Context Is King.

For years, marketers have repeated the phrase “Content is king.” And for a long time, that made sense. Creating content took time, resources, and effort, which meant that businesses that consistently published valuable content had an advantage over those that didn’t.

Today, AI has changed the game. Now, just about anyone can create a month’s worth of social posts in minutes, generate a blog in seconds, or build an email campaign before their coffee gets cold. That’s an incredible opportunity for businesses, but it’s also created a new problem: an overwhelming amount of generic content that all sounds the same. Spend anytime online, specifically on the social channels, and you’re seeing what we mean.

Here’s the problem… AI is remarkably good at recognizing patterns. It’s learned from enormous amounts of information, identifying how people write, communicate, and explain ideas. When you ask it to create something, it draws on those patterns to generate a response.

Ask AI to write a blog about customer service, and you’ll probably get something about listening to customers, responding quickly, and exceeding expectations. There’s nothing wrong with any of that… and there’s also nothing particularly interesting about it. It doesn’t reflect your experience, your point of view, or what you believe makes great customer service different from average customer service.

Without the right context, AI fills in the blanks with familiar ideas and conventional thinking. The result is content that’s technically fine, but completely forgettable. How do we break free from this? Double-down on creating context.

Imagine hiring a writer and handing them a list of your products and services. You ask them to write a blog, and chances are you’ll get something pretty generic. Now imagine spending an hour explaining why you started your business, what frustrates you about your industry, what your customers struggle with, and what you believe most competitors get wrong. That same writer now has something meaningful to work with.

The same is true for a designer, a marketing team… and even an AI tool. The better they understand your business, the better equipped they are to create something that actually represents it. This reaches beyond AI… It’s an everything-in-marketing conversation. The ability to create content is no longer the competitive advantage it once was. The context behind that content is.

Here’s where we think businesses have an enormous opportunity. Most can tell you what they sell, who they serve, and what makes them different. They have a list of services, some core values, and a handful of differentiators. Ask them about their point of view, though, and the conversation often gets quiet. What’s your philosophy? How do you think about your industry differently? What do you believe that others might disagree with? What have you learned through experience that shapes how you approach your work? This is where telling stories gets more complicated.

Consider two accounting firms. Both offer tax planning, both have experienced teams, and both could publish a blog about year-end tax strategies. One writes a generic list of five tax planning tips. The other starts with a belief: Business owners who only think about taxes at year-end are already behind. Tax planning should be part of running a business all year long. Same topic, but the second firm has a perspective that gives its content direction, allowing it to challenge conventional thinking, share experiences, and help customers see things differently.

That’s the difference between simply sharing information and having something worth saying.

Our point of view on this whole topic? Businesses need to spend less time worrying about how much content they’re creating and more time thinking about what makes that content worth consuming. Before you create another blog, email, or social post, ask yourself what you believe about the topic, what you’ve learned that your customers need to understand, and what you would say that your competitors probably wouldn’t.

As AI continues to improve, creating content will only get easier. That doesn’t mean, however, that the content being created will automatically get better. The age of AI-slop we’re in right now is already proving this. The businesses that stand out won’t necessarily be the ones creating the most. They’ll be the ones that understand who they are, have a clear point of view, and communicate it consistently.

Content is what you create… Context is what makes it yours. Context is king.