Shoo AI, Don’t Bother Me!
Originally posted on LinkedIn, March 5, 2025, by David Dunten
Artificial Intelligence. Love it or hate it, it's inescapable in the professional world today—especially in the technology sector. In fact, according to TechCrunch, investments and public offerings amounted to $934.2 billion over the last 11 years to develop AI infrastructure.
So, yeah, it’s not going away anytime soon…
Aggregage is a standout in the B2B marketing & publishing world, and as the Web Content Manager, I like to think I have some unique insights into the average reader's perspective. Each month, my team sifts through thousands of articles, news stories, and blog posts to bring our readers the very best industry-specific content. I can tell you firsthand: AI-related articles are EVERYWHERE. Now, we’ve all seen AI become the newest, hottest topic over the last few years, so this should come as no surprise. What I want to note, though, is that there’s another, more negative side to this coin.
At first (like many others), my team and I jumped on the bandwagon, promoting articles that focused on the latest breakthroughs in AI, its practical implementations, and the nearly infinite ways it seemed primed to impact and revolutionize different industries. But, over time, the more we focused on AI, the more our traffic suffered. We noticed a drop in overall open rates, user engagement, subscriber counts, and clickthrough rates. While it’s true that open rates—and to some extent all of these metrics—can vary for a wide variety of reasons (seasonal shifts, spam filters, holidays, and more), it was clear that something was up. Just when it seemed like all anyone could talk about was AI, nobody wanted to hear about it anymore. Let’s call it “AI fatigue”.
On the other hand, we noticed that content, articles, and subject lines that focused more on evergreen topics like professional growth, efficiency, and workload management, while also incorporating actionable thought leadership, were performing far better in comparison. We've gotten to the point where I’ve even started to discourage the use of AI-focused material altogether unless we can find a unique angle with which to talk about it. AI fatigue indeed.
So, what might be the cause of this fatigue? Readers may feel bombarded with the volume of content about AI. It can be challenging to keep up with the constant stream of new information being published at a rapid pace. And, maybe most importantly, according to the Pew Research Center, over 88% of Americans have concerns about this new technology, and more than 50% just straight up don’t like it.
Now, am I arguing that you shouldn’t write content about AI altogether? No! As I said, the AI buzz isn’t going away anytime soon. There’s always going to be a new way to approach it, mainly because its advances come at such a breakneck pace. If you can find a new, more novel way to engage with AI, go for it! If you can’t, though, here’s what I would recommend: space out your focus on this kind of content to avoid running into AI fatigue, and embrace topics that aren’t centered exclusively around this new technology. Readers crave content that helps them advance and grow, and that ultimately deepens their understanding of their profession and industry. They’re most interested in content that works to sincerely inform them, rather than simply describe the ways a new technology might make their lives easier or more convenient.
I’m no Luddite by any means, that’s for sure. But, I’ve become more aware of how important it is that we don’t lose sight of what’s substantive in an attempt to be stylish. Focus on exploring what really matters to readers, regardless of hyped-up trends. You just might see more traffic if you do.
