In 2014, marketing strategist Mark Schaefer introduced the concept of “Content Shock,” predicting a tipping point where the supply of content would vastly exceed human capacity to consume it.
Schaefer’s prediction was remarkably prescient. In the decade since his blog post, content creation has skyrocketed, with Instagram uploads surging from 70 million daily in 2014 to 1.3 billion in 2024.
Now, AI is accelerating this shift at an unprecedented pace, producing 34 million images daily (as of 2023) and flooding Google search and social media feeds with machine-generated content. With tools like ChatGPT, Sora and Midjourney, the cost and effort required for content creation is rapidly approaching zero, making it harder than ever for companies to stand out and cut through.
Content Shock warned of a world where content production outpaced human attention. But we have moved beyond that—into an era of “Infinite Content.”
Infinite Content forces us to rethink strategies for capturing attention, standing out and driving meaningful engagement with audiences.
Thriving in the Era of Infinite Content
The era of Infinite Content amplifies many of the challenges that communications professionals have been dealing with for years: Journalists are stretched thin, audiences are trapped in filter bubbles and misinformation spreads faster than facts.
Yet, generative AI is part of the solution and presents an opportunity for communications leaders to innovate. Rather than adding to the noise, AI enables communicators to engage stakeholders in smarter, more personalized ways, delivering content that speaks directly to their needs and interests with precision. With generative AI, we can facilitate dynamic, 1:1 interaction instead of one-size-fits-all messaging.
As communications evolves in this new era, here are a few ways to leverage generative AI to deliver greater effectiveness and more personalized engagement:
- Leverage and fine-tune AI tools to improve effectiveness – Tools like ChatGPT and CoPilot are powerful, but they require refinement to produce high-quality outputs. You can significantly improve results by using custom instructions, memory features or building CustomGPTs tailored to your specific use cases. For even greater accuracy, consider fine-tuning language models with a knowledge base—such as press releases, internal documents and media archives—helping AI produce outputs that are more relevant, precise and aligned with your needs.
- Standardize AI-Generated Content to Match Brand Voice and Tone – AI models don’t automatically understand the nuance of your brand’s voice or corporate style. Set up structured prompts, define key phrases, and create brand-specific language guides to use with generative AI tools to align outputs with your organization’s tone, style and preferred terminology.
- Establish a Human-AI Workflow to Maintain Creativity – A study in “Science Advances” found that AI-assisted writers produced more engaging, creative and well-written content. To maximize AI’s strengths while maintaining originality, communicators should establish a structured workflow that documents roles. For example, AI can be used for ideation, drafting and refinement, while humans drive storytelling, emotional nuance and differentiation.
- Leverage AI-Driven Insights to Strengthen Media Relations – Journalists are covering more stories with fewer resources, making targeted, relevant pitches more important than ever. AI can analyze past coverage, identify gaps in reporting, uncover emerging trends and help communicators craft data-driven stories that align audience interests. Simple prompts can go a long way. For example, use ChatGPT for media research with – “Analyze the last 10 articles and identify common themes or gaps in their coverage. Suggest three potential story angles they might find relevant.”
- Personalize Stakeholder Messaging with AI-Powered Segmentation – AI enables more precise audience messaging, allowing communicators to analyze stakeholder behaviors, engagement patterns and sentiment in real time. Set a recurring task in ChatGPT to analyze key developments from the past week and highlight risks, opportunities and concerns specific to investors, media, employees or regulators. Use these insights to refine investor briefings, internal updates and communications strategies, ensuring relevance to shifting audience expectations.
- Use Predictive AI to Anticipate Audience Needs – AI-generated content shouldn’t be static—data-driven optimization is key to sustained engagement. AI tools can track performance metrics, audience behavior and content effectiveness to identify what resonates and what doesn’t. Use ChatGPT’s o1 model to optimize messaging by analyzing engagement trends, sentiment shifts and content effectiveness across different channels. Ask ChatGPT o1 to "Analyze the performance of our recent [press releases, blog posts, or social content] and identify key patterns in engagement, sentiment and audience response. What adjustments should we make to improve impact?"
Infinite Content isn’t just an obstacle—it’s a fundamental shift in how information is created, distributed and consumed. Communicators who embrace generative AI strategically can move beyond mass-messaging tactics and build stronger, more personalized connections with their audiences.
Matt Collette is founder of Sequencr Consulting, a firm that helps PR teams harness generative AI.