Rethinking Thought Leadership in an AI World

A few weeks ago, I read a LinkedIn article that garnered thousands of likes. It had all the characteristics of thought leadership: a crisp presentation, the sentence "we’re entering a new era," and a broad pronouncement about how much everything would be transformed by AI. It sounded good. It also meant nothing at all.

And that's the issue.

Everyone's publishing in the age of generative AI. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the spread of automation has landed on our feeds — and it's overrun with template-driven writing, safer commentary, and rehashed, Google-able insight. It's too easy, everybody's racing to post, severely diluting the term 'thought leader.” It's hard to be original and clear. It's easy to just be loud.

So, what does thought leadership entail these days? How can we rescue it from AI and an ever-online population?

Let's break it down.

The Rise of AI Slop (piness)

Since 2022, the content world has been racing to embrace gen AI. Tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Copy.ai unlocked an unprecedented ability to produce content at scale. Suddenly, every founder could ghostwrite a blog in minutes. Every marketing team could hit their publishing quotas with time to spare. However, as the volume of content increased, quality became harder to find (and ultimately decreased).

This barrage has a new term, "AI slop." Defined as bland, loosely coherent writing that, grammatically, reads fine but has no distinct point of view, no distinct usefulness, or distinct originality. It’s empty calories for business writing and busy people.

According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, 82% of B2B content marketers now use generative AI to create content, a 9% jump from 2024. But engagement with that content? It’s falling. Data shows that readers are spending about 52 seconds reading content, a decrease from the nearly 96 seconds in 2022.

There's more content, but it’s more forgettable content.

LinkedIn Is a Warning Sign

Nowhere is this more true than on LinkedIn. You’ve probably seen it yourself: a lengthy post that opens with "What I learned from building a team" followed by five generic leadership clichés, emojis, and a humblebrag about growth. These posts often perform well because they’re structured to. They mimic the formatting and phrasing that trigger LinkedIn’s algorithm. But scratch the surface, and you’ll find no original thinking behind them.

Effective thought leadership is about saying something that other people are not saying. 

When Insight Becomes SEO

It's not just executives. Business press and company blogs are wading through the same muck.

Where there once were biting commentaries by experts on the front lines, there are now ghostwritten articles based on search engine results, rather than reader interests or new ideas. Example: "The Hidden Cost of Always Being Available: Reclaiming Focus in a Notification-Obsessed World" or "Why Culture Remains Paramount in 2025."

It's not about AI, but about people's use of it. When strategic thinking gives way to keyword thinking and regurgitated information, everyone loses.

Editors are noticing, too. One B2B publisher recently told us: "We’ve started rejecting most contributed content unless it has a very distinct voice or first-party data. Otherwise, it all reads the same."

Thought Leadership Needs Taste

Not only are we in an era of increased content, but also in an era of increased filters. That's why Stepfanie Tyler’s notion that "taste is the new intelligence" resonates so much. When everyone can put up a 1,000-word blog in a matter of seconds, the competitive edge is clarity, not speed. It's about coherence. It's about deciding what not to write.

In Tyler’s article, she reflects on Rick Rubin's book “The Creative Act,” where he says his job isn't to make music, but to wait until things feel alive after listening. That's what the best thought leaders do: Wait until there's something something important to say.

As Tyler says, "Your mind is always becoming what it consumes." If your perspective is based on ideas already shared and rehashed AI methodologies, your output will be meaningless. Taste saves you from that. Taste is discipline. It's choosing quality over quantity. Ultimately, it's what makes your ideas resonate with readers and your audience.

Consider the top-performing blog content categories: food, fashion/lifestyle, and travel. These resonate with users because they are harder to create with AI. They require personal taste and experience. Machines don’t know why carrot cake reminds you of your grandmother, nor do they travel or worry about their Sunday brunch outfit. 

What Now? 

Bold thinking makes better copy. That's what great thought leadership looks like in a post-AI-slop era:

That could involve writing about your own data, sharing a personal failure anecdote, or debunking a myth about your industry. If ChatGPT can write about it, it’s a summary, not a take. 

Yes, let it aid in research or drafting organization. But for that spark? That idea has to come from a real human. 

A message that receives 50 DMs from appropriate people defeats one that receives 5,000 likes and no valuable discussion. Long-game thinking goes hand in hand with thought leadership. Do not sell depth for dopamine.

A thoughtful essay once every three months will generate more brand equity than frequent filler. In Naval Ravikant's words, "Escape competition through authenticity."

The New Premium Is Originality

When everyone can publish everything, originality is invaluable.That's good news for anyone interested in moving past surface-level.

Today's best thought leadership is about simplicity, bravery, and a strong point of view. It's not "How quickly can we deliver content?" It's "Is this worth someone's time?"

Your voice is valuable when you speak your mind.