Why AI-generated content makes your audience feel gross (and what to do about it)

Marketing hot take where I lose 50% of you, aka unpopular opinion:

Use AI for your backend work like automating workflows, but keep it out of your published content.

The folks at Sprout Social, Inc. talk more about why: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/human-generated-content/

Me on a quick trip to San Diego last week, visiting Desert View Tower and Boulder Park.

Before getting any hackles up, really stop to think about this. 

We've already seen examples of AI cannibalizing itself to make AI slop even sloppier. Even the "best" AI-generated content leaves a significant percentage of the population with increased AI fatigue and overall ick.

CONSIDER EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. What are your customers experiencing on a personal level? It would be naive and irresponsible to assume that your audience hasn't experienced AI fatigue on some level. They're being asked to use it at work (for some very valid & helpful reasons that don't included published content); their kids are scrutinizing it in conversations at the dinner table, from environmental standpoints to "Why do we even need this? We didn't ask for this, and we don't want it."; their doctor is asking them to sign a waiver allowing them to transcribe their visit using AI that hopefully has been properly vetted and has safety and security guardrails in place to protect them from a breach...the list goes on.

On top of that, your audience is stressed. Being a human has always come with its challenges, but right now is a particularly trying point in the timeline. The job market feels insurmountable for thousands, leading to financial stress, people are adjusting to higher costs of living which often means going without some necessities, and I don't know anyone who isn't grieving at least one of the current unsavory world events and wondering how the next couple years are going to play out. There's a LOT going on.

So can you imagine when your customer/audience member scrolls across, let's say, a new AI-generated video from one of their favorite brands. Their brain identifies it as AI instantly. That waterfall is otherworldly, as are the flawless people frolicking in it. Not a blemish or imperfection in sight. The nearby trees are sparkling green, glistening alongside the shiny paint of the eco-friendly SUV parked near the water's edge; a cornucopia of fruits, cheeses, wine, and bread strewn across a picnic blanket on the hood of the SUV. There's a space rocket flying overhead, far in the distance, presumably transporting our first batch of Mars colonists. This imaginary visual oasis trains our brains to expect that level of perfection and utopia. This type of consumption experience makes people a little sadder, even if subconsciously. While they may initially admire the beauty and promises in a perfectly executed AI-generated video, something registers at a primal level that says "This is not real life. Those AI people without body hair or cellulite or a sore shoulder or crooked teeth aren't worrying about what adjustments they need to make to their budget to account for $6.18/gal fuel this week. They aren't worried about the upstream body of water that's being poisoned and will eventually carry to the pristine waterfall. Man, I wish this was real life. Why do I suddenly feel less satisfied with my day and the people in it?" 

The other side of that coin is that the majority of folks aren't consistently able to recognize AI-generated content, especially faces. For those individuals, being inundated with AI visuals that their brains perceive as real can also be mentally and emotionally harmful through instinctual comparisons with their own life and experiences. 

Let's consider another example, but this time regarding AI-generated writing. These days, you don't have to scroll LinkedIn for more than a couple minutes to encounter a post debating whether or not to use AI for copywriting. Regardless of where you stand in that debate, I urge you to think about all the times in the last few months when you've read something and immediately thought "they used AI to write that," vs. the last time you read something like a poem, song lyrics, or something else that was so distinctly original and stirred an emotion in you that you were delightfully caught off guard by how "fresh" the words felt. The latter is what today's marketers and copywriters need to tap into for long-term success.

Humans aren't wired for perfection. We are animals. Animals are messy and complex, and that's wonderful! We thrive in communities where we can relate to each other and grow through shared experiences.

AI-generated content is rarely TRULY relatable, and therein is where much of the problem lays for marketing professionals. Furthermore, most AI-generated content is boring and erodes a brand's credibility. (More thoughts from Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesfinancecouncil/2025/12/04/ai-slop-til-you-drop-why-more-content-is-killing-credibility/)

This article is not anti-AI. It has great potential and numerous groundbreaking and beneficial uses, many of which we've already observed, and with many more to come. However, I've gradually adopted the opinion that generating content is not one of those groundbreaking and beneficial uses. I'll end with a question I find helpful to ask at least once a day where AI is involved: "Just because we can, does it mean that we should?"

Thanks for reading, y'all, and for keeping those minds open.

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(This article was written without the assistance of AI.)