From spin to knowledge-making: why communications may become a new source of original ideas
Sunday's WSJ piece on AI potentially "choking off the supply of knowledge" should be a wake-up call for every comms professional. As more people turn to ChatGPT, Claude, and other tools instead of original sources, we're seeing a troubling pattern: human knowledge creation is declining as AI consumption of AI-generated content surges.
This isn’t just a media problem — it’s a business opportunity. If AI has less original knowledge to train on, the companies that generate and publish their own insights will define the narrative of their industries.
The Stack Overflow effect is spreading. When developers stopped asking questions on Stack Overflow (down 90% since ChatGPT launched), they didn't just hurt a website—they broke the knowledge creation cycle that feeds the very AI tools they now depend on. As contributions dry up, the long tail of specialized knowledge that powers AI is at risk of dissipating.
This creates an opportunity for corporate communicators.
While traditional media shrinks and AI increasingly cites sensational outlets (e.g, NY Post, Business Insider, etc.) over prestige publications, brands have a chance to become authoritative primary sources on their own expertise. The companies that recognize this will own the narrative about their industry, their innovations, and their unique perspective.
Three strategic imperatives for communicators:
1. Become a definitive source. Your CEO and your technical experts have insights no AI model possesses. Document them. Publish them. Make them discoverable. Think like a newsroom: your corporate blog, sustainability reports, and thought-leadership pieces are now reference material for both humans and machines.
2. Generate new knowledge, not just content. AI can synthesize existing information brilliantly, but it can't create novel insights about your R&D, your market observations, or your strategic thinking. Only humans can. Prioritize publishing first-party data, original research, and lived expertise that no one else can provide.
3. Optimize for both human readers and AI comprehension. Structure your content so it's easily parsed by AI systems while remaining compelling for human audiences. This isn't SEO, it's Answer Engine Optimization. Clear subheads, citations, FAQs, and structured data make your POV more likely to be ingested and surfaced by AI systems.
Brands that actively generate insights that shape their industry will thrive. While everyone else is asking AI for answers, the smart money is on creating original content that AI will cite.
What unique knowledge is your organization generating that only you can share?
What do you think? Are we heading toward a knowledge creation crisis, or will human ingenuity find new ways to contribute original thought?
