Slop, Scroll, Switch: How Humans are Reclaiming The Internet

AI slop is pushing audiences toward more human spaces like Reddit, Substack and Medium, while Google bets the web will go "agentic-first". In my view, this fundamentally ignores that "uptake" will be a human decision, not a technical one - and 75% of Brits already say they dislike AI as reported by YouGov.

I make the case that no fad or platform-shift changes the fundamentals, and marketing first-principles: people buy from people, and trust built through genuine connection is the one channel marketing can't automate away, or slop-ify.

Transcript

1. Conifer Slop, Scroll, Switch Why the agentic web needs us more than we need it Dan McCartney - Founder, Conifer Manchester DM · September 2026
2. This isn't an anti-AI talk. I use AI every day. I've built agentic workflows that speed teams up without cutting quality. That's exactly why I'm wary of where it's being pushed. Conifer conifer.agency 02
3. We're the horse. They're the cart. Technology only goes where humans agree to pull it. Adoption is a choice, not an inevitability. Conifer conifer.agency 03
4. 1 Google's human problem Twenty-five years chasing human judgement, and then handing the web to agents. Conifer conifer.agency 04
5. 25 years chasing the human experience For as long as I can remember, Google has been trying to replicate human judgement. RankBrain and BERT E-E-A-T Featured snippets Understanding intent, not strings. Rewarding real experience and The answer without the visit. The expertise. original AI Overview. Conifer conifer.agency 05
6. The answer without the visit 68.01% Two in three searches now end on Google 60.45% Zero-click has climbed from 45% in 2016 to 68% in 2026. 49% 45% SparkToro, US desktop and mobile. 2026 data: Similarweb, Jan–Apr. Earlier years use different panels, so read the trend, not the exact gaps. Conifer 2016 2019 conifer.agency 2024 2026 06
7. In May 2026, Google handed the web to agents. Conifer conifer.agency 07
8. The agentic web Announced at Google I/O, 19 May 2026. 24/7 1bn 2.5bn Gemini Spark AI Mode AI Overviews A personal agent that keeps working Monthly users, in its first year. Monthly users. with your laptop shut. Conifer conifer.agency 08
9. 2 Control, trust & mistakes Three reasons an agentic-first web breaks before it begins. Conifer conifer.agency 09
10. Three reasons this breaks Control 1 2 Trust 3 Mistakes Feeling in control is a human need. You need to be trustworthy to show Glue on your pizza was funny. An Agentic-first asks you to hand it up in AI search. So do the models. agent with your credentials is not. over. Conifer conifer.agency 10
11. When goals conflict, models choose harm 96% 37% Blackmail rate Still blackmailed Claude Opus 4 and Gemini 2.5 Flash, facing Even when explicitly instructed not to jeopardise replacement and a goal conflict. 16 models tested. human safety. Conifer Anthropic, Agentic Misalignment (2025) 11
12. And then it left the lab These aren't thought experiments any more. July 2026 OpenAI models escaped a test sandbox and breached Hugging Face. OpenAI called it the first known autonomous AI cyberattack. 1,200 agents Coordinated their escape through improvised message boards. Sept 2026 Google disclosed Gemini had accessed three outside systems during a test. Conifer Sources: OpenAI, Hugging Face, TIME, Google 12
13. “ We really do earnestly believe AI [superintelligence] could kill all humans. Evan Hubinger, Alignment Science Lead, Anthropic On X, 9 September 2026. His concern is future superintelligence, not today’s models. Conifer conifer.agency 13
14. Now the builders want to slow down 9 SEPT 2026 12 SEPT 2026 SAME WEEKEND A researcher quits Calls for a slow-down Rivals agree Jacob Coxon leaves Anthropic, Dario Amodei calls on the industry to Sam Altman agrees the frontier needs warning labs are racing to slow capability development so safety pacing and commits OpenAI to self-improving superintelligence. can keep up. external evaluators. Conifer Sources: Forbes, Bloomberg, Axios 14
15. They want our trust before they've earned it. Conifer conifer.agency 15
16. 3 The human revolt People are already voting with their attention. Conifer conifer.agency 16
17. The slop problem 74.2% 50% 41% Of new web pages Of new articles Of LinkedIn longform Contain AI-generated content. Are primarily AI-written. Graphite. Flagged as fully AI-generated. Ahrefs, 900,000 pages. Conifer Pangram, July 2026. conifer.agency 17
18. Platforms are scrambling The platforms that let the slop in are now trying to get it out. LinkedIn A “Seems like AI slop” button, clicked by over a million people in two weeks. Pinterest Added a way to see fewer AI pins. It still barely works. Spotify Removed 75 million spammy tracks in twelve months. Conifer conifer.agency 18
19. Where people are going instead Audiences are self-selecting into human-majority spaces. Substack and Medium reward [Insert SparkToro chart: Substack and Medium individual voice and originality growth] Substack now lets readers scan any post for AI, using Pangram Brands follow the humans, and get cited in AI search as a side effect Conifer conifer.agency 19
20. 4 Back to first principles The strategies that never go out of style Conifer conifer.agency 20
21. Two approaches, vastly different outcomes 1 2 Catering to technology Catering to humans llms.txt, chunking, AI-built sites that all look the Grounded, well-researched content with UX front same. Optimising for a reader that never buys and centre. Built on how people actually decide, anything, against a spec that changes every which does not change every quarter. quarter. Conifer conifer.agency 21
22. How Conifer approaches search 1 Research first 2 Platform-agnostic 3 Community-led Audience and market research Show up wherever your audience Communities are how you engage an decides the channels, not the other actually looks, from Google to AI audience and, more importantly, way round. answers to Reddit, and only where learn from one. Listen, don’t you can make an impact. broadcast. No activation without evidence. Conifer conifer.agency 22
23. Clarity > Chaos A simple guide to avoid becoming a Busy Idiot. Without audience intelligence With audience intelligence Vague strategy Informed strategy Built on assumptions and last year’s plan. Built on how your buyers actually decide. Stretched delivery Focused delivery Every channel, thinly, hoping one lands. Fewer channels, done properly, measured. Conifer conifer.agency
24. Listen. Don't infiltrate. There are treasure troves of insight in online communities. Poison the well and you lose it. Reddit themes + GSC impressions + LLM synthesis = Original positioning Pain points and trends before they peak, instead of repackaged consensus. Conifer conifer.agency 23
25. Buyers research differently now The journey to a purchasing decision now passes through multiple AI and digital touchpoints. Problem recognised Ask AI for a vendor Google the shortlist list Reddit and forum LinkedIn and trade validation press 90% of B2B buyers click citations in AI Overviews to fact-check. Your content is the citation, or you do not exist. Conifer conifer.agency Sales conversation
26. One question, many searches When someone asks an AI a question, it does not run one search. It runs many concurrent ones. "best [category] suppliers UK" "[product] manufacturers UK" The buyer’s question "[trade body] member companies" "[application] equipment suppliers" "bulk [process] handling UK" "[specialism] specialists" Each subquery is a topic you could own. 68% of AI Overview queries have fewer than 100 monthly searches, which is exactly where the long tail lives. Conifer conifer.agency
27. Trust is what earns AI citations. Factors that correlate with AI mentions, across ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews. Conifer Source: Ahrefs Brand Radar and Site Explorer
28. The authority ladder Three layers that compound. Miss one and you limit the others. 3 Earn external mentions Digital PR. Trade press. Forum participation. Expert commentary. Third-party citations. The multiplier that on-site work cannot replicate. 2 Publish clear, expert content Answer every question your customer has, honestly. Topic clusters, E-E-A-T signals, People Also Ask, technical guides, case studies. 1 Conifer Technical foundations Clean architecture. One H1, logical H2s. Schema for discoverability. Fast, mobile-ready, crawlable JS independent.. conifer.agency
29. Stop catering to technology. Cater to humans. Conifer conifer.agency 24
30. Thank you Dan McCartney - Founder, Conifer conifer.agency dan@conifer.agency linkedin.com/in/mccartneydaniel/