By Alister Adams

We are consuming more content than at any point in human history. But increasingly, it feels like we’re getting less from it.

And we’re only at the beginning. Generative AI is making it possible to create content faster and cheaper than ever before, accelerating a trend that was already underway.

I should know. I like to joke that I’ve been in the digital and social business since Facebook was TheFacebook. Back when feeds were chronological, reach was organic, and nobody really knew  what an algorithm was – let alone how to game one.

I’ve spent the last two decades helping brands navigate every major digital platform shift. From MySpace to Instagram to TikTok. From text to images to video to vertical video. And if there’s one thing that has been consistent across all of it, it’s this: platforms have been optimizing for consumption.

Every new iteration made content easier to discover, easier to consume, and easier to share. Open an app and the content finds you. No searching required. No decision-making required. Barely any effort required.

The result is a system optimized for efficiency and engagement. And by most measures, it’s working exactly as designed.

Image courtesy of Pexels

The cost of convenience

Each step simply made content easier to consume. What changed more meaningfully was what the system rewarded. In my world, that shift showed up in the metrics. We became incredibly good at understanding what made people stop, react, and share.

And unsurprisingly, the things that performed best were rarely the most thoughtful. They were the most immediate. The most emotional. The easiest to process.

Over time, that created an ecosystem that favors reaction over reflection and volume over value.

The result is a kind of cognitive junk food. Highly engineered to keep us engaged, but not to
leave us satisfied.

And with AI making content easier and cheaper to produce than ever before, the volume of that comparison is only going to increase.

Substack and the return of substance

It is against this backdrop that platforms like Substack have quietly gained traction.

On the surface, Substack is remarkably simple: a long-form writing site delivered via email. No feed. No algorithm. No expectation of constant output.

Which is precisely what makes it stand out.

Equally interesting is the business model behind it. Most platforms monetize attention. Creators are rewarded for generating more of it. Which creates a powerful incentive to produce a large volume of content that performs quickly and spreads widely.

Substack reverses that dynamic. Writers are paid directly through subscriptions and own the relationship and the email list. There is no requirement for scale or virality.

That changes what creators optimize for. Instead of chasing attention, they are building trust. Instead of producing more, they are incentivized to produce better – content that is thoughtful enough, useful enough, or distinctive enough that someone is willing to pay for it.

For years, the internet rewarded whoever could attract the most attention. Increasingly, platforms like Substack reward whoever can sustain it.

Virality builds reach. Consistency builds relationships. That is a fundamentally different standard.

A return to effort

What Substack represents is part of a broader pattern.

Across culture, we are seeing renewed interest in things that require effort and attention. Independent bookstores are resurging. People are buying vinyl records in an era where nearly everything is instantly streamable. Long-form podcasts routinely hold attention for hours in a world supposedly optimized for shrinking attention spans.

And somehow, hacky sacks are hot again. I remember kicking one around the common area at Publicis as a junior account person. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine a more analog activity: no screens, no notifications, no multitasking. Just a group of people paying attention to the same thing at the same time.

Even in popular culture, there is a noticeable gravitation toward the tangible and the crafted. You see it in small ways. I am irrationally obsessed with the hand-knitted wolf cardigan worn by Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary – and I am not alone (apparently it has become a viral sensation – being called ‘cottagecore goals’). Not because it is new, but because it feels real.

Personally, I’ve started to notice the difference in my own habits. The time I spend scrolling rarely leaves a trace. I couldn’t tell you what I consumed an hour later. But the time I spend actually reading – whether it’s a Substack, a book, or a thought-provoking podcast – tends to stick. Leaving something behind.

Effort requires attention. Attention enables depth. And depth is what creates value that lasts beyond the moment.

Substack works because it reintroduces that equation into content.

The unexpected tailwind

What makes this shift especially interesting is that it may be reinforced not just culturally, but technologically.

As search shifts from links to answers, a new discipline has emerged: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). AI systems favour content that is clear, well-structured, and grounded in expertise – content designed to answer questions rather than simply capture attention.

That doesn’t mean Substack suddenly becomes the dominant source in AI search like Reddit, Wikipedia and Quora. But it does suggest that thoughtful, expertise-driven writing may become more valuable again – not just to readers, but to the systems increasingly deciding what gets seen.

Substack is not a reinvention of social media. It is a correction to it.

That correction may become even more important in the age of AI.

As generative tools make it possible to create virtually unlimited content at near-zero cost, we are about to be flooded with more articles, images, videos, and opinions than ever before. Quantity will become abundant. Attention is finite.

In that environment, expertise matters more. Original thinking matters more. Trust matters more.

For marketers and agencies, that may be the most important implication of all. AI will make content dramatically easier and cheaper to produce. The temptation will be to simply create more of it. But if everyone has access to the same tools, then volume alone stops being a competitive advantage.

The advantage shifts to what AI cannot create on its own: expertise, perspective, creativity, and trust. The winners won’t be those who rely solely on human effort or AI-generated output. They’ll be the ones who combine human judgment with AI’ss ability to surface insights, accelerate production, and scale execution.

The winners won’t be those who create the most content. They’ll be the ones who create something worth paying attention to.

Better, not more.

Alister Adams is president of Saatchi & Saatchi Canada. With more than two decades at Publicis Groupe, he has helped shape the evolution of digital, from early social platforms to today’s AI-driven landscape. Formerly chief digital pfficer at Publicis Toronto, he built one of Canada’s largest integrated digital offerings and continues to lead work at the intersection of creativity, data and emerging technology.