Turnitin CEO Chris Caren has a color for AI prose: beige.
"Well written, but not very energizing," he says. It tends to have tics—a deep affinity for dreary words like "holistic" and a notable fondness for "notably."
He's not wrong. If you've ever read AI text and thought "this is fine, I guess," you've encountered beige writing.
What Makes Writing Beige
Beige isn't bad writing. That's the problem. Beige is correct. Beige is coherent. Beige hits the word count. Beige has the personality of a corporate elevator.
The symptoms:
- Over-qualifying everything — "It could potentially be argued that this might have some impact"
- Empty transitions — "Moreover," "Additionally," "It's worth noting"
- Hedging everything — Softening statements until they mean nothing
- Generic examples — "Many successful companies" instead of naming them
- Perfect parallel structure — Every list formatted identically, every paragraph the same length
AI defaults to beige because beige is safe. Language models optimize for "probably correct" which produces "definitely boring."
Beige vs. Alive: Side-by-Side
Here's the same idea expressed both ways:
Example 1: Company Description
| Beige | Alive |
|---|---|
| "We are a forward-thinking organization dedicated to leveraging innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of our diverse stakeholder community." | "We build tools that save people time. That's it. That's the whole thing." |
The beige version says nothing. The alive version has a point of view.
Example 2: Product Benefit
| Beige | Alive |
|---|---|
| "Our platform offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to enhance productivity and streamline workflows across multiple touchpoints." | "You'll spend less time on email. Two hours a day less, based on our data." |
Specificity kills beige. "Two hours a day" beats "enhance productivity" every time.
Example 3: Blog Introduction
| Beige | Alive |
|---|---|
| "In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, it's more important than ever to consider the implications of artificial intelligence on content creation strategies." | "AI writes like a middle manager who's afraid of getting fired. Here's why." |
The alive version takes a risk. It has an opinion. It might be wrong. That's what makes it interesting.
Why AI Writes in Beige
Language models predict the next most statistically likely word. This creates a fundamental bias toward:
1. Safety over interest. Controversial statements have lower probability weights. AI won't say "this tool is garbage" even when it is.
2. Formality over connection. "It is" beats "it's" in training data. Academic papers outweigh casual blogs.
3. Abstraction over specificity. Saying "many companies" requires no research. Naming "Stripe, Linear, and Notion" requires knowledge the model might not have.
4. Completeness over economy. Why use five words when fifteen will do? AI has no incentive to be concise.
The result is prose that technically works but emotionally flatlines.
How to Kill the Beige
You can fix beige writing. It takes effort, but the techniques are learnable.
Cut the Hedges
Every "It's worth noting," "It could be argued," and "One might say" needs to go. If it's worth noting, just note it.
Before: "It's important to consider that effective communication could potentially impact team dynamics."
After: "Good communication changes how teams work."
Get Specific
Replace categories with examples. "Popular tools" becomes "Notion, Linear, Figma." "Many users" becomes "the 2,000 people who signed up last week."
Specificity signals that a human did the work.
Take a Position
Beige writing avoids opinions because opinions can be wrong. Take them anyway.
"This approach is better" hits harder than "this approach may offer certain advantages in specific contexts."
Vary the Rhythm
AI loves medium-length sentences. Break the pattern.
Short sentence. Then a longer one that takes its time getting to the point, meandering through the idea before landing. Then short again.
The contrast creates energy.
Delete the Scaffolding
"In conclusion," "To summarize," "It's worth mentioning"—these are scaffolding. The reader doesn't need you to announce what you're doing. Just do it.
The Faster Fix
De-beiging manually works but eats time. If you're producing content at scale, editing every paragraph isn't realistic.
AI humanizer tools exist for exactly this problem. They analyze text for beige patterns and rewrite to break them—adjusting rhythm, replacing stock phrases, adding variation.
Refineo does this in seconds. Paste your AI draft, click humanize, get back text that reads like a human wrote it. The meaning stays intact. The beige disappears.
It's not a replacement for having something to say. But it handles the mechanical pattern-breaking so you can focus on the ideas.
The Bigger Point
Beige writing isn't a technology problem. It's a values problem.
AI optimizes for safety. Interesting writing requires risk. AI hedges. Good writing commits. AI generalizes. Memorable writing gets specific.
You can use AI as a starting point—most professionals do now. But the leap from "technically correct" to "actually good" still requires human judgment.
The question isn't whether AI can write. It's whether you'll settle for beige.
Ready to de-beige your AI drafts? Try Refineo free — paste your text and see the difference.