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I don’t have any big New Year’s Resolutions for 2026. Most of my hopes & dreams are to keep scaling Future Social and How To Hoop Forever—feel like I’ve finally gotten the hang of both and see what they could be. Expect a lottttt of content this year on both fronts.
We’re gonna talk about the Head of Instagram’s biggest worries about Instagram in a moment, but first, how about a handy dandy report to help you actually start using AI to help you at work, because uh… I use AI every day, and it’s made me a 100x better marketer.
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I think the Head of Instagram is wrong about Instagram…
I’ve always loved how Adam Mosseri chats with us. The too-handsome Head Of Instagram published a long essay about the future of Instagram, mostly hitting his worries about AI content and where he thinks people, brands, and creators should creatively focus their efforts.
…but I actually think he’s wrong.
All of his concerns are valid! Every fear & focus he lists needs to be accounted for. But then he starts ripping highly-produced content, and suggests only raw content will win in the AI era, and… he just goes too far and to me, kinda misses the beauty of his own algorithm.
Keep reading for excerpts from his essay, why I’m balking, and my own suggestions for your Instagram future.
A Quick Summary of Mosseri’s Argument
Mosseri’s essay is essentially a meditation on trust.
A couple of concerning pulls:
“authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible.”
“Trust in institutions is at an all-time low. We’ve turned to self-captured content from creators we trust and admire.”
“We like to complain about “AI slop,” but there’s a lot of amazing AI content.”
But his proposed solution? Raw content, unproduced content, unflattering images… we’ll get into those quotes. But it’s a no for me.
The raw vs. polished debate is the wrong fight
My biggest issue with Mosseri’s framing is that it treats aesthetics as the primary driver of trust.
He says “flattering imagery is cheap to produce and boring to consume. People want content that feels real. Savvy creators are leaning into unproduced, unflattering images. In a world where everything can be perfected, imperfection becomes a signal.”
Sure, raw content has always worked on Instagram… but highly produced content works, too, and will continue to work.
We don’t trust content because it’s shaky, or dimly lit, or ~casual~ in feel. We trust content because it’s interesting, or useful, or funny, or emotionally resonant, or any other attractive quality within the content.
My fear is creators and brands will read Mosseri’s piece and start changing their creative style for fear of Big AI—that everyone’s gonna start making worse-looking content on purpose. Really, we should just keep doing what we’re doing.
Authenticity doesn’t create trust. Consistency does.
It wouldn’t be an essay about social media if we didn’t debate what authenticity does and doesn’t mean. A couple of selects from Mosseri on the topic:
“Authenticity is becoming a scarce resource, driving more demand for creator content, not less. The bar is shifting from “can you create?” to “can you make something that only you could create?”
“In a world of infinite abundance and infinite doubt, the creators who can maintain trust and signal authenticity—by being real, transparent, and consistent—will stand out.”
Ehhhh.
So, big agree on demand for creator content, and just human content in general.
But, and maybe this is a hot take… authenticity is not a sales point.
Mosseri suggests we’re moving into a world where we start from skepticism, and that authenticity signals will be the differentiator. I don’t think that’s the case. I think we’ll enjoy content for the same reasons we enjoy content now—it’s entertaining or educating us. And the creators we follow will be the ones who can entertain or educate us on a consistent basis, regardless if they’re “authentic” or not.
All that has ever mattered in social media, and all that will ever matter in social media, is if the creative idea is good, if the creative hook pulls you in, and if the video keeps you from scrolling away once you’re bought in.
But I am glad Mosseri’s thinking about this stuff.
I think most of the AI fears are overblown (minus deepfakes, that stuff is WILD). But it’s good that a tech leader is showing thoughtful concern about content saturation and how AI might flood our feeds.
You can read the entirety of Mosseri’s essay right here, and let me know on LinkedIn whatcha think of all this.