Copy written by AI: what to proofread

An AI writes in ten seconds the introduction of a practice, the welcome of a bakery or a plumber’s questions and answers. The result is clean, well turned, and often wrong in places.

Google judges what a text brings to the reader, whatever the way it was written. What remains is to proofread, with method. Here is what to look for, in order.

What Google says about it

Google accepts the use of generative AI to find ideas or structure a text, provided the result follows its usual rules. Three points matter for a small site:

• Volume without value is spam. Mass-producing generated pages that bring nothing to the reader falls under what Google calls scaled content abuse. A hundred “plumber in” pages followed by the name of a neighboring town, written by an AI and identical but for the name, are a good example.
• Everything is checked by hand before publication. The page text, but also its title, its meta description, the structured data and the alt text of the images. Google points out that these models predict likely sequences of words, and can therefore make things up.
• Say how the text was made, when readers might wonder. Google advises it, without making it an obligation.

The factual errors to hunt down

An AI fills the gaps with the plausible. Proofread first:

1. Figures: prices, opening hours, years of experience, lead times, number of customers. An AI happily writes “more than twenty years in the trade” for a salon opened in 2019.
2. Contact details: address, phone, email, service area, closing days.
3. Wording regulated by law. For a restaurant in France, “homemade” obeys precise conditions, with dishes cooked on site from raw products. Misleading use can be prosecuted as a misleading commercial practice.
4. Degrees, labels and accreditations: only display the ones you hold, under their exact name.
5. Reviews and testimonials. An AI can invent them, first names included. Publishing fake reviews is a misleading commercial practice offense in France, punishable by two years in prison and a €300,000 fine (DGCCRF, 2026). Only display real reviews.
6. Promises: “on site in 30 minutes”, “satisfaction or your money back”, “the best in town”. Keep the ones you keep, and those alone.

The facts only you know

An AI knows what a bakery does in general. It doesn’t know what yours does. Yet these are the details that make people choose, and Google values them: it looks for content that shows first-hand experience.

Add what no model can guess:

• the fifteen-year-old sourdough starter, the flour from a mill twenty kilometers away;
• the practice’s specialty, the patients seen, wheelchair access;
• the brands the craftsperson installs, the jobs they turn down;
• the parking, the usual waiting time, the day when it is less busy;
• your name, your face, your story in two sentences.

The right method: give these facts to the AI before it writes, then check that it hasn’t added others.

The tone

By default, an AI writes in an average register, polite and interchangeable: “passionate about our craft”, “exceptional know-how”, “a unique experience”. These phrases say nothing and can be read everywhere. Read aloud, and ask yourself four questions:

• Would you talk like that at the counter? If not, rewrite in your own words.
• Formal or casual? Choose according to your customers, then stick to it from one end of the page to the other.
• One idea per sentence? Cut sentences that string three commas together.
• A fact or an adjective? “Delivered within 48 hours” says more than “fast delivery”.

What the European AI regulation says

The European regulation on artificial intelligence, often called the AI Act, sets out transparency obligations in its Article 50, applicable since August 2, 2026. For text, it targets a precise case: text generated or modified by an AI, published to inform the public on matters of public interest. The European Commission cites, for example, politics, public health, the environment, fundamental rights or consumer safety.

Two consequences, to be read with caution:

• presenting a shop, its opening hours and its prices doesn’t seem to fall under this case;
• even when it applies, the obligation lapses if a person has reviewed the text in substance and takes responsibility for its publication. The Commission specifies that a mere spelling correction isn’t enough.

If you publish on health, law or money, have your case checked by a lawyer: this summary isn’t legal advice. Generated images and videos follow other rules, which we cover in the article on AI-generated video.

In the 29webs studio

In the 29webs studio, the page copy is written by an AI, from what you describe about your trade. You edit it in one sentence, such as “make the title shorter” or “add that we close on Mondays”, and each edit can be undone. Proofreading is up to you: everything above applies to this copy too.

In short: copy written by an AI can be published, provided you proofread it like a contract, figure by figure and promise by promise. Add what only you know, remove the hollow phrases, and never invent reviews.