When Everything Is Made By AI, What Matters Is Made By People

When I say ‘take away,’ I mean the blank page, production costs, large teams, even the learning curve to sound professional. AI cuts time, reduces costs, and creates thousands of pieces in seconds.

It also removes the struggle that makes creation meaningful, the curiosity, iteration, tweaks and shared effort that gives work its weight.

When machines do the making, what vanishes is the sense of ownership that binds people to the work and to each other. 

Almost everything can now be produced faster, cheaper and more efficiently. The cost of making and sharing ideas keeps dropping. The value doesn’t disappear, it just moves.

When quantity is easy, what becomes scarce is feeling a part of something.

That’s where the opportunity sits.

Whatever can be endlessly generated, articles, posts, videos, campaigns, will lose their value. When everyone can make anything, the real value shifts to what can’t be easily copied.

That’s trust, shared purpose and community.

You can see it already. The people and organisations that build genuine connection are the ones who last. They’re not louder, they’re anchored and it’s what people want to belong to.

That’s why this next wave of creativity will belong to the people who can create corners where people feel a part of and want to return to.

Belonging doesn’t come from tech, it comes from how we use it. 

Over the years with You Are The Media, I’ve learned that belonging can’t be automated, but it can be built.

The framework that now guides everything we do at YATM sits on three parts: identity, belief, and process.

Let me share with you what I mean, so you can apply your side too.

For years, I made the mistake of trying to sound more complicated than we needed to be. I thought depth meant detail.

The clearer your identity, the easier it becomes for people to say, “That’s me.”

The YATM identity is around misfits. It’s for people and businesses who don’t want to fit in or follow what their industry has told them to do or how to behave. The ones who’d rather create their own path and bring others with them. That identity, that permission to be different, is what lets people see themselves here.

If you’re building your own thing, start by asking: 

📝 What do people feel when they find you? 

📝 Do they recognise themselves in what you stand for? 

📝 Can they see a place for themselves beside you, not just as followers, but participants? 

📝 What do I want to be remembered for?

When you know who you’re for, it becomes easier for the right people to find you and stay.

Your belief is what makes connection possible. It’s the thing other people recognise instantly and want to be part of.

At YATM, our belief is simple: people can find their voice, grow their audience, and learn better together.

It’s not about getting ahead of other people, it’s about building alongside each other. That’s been the foundation since the first newsletter in 2013, even if I didn’t always articulate it clearly. It’s what turns what we do into something people believe in, not just attend.

For your own work, consider: 

📝 What do you believe about how people grow, create, or succeed? 

📝 What principle keeps you showing up every week? 

When you’re clear on that belief, others begin to share it, repeat it, and defend it, even when you’re not in the room.

Belief is what turns a project into something you never want to stop and what others recognise instantly.

Belonging can’t depend on bursts of inspiration. It’s built through repeatable actions that create consistency and trust.

For YATM, those processes are:

– Consistency of delivery. A newsletter every Thursday since 2013.

– Ways of keeping people together. We have Lunch Clubs, Creator Day, and a Club that feels like a working council.

– Room for experimentation. A safe place to try things, iterate, and learn in public.

That rhythm makes YATM an ecosystem. It means we don’t depend on algorithms or platforms to hold it together. We depend on each other.

And for you? 

📝 What’s the small, repeatable act that shows people you’ll keep showing up? 

📝 What rhythms build your version of trust?

Belonging doesn’t scale through reach, it grows through reliability.

As we look into 2026, and as AI floods the world with cheap, polished content, trust and belonging will be the rarest commodities.

When technology can create anything, what matters most are the things it can’t, shared effort and shared meaning.

Those who lean into these will become irreplaceable. They’ll build something machines can’t, by this, I mean a place people choose.

When everything can be made instantly, your process, the way you involve people, the rituals you build, the transparency you show, becomes your real creative edge.

At YATM, that’s always been part of the DNA. People don’t just consume what we make, they shape it. They co-create newsletters, lead sessions, and help test ideas. The process is the product.

For years, marketing taught us to chase reach. But the next era will not be about getting people to follow you, it’s about helping them know each other.

The creators and organisations that thrive won’t just be known for what they produce; they’ll be known for the spaces they make possible. They’ll give people a role, not just an audience seat.

The shift looks like this:

If you can get this right, if you can turn your community into your creative foundation, you won’t have to fight for attention. People will give it to you because they feel a part of what you’re building.

This next wave of creativity won’t be defined by who uses AI best, but by those who keep the human layer visible.

It’s by people who know that technology might scale output, but community scales meaning.

It means:

✊ Keep the identity visible, misfits finding their space.

✊ Keep the belief alive, learning and growing together.

✊ Keep the process open, letting everyone see how it’s made.

When everything is made by machines, the most valuable thing left will be made by people, together.