriculum has the potential to erase the achievement gap between the U.S. and Singapore. Stick with the facts and respect the reporter to determine potential impact. Pitches written by humans who know their business and the reporter’s beat can make smart connections about why the story might fit the reporter’s needs.

Do not drop in links to a reporter’s story to imply you know their beat. The most common opening is something like this: I read your article <> and found it fascinating. Since you clearly were interested in that topic, let me introduce you to … This is a dead give away. What makes it clear that you are a thinking human is that you’ve connected the dots and succinctly conveyed that point in the subject line and 2-3 short paragraphs.

Strike hyperbole. This is my beef in press releases and pitches. Reporters are not impressed by the writer’s sense of import. Just stating that something is groundbreaking does not make it so. Adjectives like exciting, leading, revolutionary, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge, or pioneering elicit eye-rolls. This can be tough to navigate with the client in a press release, but stick to verifiable information in pitches. AI will find marketing content on which to base its pitch so if your pitch feels like a marketing piece, then rewrite.

Use dashes with caution. I have used em-dashes in past writing but now that is becoming a hallmark on GenAI. I’m cutting back or eliminating dashes altogether. Find new ways to insert pauses in text or restructure the piece altogether.

Use sentence case in the subject line. Subject lines in title case feel impersonal. Title case might be appropriate for an enewsletter, but the goal in pitching is to be personal. Use a casual style. Studies are also showing that longer subject lines are preferred since reporters can get a feel for the content of the message.

Personal experiences and opinions are critical. When writing a long-form submission to a publication like an opinion piece, first-person, commentary, or similar, always interject personal experiences to make it clear the piece was written by a human. The same applies to pitches. It is very clear to professional writers when something is off about a submission or pitch.

Integrate personal interactions. If you have helped a reporter on a story, even years ago, say so in your pitch. If you had an email exchange even if they didn’t write a story, say so. It only takes one line to get the point across. Writing “congrats on the new job” is not sufficient. Reporters are also not fooled by stating that some other reporter suggested that you contact them. If that’s true, then cc the referring reporter to confirm the interaction.

A final note: There is an AI detector on the market, Pangram, that gives webinars and has published several resources about how to detect generative AI by eye. They offer a small allocation of free checks or you can purchase a license to have more. Take a look at their post about the telltale signs of AI writing – and don’t do any of those things! See this list from Pangram on the words, phrases, and structure most common to AI writing.

This was originally published in PR in EdTech on LinkedIn on May 8, 2025.