A reader let me know she could tell the newsletter I wrote last week was written by AI. I've been thinking about that message ever since. Not because it stung, but because it reminded me of something.

When I was in college in the early 2000s, my professors wouldn't let us cite internet sources in any of our papers. The internet wasn't "real" research. It didn't count. The medium was suspicious, so the message was dismissed before anyone evaluated whether it was any good.

I think we are seeing a similar reflex play out right now with AI. And it misses the point in exactly the same way.

Look, I get it. There is a lot of writing out there right now that is blatantly, obviously AI. You can spot it in seconds. That slop is real, and it's everywhere. But here's where the logic breaks: just because AI wrote something doesn't mean it's slop. And just because something is slop doesn't mean AI wrote it, although it's likely.

The real question isn't who or what drafted the words. The real question is whether the person behind them had the judgment to know what would actually stick. Whether they understood the fear to name, the nerve to hit, the hope to speak to. That's not a typing skill. That's a human skill. And no amount of AI detection tells you whether the writer had it or not.

The question was never "did the internet research your paper?" and the question now isn't "did AI write your newsletter?" The question, the only question that has ever mattered, is: did the writing move you?

If it did, the tool is irrelevant. If it didn't, the tool isn't the problem.

1. The medium has never been the point.

So what does it actually take to write something that moves someone? It takes labor. Not keyboard labor, but emotional labor. It takes heart. It takes a deep understanding of the pain and fear and anxiety of another human being. It takes knowing what keeps your customer's eyes glued to the ceiling unable to fall asleep at night, what they're afraid to admit, what they secretly hope is possible.

No tool in history has ever been able to do that for you. Not the printing press. Not the typewriter. Not the internet. Not AI. The tool delivers the message. You have to create something worth delivering. AI can process billions of data points and draft like a human. But drafting like a human doesn't make it human.

The ability to hold empathy for your customer and craft words in a way that connects with them. That is the work only a human can do.

Last week we said the skill never changes, only the medium does. This is the other side of that coin. If the skill is what matters, then obsessing over the medium, whether that's fearing it or worshipping it, is a distraction from the actual work.

The actual work is understanding another human being well enough to write something that reaches them.

2. You're not building an audience. You're building a 1:1 relationship, many, many times.

Think about the people on your email list right now. Not the number. The people. Could you name five of them? Could you tell me what one of them is actually struggling with this week?

Most of us can't. And that gap between having a list and knowing the people on it is where most content falls flat. Because when you're writing to a number on a dashboard, the writing reads like it. Broad. Safe. Aimed at everyone, which means it lands with no one.

That's what happens when you think in terms of audience. You start writing for the room instead of writing to a person.

The best content entrepreneurs flip that completely. They think about one human. One specific problem. One fear. One hope. And they write to that person like they're sitting across the table from them. Then they do it again. And again. Thousands of times.

That's what a newsletter actually is. Not a broadcast. A relationship, repeated. Every email lands in one inbox and gets read by one person. That's more personal than social media ever was. It either makes them feel something or it doesn't. The fact that you sent it to 5,000 people is irrelevant. It works or it doesn't one reader at a time.

AI can help you write faster. It can't help you see another person more clearly. That's your job.

3. Study the human you're speaking to.

Copywriting legends have always said the same thing in different words: the writing isn't about you. It's about the person reading it. But most of us skip the actual work that makes that possible.

Studying your customer means more than reading their comments or skimming a survey. It means getting into a conversation with them and listening for the things they don't say cleanly. The frustration they can't quite articulate. The goal they're embarrassed to admit out loud. The thing they've tried three times that didn't work and they don't know why.

You can't get that from a persona doc. You can't get it from analytics. You get it from talking to real people and paying attention to the language they actually use. Not the language you use to describe their problem. Theirs.

When you know that language, your writing changes completely. You stop explaining and start connecting. The reader feels like you've been in the room with them. Like you understand something about their situation that they haven't even fully articulated to themselves yet.

I recently heard David Lee, the CEO of Nex Playground, say that he spends two hours a day in their customer Facebook group. Nex did more than $150 million in revenue last year. They outsold Xbox during Black Friday. And the CEO still spends two hours every single day reading what his customers are saying, in their own words, in their own space. That's not a marketing tactic. That's a discipline. And it's the reason his company knows exactly what to build and exactly how to talk about it.

AI can research a market. It can summarize data. It can mimic tone. What it cannot do is sit in your customer's community for two hours and feel what they're feeling. That understanding is the raw material of great writing. Everything else is just delivery.

4. Put it to work

Before you write your next piece of content, pick one person. A real person. A client, a customer, a reader who's replied to your emails. Someone whose name you know.

Picture them. What are they struggling with right now? What are they afraid to say out loud? What would they need to hear this week to feel like someone actually understands what they're going through?

Write to that person. Not to your audience. Not to your list. To them.

When you're done, read it back and ask: would this make them feel seen?

If the answer is yes, it doesn't matter what tool you used to write it. That's a piece of content that will move someone.

If the answer is no, no tool on earth can fix it.

The message matters. Not the medium.

Go move someone.

​

- Darrell from Copyblogger

​

P.S. There are 3 ways Copyblogger can help you build your content business:

​
Copyblogger Academy — The business school for content entrepreneurs. Positioning, offer creation, content strategy, SEO, email, and sales, plus live coaching and a community that actually moves you forward. Start for $1, then $49/month. Join the Academy for $1.

Copyblogger Accelerator — A 60-day sprint for content entrepreneurs making under $10K/month. Darrell personally takes apart your positioning, offer, content system, and sales process, and rebuilds them with you. Next cohort begins April 2026. Learn more about the Accelerator.

Copyblogger Coaching — 1:1 strategic coaching with Darrell for content entrepreneurs at $250K+ scaling to $1M. Diagnostic-first. Six-month commitment. Learn more about Coaching.
​