Common AI Cold Email Patterns That Make Drafts Look Like Spam

AI cold email does not usually look bad. That is the problem.

The common failure mode is not broken grammar or wild spam words. It is clean, symmetrical, confident copy that gives the reader no reason to believe the message was written for them. A human sees it as a template. A mailbox provider sees the downstream signals: low replies, fast deletes, spam complaints, and repeated near-identical language sent across many recipients.

Folderly's view is simple: copy quality is now part of deliverability. Authentication matters, but so does whether the message creates enough trust to avoid complaint behavior. This article combines public sender guidance with Folderly's rule-based review model; it is not a claim that one draft check can guarantee inbox placement.

Before you send a draft, run it through the AI Cold Email Deliverability Checker. If you want the harsher social version, use the Cold Email Roast.

The AI smell is not one phrase. It is a stack of weak signals

One generic opener will not ruin a campaign. Ten weak signals in the same message will.

Here is the common pattern in AI-assisted outbound drafts:

Signal	What it looks like	Why it hurts
Generic opener	"I hope you are doing well"	No proof the sender knows the recipient
Vague value prop	"streamline your workflow"	The offer could be anything
Inflated claim	"revolutionize your sales process"	Sounds promotional before it sounds useful
Soft personalization	"I saw your company is growing"	Could be sent to every account
Multiple CTAs	"Book a call, see a demo, or reply"	Creates friction and lowers reply clarity
Missing opt-out	No unsubscribe or preference path	Raises compliance and complaint risk
Over-polished tone	Perfectly balanced paragraphs	Feels generated, not researched

The fix is not to make the email messy. The fix is to make it specific.

Example: the polished AI draft

Nothing here is outrageous. That is why it passes many surface-level checks. But the message has no reason to exist in Alex's inbox. It does not name a workflow, market, trigger, constraint, current tool, or observable problem. It asks for time before earning attention.

The spam risk is not just a content filter risk. It is a recipient behavior risk.

Example: the Folderly-style rewrite

This version is still concise. It does not pretend to know private data. It gives a plausible reason for the outreach, names the risk, keeps one CTA, and includes a clear opt-out signal.

That visible opt-out sentence is not a substitute for one-click List-Unsubscribe headers where those headers are required for bulk promotional mail. It is the human-visible escape path that reduces the chance an annoyed recipient uses the spam button instead.

Why mailbox providers care about complaint behavior

Google's sender guidance puts user-reported spam rate directly inside sender requirements. Google's FAQ says senders should keep spam rate below 0.1% and prevent it from reaching 0.3% or higher. Google also says high spam rates can hurt delivery for any message type a sender sends.

That means cold email copy is not separate from sender reputation. If the copy creates confusion, annoyance, or surprise, it can create complaint behavior. Complaint behavior can then damage inbox placement.

Use the Email Complaint Rate Calculator before scaling a campaign. It turns the percentage into a concrete complaint budget.

The five-question AI cold email review

Before you send, answer these questions:

1. Could this opener only be written to this recipient?
2. Does the email name a specific problem, timing trigger, or workflow?
3. Is there one CTA, not three?
4. Would the recipient understand why you contacted them now?
5. Is the opt-out path obvious enough to reduce spam-button behavior?

If the answer is no, the draft is not ready for volume.

The benchmark that matters: not "does it sound good?"

Most AI email scoring tools reward fluency. That is the wrong benchmark. Cold email should be scored for send-readiness.

A send-ready draft has:

• a subject line that creates context without hype
• a body that can be scanned in under 20 seconds
• one concrete reason for outreach
• one low-friction next step
• no exaggerated claim that requires trust before proof
• compliance language that lowers complaint risk
• sender setup that can pass authentication checks

Folderly's checker combines these into one report: inbox readiness, AI-template risk, compliance, complaint budget, and sender setup guidance.

The practical rule

If an AI email sounds like it was written for a market segment, rewrite it. If it sounds like it was written for a situation, test it.

The market segment version says: "We help B2B teams improve productivity."

The situation version says: "Your team is adding outbound seats while moving into Gmail-heavy accounts, so copy mistakes now affect more recipients."

That difference is the gap between generic automation and useful outbound.

Sources and next step

This article is grounded in current sender guidance from Google's email sender guidelines, Google's sender FAQ, and the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide.

Paste your next draft into the AI Cold Email Deliverability Checker before you send it.