AI is a force multiplier, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a technological shift that is clearly removing bottlenecks that once constrained creativity, content, and commerce. Undoubtedly, this will increase the supply of these things, but the question that is of most importance is, how does that affect demand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In domained-constrained economies<\/a>, we often see a dilution of marginal value. However, that’s not always the case, as sometimes value is simply reallocated and innovation changes where and how value accrues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To understand where differentiation will come from, we need to dissect the forces at play. AI\u2019s impact can be broken down into three primary effects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These, in my opinion, are relatively safe bets, though by no means certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And because we\u2019re dealing with micro-market dynamics (via platform, competitive, consumer, etc.), these forces will create second and third order effects that reshape what matters in marketing, SEO, and brand building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s start with the first: the democratization of content production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Very simply, AI makes it easier to produce \u201ccontent,\u201d and I mean content in the broadest sense. You know this is true simply by looking at your inbox, your LinkedIn comments, or your spam calls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you increase the supply of something in a market where demand is constrained or fixed (attention<\/a>, by definition, has an upper limit for a single individual), a few predictable economic and behavioral effects occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content, at its core, operates under the same fundamental laws as any other good\u2014when production is no longer scarce, competition intensifies as the barrier to entry lowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The implications I could see playing out include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The path forward for brands isn\u2019t likely to be more<\/em> content, at least content that is median quality and undifferentiated. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, one could take this first point and extrapolate that content\u2019s value, in aggregate, diminishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, I don\u2019t believe that is the case, as deflationary technology that lowers friction tends also to increase the demand for higher quality versions of those assets (like how Starbucks seemingly unlocked an appetite<\/a> for a greater variety of speciality coffees).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I think that the democratization of median level content production means that the floor is now raised for quality, which may lead to greater demand for differentiated content and experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If AI-driven content production were just increasing supply, it would already be a disruptive force. But it does more than that\u2014it raises the baseline expectation for what constitutes \u201cacceptable\u201d quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically, content creation has been constrained by two key factors: skill and time. Writing a coherent, well-researched article took effort. Designing engaging visuals required expertise. Crafting persuasive messaging demanded experience. These constraints served as natural barriers, creating a spectrum of quality in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when AI can generate structured, logically coherent, and SEO-optimized content in seconds, the lower and lower-middle rungs of that spectrum collapse. What was once considered \u201cgood enough\u201d is now table stakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This has immediate consequences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the above bits are true, then what I see happening is a shift from surface level information to value additive information in the form of proprietary data, firsthand experience, and original thinking. I can also see the value shifting from the content to the voice behind the content, the WHO rather than the WHAT as a fundamental trust signal. And I can also see us interweaving efficiency gains with a greater focus on creativity, and dare I say, the human power of irrationality, in creating a differentiated experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is, by the way, GREAT for consumers and for brands that prioritize excellence. It\u2019s bad for anyone relying on surface-level, easily replicable tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI is a friction lowering machine from both a creation and consumption standpoint.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not something that came out of nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When wondering, over brunch with a friend, where what we know as “jazz” first originated, one may have simply had to continue on the rest of their life without knowing, unless they had the fortitude to remember to visit a library after brunch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The internet pulled all of that information onto a screen. Google (and preceding search engines) helped sort and deliver that information. Featured snippets summarized it quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, AI overviews are one step further into that future of seamless information gathering. Perplexity speeds up multi-source summarization. We\u2019ll see new tools further decrease the friction to information access through multiple modality like video, audio, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The effects are broad but follow predictable patterns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alright, so with these three forces in play\u2014production democratization, quality elevation, and friction reduction\u2014the central question becomes: What actually stands out?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Three things: credibility, novelty, and affinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are the hard-to-fake signals<\/a> that mattered before, and they matter even more now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first filtering signal I\u2019m indexing on is credibility. I\u2019ve long written about this and adored the concept: the source of the information carries as much weight as the information itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I once heard Whitney Wolfe Herd say on Tim Ferriss\u2019 podcast<\/a>, \u201cThe most expensive currency in the world is experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As in, I want to read a Paul Graham essay about building a startup<\/a>, not a generic page from Zapier:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is, at least in a theoretical sense, already in play with things like Google\u2019s purported reliance on E-E-A-T signals. It\u2019s also clearly the case with social media, where you see a name and a face pop up over and over again and you start to trust them and associate them with certain topics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I certainly don\u2019t think that everyone needs to start posting on LinkedIn, but the power of building a personal brand is pretty apparent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube prioritize individual voices over faceless brands. The rise of founder-led content\u2014where CEOs, operators, and internal experts become the faces of a company\u2019s marketing\u2014is a natural adaptation to a world where people trust people more than faceless brands (and you should change your blog bylines from \u201cstaff\u201d to an actual name if you haven\u2019t already).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially for early stage companies, and those building movements for their products, you have a founder or company leader out there beating the drum of their mission, constantly reinforcing their expertise in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s the mark of great B2B content? Ask many content marketers, and they\u2019ll say SME (or subject matter expert) involvement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Usually the way this is done is through an interview, or perhaps an email where you ask specific questions and get quotes back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One very optimistic hope of mine for AI is that, like the Gutenberg press unlocked knowledge and literacy, we\u2019ll be able to unlock dormant knowledge that was previously inaccessible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are millions of experts sitting inside companies today\u2014engineers, operators, domain specialists\u2014who don\u2019t write. They either lack the time, the inclination, or the writing skills to translate their knowledge into scalable or distributable assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s yet to be determined, but maybe AI could change that??<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theoretically, subject matter experts could now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, I don\u2019t think this has happened yet, but I could see the role of content marketers evolving from writers to intelligence engineers.<\/strong> Instead of just producing content, they could:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the last decade of content marketing was about producing content efficiently, the next decade will be about activating the latent intelligence inside organizations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In an information abundant world, why<\/em> would someone engage with your content? If the answer is “because we optimized for a keyword,” I don\u2019t think you\u2019ve made a very compelling case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, let\u2019s spend our time thinking less about structuring H2s and more about information gain\u2014insights, data, or synthesis that cannot be easily found elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does this look like in practice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, credibility is really the precondition necessary for all the rest \u2013 distribution, engagement, conversion \u2013 and without it, each of those is much harder to accomplish and has less robustness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, we\u2019ll break down the second major differentiator: novelty & unique data.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n For years, one of the most effective ways to create high-performing content has been to introduce original data into the conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well before generative AI, brands that surfaced unique industry benchmarks, proprietary research, or aggregated insights consistently built authority, links, conversions, and engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can take many forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can think of this as Himalayan sea salt for all your other marketing efforts, making the flavor pop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When HubSpot releases its annual State of Marketing<\/a> report, it\u2019s not just another blog post\u2014it\u2019s a high-signal content asset that drives citations, backlinks, and downstream influence. When SparkToro publishes data<\/a> on audience behavior, it instantly shapes industry conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m actually beginning to think of data advantages in two different ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best example of this is product-driven AI workflows. Many companies are now integrating AI into their offerings\u2014but the ones that will stand out are those that infuse their AI tools with unique, first-party data.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the next major battleground: the companies that leverage AI with proprietary data will create better outputs than those using off-the-shelf models.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many implications here which could probably fill a book (a book that I am unqualified to write). <\/p>\n\n\n\n As someone who once wrote that \u201cbrand awareness is a meaningless metric<\/a>\u201d I hope you\u2019ll take me seriously when I say that brand signals are evidently important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look \u2013 brand is a very vague term. I have not stopped to define it in all of its ambiguity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But what I\u2019m really going for here, again, is the idea that who<\/strong> delivers the message is now as important as the message itself. This entails awareness, trust, affinity, and style or what your name, logo, or website connotes emotionally. Like I said, broad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To get more specific, I\u2019ll give you a few ways I can see value accruing in brand-related efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surround Sound SEO<\/a> is about the ubiquity of your brand in categorical searches, not just the myopic focus of ranking your site for the term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You seek to be mentioned on the top 10, 20, 100 pages for your product category, e.g. \u201cbest SaaS SEO agencies.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea is actually incredibly logical:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more times you\u2019re mentioned, the higher the likelihood someone puts you on that comparison list. I\u2019ve repeated this playbook several times, from HubSpot where we pioneered it, to Omniscient ourselves and many of our clients. It works. And it\u2019s hard to pull off because it requires more than keyword optimization, but also a partnership with product marketing, PR, brand, outreach, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This also likely parlays into AI-generated outputs for similar queries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n One fun heuristic I\u2019m playing with is to consider what AI can do well and easily (and is therefore likely to rise in use), and then doing the opposite of that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In some sense, our powers of irrationality, and specifically, costly signaling, may be the signals that matter the most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Costly signaling is the idea that certain signals only work because they are expensive, difficult, or irrational in the short term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyone can publish AI-generated blog posts. Few companies invest in a high-quality print magazine. Anyone can run paid ads. Few companies create irreplaceable in-person experiences<\/strong> that deepen brand affinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the highest level, brand acts as a filtering mechanism. It compresses decision-making for consumers, making it easier to choose amidst overwhelming options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When content is infinite, recognition and familiarity create shortcuts. People gravitate toward the brands they know, trust, and feel a connection with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s what makes brand the ultimate moat, possibly even leading to a compounding Matthew Effect<\/a> in search, social, and now, LLMs. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a steeper essay than most newsletter issues, possibly a double black diamond for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But lest I come across as too abstract and future-focused, I\u2019ll say that a lot of blocking and tackling is not currently being done in a huge amount of organizations. I\u2019m talking about basic telemetry and measurement, ICP research and intelligent strategy design, and accountability towards growth outcomes. I\u2019m talking about consistency in execution and high standards for excellence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So even disregarding any of the above AI bets or effects, the companies I see winning are the ones that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I\u2019ve stated before<\/a>, I\u2019m optimistic because now we have real, exciting, and uncertain problems to figure out. There\u2019s a lot of opportunity in volatility and platform disruption for those who lean into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Want more insights like this? Subscribe to our <\/a>Field <\/a>Notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Assuming AI continues along its current trajectory, it will do…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184,25],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-field-notes","8":"category-seo"},"yoast_head":"\n\n
1. AI Democratizes Production & Increases Supply<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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2. AI Raises the Floor for Quality<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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3. AI Reduces Friction & Increases Accessibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What Actually Stands Out?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Credibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-117-1024x551.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFounder-Led Brand & The Power of Visibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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AI Could Unlock Dormant Expertise\u2014But You Have to Capture It<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Expertise & Information Gain: Why You?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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2. Novelty & Data<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Two Layers of Data Advantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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3. Affinity (Brand)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Surround Sound SEO and the Rise of AI-Mediated Discovery<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-118-1024x872.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCostly Signaling and the Power of Unpredictability<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Brand as the Ultimate Signal in a Flooded Market<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Path Forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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