Heidi BenderIn today’s high-tech world, thank-you messages should still feel personal.
With the abundance and easy access to AI, it can be easy not to think much about your thank messages, especially if you are not handwriting them. Just another task to check off the list.
It’s harder now to write a thank you message without someone judging it as AI-written.
When you use AI to write thank you messages for you, there’s a good chance the recipient will think, “There’s no way they wrote this message themselves.”
AI can be a great tool to get you started. I wrote hundreds of thank-you note example messages to do just that before ChatGPT and other AI tools were a thing. My goal is to help people get started, as knowing what to say can often be the most challenging part.
You want your note to convey your gratitude, but you also want it to sound polished and well-written.
Here are three tips to keep your thank you messages sounding like you when using AI to help you write them.
1. Be Careful With Suggested Wording
Let’s say you want to thank someone for dinner. Don’t use words that you have never said before, even if you see them in an example message.
You can still copy and paste the message, just be sure to switch out those types of words with words you would actually say. For me, these would be words like scrumptious and sumptuous.
Even if the dinner was scrumptious and sumptuous, it’s a word I don’t use in my everyday life, and I would never say “this is scrumptious” when enjoying the meal. So I shouldn’t use ‘scrumptious’ in a thank-you message.
Instead, I could say, “Thank you for the fantastic dinner.” And then add another sentence about a specific dish that I really liked.
I’ve used Grammarly (affiliate link) for many years to help check grammar, spelling, and punctuation. With the paid version, it may also give suggested wording, which can sometimes go a little too far, and your message ends up not sounding like you.
Sometimes Grammarly takes away your personality and makes you sound just like everyone else.
2. Don’t Use an Em Dash
If you’ve never heard of an em dash, you’re not alone. It looks like this —. You’ve likely seen this dash in articles or on social media, as more people rely on ChatGPT for writing assistance.
For whatever reason, ChatGPT loves the em dash. There will be some people who will assume that AI wrote your thank-you note because of the dash. There’s not even a key for it on a standard keyboard.
I asked ChatGPT to write me a thank-you note for dinner, and the very first example it gave included the em dash. It’s in yellow below.
In everyday natural writing, the em dash is not common, in my experience.
3. Include Specific Details
The thank-you note generated by ChatGPT above is pretty good. However, it’s generic and could apply to just about any dinner. And I don’t think I’ve ever closed a thank-you note with “warmly.”
To make your thank you message sound real and not AI-generated, include some details. For example, for dinner, mention the dish you liked the most or a dessert.
If you want to use AI, use a better prompt that lists what you had for dinner and dessert. Such as, “example thank you messages for dinner. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, and dill carrots. For dessert, we had blueberry lush, which was delicious.” You can also tell ChatGPT not to use the em dash.
When I entered this prompt into ChatGPT, it gave me five different thank you messages to choose from in about 5 seconds. Some of the phrases felt awkward and unnatural, so you’ll still need to watch out for them before you put the message into a text or email.
Another Idea: Handwrite the Thank You Note
Handwritten thank-you notes may become valued as it takes a little bit of extra effort to actually handwrite a note, get a stamp, and mail it.
Some people will appreciate the extra effort!
Once you know how to write a good thank-you note, you can apply the steps to just about any situation when you want to say thanks.
You can still look at examples or use AI to help, but just putting your words on paper will make it feel more genuine.
Keep it simple. Share why or what you are thankful for. You may make someone’s day.