Check AI’s work: a 60-second review habit

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Lesson 7 · 7 min

Check AI’s work: a 60-second review habit

By the end

A 60-second review you run on every AI draft before it leaves the building.

  1. 1Learn
  2. 2Try it
  3. 3Human check
  4. 4Quick check

Learn · 3 min

Why names, numbers and promises

AI drafts can slip anywhere, but three kinds of slip cost the most, and they read just as smoothly as the parts it got right. A made-up number looks exactly like a real one. A wrong name tells a customer you weren’t paying attention.

Promises are the sneaky one. AI drafts lean helpful, so a reply to an unhappy customer may offer a refund, a discount or a delivery date nobody approved. It isn’t being generous; it’s writing the kind of reply that usually follows a complaint.

These aren’t rare glitches. They’re the details a draft has to fill in from somewhere, and when your prompt doesn’t supply them, the AI supplies something that sounds right.

The 60-second review

Sixty seconds is a rule of thumb for a routine email: short enough that you’ll actually do it. A quote or a contract deserves longer. The habit is the point: every draft, every time, in this order:

  • Names: every person, company and product, spelled right and the right one
  • Numbers: every price, date, time and quantity, checked against its source, not your memory
  • Promises: every refund, discount, deadline or guarantee, and every “we will” in the draft. Would you sign it?
  • Tone: one last read, top to bottom, as the person receiving it. Does it sound like you?

Make the check faster, not optional

For longer drafts, have the AI build the checklist: ask it to list every name, number and promise, quoting each promise exactly, and say whether each matches the source you give it. Then you check the list. It can miss things, so the list speeds you up; it doesn’t replace your read.

When the same mistake keeps turning up, fix the source, not just the draft: the prompt, the answer bank or the notes it worked from. A mistake you catch twice is a prompt problem, not a draft problem.

If someone else approves your drafts, send the checklist along with the draft. They’ll check faster, and you’ll both know what was checked.

In one sentence

Check the names, the numbers and the promises before anything leaves the building; AI drafts, you decide.

Try it on your business

4 min

Use a real AI draft you were about to send or publish this week, and the source it was based on.

  1. 1

    Pick a real draft from this week: an email, a quote, a summary or a post.

  2. 2

    Run the prompt with the draft and its source.

  3. 3

    Check each item on the list yourself against the source, starting with anything that differs or is marked [CHECK].

  4. 4

    Read the draft once more, top to bottom, as the person receiving it. Time the whole review.

  5. 5

    Fix the draft, and note which of the three caught something. That’s where to look first next time.

Here is a draft I’m about to send to [who it’s for]:
[paste the draft]
Here is the source it should match:
[paste the email, notes, price list or data it came from]
Don’t rewrite the draft. Make a checklist under three headings:
1. Names: every person, company, product and place.
2. Numbers: every price, amount, date, time, quantity and percentage.
3. Promises: every commitment, offer, deadline or guarantee, quoted exactly.
For each item, say whether it matches the source, differs from it, or isn’t in the source. Mark anything that isn’t in the source with [CHECK].
Open ChatGPTOpen ClaudeOpen Gemini

Human check: before you use it

Quick check · question 1 of 2No grades

Why do names, numbers and promises get the check?

Ask the Distillery

Answers come from The Distillery’s own pages, with sources.

If the Distillery doesn’t know, it says so and points you to a person.