AI is drowning the internet in average content.
That’s the blunt truth. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are now producing answers instantly, keeping people inside their platforms and cutting clicks to websites. For years, SEO was about publishing more blogs, optimising keywords, and hoping for traffic. Those days are gone and the zero click era is well and truly upon us.
For anyone working in marketing, this shift feels seismic. I’ve been in digital marketing for 17 years, and I can say without hesitation: this is the biggest change I’ve seen. It’s forced me — and my clients — to completely rethink how content works, why it matters, and how we measure success.
The Old Way
For much of the last two decades, success in SEO has been about keywords and rankings with the core metrics being clicks and impressions. If you published enough content and optimised it well, you could expect traffic. Long-tail content captured small but steady wins, and quantity was often considered more important than originality.
This model worked well until earlier this year if I’m being completely honest.
But the truth is that those days are over. AI now answers questions directly. It decides which voices are trustworthy, and in many cases your audience never even sees a search result page. Visibility is no longer about who published the most—it’s about who can demonstrate the most authority, insight and proof.
That doesn’t mean content has lost its value. In fact, it matters more than ever. Strong content has never just been about clicks; it has always been about building equity in your brand. It proves that you know your field, it offers reassurance, and it shows the human perspective behind the company.
"It’s the expertise, proof, and human perspective that makes your brand stand out where AI cannot."
Gary Moyle
Customers don’t want another re-written guide they could have asked an AI to produce in seconds — they want expertise, stories, lived experience. It’s the expertise, proof, and human perspective that makes your brand stand out where AI cannot.
So the task now is not to out-produce the machines (you can’t), but to focus on what they cannot replicate.
Share first-hand insights. Publish research, case studies and opinion pieces that explain not just the facts but what they mean for your customers. Show the behind-the-scenes details that make your knowledge real. I would also encourage you to stay in your lane and narrow your focus to specific buyer problems, instead of chasing broad generic topics.
And when you do create something valuable, repurpose it widely. Make the most of your efforts by turning it into video, into podcasts, into posts on social channels. Elevate the voices inside your business and tell stories that carry meaning.
To illustrate how AI can hurt your brand, you don’t need to look too far. The current AI features in Wix are a good example of what not to do.
Its AI content generator will write social posts and blog posts that are the worst kind of generic content you’ll see. Instantly recognisable as AI and in my opinion, not much better than content spam. AI can help with content production, but only if it’s trained on your brand and supported with tight editorial control.
For example, I create custom GPTs for my clients that are trained on their brand values, tone of voice and business information. So the results are far better and more natural sounding. This takes some time and effort but it is worth it.
The editing and image in this post was created with Chat GPT. It’s helped me publish my thoughts a lot more quickly and also massively boosted my productivity. So don’t become a luddite and recognise that AI is a massive help. Instead, recognise that it can be our undoing if we don’t learn to manage it carefully.
Generative AI also means rethinking how we measure success.
Clicks and rankings no longer tell the full story, because so much discovery is happening outside Google. The better measures are whether people are seeing your brand inside AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. And, whether more visitors are coming to your site directly because they know your name. Are people quoting your insights on LinkedIn or in industry forums?
Is your content accelerating a sales conversation, driving more signups, or your webinars getting more leads? If so, these are clear signs that your words are working harder than the old metrics suggest.
In the end, yes, content is still worth it. But only if we treat it as more than just fuel for search.
It is proof that your business has something unique to offer. It is how you shape perception, maintain authority, and build visibility in AI-driven search. And most importantly, it is how you build trust. Because while AI can explain the what, only real experts can explain the why and the how. And that difference is where authority is forged.
That should be your north star.
