in 2023, 60% of consumers said they were enthusiastic about AI-generated content.

That number dropped to 26% in 2025.

In 24 months, the majority of your audience went from curious to skeptical. And the creators who didn't see it coming are the ones who handed their voice to a tool and called it a strategy.

This isn't a backlash against AI. It's a backlash against sameness, against content that sounds technically correct but feels hollow, and against posts that hit every best practice and trigger zero emotion.

Audiences don't have a name for what they're detecting. But they feel it instantly, and the moment they do, they're gone.

Here's what this means for you.

The 60% who were enthusiastic weren't responding to AI content because it was AI. They were responding because it was new. That novelty is gone.

Now, AI-generated content is the default. LinkedIn feeds are full of it, newsletters are packed with it, and the tool that was supposed to give creators leverage gave everyone the same leverage…which means it gave nobody an edge.

What audiences are still responding to is content that sounds like a person made a choice to say something specific. A take that could only come from one person's experience. An opinion someone might actually disagree with.

The scarcest asset in the feed right now isn't production quality. It’s credibility.

And credibility can't be generated. It can only be demonstrated over time, through consistency, and through saying things you actually believe.

What's losing audience trust right now: Generic frameworks dressed as insights. Balanced takes on everything. Perfectly structured posts with no soul. Borrowed urgency that signals optimization over authenticity.

What's building it: Specificity. Vulnerability. Unpopular takes. Stories that could only come from one person. Content that costs something to say.

None of that is hard to produce.

But it requires the one thing AI can't manufacture: the willingness to actually show up as yourself.

The audience is getting better at this faster than most creators are willing to admit. The ones who adjust now will own the next two years.

The move: Before your next piece of AI-assisted content goes out, run this three-question edit.

Question 1: Is there a specific opinion someone could actually disagree with? Not "consistency is important." But something like: "Posting three times a day is killing your conversion rate, and nobody wants to say it." That's a take. That's human.

Question 2: Is there a moment that could only come from your experience? A specific client situation. A mistake from month three. A real number from your own business. If the story could be anyone's story, it's no one's story.

Question 3: Does it sound like something you'd actually say out loud? Read it aloud. If you'd never say it in conversation, your audience will feel that in writing.

The rule: If it fails all three, don't publish yet. Add one human signal, one opinion, one specific detail, or one real moment, and run it again.

Five minutes could be the difference between content that performs and content that connects.

When AI writing tools got good enough to use, I used them. The promise was real: more content, less time, same quality. And for a while, it worked.

The content was covering the same ground. The voice was getting flatter. The audience started responding less; not dramatically, just a little less each time.

I thought it was platform reach due to algorithm changes. Then I wrote something by hand, a real story, a real failure, a take I'd been sitting on for months. The response was completely different. Not just in numbers, but in the kind of response. People replied to share something back.

That's when I understood what the shortcut had cost.

The tool did exactly what it was designed to do, which was to produce competent, structured, and optimized content. The problem is that "competent, structured, and optimized" doesn't build an audience that buys. What builds that is a person saying something real, often enough that others start to trust them.

I still use AI for research, structure, and first drafts. But then I take them apart and rebuild them in my own voice. The tool does the scaffolding, and I do the work that matters.

The trap is the assumption that more content equals more connection. The founders figuring that out now are the ones who will own the next chapter.

Instagram surveyed 1,000 U.S.-based creators on what's shaping the creator economy in 2026. The headline number: 56.1% say AI will "definitely" significantly change how creators work in the next few years.

Another 33.5% say it will "somewhat" change things.

Combined, nearly 90% of creators are anticipating meaningful AI-driven shifts.

Only 10.4% expect little to no change or aren't sure.

What's notable here is the gap between expectation and execution. Creators broadly see the shift coming. But knowing a wave is building and knowing how to position for it are two different things.

The founders who will come out ahead aren't the ones who use AI the most or avoid it entirely. They'll be the ones who figure out where AI creates leverage without replacing the thing audiences actually follow them for: a distinct, trustworthy human voice.

Nearly 90% of creators know something is changing. The question is whether they're building toward it or just watching it arrive.

Read more here

Legacy Builder — Our flagship content strategy and writing service. We help founders become the authority in their niche by building a repeatable system for newsletters, social content, and thought leadership that attracts clients and opportunities.

The First 7 Posts — The fill-in-the-blank LinkedIn template guide for founders who know they should be posting but don't know where to start. Seven days of posts, seven proven frameworks, done in under 15 minutes. Just $4.97.

ReachSocial — The community & workflow system for building authority online. What if growing your brand were simple and structured? ReachSocial helps you run daily content campaigns, track results, and grow through community-driven support.

Subscribe to the Newsletter — If you were forwarded this email, make sure you don’t miss future editions. Subscribe today and get practical insights delivered weekly.

🤝 Get In Front of My Audience — With more than 85,000+ newsletter subscribers, 360,000+ X/Twitter followers, and 40,000+ LinkedIn followers, my team and I work with dozens of partners in unique ways to help them grow. Interested in a partnership, reply to this email “Partnership.”