From “words for money” to rethinking the value creation process

The rallying cry of AI is often “automate, faster, faster!”

I sat down with Bouke Vlierhuis, seasoned B2B content marketer, and author of “The AI Survival Guide for B2B Marketers*” and we examined how AI has shattered the traditional content workflow, revealing that creation speed was never the real problem, it was just hiding all the other broken processes that human speeds didn’t expose.

For decades, copywriting was a business: You typed, you got paid.

White papers, blogs, case studies and other content types equated to billable hours. Then AI came along:

“I can’t make money typing anymore,” Bouke Vlierhuis told me. “That entire business model was gone in less than a year.”

The conversation with Bouke wasn’t about loss, or raging against macro-economic forces, but about what happens when the illusion falls away, and we’re forced to see where value really comes from in content.

* Available in Dutch only.

When the bottleneck moves

For years, creation was the bottleneck. A white paper took two weeks, so nobody worried if the brief was sloppy or the review process chaotic. The human pace of creation absorbed the mess as there was time to loop back, have meetings, and just make it work.

AI collapsed that bottleneck. An initial draft that took days can now appear in minutes. And suddenly, all the weak points in briefing, approvals, process, and strategy are laid bare.

“When you optimise one part of a process, the inefficiencies in the rest come out,” Bouke said.

Think of it like upgrading from an axe to a chainsaw. Cutting the tree is no longer the slow part. Now it’s the processing, loading, refinement, and cleanup that takes forever.

The fountain pen fallacy

Bouke also presents another useful metaphor of the fountain pen.

Marketers, technical communicators, and content creators of all kinds often romanticise the craft. The copywriter at their desk, fountain pen in hand, finding the perfect phrase – it’s a popular motif in agency and contractor logos – but putting words to paper or screen is not the job.

“Typing is not what you do as a copywriter. Interviewing is 90% of the job. Bad interview, bad content.”

The keystrokes were never the value. The value was in asking the right questions, interpreting the answers, and shaping meaning. AI didn’t remove the core of the job – it just stripped away the illusion that writing the words was the central part.

Talking to subject matter experts, interpreting briefs and specs, collaboration and planning are where processes are made or broken.

The hype cycle trap

The Gartner Hype Cycle shows us where we are with AI today: sliding from the Peak of Inflated Expectations into the Trough of Disillusionment.

Most AI projects are stuck in the trough. MIT research shows that 95% of AI pilots or POCs fail. That’s not because the tech is broken, but because organisations scale without redefining value, refining their audience-content fit, or measuring impact.

The only thing worse than wasted effort is multiplied wasted effort.

Bouke says, “If four white papers weren’t generating leads, making twelve won’t fix it.”

AI can amplify value, but it can’t invent it. Without clear outcomes and a client-centred strategy, you just accelerate disappointment.

The right metric isn’t “how much did we produce?” but “what changed because we produced it?”

Where to focus now

So where should organisations focus? Bouke points to three areas:

1. Process, not just production. If creation is faster, the choke points will move. Briefing, approvals, and strategy alignment now make or break timelines.
2. Human review as the safety net. AI accelerates drafts, but humans must check for accuracy, tone, and alignment with goals.
3. Value-first metrics. Measure outcomes, not outputs. Leads generated, decisions supported, customer trust built – not just documents shipped.

Why this matters

What I loved about this conversation was how honest it was. No “AI saves the day” storyline. Just the realisation that content processes were never designed for scale, and now the cracks are impossible to ignore.

AI forced us to rethink what “value” actually means in the content business.

And the answer isn’t faster fingers. It’s better questions. Better conversations.

Listen to the full podcast

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