“Maybe don't concentrate on how efficient you are ... because that's what AI can do. Concentrate on what a wonderful human being you are… how you improve the lives of the world around you. Maybe that, is the secret.”
Hey
There’s a lot of fear-mongering floating around podcasts and blog posts at the moment. And sure, a lot of it’s valid. The industry is changing fast - arguably too fast for anyone to keep up with.
But there’s something I don’t think enough people are talking about.
Humanity.
Your humanity, specifically.
We’re heading into a world where content - whether it’s marketing, entertainment, documentary, or even your nan’s Facebook uploads - will be almost entirely AI-generated. Especially when it comes to stuff made by big corporations. I’m under no illusion that my own role, as a producer inside a major broadcaster, is untouchable. If anything, I’m keenly aware it’ll be obsolete in a few years. And honestly? Fair play to them.
Some of you might be in the same boat - part of a cost-cutting machine hellbent on over-delivering to a shrinking ad market. Sounds bleak, doesn’t it?
Well, here’s my hot take:
Fuck ’em.
Your value - as a creative, a marketer, a marketer-turned-creative, or any hybrid in between - isn’t in how efficient you are, or how many views you can farm. Because, frankly, AI is already better at that than you.
No, your value is in what you are as a human.
What you can do for other humans. What you bring to humanity.
We're never going to win the arms race against AI. But we don’t need to. Because what we do have is something it doesn’t:
Humanity.
I’m extremely bullish on the future of content that leans hard into this. Human-made stories, with real-world goodness baked in. Stuff that resonates because it actually matters to people. So let’s look at a few corners of the internet already doing that well - and figure out what we can nick from them.
“My scarcity as a person is my value.”
Jubilee is doing something quietly subversive: putting human-only stories front and centre.
Take Surrounded, one of its hit formats. It doesn’t work if it’s AI vs AI. If you’ve got one AI programmed to be liberal, debating 20 MAGA-coded bots… Well, whats the fucking point? The draw is in real people, with real beliefs, and the complex mess behind how they came to think the way they do. Prompt-driven dialogue just doesn’t cut the mustard.
I know, I know - another wrestling reference. I’m sorry. I’m just a fan.
But seriously, this one makes the point perfectly. Wrestling isn’t just about flippy shit in the ring. It’s the world around it - the backstories, the feuds, the blurred lines between real and fake, the drama. You can replace a soap opera like Eastenders with AI and lose very little. But wrestling? You can’t automate that chaos. The magic’s in the mess. The humans are the product.
I’m lumping these together: Outdoor Boys (RIP*), Xander Budnick, hell even Bear Grylls.
This stuff speaks to the inner animal in all of us (and yes, mostly cis men aged 25-70, but let’s not get picky).
What makes it compelling isn’t just the scenery. It’s the real stakes. The genuine tension. The human problem-solving. These are skills passed down since the dawn of time, and not scraped from the internet, only to be spat out by a model. AI can’t fake the actual real survival drama. And so if you’re thinking about packing your camera bag and heading off to the Amazon - now is a very good time to get into it.
*not dead just retired
This is another area I think is poised for a big glow-up.
How-tos, weird builds, handmade masterpieces - it's all thriving. In a world where digital skills are getting flattened by automation, making actual stuff is starting to feel like a luxury. And not just for economic value - for joy. As a society, we might be inching toward abundance. When that happens, craft won’t just be useful. It’ll be pleasurable. And deeply, stubbornly human.
So yeah.
I asked chat GPT to sum this essay up in a sentence and it predictably him me with this pithy one liner:
If AI is the future, then humanity is the feature.
What the fuck does that even mean? I don’t know - what I do know is - if your job is starting to look like a soon-to-be-replaced deliverable, maybe now’s the time to stop optimising for efficiency - and start being a better, weirder, more wonderful human.
That might just be the secret.
peace x