Share
By Dr. Anna Harrison
“And when everyone is super…no one will be.” Turns out old mate Syndrome from The Incredibles may as well have been talking about the state of content creation today. You know the signs. Everything is polished. Everything is optimised. Everything is technically ‘fine’. And yet, everything is entirely forgettable.
Las Vegas has a replica of the Eiffel Tower. Technically, it is almost identical to the original, but it is not awe-inspiring or memorable. It is simply ‘fine’.
Although one can’t readily compare architecture and digital content, we can compare the human reactions to both. In each case, our brain registers ‘fine’, then quietly declines to store the experience for later. Replicas don’t fail because they’re bad; they fail because they’re interchangeable.
Generative AI allows everyone to produce fine content at scale, and as such, being fine stops being a differentiator. The internet is now full of content that looks finished, sounds reasonable and leaves no trace in the mind of the person who consumed it.
Paid attention is becoming a premium product
Buying attention has become brutally expensive. Rising cost-per-click, increasingly opaque algorithms and AI-driven optimisation systems reward scale. Big budgets learn faster and perform better. Small budgets never exit the learning phase.
It leaves content with a new responsibility.
When attention is scarce and expensive, content can’t just attract clicks. It has to create mental availability. Forgettable content isn’t neutral. It’s a false signal: a trust impostor that looks like value and quietly trains audiences to ignore you.
Welcome to the age of AI ‘workslop’
Harvard Business Review recently coined a term for what’s happening inside organisations embracing AI: workslop. Work that masquerades as good work, it is well formatted, articulate, professional – and fundamentally unhelpful.
That report your boss asked for, which you whipped up in minutes secretly using Claude and which looks fine but makes no sense? Congratulations. You’ve just given your boss your homework.
Zoom out and the same pattern is playing out across the open web. AI has made it effortless to produce content that looks helpful without being distinctive, useful or memorable. Blogs, posts and ‘thought leadership’ now arrive fully formed in minutes, and quietly create cognitive work for the reader.
Ranking isn’t the finish line anymore
For years, content marketing had a simple mandate: rank, get clicked, convert. That world has quietly disappeared.
Search is no longer just search. Between zero-click results, answer engines and AI interfaces, content is increasingly summarised, extracted and delivered without anyone ever visiting your site. Even the most established SEO voices now talk less about rankings and more about “being the answer.”
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: even AI is bored by workslop.
AI systems reinforce what’s already known and repeatedly signalled. Adding more of the same doesn’t make you more visible. To be surfaced, you need to be distinct, and to be distinct, you can’t just be fine. You need to be memorable.
Memory is the new competitive advantage
As Maya Angelou famously observed, we don’t remember information. We remember how something made us feel. We remember moments that reduced uncertainty, eased fear or helped us feel smart and safe.
Workslop fails for exactly this reason. Instead of reducing effort, it creates it. The reader is forced to decode why something that looks right doesn’t quite land.
✨ What a weekend in Lisbon taught me about content ✨
This weekend, while wandering the cobblestone streets of Lisbon 🇵🇹☀️ (highly recommend), I found myself reflecting on content and business, as one does.
It made me realise that great content isn’t about being louder or saying more. It’s about showing up with clarity, authenticity, and human energy. When you bring your true self and unique perspective to the table, people feel it 💭💛
Sometimes, stepping away from the desk gives you the clearest insights. Grateful for the reminder.
Would love to hear your thoughts — has travel ever changed how you think about content creation? 👇
#LessonsLearned #ContentStrategy #Authenticity #BrandBuilding #Grateful #LisbonVibes
I had to read that three times before realising that it said…nothing at all.
A new question for content teams
The most important content question today is no longer, ‘Will this rank?’. Memorability is a strategic choice, not a creative accident stumbled upon by your generic ChatGPT. Next time you create anything at all, ask yourself…
- Does my AI already know this? Ask your Gen AI tool.
- Would a human remember this idea again next week? Ask your grandmother.
- Does this reduce effort for the reader or quietly create more homework for them? Ask yourself.
Content no longer lives in the old world. It lives in a world where everything looks finished, everything sounds reasonable and almost nothing asks to be remembered. In that environment, ‘fine’ isn’t safe, it’s invisible.
The brands that win will be the ones that leave a trace. The ones that feel real. The ones that reduce uncertainty instead of creating it. Because when the moment of decision finally arrives – when the budget opens, the risk feels personal and the choice actually matters – people don’t necessarily reach for what ranks. They reach for what they remember.
Dr. Anna Harrison is a consumer interaction specialist and ‘Brand Relationships Therapist’
