The One Thing AI Cannot Steal From You
Understand why having "good taste" is about to become a billion dollar skill.
Everyone is worried about Artificial Intelligence.
We see computers writing code. We see them painting pictures. We see them passing law exams. It is easy to feel like human creativity is becoming obsolete.
If a computer can write a marketing email in five seconds, why does anyone need to hire a writer?
The answer lies in the difference between Generation and Curation.
AI is a generation engine. It is incredible at creating volume. It can give you fifty ideas for a blog post. It can list one hundred different software tools to help you manage your team.
But it cannot tell you which one matters.
This is where you build your moat. This is where you become "AI proof."
The Value of Taste
Imagine you ask an AI for a list of the best CRM software for a small business.
It will instantly give you a list of the top twenty tools. It will summarize their features perfectly. It will look comprehensive.
But it is useless.
You do not want twenty options. You want the truth.
You want a human expert to look you in the eye and say: "Ignore these eighteen tools. They are trash. They are overpriced and clunky. Use this one. It is the only one that actually works."
That is Taste.
Taste is the ability to filter the noise. As the cost of creating content drops to zero, the amount of noise is going to explode. We will be drowning in average, mediocre, AI generated sludge.
The people who can curate—the people who can point to the one good thing in a pile of bad things—will become the most valuable people in the economy.
The Safety Trap
AI is designed to be safe. It is designed to be neutral.
If you ask an AI for an opinion on a controversial business strategy, it will give you a balanced answer. It will say "on the one hand X, but on the other hand Y."
It is boring.
Humans do not crave neutrality. We crave conviction. We follow leaders who have strong, high stakes opinions.
A newsletter that says "This popular marketing strategy is a total lie, and here is exactly why I hate it" will always beat a newsletter written by a bot.
Polarization attracts loyalists. Neutrality attracts no one.
The Real World
There is one other thing AI simply cannot do. It cannot leave the server.
AI cannot pick up the phone and call a disgruntled employee to find out why a company is failing. It cannot fly to a factory in Ohio to inspect the quality of the steel. It cannot sit in a coffee shop and overhear what teenagers are actually saying about a new app.
Real investigative work requires friction. It requires moving through the physical world.
This is why "boots on the ground" reporting is becoming a premium product. If your insights come from a database, an AI can replicate them. If your insights come from a conversation you had in a bar at 2 AM, you are untouchable.
The Human Connection
Finally, there is the power of the specific.
"How I grew my business" is a generic topic. An AI can write a decent article about growth strategies. It can list the standard tips about SEO and hiring.
But consider this headline:
"How I felt when I almost missed payroll last Tuesday, and the specific conversation I had with my wife about shutting it all down."
An AI cannot write that. It can simulate the words, but it cannot simulate the vulnerability.
We connect with struggle. We connect with specific, messy, human details. So, let the bots have the volume. Let them write the summaries and the listicles. You keep the taste. You keep the strong opinions. You keep the messy stories.
That is your moat.