Are robots just talking to robots?

How B2B brands can stand out in a sea of samey, average content.

I’m getting really bored with LinkedIn content, and newsletters, and reports. It is all becoming so samey: the dramatic opening line, the manufactured vulnerability, the list of emoji-bulleted-lessons. The familiar phrases and the odd punctuation.

And yet, there's lots to like about AI.

It helps me interrogate large amounts of research and makes it much easier to turn one strong idea into several useful formats. I have also loved seeing how clients have deployed it, from analysing customer conversations to speeding up reporting and removing repetitive work that nobody particularly enjoyed doing.

It's just that so many people are using AI without enough thought.

There's lots to like about AI, it's just that so many people are using it without enough thought

How much content is AI-generated?

Ahrefs analysed 900,000 newly published web pages in April 2025 and found evidence of AI-generated content on 74% of them. And research examining 2.4 million social posts also found that the estimated proportion of AI-generated text on both Medium and Quora rose from about 2% in January 2022 to around 38% in October 2024! Goodness knows what that figure is in 2026.

A brand uses AI to produce an article. A platform automatically distributes it. A crawler collects it. An AI search tool summarises it. Another marketer asks an LLM to create something on the same subject.

Are robots simply talking to other robots? Sometimes, it certainly feels that way

Producing more is no longer impressive

AI is brilliant at helping us make things quickly, but when everyone can produce more articles, emails, posts and campaign variations, volume stops being a competitive advantage.

The value moves upstream, into the thinking, and downstream, into the judgement.

Volume stops being a competitive advantage and the value moves upstream

This came through clearly in Pink Mingo’s Future CMO research. Of the 51 senior marketing leaders who took part, 98% said AI was already being used day to day. Yet 86% still described their organisation’s maturity as experimental.

There is plenty of activity, but far less intentional implementation.

When the same group was asked where they would invest an additional £1 million over five years, customer insight, data and analytics came first. Brand and reputation came next with 31. AI and automation received just 17 selections.

Experienced marketing leaders still put greater value on understanding customers and building a strong brand

AI makes average easier

LLMs are very good at producing a credible version of what already exists. Give one a broad prompt and it will usually return the statistical centre of everything it has seen: polished, sensible and largely indistinguishable from the content your competitors are producing.

AI can improve individual ideas while reducing collective diversity. For brands, that is a real risk

There is evidence that AI can improve individual ideas while reducing collective diversity. Each person may produce a stronger answer, but the answers across the group become more alike.

For brands, that is a real risk. If everyone uses the same tools, draws on the same public information and asks similar questions, more content creates more sameness.

Where does the value come from?

If the input is a generic prompt, the output is likely to be generic. AI becomes much more useful when the raw material is yours.

That might include:

• Original customer research

• Sales conversations and recurring objections

• Proprietary data

• First-hand experience

• A clear point of view

• Specific examples of what worked and what failed

• Access to interesting people

• Recognisable brand language and creative devices

It is also important to give more ownable, sophisticated prompts - but that's one for another blog.

The 20/60/20 rule

Through my research, conversations with marketing leaders, and auditing of AI produced work, I believe that the key is to use AI intentionally. That means doing the upfront thinking, ensuring marketers know when they are expected to use AI, when they aren't and where to reinvest the time AI generated.

The key is to use AI intentionally, and that means doing the upfront thinking

At a recent event, I heard my thinking on intentionality formulised by a panel participant as the 20/60/20 rule for AI-assisted work.

The first 20% is human thinking

Work out the commercial objective, audience, customer evidence, point of view and action you want the work to support. This is where conversations, workshops, research and difficult decisions belong.

The middle 60% is AI-assisted

Use AI to organise evidence, identify themes, explore structures, produce early drafts and adapt an original idea for different audiences and channels. This is where it can create enormous speed and capacity.

The final 20% is human judgement

Check the facts, challenge the predictable bits, restore the nuance, add real examples and make the work sound recognisably yours. Then have a person take responsibility for what goes out.

The percentages aren't an exact calculation. They are a useful reminder to put human thinking on both sides of the machine, because while AI can help people create better work, it can also help them create the wrong work more confidently.

The answer is not more content

Yes, some communications should be automated, most could be produced faster, most should be adapted intelligently and many should stop altogether.

The time AI releases can be spent speaking to customers, developing stronger ideas, getting people in a room, improving the proposition, and giving talented people more space to think.

It isn't just a question of volume. Businesses and brands need to be clearer than ever about what they know, what they believe and why anybody should care.

Otherwise, we will keep using robots to create content for other robots to read, while the people we hoped to reach just scroll on past.

If AI has become part of your marketing but not yet part of a clear operating model, I can help you decide where it adds value, put the right guardrails around it and reinvest the time it releases in better marketing. Book a clarity call.