At our September CTM event, the community tackled a big question: how has AI changed what we believe about content creation, and what comes next? Attendees shared how their perspectives have shifted over the past 18 months, from the role of AI in producing content at scale to the importance of human creativity, quality, and differentiation.
The conversation revealed a tension at the heart of modern marketing: AI has made creating content faster and more accessible than ever, but producing more content doesn’t automatically mean producing better content. As AI-generated content floods the market and AI agents increasingly influence how buyers discover information, marketers are rethinking not just what they create, but who they’re creating it for. The discussion explored how to stand out today while preparing for a future where both humans and AI agents consume and act on content.
💡 5 Key Takeaways on Creating Content for Humans and AI
1️⃣ AI makes content creation faster, but human judgment still makes it good
One of the clearest themes from the discussion was that AI has dramatically increased the speed and volume of content production. Several attendees shared that they no longer believe creating a steady stream of content requires the same level of time or headcount they once thought it did. AI can help teams produce more with fewer resources, tackle new formats, and even create content using an AI version of a real person.
But speed doesn’t guarantee quality. Attendees emphasized that the best content still requires human editing, iteration, and judgment. Effective AI-generated content also needs to be tailored to a specific audience, communicate meaningful differentiation, and speak to the right buyer persona. That takes more than a single prompt.
The takeaway: AI can accelerate production, but humans still need to shape the strategy, refine the message, and ensure the final product is worth consuming.
2️⃣ More content doesn’t necessarily mean more impact
The group challenged several long-held assumptions about content marketing, including the idea that polished content, high production volume, strong branding, or going viral automatically leads to better results. As AI makes it easier to publish at scale, the internet is becoming increasingly crowded with content competing for attention.
Attendees raised an important question: how do you create a pattern interrupt when everyone is producing more content than ever? Some suggested going where competitors aren’t, including a renewed interest in physical mail and print. Others pointed to the growing difficulty of visually differentiating content when AI-generated imagery is everywhere.
The discussion also questioned whether engagement metrics always reflect genuine interest, with one attendee noting that likes and interactions don’t necessarily come from real people.
The takeaway: when content becomes easier to produce, differentiation becomes more important. Focus on creating something distinctive and valuable for your audience, rather than chasing volume or vanity metrics alone.
3️⃣ The next evolution of content is hyper-personalized and interactive
Looking ahead 18 months, attendees imagined a future where content adapts to individual buyers in real time. Rather than directing every visitor to the same website pages or giving every prospect the same materials, companies could use AI agents to deliver information tailored to a person’s needs, interests, and stage in the buying journey.
Ideas included custom content agents on company websites, personalized social responses, research packages built for individual buyers, and interactive experiences that evolve as users engage with them. Attendees also discussed how integrating data from sales and marketing systems could make these experiences more relevant and useful.
The group explored whether AI agents might eventually take a more proactive role, developing content plans and coordinating information instead of waiting for marketers to provide prompts.
The takeaway: the opportunity isn’t just to create more content with AI. It’s to make content more relevant to each buyer, delivering the right information at the right moment.
4️⃣ Your content strategy needs to account for AI agents, not just human readers
One of the most forward-looking discussions centered on how AI agents could change the way buyers discover and evaluate companies. Attendees predicted a future where agents research options, compare information, and filter content before presenting recommendations to humans. In that environment, some content may be created primarily for AI systems to interpret and relay to people.
The conversation also touched on the importance of expertise, structured information, and independent verification. As AI systems evaluate information from multiple sources, companies will need to make their knowledge accessible and provide credible evidence to support their claims. Attendees discussed how coordinated messaging and consistent proof points across the market could influence how buyers understand a company.
Rather than relying solely on traditional search tactics, marketers will need to consider how AI systems discover, interpret, and use their content. The discussion raised questions about how emerging AI advertising platforms could influence this landscape, too.
The takeaway: content increasingly needs to work for two audiences: the humans making decisions and the AI agents helping them get there. Make your expertise easy to find, understand, and verify.
5️⃣ The future belongs to marketers who combine AI scale with authentic human expertise
Throughout the conversation, attendees returned to the importance of authenticity and human connection. While AI can help teams create content more efficiently, it can also make it harder to distinguish original expertise from generic, mass-produced material. As the volume of AI-generated content grows, a recognizable point of view and credible human insight may become even more valuable.
The group explored how real expertise could serve as the foundation for future content systems, with AI helping structure that knowledge, distribute it across channels, and deliver it to the right audiences. Human involvement would then become more focused on the interactions and decisions where it adds the most value.
This raises a new challenge for marketers: determining what AI should handle, what requires human involvement, and how to measure whether the resulting content is actually working. As the tools evolve, teams will need to keep testing their assumptions rather than treating AI adoption as a strategy in itself.
The takeaway: AI can help your expertise travel further, but it can’t replace the need for something meaningful to say. The strongest content strategies will pair AI’s ability to scale with the originality, credibility, and human perspective that make a company worth listening to.