Part 4: The Rising Power of Trusted Curators

This is the fourth part of a 5-part series on old and new distribution channels.

AI-powered coding is democratizing and rapidly accelerating product development. Products that once took months or years can now be built in days or weeks. AI is augmenting developers, helping them productize, security-check, review, and deploy software. Projects that once required large teams can now be completed by just one or two developers.

The result is a Cambrian explosion of software. In the past, a product category might have had 5-10 major players; now, there will be hundreds. Established companies charging hefty fees may be usurped by a small team in a garage building nearly identical software for a fraction of the cost. The vast majority of these new products will be of poor quality (what many in the industry now call 'slop'), but some will be excellent substitutes.

The problem is that potential buyers will be inundated with options, leaving them with no reliable way to distinguish the good from the bad. While some may turn to AI assistants for advice, people will increasingly rely on trusted authorities to curate and identify the best options.

Here are a few channels likely to grow in popularity as people search for a clear signal amid the noise.

The Leverage of Social Celebrities

Popular personalities and handles on platforms like X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and postcasts have become media companies in their own right, commanding millions of engaged followers. In the world of AI, dozens of new AI-focused personalities have emerged, including Ben's Bites, The Rundown, Peter Yang, Simon Willison, and more. These AI influencers offer free guidance and suggestions, commentary and reviews.

The rise of AI-experts resembles the late 2000s Instagram influencers.

In the late 2000s, fashion and apparel finally took off as an e-commerce category as free shipping became the norm. Fashionistas (outside of NYC) were no longer limited to a small list of labels their local stores carried; they could buy any brand anywhere. They were consequently inundated with thousands of fashion choices and many more fast-fashion choices. Choosing between all these items became overwhelming.

While this was happening, social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest took off, providing a visual way for expert fashionistas to share their opinions with large followings. Savvy fashionistas started photographing and curating items for their followings, and the Instagram Influencer was born. While most of these curations began as organic, many influencers soon realized they could charge the brands for access, and it quickly became commercialized.

I expect a similar thing to happen in the AI software space. Products - which were once hard to build - are now going to be commoditized. Ad creation will become 10x more competitive. AI influencers now have large enough followings that they will become big power players in distribution. And most will try to find ways to monetize.

Many will build careers on sifting through hundreds of competitors to curate the best options. As AI-generated 'slop' floods our feeds, these trusted influencers become even more vital for curation. In a world increasingly filled with AI, the influence of trusted human content creators - influencers, bloggers, podcasters, and newsletter authors - will only grow.

And yes, many will shift towards commercialization. Today, the lists of products are mostly organically chosen. As time goes on, many will start extracting a larger and larger fee (either via affiliate or paid placement) to "recommend" one company's product over the dozen other copies. And some may subsequently launch their own products using their built-in audiences.

If you are building AI products, now is a good time to build an audience. If you have an audience, now is a good time to start thinking about building or teaming up with someone to build products the audience needs.

The Rise of AI Celebrities

As AI continues to become more and more personable, I'll go one step further in my predictions. I predict we will see the emergence of personable AI celebrities with millions of followers. While we do not normally think of trusting machines for taste, millions are already trusting both Google and ChatGPT for advice on numerous subjects. After experiencing how wonderful an AI personality can be with tellmel.ai, I fully expect visual AI Celebrities to emerge that people don't just like - they love.

To experiment with this idea, as part of a recent hackathon, my team created AI video celebrity interviewers, including one modeled after Caesar Flickerman from The Hunger Games, another styled as a trendy, 'on-fire' influencer, and a third as a talking puppy. It was just a small and flawed snapshot, but I was surprised at how engaging these AI personalities could be. I expect that in the next 5 years, we will see a number of AI celebrities with millions of followers, and people will form emotional connections with them and trust their recommendations. It matters less that they are human and more that people can form an emotional connection and trust them.

Private Communities: The New Word of Mouth

We also should talk about private community-based authority. As public social media becomes noisier, private spaces like Discord servers, Slack communities, and WhatsApp groups are growing more valuable for genuine recommendations. In the last year, I have joined 5-10 new WhatsApp and Discord groups to talk about AI, and from all indications, I am not alone. We are already seeing fatigue with large social networks and a migration toward these private groups. I believe this trend will continue as people crave more authentic connections.

In these communities, participants can build relationships with other people they trust. They can quickly recognize and remove bad actors who solicit and spam. Their smaller, more intimate nature will often make them more trustworthy sources for candid opinions, especially as larger celebrity influencers start 'selling out.' Expect these private communities to also severely restrict their APIs and interfaces to block out AI agents.

The key for companies will be to find ways to have people naturally spread your company's name within these communities. (See the previous post on Visual Wows for a hint.)

The Rebirth of In-Person Conferences

Finally, as AI-driven interactions become more common, genuine human connections will become a premium. People will want to talk to and trust other people. I expect a continued resurgence of in-person conferences and events, which declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their value will increase precisely because their size is limited to human attendance - a stark contrast to the limitless scale of AI-driven channels.