Everything's fake until proven otherwise.

We had a huge shift in AI in recent weeks. Not many people realized it. And it is not really mainstream yet. But soon, everyone will notice. And it will affect every one of us—big time. Simply put: anything that is digital will be fake until proven otherwise.

This wasn’t a case 3-6 months ago. You could either tell it from the context (random politician is riding on a zebra, half-naked, jacked) or from the quality (either too polished to be real, or just simply bad output).

Now, it doesn’t matter how hard you look. Just take a look at this girl:

The first one is clearly AI. Too polished, no human being has this skin. Although I have to say, shadows, the focus, and the rest work perfectly still. Some people could be fooled by it, for sure (just look at your current Facebook timeline…). But the second looks so real. It’s not perfect. It looks like a photo taken by someone. And yes, both of these photos are AI, of course.

We just crossed a threshold most marketers haven't processed yet: visual verification is dead. Not dying. Not "something to watch." Dead. The pixels lie, and there's no coming back.

In this weekend edition, we will discuss how we (marketers) can create trust and value not just in a post-truth world, but in a post-real world.

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It was a gradual collapse. You could argue that on the internet, it’s “just” pixels. But those pixels affect our daily lives.

First, social media killed news authenticity. We stopped trusting what we read. Clickbait, misinformation, bot accounts—the words on the screen became suspect. Fake news. Deepfakes in text form. The whole information ecosystem became polluted.

At least we still had images. "Pics or it didn't happen" was the reality check. Show me the product. Show me the customer. Show me behind the scenes. Visual proof still worked.

Then AI killed that, too. You might not see this everywhere, yet. But it is everywhere. And it will affect everyone. Very f—ing soon.

Now we can't trust what we see. Not product shots. Not testimonials. Not behind-the-scenes content. Not influencer posts. Not brand photography. Nothing. Every image is potentially synthetic. Every video could be generated. The default assumption flipped from "real unless proven fake" to "fake unless proven real."

So where does that leave us? Back to the only things that can't be synthetic. The stuff AI can't fake—yet, or maybe ever. Smell. Taste. Touch. Physical presence in the same room. Human-to-human connection, built over time. Trust earned through consistent behavior, not perfect imagery.

Your entire content strategy was built on "if we show it, they'll believe it." Product photography. Customer testimonials with faces. Behind-the-scenes content proving authenticity. Polished brand imagery signaling legitimacy.

That foundation just crumbled. The market now operates on a different assumption: Everything is synthetic until proven otherwise. And proving "otherwise" requires a completely different playbook.

Here's what changed:

The question isn't "how do we compete with AI-generated content?" It's "how do we prove we're not just more AI-generated content?"

When you can't verify through your eyes, you verify through these.

Think about it. When someone you trust shares something, you don't reverse-image-search it or run it through an AI detector. You believe them because they showed you. That's the new currency. Not the content itself. The source.

What this means practically

First-party channels—your owned audience—just became 10x more valuable than paid ads. When someone has opted into hearing from you repeatedly, checking their inbox or feed specifically for your content, you've already earned permission to speak without constant verification.

They know your voice. They recognize your patterns. They've built a mental model of "what this brand sounds like when it's real." That's harder to fake than any single piece of content.

Creator partnerships aren't about reach anymore. They're about borrowed credibility. You're not buying their audience size. You're buying their reputation, which they loan to you temporarily. Choose wrong, and you inherit their credibility problem. Choose right, and you bypass years of trust-building.

Brand consistency over years becomes pattern recognition. People learn what you sound like, what you stand for, what you won't do, and what you always do. That history becomes impossible to fake. A new account can buy followers. It can generate perfect content. It can't generate five years of consistent behavior.

Ok, but what to do?

Stop optimizing for reach. Start optimizing for relationship depth. A thousand people who trust you completely beats a million who saw your ad once and forgot it. Build a voice so distinctive that AI mimics are obvious. Not just "professional" or "conversational." Specific. Opinionated. Consistent in ways that matter. When someone tries to impersonate you—and they will—your audience should spot it immediately.

Invest in owned channels—newsletter, community, proprietary platforms—where you control the relationship and don't rent trust from platforms. Email lists aren't just lead generation anymore. They're trust infrastructure. Make your editorial choices visible. What you choose not to cover matters as much as what you highlight. What you criticize. What you refuse to compromise on. That's the pattern people learn to trust.

Every polished product shot, every flawless testimonial, every seamless demo—your audience now assumes it's synthetic until you show them otherwise. The behind-the-scenes just became more valuable than the final output.

This is the reversal nobody saw coming. For decades, brands competed on polish. The more professional, the more legitimate. Amateur-looking content signaled lack of resources, lack of seriousness. Now? Polish signals potential fakery. Amateur signals human.

What this means practically

Show the messy middle. The failed experiments. The version that didn't work. The team meeting where you argued about the strategy. The stuff that's too tedious and human to be worth faking.

Live content matters more. Unedited. Unscripted. Real-time. Because the cost of faking "live" at scale is still too high. For now. A live Q&A where things go wrong, where you stumble over answers, where the connection drops—that's proof you're human.

Your process becomes your proof. "How we made this" becomes as important as "what we made." Document creation, not just outcomes. Show the iterations. The decisions. The alternatives you rejected and why. The rough draft with visible edits. The whiteboard session with crossed-out ideas. The voice note where you're thinking out loud. These aren't "bonus content" anymore. They're authentication.

Ok, but seriously, what should I do?

Build transparency into your workflow. Behind-the-scenes isn't a separate content type—it's part of every launch. Default to showing your work, not just your results. Embrace the rough edges. The hand-drawn sketch. The screenshot of the actual working doc with comments visible. The voice note instead of the perfectly scripted video. Things that feel more expensive to fake than to just do.

Stop hiding your creative decisions. Make them visible. "We chose this angle because..." "We rejected this version because..." "We're testing this approach because..." That's not giving away trade secrets. That's proving you actually made choices. Create "making of" content while you're making things, not after. Real-time documentation, not reconstructed storytelling. The difference is visible.

Digital presence can be spoofed. A website, social accounts, even customer testimonials—all generatable. Your office, event, store, or pop-up? That takes coordination, money, space, permits, real people showing up. It's harder to fake atoms than pixels.

Online? Live webinars, live calls, live online conferences beat anything. Why would you pay for a generic course that teaches you how to X when AI can show it to you in minutes? Or why not hire an advisor, coach, or consultant who can teach you everything in an hour, live, from their own experience?

What this means practically

Events aren't just for networking. They're authentication layers. When someone attends your conference, sees your space, shakes your hand, watches you present live—they've verified you exist beyond a website and social accounts. Local presence becomes differentiation.

Even if you're digital-first, having some physical footprint—a small office, regular meetups, a test location—signals "we're not just a domain name and a Stripe account." User-generated content from physical spaces carries trust weight. Your customers taking photos at your location, wearing your product in the real world, showing up to your event—that's social proof that still works. Because they were there. They can verify.

Physical products matter more than ever. Even if you're a software company, having something physical—swag people actually want, a book, a physical workshop kit—creates touchpoints that prove realness.

What to do now?

Create "proof of place" opportunities. Doesn't have to be huge. A quarterly happy hour. An open office day. A pop-up shop. A local meetup. Something where people can verify that you're real, that you have a space, that you exist in three dimensions—design physical experiences specifically for documentation. The photo-worthy moment isn't vanity—it's your customer creating third-party verification for you.

Make it easy. Make it memorable. Make it shareable. Use physical touchpoints strategically. Not at scale (expensive), but at key moments. First customer interaction. Annual event. Major launch. Make them matter. Make them memorable. Make them undeniably real. Ship physical objects when it matters. The handwritten thank-you note. The actual product sample. The printed report, instead of just the PDF. These cost more. That's exactly why they matter.

This is the paradox. AI can generate flawless product shots, perfect copy, pixel-perfect designs. And because it can, anything too perfect now triggers suspicion. Meanwhile, the hand-drawn sketch, the "shot on iPhone" aesthetic, the visible rough edges—those signal human craft. Imperfection used to be something you fixed in post. Now it's proof you're real.

What this means practically

Restraint becomes a signal. Choosing not to use every AI capability. Choosing not to perfect every frame. Choosing not to A/B test every word into submission. That's a choice that costs something—time, efficiency, potential optimization—and that cost is visible. Visible human touches matter.

The handwritten note in the package. The founder's actual signature (not a stamp). The unfiltered Instagram story with the dog barking in the background. Small things that are cheaper to do than to fake convincingly. Slower becomes suspicious... but in a good way.

If you can push a button and generate a thousand variations instantly, choosing to craft one carefully over days signals intention. Signals thought. Signals care. The marks of human creation—the slightly crooked line, the hand-lettering that's not quite perfect, the color that's almost but not quite matching—these used to be amateur mistakes. Now they're authenticity signals.

Next steps for you

Add visible imperfections. Not manufactured "authenticity" with fake coffee stains and artificial grain. Actual marks of human creation. The rough sketch, that's obviously hand-drawn. The crossed-out line in the draft you share. The "here's my thinking" voice note with the pauses and the "um"s. Make craft choices AI can't replicate cheaply. Custom illustrations over stock. Long-form writing with a distinct voice and weird metaphors. Design choices that prioritize meaning over optimization. Typography that breaks the rules intentionally.

Slow down where it matters. Rush the operational stuff. Use AI for the tedious work. But for the work your audience sees, the work that represents your brand—resist the AI acceleration. Human-paced creation signals human thought. Show the human behind the work. Not in a forced "meet our team!" way. But in the work itself. The voice that comes through. The perspective that's specific to a person. The judgment calls that aren't just data-driven.

Here's where the industry splits.

Most brands will choose Path A. Not because it's the right strategy, but because it's easier to explain to leadership. "We used AI to increase output 10x while cutting costs 60%." That's a win-win-all-around quarterly report. Clean metrics. Clear ROI. No philosophical questions about trust and authenticity.

The brands that choose Path B will have awkward board meetings. "We're intentionally producing less content? We're avoiding optimization? We're spending more per piece?" Yes. Because the game changed. And winning the old game doesn't help you when everyone's playing a new one.

Which path are you on? And more importantly, have you actually chosen, or are you drifting toward Path A because it's the default? You can't half-ass this. You can't use AI for efficiency while also building trust through transparency. You can't optimize everything while also embracing imperfection. You can't scale endlessly while also creating depth. You have to choose. The market is already deciding. You might as well decide first.

Three questions for your next strategy session:

We don’t want to sound like the ones who question even their own mental models. And we are just slightly cynical (we are Europeans, sorry). But. But what if you are super OK with having AI generate everything for you and for your brand?

I mean, worked for Coca-Cola for their Christmas ad this year and probably will work for most retail brands, anyway, right? Right. It will work. Mostly because of three reasons:

One More Thing

Most marketers will handle this wrong. They'll panic-buy better AI tools. They'll chase "authentic-looking" instead of actually building trust. They'll optimize their synthetic content to pass AI detectors instead of asking why they need to pass AI detectors in the first place. They'll add "shot on iPhone" to images that weren't. They'll create fake "behind-the-scenes" content that's just as polished as their main content. They'll manufacture imperfection rather than embrace real imperfection. They'll spend 2026 in an arms race to make fake look real.

But. The marketers who win the next five years won't be the ones with the best AI-generated content. They'll be the ones their audience believes without needing to verify every pixel. That's not an AI skill. That's a relationship skill. Good news: you already know how to do that. You just forgot it mattered.

See you on Monday,


—Peter & Torsten

P.S. If you found yourself nodding along thinking "I need to forward this to my team"—you just proved the point about source credibility. You trust us enough not to fact-check every claim. That's what we mean by trust anchors.

And when you share, why not earn rewards for it?

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