If you want generative AI to produce quality results, you need a solid content strategy and clear guidelines.

Let's be honest: the gen-AI hype is a threat to my content business. We're seeing companies hold back investment in their content. Why?

The capabilities of generative AI make it clear that our field is about to change significantly. But this field is broad — it brings together very different skill sets and areas of work.

So the interesting question becomes: how exactly will content work in organizations change?

A shift in roles

A study by AG CommTech and GK Personalberatung looks at how roles and skills are shifting in the communications profession. Their meta-study shows that what's needed today is a combination of technological efficiency and human authenticity — a growing need for experts who can interpret data, use AI to extract relevant insights from it, and translate those insights into effective communication strategies.

In other words, strategic skills matter more than ever.

More quantity, less quality?

Why is that?
Let's look at one visible area: generated text.

A Stanford study from early 2026 shows that around 35% of all newly published websites are now AI-generated or at least AI-assisted.

The volume of generated content is growing fast. But what about quality?

That's not a simple question, since quality has several dimensions.

Let's ask Claude about it. The bot points to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute, in which only 17% of B2B marketers rate the quality of AI-generated content as excellent or very good. 44% rate it as good, 35% as "fair," and 4% as poor. At the same time, 67% say they trust AI output only moderately, and 28% say they trust it little.

That's not exactly a robust finding, but it matches my own experience. So let's dig into the question: how does this middling track record come about?

Input quality equals output quality

AI can do a lot, but it can't work miracles. LLMs need a solid foundation to produce good results.

If I want to generate content for my company's channels, a solid foundation means the following:

  • Complete data — AI can't generate reliable content if it can't find the relevant information in your existing content.
  • Target group needs and questions as the central point of reference for the content.
  • A content playbook that personalizes the output and aligns it with the organization's communication rules and goals.

That's a fairly sobering realization if you were hoping gen-AI would simply take the work off your hands. Depending on where you're starting from, meeting these requirements actually creates new work first.

But it also shows exactly where you can start to raise the quality of your generated content.

These requirements put user-centricity and content strategy & guidelines squarely at the center — which brings us right back to strategic skills.

In an upcoming post, I'll describe what belongs in a content strategy, in my view, and which elements deserve priority.