Creator content can cut through AI slop, argues Threepipe Reply’s Rosie Griffiths

Rosie Griffiths of Threepipe Reply argues that content made by human creators is breaking through on feeds increasingly filled with AI-generated material, and that a human perspective is quickly becoming one of the most valuable tools available to brands.

She defines AI slop as “generic, interchangeable content that prioritises volume over a distinctive point of view”. In her view the problem is not that AI had a hand in making it, but that there is little in it worth anyone’s attention.

Griffiths points to LinkedIn, where she says industry professionals now share “more em dashes (a giveaway of AI output) than insights”. She also cites parents asking ChatGPT to write their children’s birthday messages in family group chats, and brand campaigns full of polished, aspirational visual assets that all look alike.

“Content has never been easier to produce, yet it has somehow become infinitely harder to believe,” she writes.

Parts of the industry, she says, regard this surge in artificial efficiency as the crowning achievement of automated marketing. She is not persuaded.

Polish without connection

Griffiths argues that efficiency is only part of the picture, and that beneath the gloss there is growing fatigue among consumers. Brands have spent years pursuing high-production perfection, from glossy ads and cinematic edits to refined scripts and surreal product renders created in isolation. Polish alone, she says, does not guarantee a connection with audiences.

People need not identify every post made with AI before they grow weary of material that all looks and sounds the same. Platforms are improving at labelling AI-generated content, she notes, but a label does not settle the matter. When everything feels carefully optimised, an imperfect and distinctive human view can carry more value.

She stresses that she is not calling for brands to abandon AI, which she credits with real workflow efficiencies. She singles out inbox summary co-pilots on returning from a fortnight’s annual leave as a particular source of relief. But for content that people actually consume and buy into, she argues that “real human creativity needs to take the wheel”.

What creators bring

This is where Griffiths sees the creator economy stepping in. Creators, she says, offer “something AI can imitate, but never truly own: lived experience”. She is scathing about AI creators and the rise of AI affiliates on TikTok Shop, comparing the trend to the horror film M3GAN.

She argues that creators bring humour, niche cultural references and the untidy human detail that makes content believable. That matters most when people are spending money, or trusting a stranger online with something as emotionally charged as, in her example, a salmon sperm face mask.

Consumers, she says, want more than a product’s claims. They want to understand how it feels to use, whether someone like them would use it in everyday life, and whether it might leave them keeping their camera off on Teams calls the next day.

Griffiths says the content performing best on social platforms is not the output of expensive agency brand shoots. Instead it is material that appears to have gone straight from a camera roll or drafts folder to the feed: raw, quick, a little chaotic and, above all, believable.

The numbers behind it

She cites several pieces of research in support. TikTok research published via eMarketer found that creator-led ads deliver click-through rates 70% higher, and engagement 159% higher, than non-creator ads bought at the same CPM.

Analysis from Dash Social shows creator-led campaigns recording average engagement rates 23% above those of brand-only campaigns. UK consumer research from Optimizely found that 72% of people say they are more inclined to engage when content feels human rather than automated.

In a recent report from Modash, Gen Z respondents said they now trust creators as much as family and friends.

Griffiths acknowledges that these findings do not all prove AI fatigue is behind the performance of creator content. She argues they do show that creator-led work can outperform brand-only advertising, and that genuine human recommendations matter to people.

As ever more generic AI content forces its way onto feeds, she says, a recognisable point of view and real experience give audiences stronger reasons to pay attention.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaching and planning for next year’s budgets about to begin, she argues that brand creatives should stop treating creator content as “a nice-to-have, an afterthought or an added extra”.

“Done well, it might just be the AI antidote,” she writes.