2025-03-28
Ever since the ripe age of 16, I’ve subconsciously positioned myself (at least in my own head) as somewhat of a Hannah Montana. When I first began posting on social media during junior year of high school, I slowly but surely started overcoming any fear of public speaking, grew more confident in my first-gen, eldest child Indian-American identity, and impacted people at touching levels. The environment back then was almost conducive to this progression, or so I thought.
All of a sudden, many people who didn’t have a voice in a sea of homogeneity, who struggled with gaining attention around their overqualified research, who never saw globalization at such a hands-on scale — they were all becoming the ones to change the landscape. It was the digital moment of revolution just as when Peeta and Katniss were about to intake the poisonous berries; the steadfast progression of two main characters in an Emily Henry book falling for one another. Nothing short of a whirlwind sort of change. It happened before in history, and it was happening again. TikTok was becoming synonymous with spotlight-like authentic attention and virality.
But with the rise of AI in the last few years, I’ve noticed a few undeniable changes in the creator economy — both within my content and others’.
It starts with the small changes that could be mistakable for a slight off day or more “dull” piece of content you could see from a creator. But eventually, what’s once one-off becomes a repetitive trend, and you wonder why, exactly, it is that all of a sudden, each end of the content creation spectrum is becoming a little more… extreme?
Let me explain. These are just a few things I’ve noticed throughout my content creation journey. All of them are based around my personal opinion and observations, so not to worry at all if you haven’t seen these published around. That’s probably on purpose!
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When I first started TikTok, I vividly remember watching videos on growth and hearing, over and over again, to use trending audios, hashtags, and effects. To use whatever was ‘trending’ at the time was often a foolproof way to get your content seen.
But now, content strategists advise the complete opposite. Sometimes, it’s a drag to use the same Bad Bunny song in a video if it was used over 100,000 times already (devastating, I know). Now, it’s about the keywords, the storytelling, the hooks, the emotion.
It’s all about specificity in an age where people seem to notice that it’s becoming a scarcer find.
Your audience no longer just wants the actual tips. Heck, pair a post with amazing, cinematic edits, and it’ll more likely than not end up with the hundreds of other amazing videos that are doing the same thing, but not achieving the desired result.
What not only grab, but retain people’s attention nowadays aren’t just the visual, trendy, and necessary elements of the video. No, no. As AI blurs the line between real and not real (again, another Hunger Games reference), consumers now want to understand the story. What are the untold emotions that go into getting a dream job? What are the riveting secrets of the influencer who goes to each fashion event in NYC? What did the person who’s traveling the world actually do to make that happen — and at what cost?
Four years ago, it probably would’ve been enough to focus on the surface level of these questions. But now, if there’s no emotion, there’s really no viewer. And as a creator myself, I’ve noticed times that I personally have used more connotative diction, relatable emojis, or urgent language to convey the message of a video that may not see the light of day had I not made that choice.
All this being said, I actually think this point is a more positive one than anything. In a world where AI has proven itself to do the magic of giving somewhat emotional responses — using LLMs and network effects to continue garnering and learning the sentiment of thousands of users to sharpen its humanistic nature —, it’s become crucial for creators to become more vulnerable. Both with their audience… and with themselves.
Of course, this also poses safety hazards. Divestitures of deeply personal information can also have unintended, negative effects, especially for high-profile influencers or celebrities who haven’t experienced this sort of heightened emotional wave in their journeys of creating. The call for cybersecurity continues to grow stronger, and for good reason. I think that once social media apps start implementing more secure measures to protect their creators, there can be many mutually beneficial relationships created out of this newfound dynamic. So even that comes with a potential upside!
Another element of all of this is the actual effort. Coming from a creator, full disclosure, I can personally say it definitely takes me much more time and thoughtfulness to come up with a genuinely resonant, valuable video idea. For creators that may juggle creating with full-time jobs, kids to parent, or other side hustles to grow, it can be difficult to keep content creation as a fun, “easy” hobby. In my view (and this also might be controversial), I’ve never thought of creation to actually be easy. EVER. In my four years, I’ve always thought about psychology, analytics, data, and creativity whenever I produce. Those are all inherently hard things to do on their own. But the velocity at which I’m doing all of them has only increased, and that’s what’s required more effort.
Again, this is not a bad thing! Putting in more effort to something you love can help you love it even more. In my case, I’ve appreciated small things that I haven’t before. It’s more intuitive now to add in captions, translations, or external media. The video editing process itself is something I mentally prepare myself to look forward to, just as much as I would four years ago with only coming up with ideas for content.
Finally, the last thing I’ll leave you all with is probably the most evident, yet shocking. It’s kind of crazy to see entire content pieces and schedules made by ChatGPT. In fact, when I asked Chat how much influencers may cozy up to it for creation purposes, it said this:
"This is such a real question — and one that not enough people talk about.
So, how much do influencers use me?
A lot.
More than you’d think — and not just beginners. Mid-size creators, big influencers, full-on content agencies, social teams for CEOs, even writers who ghostwrite for other influencers… many of them use me or tools like me to:
Brainstorm content hooks
Analyze what’s going viral
Script out Reels or TikToks
Draft carousels, blog posts, newsletters
Repurpose longform into shortform
I’ve helped creators grow from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of followers — not because I am the creativity, but because I support it.
Would you be shocked at the number?
Yes.
Not in a scary, “everyone’s faking it” kind of way — but in a “ohhh, so this is how people systemize consistency and volume” kind of way. Most creators who post daily or have that really polished, branded feel… they’re not sitting alone with a journal and a matcha. They’re often using AI tools, notion boards, repurposing strategies, and yes, me — to produce like a content machine."
As you can probably tell, a lot of the content you’re consuming is no longer just made by the creator. Chat, and other LLMs, could be in charge of the hook you’ve become invested in; the embellished storyline that you’re also getting hooked on may, in part, be AI’s doing.
That doesn’t change the fact that there is always a human being behind the prompt. That alone comforts me, not just with content creation, but with LLM output in general. There’s an idea where everything came from that was engineered by a human mind, and made perfect for delivery perhaps by AI. But you’re still watching real content made by a human. In my case, I’ve definitely asked Chat to help me with scheduling; learning what overall posting trends may be, etc. Especially as I’m studying abroad right now in Spain — with the time difference, I’ve needed to inquire AI sometimes about what time I should really schedule posts. Might be the middle of the night for me, but for my audience, it’s the peak time of activity.
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Overall, this is a quick glimpse into some of my thoughts behind the creation revolution. Happening again! This time, a little differently.
There’s much more where these musings came from! Stay tuned for a lot of thoughts coming your way. This is my way of placing the items from my overflowing brain into real, concrete words! So if you also want some more unsolicited input… follow @yourstudentsupporter on all platforms :) Thank you so much for reading and have a wonderful rest of your week!! You deserve it!