The Annoying AI Tell Hiding in Your Emails

I love using AI to help with content. It has been a game-changer for turning my rambling thoughts into something coherent. But have you noticed how ridiculously long emails have gotten lately?

I mean, the guy who used to reply in one sentence now writes like he’s billing by the word. AI has become the great equalizer of communication. The same person who once left you guessing now has you scanning for the point.

It’s called verbosity compensation, and it’s a dead giveaway you’re using AI in your emails.

Verbosity compensation is the tendency to use more words than necessary, adding context, qualifiers, and explanations to be “clear,” even when a shorter response would do.

LLMs are often trained to be long-winded. Part of that is to hide uncertainty or mimic human hesitation. Researchers found that verbose responses often exhibit higher uncertainty across datasets, suggesting a strong connection between verbosity and model uncertainty. Many LLMs produce longer responses when they are less confident about the answer. Basically, AI tends to over-explain, and the message can get lost in all of the extra words.

The best way to communicate? Get to the essence. Say the one thing that actually matters. Getting to the essence reduces a message to its most important idea without losing meaning, while avoiding extra weight. Getting to the essence saves time, makes emails easier to answer, and sounds more confident than babbling your way to a point.

And considering professionals spend about 28% of the workday reading and answering email, nobody needs your AI-assisted novella in their inbox.

So, how do you get the clarity from AI without the word jumble? Simple, fix your prompts.

Try adding one of these to your next AI email prompt:

1. Set a sentence limit.
   “Write this in 1–2 sentences.”
2. Ask for the shortest useful version.
   “Make this as brief as possible without sounding rude.”
3. No warm-up paragraph.
   “No intro, no setup, no explanation. Just the reply.”
4. Set the context.
   “Casual client relationship. Keep it direct but friendly.”
5. Remove filler.
   “Cut anything that does not change the meaning.”
6. Run a second pass.
   After it drafts: “Now reduce this by 50%.”
7. Force one clear ask or answer.
   “Include only the decision, next step, and deadline.”

These prompts will make a big difference, and your emails will actually get to the point.

AI is great for clarity and speed, but the message still needs to sound like you. Use it as a thought partner, not a decision maker, and always review what it gives you. If your email needs three paragraphs, fine. But most don’t. The goal is to use AI to help your message, not bury it.
Your reader will thank you.