The Key to Content in the Age of AI Lies in Human Expertise and Authenticity

By Bonnie Moss, President and Founder of Moss Networks

In an ocean of AI-generated marketing content, the humans behind your brand can be a beacon for your customers. Starting an article or a video only to realize it is actually content created by a GenAI product can undermine customers’ trust in a brand. By contrast, content that features authentic human voices, real-world examples, and deep expertise can be a lifeline for customers seeking connection with influencers who can help them solve real-world challenges.

For business decision-makers, the growing glut of similar AI-created content can make it harder to find in-depth and nuanced information to effectively evaluate brands’ offerings and make the best possible choices. For brands, though, today’s flood of lookalike content presents an opportunity to differentiate by creating authentically human content for human customers.

YOUR EXPERTS WILL DRIVE AUDIENCE CONNECTION

Your subject matter experts and experienced leaders can put a human face on your brand when they talk with the media, engage with customers during webinars and live events, or present thought leadership articles. Developing and amplifying your internal thought leaders conveys your brand’s depth of expertise. It can also allow your brand to create one-of-a-kind content based on individual thought leaders’ unique points of view and deep dives into their knowledge. As your thought leaders build an audience, they add to your brand’s credibility and share of voice, while cultivating strong loyalty among their followers.

Human experts who consistently deliver authentic and insightful content also give your audience confidence that engaging with your content is worth their time. Slightly more than half of executives and business decision-makers read thought leadership content for at least an hour each week. The fact that these busy people regularly carve out so much time to engage with this kind of content demonstrates the value they get from it.

It also highlights the risks of presenting low-quality, generic content. Waste this audience’s time and they’ll quickly move on to connect with leaders who deliver the insights they need. Brands that respect this group’s time and intelligence can capture customer attention in the moment, and they cultivate stronger long-term relationships with them. According to LinkedIn/Edelman research, 90% of executives and decision-makers are more open to outreach from brands “that consistently produce high-quality thought leadership.”

YOUR BRAND IS UNIQUE, SO SHOULD YOUR CONTENT BE

Sharing original findings demonstrates your brand’s proactive approach to answering questions that customers may have or to getting answers from customers about the issues they face. And, that data can lay the foundation for a much larger and long-lasting PR and marketing push that expands the content’s reach and amplifies your brand authority.

For example, an accounting outsourcing company with survey data from financial leaders across several industries created a trends report in 2024 that generated more than a dozen feature articles, three thought leadership articles, and 150 syndicated publications of the press release announcing the report. These efforts resulted in more than 100 downloads of the report in its first days of release, which demonstrated the level of interest among the brand’s target audience for this kind of information. The brand plans to conduct more research along these lines, to continue providing original, relevant information to its customers.

CREATE CONTENT THAT’S ENGAGING AND SOLVES PROBLEMS

Of course, originality for its own sake isn’t enough to create valuable content. Original content should solve a problem that your customers face, illuminate a potential roadblock for the industry, or present a new opportunity—and include data-supported ideas about how to proceed. That might look like data on how executives plan to allocate their spending in the year ahead, a cost-benefit analysis of multiple solutions to a thorny problem, a case study and roadmap for leveraging technology in a new way, or something else.

Besides building brand authority, useful content is also more likely to be shared by readers, which can increase your brand’s likelihood of being on customer shortlists when it’s time to make purchase decisions. Among technology buyers, for example, peer connections are primary decision-making resources, according to a 2024 TrustRadius report. That report also concluded that “for now, buyers are treating AI-generated content with a healthy dose of skepticism,” which further underlines the need for authentic, expert-driven content.

LEVERAGE AI TO SUPPORT YOUR CONTENT GOALS

All the strategies above require human expertise and effort, rather than reliance on AI, to execute effectively. However, AI can play important supporting roles to make it easier for brands to create this kind of original content and get the most value from it. According to recent Content Marketing Institute research, 51% of B2B marketers say that GenAI is taking rote tasks off their to-do lists, and 45% say their workflows are more efficient because of GenAI. Using GenAI to do what it does best, like automating workflows and handling standardized but time-consuming tasks, can set your content creation team free to spend more time on high-value, human-focused activities.

An authentic, expert- and experience-led approach to content creation can help your brand to level up and stand out, rather than watering down your brand voice. Developing content that shares real points of view and brings your team’s deep expertise to life takes time and coordination. But the return on that investment is the creation of content that can deeply engage your audience, help them navigate their business challenges, and cultivate productive relationships with your brand.