In my class, I often use a quote from Scott Galloway about the importance of storytelling as a skill in business. In a recent episode, Prof G lays it all out. Here’s my reflection.
The share of LinkedIn job postings that mention “storyteller” roughly doubled between 2024 and 2025. Executives said “storytelling” 469 times on earnings calls in 2025, up from 147 in 2015.
At the same time, the web is filling up with AI-written content (Dead Internet Theory: bot written content written for bots) . One analysis of 900,000 new web pages found that 74% contained detectable AI-generated text. Readers are noticing. Nearly a third of consumers say they’re less likely to buy from a brand that uses AI-generated ads.
What’s the value of content when that content can be generated at close to zero marginal cost? I’d say it will approach zero in the coming months/years.
But there will always be value to human crafted content — or narratives — created for real humans. Whether inside of board rooms, interview rooms, in advertising campaigns, or entertainment.
For students like mine, and other (corporate/knowledge work) job seekers, focus on these two skills:
- Writing. Even if your medium is video, speaking, or short-form posts, write the idea out first. Writing forces you to decide what you actually think. I call this “writing to think”, and sure sometimes that writing comes after verbal brainstorming.
- Public speaking. You don’t need to be a great speaker. You do need to be competent and confident enough to stand up, state your view, and move people to act. If you can’t communicate your ideas within your organization, your ideas won’t advance and neither will your career.
And one important caution: Avoid cognitive surrender. Every time you outsource your content creation to AI — brainstorming, first drafting — your creative muscle weakens. I’m not opposed to using AI in the creative process, I use it frequently, but I also continue to train my creative muscle by writing from the blank page, and using AI to pressure test or critique the content.
How are you using AI? And how are you fighting the cognitive surrender?