Everyone Can Create Content. Few Brands Nowadays Have Something Worth Saying.
If you've spent more than five minutes on LinkedIn lately, you've probably noticed something that feels… mind-numbing.
Your feed is full of polished carousels, perfectly structured thought leadership posts, and blogs that all seem to arrive at the same conclusion. The writing is clean. The advice is generally sound. Yet, by the time you've finished scrolling, it's hard to remember who shared what or why it really mattered.
Artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed how marketers create content. Need a blog outline? Five headline options? A month's worth of social posts? The tasks that used to take hours or days can now take minutes.
Don’t get me wrong, that's a serious advantage.
It's also why the simple act of “creating content” is no longer a competitive win on its own. When everyone has access to the same tools, the same prompts, and the same best practices, content starts to blur together and sound repetitive at best. We aren't just producing more content than ever before. We're producing more versions of the same message. Over. And over. And over.
The internet isn't running out of content. It's running out of identity. That distinction matters because audiences won't remember content simply because it exists. They remember the brands that give them a new way to think, solve a problem they hadn't considered even existing, or tell a story only they could tell.
The race for more content misses the point.
For years, marketers have been told that consistency is everything. Post more often. Be everywhere. With AI changing how people discover information, that pressure has only intensified. Many brands feel like they need an endless stream of blogs, social posts, and videos simply to stay visible.
In all fairness, there is some truth to that. AI search and social algorithms both rely today on higher volumes of content to understand who you are and when your brand should appear. But somewhere along the way, quantity became confused with credibility.
The brands showing up in AI-generated search results aren't succeeding because they published another 50 generic blog posts. They're succeeding because they've built authority over time. They're quoted by journalists. They're referenced by industry experts. In short, other credible sources reinforce what the brand claims about itself. More content can certainly help. I’d argue, however, that more meaningful signals matter even more.
AI raised the bar for what audiences engage with.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been told by a C-Suite executive that my team should use more AI tools to make better, more polished content quicker, I could jump into early retirement next week. But the truth is that this rapid churn through of content is the exact opposite of what audiences today are craving.
As more polished, AI-assisted content floods every platform, users have become better at recognizing when something feels too generic. It's difficult to describe exactly why, but we've all experienced it. You finish reading an article or swiping through a social post that checked every box, and yet somehow it left no lasting impression.
That's the uncanny valley many brands find themselves in today. The content isn't bad. It's just missing any evidence that a real person, with a real point of view, was behind it. AI is exceptionally good at summarizing what's already been said. The problem is that it struggles to create the experiences, opinions and judgment that make someone worth listening to in the first place. In fact sometimes those little typos or editing errors we as humans make, today can be the thing that makes your content feel real and genuine, rather than mass produced.
Personality isn't a brand voice exercise.
When marketers talk about personality, the conversation often revolves around tone. Should the brand be witty? Professional? Casual? Think of it as the “Burger King on Twitter” conversation.
Those decisions matter, but they're only surface level. Real brand personality comes from having a perspective. It shows up in the stories you choose to tell, the opinions you're willing to share, and the conversations you're willing to start. It's reflected in your customer stories, the social trends your team jumps on and the in-person experiences you choose to share online. Ultimately, those moments remind audiences there's a real team behind the logo.
The brands people remember will still feel human.
AI isn't going away, nor should it (selfishly, my weekly meal planning game would massively suffer if it disappeared tomorrow). It helps us move faster, organize ideas more efficiently, and spend more time thinking strategically instead of staring at a blank page. But AI should accelerate your thinking, not replace the final product. The brands that stand out over the next several years won't necessarily be the ones producing the most content. They'll be the ones with a clear and self-made style, a recognizable personality and the confidence to create work that couldn't have come from anyone else.
In a world where everyone can create content, having something actually worth saying is the thing that people will remember.
About Mackenzie Wimmer
Mackenzie Wimmer is Director of Integrated Communications at Morning Walk, where she helps brands find the stories worth telling and the smartest ways to make them travel. Having worked on both the agency and brand side, she knows what it takes to connect business goals with communications that actually move the needle. Her experience spans hospitality, travel, DTC, food and beverage, industrial, and consumer brands. When she's not helping clients make headlines, you'll probably find her exploring Milwaukee's food scene, testing a new recipe, or squeezing in just enough extra steps to make her Oura Ring happy.
