In the age of AI, human-produced content is becoming scarce. But content marketers shouldn’t be scared; they should view it as an opportunity to leverage their humanity. That was the core message behind Joe Pulizzi’s session at Content Marketing World 2026.
“Humanity is the most valuable tool we have in building trust, building audiences, and getting people to return,” he said.
Trust is now a major issue for consumers, and when they have to choose between AI-generated and human-produced content, they tend to pick the human option.
“They preferred the human being because they want the imperfections,” he said. “I think that can tell us something about how we want our content produced, how we want to build audiences, and how we want to move forward.”
Letting Your Employees Be the Voice
As channels become increasingly flooded with synthetic content, Pulizzi says, marketers will need to draw more heavily on their employees’ knowledge. He has seen company voices emerge in three primary ways, which he details with examples in a recent post on The Tilt:
- It just happens. An employee gains a following, and the company has to decide what to do next.
- Companies encourage it. A company gives its employees permission to be creative, and often incentivizes it.
- Companies target trust gaps. They identify audiences that need more trust, choose the employees best able to earn it, and build content “franchises” around them.
Every Company Needs Three Roles
Pulizzi says every company needs an expert, a storyteller, and an advocate.
- The expert: An engineer who really knows their stuff or a thought leader at your company.
- The storyteller: The showman, or the person who brings the expert’s expertise to life.
- The advocate: An executive, a key stakeholder, a benefactor, or a board member.
According to Pulizzi, employees have always been a company’s best marketers. In other words, companies should stop assuming their employees are marketers and start deliberately making it happen.
Building a Loyal Audience
Pulizzi used Saturday Night Live as the throughline of his presentation. The show has one goal: to make people laugh so they tune in for next week’s episode. A marketer’s goal isn’t too far off.
“That’s the first thing that has to happen,” he said. “You create a regular reader, watcher, or listener of that individual. Then you’ve got your KPIs.”
Keep the audience coming back, and more leads, customers, referrals, and revenue will follow.
What Happens When Your Stars Leave?
Some companies worry that their employees will outgrow the brand or gain a larger following. Pulizzi’s answer is that companies always bounce back, and SNL proves it.
“SNL has lost every major comedian, whether it’s Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell. They’ve lost them all,” Pulizzi said. “And you know what? They’ve replaced them all, too.”
B2B companies can do the exact same thing. Giving employees the freedom to be creative also attracts people who want to work for you, which makes it easier to find your strongest talent.
But before building their “cast,” companies must know where trust matters most.
“List which audiences matter the most because you want to be in the know with them,” he said. “That’s your starting point.”
