AI and Writing: Why Human Writers Are More Valuable Than Ever

Published: January 13, 2026

Episode Summary

Tom gets brutally honest about his evolving relationship with AI as a writer. What started as genuine terror about AI "attacking" traditional writing has transformed into a completely different understanding: AI hasn't made writing easier—it's made it harder. But in the best possible way. This episode tackles the biggest question facing writers right now: what does AI mean for the future of writing, and how should you be thinking about your craft in this new landscape?

Tom's Early Fears About AI

The Terror: "I was terrified when AI writing tools first emerged. And I'm a technical person by nature—I love playing with new tools. But even with that curiosity, I felt like the writing process itself was under attack."

What Worried Him Most: Writing is a sacred process. The act of:

Sitting down

Grinding it out

Wrestling with what you want to say

That IS the path to clarity

That struggle is where the thinking happens

The Core Concern: "I was genuinely concerned that AI would short-circuit that process, that writers would lose something essential if they started relying on these tools."

The Fear: "If we bypass the hard work of figuring out what we want to say, how will we ever develop clear thinking? How will we ever produce truly good work?"

The Complete Perspective Shift

What Changed: Tom's feelings have completely changed. Not because his concerns weren't valid, but because he was looking at it all wrong.

The Realization: The Tide of Mediocrity

"The tide has risen for all of us. It's not like there's some select group of people with access to AI while the rest of us are left behind. We ALL have access to these tools now. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini—they're available to everyone."

But Here's the Thing: It's not a tide of quality that's rising. It's a tide of mediocrity. Bland, generic content is flooding the internet. What some people call "AI slop."

THE MOST IMPORTANT INSIGHT

Information Is No Longer the Barrier to Entry

Think about it:

Reading Wikipedia articles? That's not how people spend their time anymore

We don't need to because our AI assistants can give us current information collected from multiple sources in seconds

Just ask and you'll get an answer

The Critical Question: "So if information isn't valuable anymore, what is?"

Why Writing Has Become Harder (And Why That's Good)

The Surprising Truth: "I find writing MORE difficult now than I did before AI. Not less difficult. More."

Why?

Spending extra time thinking about what I want to say

Being more mindful

Working harder to give my writing a human touch

Sharing vulnerability with my audience

Being more open with readers

Telling stories

The Key Insight: "Storytelling is going to be the most important element of writing in the future."

The Framework: AI as Your Editorial Team

If You're Wrestling with AI: Consider this perspective: If you were writing a book or working at a publication as a journalist, you would never publish anything alone.

Your Work Would Go Through Multiple Phases:

Developmental editing

Copy editing

Fact-checking

Typesetting

All these stages take raw material and shape it into a finished product

The Collaboration Analogy: If you were working on a team of writers and got stuck on something, you wouldn't just sit there in a vacuum staring at a blank page. Especially if you had a deadline.

You'd:

Collaborate with someone else

Get input

Have brainstorm sessions

What AI Gives You: "Access to a team of artificially intelligent assistants helping you produce a finished piece of work."

BUT—The Crucial Part: "The judgment, the ability to determine if something is high-quality or not, still comes from the writer. From you. AI can't make that judgment. Only you can."

The Premium of Human Writing

Why This Matters More Than Ever: "It's more important than ever to double and triple down on your writing skills."

The Truth: "If you don't know what to ask for, if you can't recognize quality when you see it, you will never be able to produce high-quality work. Period."

The Market Reality: High-quality human content is going to be a premium. Human writers are going to be a premium in the future.

Why? "Because if everyone just uses AI to produce material, it all starts to blend together. It becomes invisible. Forgettable."

The New Art of Writing:

How do you engage with readers?

How do you create a better story?

How do you tap into that human element to connect with people?

THAT is the premium element.

The Requirement: "To get there, you have to understand the craft. You have to keep practicing. You have to keep working through it."

Tom's Prescription: Read, Read, Read

The Practice: Read. Read a lot. Read really good writing so you understand what good writing feels like in your bones.

What to Read:

The Atlantic

Pulitzer Prize-winning writers

"There are so many of them out there that if you read a Pulitzer Prize-winning book every week for the rest of your life, you'd still have hundreds of books left to read"

Why This Matters: Read high-quality writing. Know what it feels like. Feel it in your body. Then when you see what AI gives you as a raw piece, you'll immediately see where things need to be improved.

Tom's Current Reality: "I can't tell you—I actually spend MUCH more time writing now than I ever did before."

Why?

Trying to craft a more elegant piece than ever before

Refining

Polishing

Making deliberate choices about every sentence

The Reason: "The information itself is not the valuable thing anymore. People can get information anywhere, instantly. It's HOW it's presented now. That presentation, that's the craft. That's the art of writing. And that will never change."

Key Takeaways

1. The Tide Has Risen for Everyone Access to information is no longer your competitive advantage. AI is available to everyone.

2. What IS Valuable:

Your human perspective

Your stories

Your vulnerability

Your voice

Double down on these elements

3. Think of AI as Your Editorial Team Not your replacement. Use it to:

Brainstorm

Refine

Polish

But YOU make the judgment calls about quality

4. Read Excellent Writing Constantly This is how you train your eye to know what's good and what's AI slop.

5. Expect Writing to Be Harder "If you're spending more time crafting your work, being more thoughtful, more intentional—that's exactly what you should be doing."

The Writers Who Will Thrive

The Profile: The writers who will thrive in this new landscape are the ones who:

Lean into the craft

Develop their unique voice

Tell stories that only they can tell

The Bottom Line

Information is everywhere now.

But your story, your perspective, your craft—that's irreplaceable.

The sacred struggle of writing—sitting down, grinding it out, wrestling with what you want to say—that hasn't changed. If anything, it's become more important.

AI hasn't made writing obsolete. It's made excellent writing more valuable than ever.

Key Quotes

"AI hasn't made writing easier for me—it's actually made it harder. But in the best possible way."

"Information is no longer the barrier to entry."

"Storytelling is going to be the most important element of writing in the future."

"The judgment, the ability to determine if something is high-quality or not, still comes from the writer. From you. AI can't make that judgment. Only you can."

"High-quality human content is going to be a premium. Human writers are going to be a premium in the future."

"The information itself is not the valuable thing anymore. People can get information anywhere, instantly. It's HOW it's presented now. That presentation, that's the craft. That's the art of writing. And that will never change."

"If you're spending more time crafting your work, being more thoughtful, more intentional—that's exactly what you should be doing."

Next Episode: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM (ish)

Join the Conversation: Are you experimenting with AI in your writing process? What's working? What concerns you? Connect with Tom on X or Substack.

Action Item: This week, read one piece of exceptional writing (a Pulitzer Prize winner, a top Atlantic article, etc.). Then look at a piece you've written with AI assistance. What differences do you notice? Where can you add more human touch, more story, more vulnerability?

The Author and Audience Podcast helps writers think deeper, write better, and build creative processes that produce their best work consistently.

Remember: Keep writing, keep learning, and keep leaning into what makes you irreplaceably human.

Get full access to Author & Audience at authorandaudience.substack.com/subscribe