Reflections on the hidden costs of AI-generated content

Last week on LinkedIn, someone posted a brilliant video snippet by Rory Sutherland on marketing what AI DOESN’T do for learning. (I think from this video.)

I loved it, shared it – and was inspired (and challenged) to riff on it.

The value of content writing isn’t only in the resulting content.
It’s about much more than filling
The gaping hole of content demand
With an article or a blog post.

The deeper value is in 
The process you go through
To write that content.

Because the fundamental work you do 
When you write (good) content
Is the ongoing marketing and brand definition work
That keeps your business and your value proposition
Current and human…

The value isn’t just in the piece of content you publish.
It’s ALSO in the effort you have to make
To define your values, your USP,
Your impact and your benefits.

It is in the questions you had to ask
Both of yourself and of your customers
About the value you deliver and 
The values driving your business

It’s in the thinking you have to do,
The marketing books and articles you research,
And the discipline it took
To make the time and do the work
Of building your brand clarity
Instead of working on customer deliverables.

It’s in the effort you had to go through 
To put what you do in your business
Into words that your ideal prospects
Will fully understand.

It’s in the effort of building the stories
That create engagement and understanding.

The reward of high-value, authentic content writing
Is in the marketing clarity it brings to your business
As you create engaging, re-tellable stories –
Stories for everyone in your business to tell.

Stories that delineate and crystalise
The values your business runs on
As well as the value it delivers to your customers.

AI-generated content can create volumes of words
But if it means that if you continue
To skimp on the core business work
Of marketing and branding.

And bypass the painful, 
time consuming process of 
Working ON your business
Instead of in your business

(Which is what content development is really about)

It will just be words.

I see AI as a great tool for ideation and research. It may even do an adequate job copying your voice and tone.

Authentic content is an exercise in market and brand development – not just writing

Business operators have been avoiding the business-building work of marketing and branding AT LEAST since Michael Gerber wrote his first eMyth book way back in 1986.

“An unexamined business is not worth operating”
(My apologies to Socrates)

To me, publishing reams of AI-generated content isn’t a great substitute for doing the difficult, painful work of brand definition.