I’m a big fan of the daily New York Times puzzle Spelling Bee. Sure, it’s a word thing, like a crossword, and I like words. But I mention it here because I like the feeling of hitting my goal each day, then the next day at 3AM NYT HQ time, they release all the answers to the previous day. When it’s done, it’s done. And so begins another 24-hour cycle.

Which leads me to ask: How do you leave your audience of customers or prospects feeling satisfied? Not feeling like they want more (although there is a small argument for that) but also not feeling like they’re stuffed, maybe a little sick.

One of the most common feelings in the world of thought leadership, and content and insights more broadly, is that consumers of content are drowning in choice. Low-value or even perfectly average AI content, spun up in no time at all, doesn’t help. But even just considering A-list media and brand titles, there’s so much.

At the tail end of my journalism career, I remember speaking to Economist deputy editor Tom Standage (he was technology editor back then), and he talked about business people around the world who like reading the Economist magazine (called a newspaper in-house) because they finish it, and then consider themselves knowing what they need to know for the week.

What a feeling.

For one thing, it’s a huge testament to the quality of that publication that it leaves much of its audience feeling that way, week in, week out.

But it shows we only have so much time with our audiences. And the more senior your audience, the more limited their time.

  

(Senior) attention seeking

Research undertaken by the Global Thought Leadership Institute (and something we covered with IBM Institute for Business Value Senior Partner and Vice President, Global Leader, Anthony Marshall in this recent Sense-maker session podcast episode) shows that CEOs spend, on average, three hours a week consuming thought leadership.

On average, they have five sources of content, and they’re more likely to be companies they already work with.

Doesn’t sound like a lot of time or sources but, as IBM’s Marshall points out, that’s a huge commitment for a CEO.

What’s more, the same research showed such high-level consumers of content don’t like it when producers of content use AI to create what’s put before them – a subject we will return to – but are already now using AI to curate what they consume.

So my question becomes more than whether you’re appropriately serving your customers and prospects with just the right amount and quality of content.

You now have to ask whether you’re being disintermediated and curated by AI, and what you can do about that.

Finite content is good and part of the answer. But finite, definitely, is both hard and not the only problem to solve.

If you’re questioning not just how much you publish, but how you remain trusted in an AI-curated world, let’s talk.