Answering a CFP With AI Without Sounding Like AI

What this is for

CFP forms ask the same handful of questions in slightly different words every time, and it's tempting to let AI fill in the whole thing fast. The problem is speed at the cost of sounding like every other submission a program committee reads that week. This guide gets you the speed without the generic voice - the actual assembly work belongs to the app's Form Filler, but this is how to run the same process by hand in any AI chat.

When to use it

Use this any time you're filling out a submission form and want a fast first pass built from material you already have - your Battle Book, your bios, your session descriptions from guide 24. Use it before you submit anything, not as a replacement for reading the form carefully yourself.

The prompt kit

I'm filling out a CFP submission form. I'm going to paste the form's actual questions, then my existing material. Match my answers to the questions using only what I give you - don't invent anything to fill a gap. If a question doesn't have a good match in my material, flag it and give me a starting draft to finish myself, don't fill it in like it's finished.

Here's my speaker context and Battle Book material: [paste from guide 01 and your bios, session descriptions, takeaways]
Here's the form: [paste the questions]

For each answer, keep my sentence patterns and word choices from the source material - don't smooth it into generic conference-speak. If you notice yourself reaching for a word I wouldn't use, use a plainer one instead.

Now read every answer back as if you're the person reviewing hundreds of these forms. Which answers sound like they could have been written by any speaker, and which ones sound specifically like me? Flag the generic ones so I can fix them by hand.

What good output looks like

A strong pass fills the easy questions fast and clearly flags the ones it couldn't answer from your material instead of guessing. When you read the output back, it should sound like your bio, not like a form letter - same phrasing patterns, same level of directness, no words you'd never actually say. The self-check pass should catch its own generic answers, not just tell you everything looks good.

Watch out for

Letting a flagged gap slide through unanswered. If the AI tells you a question doesn't have a good match in your material, that's real information - either you need a new asset for your Battle Book, or you need to write that answer yourself from scratch. Don't let a placeholder ship.

Answers that read fine alone but repeat each other. CFP forms often ask overlapping questions - a bio, a one-liner, a "why you" answer - that can end up saying the same three things in different order. Read the whole form's answers together before you submit, not question by question.

Losing specificity in the name of speed. The fastest version of an answer is often the most generic one. If a question asks what makes your talk different, a specific true detail beats a smooth general claim every time.