What Becomes Worthless When the Cost of Responses Drops to One-Hundredth

First, let’s lay out the facts.

• Ask ChatGPT, and you’ll get a 2000-character article in 5 seconds. The cost is nearly zero.
• The unsubscribe rate for AI newsletters is skyrocketing. Readers are quickly deciding that they gain nothing from this content.
• Reports are emerging that as soon as it’s disclosed that content was written by AI, reader trust declines.

What does this mean?

As the cost of “providing information” approaches zero, the value of “providing information” itself has plummeted.

In the past, outsourcing a single blog post would cost between 30,000 to 50,000 yen. Now, it takes 5 minutes with AI, and the only cost is the electricity. This is not just a matter of being one-hundredth of the original cost. When the cost of something drops dramatically, it inevitably leads to oversupply. Once there is oversupply, recipients begin to sift through the options.

What is happening right now is that very sifting.

Three News Stories Indicating the Same Structure

I’d like you to look at three recent developments. They all convey the same message.

1. Mass Unsubscribes from AI Newsletters

Readers are unsubscribing en masse from AI-generated newsletters. A blogger overseas canceled all of his subscriptions to multiple AI newsletters within a few weeks. The reason? “They all say the same thing. There’s no point in reading them.”

This is a natural consequence. The same large language model generates similar text based on the same training data. Even if you read ten AI newsletters, you’re essentially getting the information of just one. Readers are not foolish.

2. The ‘Don’t Say It Was Written by AI’ Problem

Reports are increasing that as soon as it’s honestly stated, “This content was generated by AI,” reader engagement drops. In one survey, even when the articles contained the same content, those labeled as “AI-generated” had lower click-through rates and shorter dwell times.

Why? Because readers judge that “this is worth reading because it comes from this person’s thoughts and experiences.” The moment they realize it was written by AI, that premise collapses.

3. Does Cheap AI Responses Threaten the Value of Experts? — It’s Actually the Opposite

With AI now producing answers for free, it was thought that the value of experts and consultants would decrease. However, in reality, as AI responses are recognized as “general knowledge available everywhere,” the value of “specific insights that can only be obtained from this person” has actually increased.

At one professional services firm, after implementing an AI chatbot, they actually raised the price of in-person consultations by 20%, yet the number of bookings did not decline. “I ask AI about what I can understand, but I want to consult a person for judgments tailored to my case,” customers say.

The Common Structure Among These Three

To summarize:

What AI has cheapened is the “cost of information.” As a result, what has risen is not the “cost of human warmth” but the “value of human warmth.”

This is where the winning strategy for small businesses lies.

Why Small Businesses Have an Advantage

Large corporations are structurally poor at conveying “human warmth.”

• Communication requires legal checks, PR checks, and adherence to brand guidelines.
• It’s difficult to put individual names and faces out there.
• Content where the CEO speaks directly to customers becomes harder to create as the organization grows.

On the other hand, what about small businesses?

• The CEO can speak in their own words. They can share stories from the field today, today.
• Customers can see the faces. There’s a sense of recognition as “that person from that company.”
• The approval process is short. They can publish immediately when an idea strikes.

This is something large corporations cannot replicate. The multiplication of speed and personality is stronger the smaller the organization.

What Specifically Should Be Done?

When told to “differentiate with human warmth,” it may feel too abstract to act on. Let’s break it down concretely.

Action 1: Send Weekly “Field Notes” from the CEO

Long articles are unnecessary. 200 to 400 characters are sufficient. Share what happened this week, conversations with customers, mistakes made, and realizations. Send this once a week via email, LINE, or one social media platform.

Cost: Zero. Time: 15 minutes.

The key is not to aim for “polished writing.” In fact, a bit of roughness is better. That “roughness” that AI cannot replicate is proof of human warmth.

Action 2: Publish Customer Feedback “As Is” Without Editing

Post customer comments and reviews without tidying them up. It’s okay if there are typos. Just saying, “I received this message from Mr. XX via LINE,” and attaching a screenshot (with permission) is enough.

The more you tidy it up, the more it resembles AI. The “noise” of raw voices builds trust.

Action 3: Use AI as a Backend Tool

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying “don’t use AI.”

• Delegate customer FAQ responses to AI.
• Let AI handle internal meeting minutes and data aggregation.
• Have AI draft social media posts and outline proposals.

Use the time saved by AI for “communications that only humans can do.” This is the correct way to utilize AI.

If the monthly cost of outsourced article production that was 30,000 yen becomes zero, use that 30,000 yen for transportation costs to visit customers. Write down the stories you hear in your own words. That will become the strongest content.

Action 4: Turn In-Person Events into “Content Material Factories”

Local events, exhibitions, workshops. Small businesses can easily participate in these venues. And the photos taken, conversations exchanged, and notes written on the backs of business cards — all of these can become content material.

While large corporations spend 500,000 yen to create a single video, small businesses can capture the atmosphere of the scene with just a smartphone. No editing, no subtitles, no background music. That’s perfectly fine.

The “Value Crash of AI Content” is a Tailwind for Small Businesses

To summarize:

1. AI has brought the cost of information generation close to zero.
2. As a result, the value of “content that anyone can create” has plummeted.
3. Simultaneously, the value of “content that only this person can create” has risen sharply.
4. The ability to create “content that only this person can create” is structurally higher in small businesses than in large corporations.
5. Therefore, the value crash of AI content is a tailwind for small businesses.

What is needed is not high production costs or advanced AI tools, but a system for regularly communicating what is happening in your own field in your own words.

Once a week, for 15 minutes. Start there.