Lately, I keep catching myself doing the same thing: pausing on an Instagram ad, listening closely to a podcast intro, or hovering over a post — and thinking, ‘Hold on, is this AI?’ And I'm clearly not the only one. A Getty Images survey found that 76% of people agree: ‘It's getting to the point where I can't tell if an image is real.’ That simple feeling of uncertainty — not knowing whether something is genuine or generated — raises a big question for us as marketers and creators: How do we move away from this narrative of doubt and instead put our energy into building trust?
I've been sitting with this for a while, asking myself what actually makes me trust something online, and I keep landing on the same idea: connection. I trust something when it makes me feel genuinely connected.
That's when it really clicked: we need to lean into what AI can't truly imitate. We build connections. We build community. Real, human community. Because no matter how advanced technology becomes, only people can truly scale trust. And in a world where so much content feels artificial, trust is about to become your strongest advantage.
If you're wondering why I care so deeply about this, it's because community building has transformed me. The first community I created was in 2021, starting with 20 founding members and quickly growing to 140 founders. In under a year, we turned it into a full fellowship program, which still runs today under the European EdTech Alliance. Because of that experience, I have…