AI has made it insanely easy to write a halfway decent cold email.
The problem is your prospect can smell the AI stink from a mile away.
If they can tell you put zero effort into the email and outsourced the whole thing to a chatbot, why would they assume you’ll put any more effort into the first meeting?
Today, we’re showing how to scrub the AI scent off your emails, even if AI wrote your first draft.
Ready? Let’s “delve into it”!
Follow the 10-80-10 Rule
While you don’t want your cold email to stink of AI, in 2026 it feels kinda backwards to be drafting things entirely from scratch. The trick is to use your brain for the first 10% and the last 10%.
I love Jason Bay’s 10-80-10 rule as a frame for AI writing:
- 10%: Tell AI the key points you want to make in your message.
- 80%: Let the AI draft the message.
- 10%: Use your brain to scrub the AI stink so it sounds like you.
Don’t know how to scrub that last 10%? Read on.
Write in Dumb Human Language
AI loves to write perfectly eloquent emails stuffed with flowery language.
The goal isn’t to sound impressive. It’s to be easily understood.
Data from Lavender shows writing at a 3rd to 5th-grade reading level gets 67% more replies.
Smart Robot Language (Bad):
ACME works with gaming platforms that often encounter retention and session length challenges stemming from limited real-time communication functionality within gameplay experiences. ACME enables gaming providers to deploy messaging features that drive improved KPIs in areas such as engagement and retention, as seen in our work with other companies.
Dumb Human Language (Good):
A lot of studios we talk to say retention drops when there’s no real-time way for players to interact. We helped another team solve this with in-game messaging that kept players active longer, and they saw strong lifts in both engagement and session length.
Cut Buzzwords
Phrases like streamline your workflows, end-to-end solution, and leading provider of X trigger every anti-sales alarm because they're the same generic pitch phrases reps use at every company.
You can’t be perceived to be better until you’re first perceived to be different. So why use the same words as everyone else?
If that doesn't convince you, our study of 85M+ cold emails with Gong shows that pitch words also tank your reply rate:
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Cut Fancy Formatting
I love a well-formatted recap email and often use images/GIFs with prospects once we’ve kicked off a sales cycle.
But a cold email should look like something a human typed, not a marketing email.
Skip the images, bolding, links, and bullets. Not only can they hurt deliverability, they also tank your reply rate:
Read Your Email Out Loud
If you were standing face-to-face with a prospect at a trade show, would you actually say what you wrote in the cold email?
No normal human being walks up to another and says, “I noticed your law firm is navigating challenges around your cross-practice client intake workflows.”
They say, “Getting all those attorneys to onboard clients the same way has gotta be a pain.”
Write like you actually talk, not like you think a sales email is supposed to sound.
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That’s a wrap.
Want more help with your (AI) cold emails?
We built a step-by-step guide to Jason Bay’s Cold Email AI Prompts. Grab it free below.
Download Jason Bay’s Cold Email ChatGPT Prompts
