This is a question that we are all starting to be faced with daily. Is AI making it harder for content creators to stand out? There is so much at our fingertips, more than there has ever been before. Within an instant, we can create a graphic, a blog post, a caption, content calendars, Excel spreadsheets, coding apps and more. The list goes on, which is absolutely incredible. But with AI comes a lot of nuances that we as a society haven’t figured out yet. The internet is simply drowning in content.
If everyone can create more content faster, is AI actually making it harder to stand out?
AI Lowered the Barrier to Creating Content
You no longer need to be an experienced writer, designer or editor to create something reasonably polished. AI tools can help brainstorm, write, edit, design, summarize and repurpose content. And really quickly at that.
That’s genuinely useful. The problem isn’t that more people can create. The problem is that “pretty good content” is becoming incredibly easy to produce. Within seconds, an entire month’s worth of content that used to take hours can be created, giving many good creators back their time but giving anyone else, creator or not, a chance to enter the game. It’s helpful that creating content can now happen so quickly, but it has lowered the barrier to the content creation process as a whole.
We’re Entering the Era of Sameness
It’s effortlessly easy to download ChatGPT, Claude or any other AI program and turn out content. If you don’t know what you’re doing or aren’t sure how to prompt these bots correctly, then you will likely start creating generic content that is very similar to what everyone else is saying and creating. If everyone is “unlocking the power of” something, “navigating an ever-changing digital landscape” and telling us “it’s not just about creating content, it’s about creating meaningful connections,” I am begging somebody to just tell me what they actually think. lol
When everyone sounds the same, and if the internet is already drowning in content, it starts making content feel unoriginal. And when everything feels the same, it’s easy for content, original or not, to start being ignored. It’s also becoming easier to spot all the content that is the same and to notice when someone is exclusively using AI.
More Content Doesn’t Automatically Mean Better Content
AI genuinely solved part of the production problem. Content creation can now be streamlined to minutes and seconds, giving business owners and content creators back their time in ways never seen before. What it didn’t solve was the “having something worth saying” problem. It gave everyone a larger megaphone in some ways, but it doesn’t automatically mean content will be BETTER just because you use AI.
A creator can now publish seven posts instead of two, but if all seven could have come from anyone, publishing more doesn’t necessarily make that creator more memorable. That’s one of the challenges with AI. As a content creator, you still have to work to produce better content that proves you aren’t relying on AI to do all of it for you.
AI Is Making Original Experience More Valuable
I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom. I really love AI. I use ChatGPT all the time. It’s helped me do things like research and proofread, and it’s talked me off some emotional ledges I’ve found myself on (hello perimenopause). It’s a tool that we get to utilize, and it’s helped to make businesses run in more streamlined ways.
When you start using AI as a replacement for the human experience, that’s when your content will start to become mediocre and unmemorable. Truthfully, nothing can replace the original experience that a human can provide. AI just can’t manufacture it in quite the same way.
A dentist explaining something she’s noticed after treating thousands of patients, a realtor talking about what she’s actually seeing in her city, or a baker explaining the mistake customers make when ordering wedding cakes has something generic AI content doesn’t: firsthand experience. And that firsthand experience is becoming more and more valuable as the world continues to search for authenticity.
Personality Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Being YOU is most of what makes your business so amazing! Your weird opinions, stories, humor, examples, preferences and way of explaining something aren’t distractions from your content. They’re part of what differentiates it from everyone else. Everyone is starting to really have to ask whether or not content is real, and that’s where you have a true competitive advantage.
AI can produce “5 Tips for Better Instagram Content.” But AI can’t be you explaining why one of those tips drove you nuts, what happened when you tried it, why you stopped doing it and what you’re doing instead. It can try (and it’s getting really good), but ultimately it can’t ever replace an actual human being.
Being Searchable Still Matters, But Being Memorable Matters Too
It’s important to still understand and know how to be searchable online. But you also need to be memorable too. Now you have to be both. SEO, keywords, Pinterest, YouTube search and AI search still matter because people have to find you before they can care about you. But ranking or appearing in a recommendation is only the first step.
Being searchable online will help to get you discovered. Once your audience finds you, though, if all you sound like is a robot, then they might not stay for too long. When you utilize your God-given personality to help create content and run your business, it gives people a reason to remember you. And in today’s AI world, that is really, really refreshing.
AI Isn’t the Enemy. Generic Content Is.
Like I mentioned, I use AI to help me almost every day to run this blog, create content and streamline all my processes. AI is not the enemy. It’s a wonderful tool that can help so many people with so many things! It’s almost unrealistic to NOT use it at this point.
AI can be fantastic for research, brainstorming, outlining, editing, repurposing and getting unstuck. The problem comes when creators outsource the entire thinking process and publish whatever comes out without adding anything of themselves. Don’t fall into the trap of allowing AI to become the creator. Instead, use AI to HELP you create.
What Creators Should Do Differently
Don’t start by deleting your AI apps or demonizing AI altogether. I’m a big believer in moving forward and learning new things. AI is new and it’s not going away. So we need to learn how to use it and not push against it.
We also need to stop using it as a replacement for things that humans can do.
I want to encourage you to bring more firsthand experience into your content. Work towards developing actual opinions, telling specific stories and showing your processes. Continue creating from things you’ve genuinely done or learned. And ask yourself whether someone who already follows you can recognize your content without seeing your username.
If your name disappeared from the post, would anyone know you wrote it? That’s a good question to ask.
What This Means for Small Business Owners
This article isn’t just for content creators. It’s for small business owners too. Most small business owners are discovering that they HAVE to create content in order to run their business online.
Small businesses don’t need to compete with the entire AI-generated internet. They need to become useful and recognizable to the specific people who might actually become their customers.
AI can write an article titled “5 Reasons to Visit the Eye Doctor.” But an actual eye doctor can answer those questions personally and with specifics. Each person is uniquely different, and answers to these questions should be too. Combining the two is where real-world knowledge and search strategy become incredibly powerful. So it’s important to use both.
The Content Maven Takeaway
Truthfully, AI probably is making it harder for generic content to stand out. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s making it harder for good creators to stand out. In fact, a flood of polished, interchangeable content may make genuine expertise, recognizable personality, firsthand experience and actual opinions easier to notice.
The internet doesn’t need you to create more content than AI can. You will lose that competition every single time. It needs you to create the content AI couldn’t have created without you. You are irreplaceable in this world. What you and your business bring to the table is something that AI can’t replace. Set out to create content that’s memorable, authentically you and fun! Use AI to help your business, but don’t lose your personality in the process.
Want More Help Creating Content People Can Actually Find?
If you’re trying to figure out how to create content that gets found without sounding exactly like everyone else on the internet, that’s exactly what I talk about in The Daily Pour. I share what’s happening in content creation, social media, search and the creator economy, along with what it actually means for your business.
Subscribe to The Daily Pour and I’ll help you keep up with what’s changing without losing the human part of your content in the process. Because being an actual person on the internet is clearly now a competitive advantage. lol
FAQ: AI and Content Creation
Is AI making it harder for content creators to stand out?
AI has made it easier and faster for almost anyone to produce polished content, which means there is more content competing for attention online. That can make generic content harder to differentiate. At the same time, firsthand experience, personality and original perspectives can help creators become more recognizable.
Is AI replacing content creators?
AI can perform many tasks involved in content creation, including brainstorming, writing, editing, designing and repurposing. However, creators still bring personal experiences, opinions, expertise and relationships with their audiences that AI cannot replicate in the same way. Using AI as a tool rather than a replacement for the creator can help preserve those differences.
Should content creators use AI?
AI can be incredibly useful for research, brainstorming, outlining, proofreading, repurposing content and streamlining repetitive tasks. The key is to use those tools to support your own ideas and expertise rather than allowing AI to generate everything you publish. Your personality and firsthand experience should still be recognizable in the finished content.
How can content creators stand out in the age of AI?
Creators can focus on sharing firsthand experiences, specific stories, original opinions and expertise gained through their actual work. Creating searchable content can help people discover you, while personality and useful perspectives give them a reason to remember you. The goal isn’t to create more content than AI can produce, but to create content that couldn’t exist without your experience.
