AI and Content Creation: The Real Reason Your Content Feels Generic

TL;DR

AI doesn’t create generic content. It scales whatever clarity already exists inside your organization. If your strategy sounds like everyone else’s, the writing will, too. 

If your positioning is interchangeable, your audience definition is broad, or your brand point of view is unresolved, AI will industrialize that ambiguity. Output will increase, but your distinctiveness will decline.

The Symptom: More Content, Less Impact

Since adopting AI tools, most organizations have seen the same shift:

• Content production has accelerated
• Campaign timelines have shortened
• Repurposing is easier
• SEO optimization is faster

But alongside that acceleration, something else is happening:

• Engagement rates decrease
• Messaging feels repetitive
• Brand tone and voice flattens
• Differentiation weakens

Yes, AI improved efficiency. The process of writing is faster. But it did not improve originality or strategic sharpness.

At best, the frustration often sounds like this:

“Everything we publish feels… fine.”
“Nothing stands out.”
“It sounds polished, but not distinct.”

At worst, it sounds like: 

“Everyone can tell AI wrote this.”

The Common Misdiagnosis: Blaming the Tool

When AI-generated content feels bland, the instinctive response is technical.

The belief:
AI content feels generic because we haven’t mastered prompting.

Who holds it:
Marketing teams, content leads, growth teams, innovation leaders.

Why it feels right:
Better prompts improve outputs.
Training the model on brand voice increases consistency.
Templates reduce friction.

Yes, prompt quality matters. But here’s why that diagnosis falls short:

AI recombines existing language patterns. If your inputs are vague, safe or interchangeable, no prompt can manufacture distinctiveness.

AI does not invent strategic clarity.
It amplifies whatever already exists.

If your brand is sharp, AI scales sharpness.
If your brand is broad, AI scales broadness.

What AI Actually Does in Content Creation

To understand why content feels generic, it helps to understand what AI is built to do.

AI systems are trained on patterns. When asked to generate content, they look for markers of what “good” is, and they replicate it.

AI is strong at:

• Pattern recognition
• Synthesis across large information sets
• Formatting for search and readability
• Repurposing existing material
• Accelerating production cycles

AI is not built to:

• Define positioning
• Decide what your brand will intentionally exclude
• Create tension in messaging
• Make judgment calls about competitive stance
• Establish conviction inside a category

AI generates language and reproduces what it knows.
It does not define identity or invent differentiation.

If your strategy sounds like everyone else’s your AI output will too. AI fills the gap with averages. That is why so much AI-generated content feels safe, familiar, and forgettable.

Why AI Content Feels Bland

When organizations say AI content feels generic, here are the real drivers.

#1. Interchangeable Positioning

If your value proposition could belong to any competitor, AI will reinforce that sameness. The output won’t feel wrong. It will feel familiar. And that’s the problem.

Phrases like these sound common because they are common:

• • “Customer-centric solutions”
  • “Innovative technology”
  • “Driving growth”
  • “Data-driven insights”

AI has learned them from everywhere.
If your positioning lacks specificity, AI will faithfully reproduce category language at scale.

#2. Broad Audience Definitions

When your target audience is defined as:

• • “Mid-market decision-makers”
  • “Growth-focused leaders”
  • “Modern enterprises”

You are asking AI to write to everyone.
Writing to everyone produces work that resonates deeply with no one.

Specificity is what gives content edge. If leadership hasn’t defined that specificity, AI cannot infer it.

#3. Unresolved (or Undifferentiated) Brand Voice 

Many brands claim to have a defined voice.
But when you ask what it is, you hear:

• • “Confident and optimistic.”
  • “Bold but approachable.”
  • “Professional yet human.”
  • “Innovative and customer-focused.”

These descriptions are accurate, but meaningless. Show us a brand that says it’s insecure or pessimistic or unapproachable.

These descriptions don’t narrow decisions, eliminate options or create distinction.

When brand personality is defined in safe, universal language, AI has nothing specific to anchor to. It pulls from the broad middle of your category, because that’s where your inputs sit.

Without that precision, prompts fill in personality gaps.

#4. SEO as the Primary Driver

AI and content creation are often paired with aggressive SEO goals.

Structure improves.
Keyword coverage expands.
Technical optimization strengthens.

But when ranking becomes the primary objective, distinctiveness often declines.

AI is excellent at producing what already performs well in search results.

That often means reproducing the same framing, structure, and phrasing competitors are using.

You begin to rank within the category. You stop standing apart from it.

#5. Static Insight

If your audience research is outdated, AI will simply scale outdated assumptions faster.

The language sounds current.
The formatting looks modern.
But the underlying understanding may be a year or two behind.

Technology can accelerate production.
It cannot compensate for stale insight.

The Strategic Risk: Brand Dilution at Scale

Let’s be clear: undifferentiated content was a problem before AI, too. It’s just that now, weak positioning scales effortlessly.

Without clear guardrails:

• Tone flattens across channels
• Messaging converges with competitors
• Distinctiveness erodes
• Performance tactics override long-term brand meaning
• Content volume grows while memorability declines

The danger isn’t that AI produces bad content. The danger is that it produces acceptable content at industrial speed.

Acceptable content rarely builds preference.

What’s the Risk of Generic Content Creation for CMOs and Executives?

For revenue leaders, the risk of bland content is low engagement and, more importantly, competitive sameness.

When your content shows up in the exact same way as your competitors:

• Differentiation erodes
• Pricing power weakens
• Preference declines
• Growth becomes more dependent on spend than strategy.

It’s a brand equity issue.
Generic content trains the market to see you as interchangeable. 

Over time, that perception increases acquisition costs, compresses margins, and shifts leverage toward competitors who sound more distinct.

The JK Take: AI Amplifies Strategic Content Decisions. It Can’t Replace Them.

If your AI content feels generic, the issue isn’t the robots. It’s the lack of clarity feeding it.

AI should operate inside a well-defined decision system:

• Clear positioning
• Explicit audience focus
• A strong brand point of view
• Defined messaging priorities
• Agreed standards for tone and conviction

When those elements are in place, AI becomes a force multiplier.
When they aren’t, AI becomes an efficiency engine for mediocrity.

From Content Production to Content Infrastructure

Organizations succeeding with AI and content creation have built a framework AI can operate within.

The shift looks like this:

The core question changes from:

“How do we get better AI content?”

To:

“Have we made the decisions AI needs to execute well?”

When to Reevaluate Your AI Content Creation

It may be time to step back if:

• Your content sounds similar to competitors
• Your brand voice varies by channel
• SEO structure dominates creative direction
• Output has increased, but conversion has not

Quick Self-Check: Is Your Brand Actually Distinct?

Before optimizing another prompt, ask yourself:

• If you removed your logo, could your competitors publish your content without changing a word?
• Does your positioning clearly exclude certain buyers, or does it try to appeal to all of them?
• Would your sales team describe your value proposition the same way marketing does?
• When buyers compare vendors, do they debate preference or just price?

Leadership Takeaways

• AI scales whatever clarity already exists inside the organization
• Generic content is usually a positioning symptom
• Technical optimization cannot replace strategic conviction
• Audience specificity drives distinctiveness
• Brand clarity must precede automation
• Volume without differentiation weakens long-term equity

AI and content creation are not inherently at odds with originality. But AI is not a shortcut to it.

If distinctiveness matters, leadership has to define it first.