It was bound to happen sooner or later.
We had predicted it, we had prepared for it, we were waiting for it. Now, at last, the data confirm it too: depth is back in fashion.
Information overload and AI have created an unexpected scarcity: people who genuinely have something to say. Demonstrating depth has become more costly and more valuable than demonstrating presence.
Weber Shandwick has called this phenomenon Wisdom Flexing: in an ecosystem saturated with hot takes and answers generated in milliseconds, demonstrating cultural sophistication and depth of thought has become a status signal.
And in a world where AI can summarise any book in thirty seconds, points of view have become more important than ever.
Smart is the new trend
Economics applies perfectly to human thought.
Even language follows economic logic, so the principle holds here too: when something is abundant, its value falls. When it is scarce, it rises.
For decades, information was scarce: finding it required access, time and expertise. Today it is infinite and free. What has become scarce is interpretation: the ability to read events through an original perspective, built over time. Not generated on demand.
The new asset today is a small financial instrument (if you will allow me the term) that for years was not only ignored but ostracised: years of reading, experience and reflection.
Now that all this is missing, people look for it when choosing whom to pay attention to.
The paradox of the saturated market
Shandwick’s Wisdom Flexing comes in two forms.
The first is authentic: people with real expertise who write (perhaps on Substack) about what they know, and who are gradually building an audience based on the consistent quality of their thinking.
The second is performative: people who adopt the signals of depth without the substance, who quote books without reading them, who open LinkedIn with nothing to say.
Now, the market is saturated with both, and telling them apart has become the core skill of the contemporary reader.
In a context where everyone signals depth, real depth emerges through consistency over time and the specificity of one’s positions, not through publishing frequency or the sophistication of one’s Substack design.
The paradox is that a market saturated with hot takes has created an opportunity for those with something genuine to say. Visibility is built through presence. Credibility is built through substance. When everyone optimises for the former, those who hold the latter occupy an increasingly rare space.
New Connections (FAQ)
Does this trend apply only to knowledge professionals, or to commercial brands as well?
It applies to anyone who communicates in public. A brand that shows it truly understands its sector, its customers and the context in which it operates, through specific, reasoned positions rather than messages optimised for approval, builds a kind of trust that visual presence alone cannot produce. Wisdom Flexing as a cultural trend is the popular form of a principle that holds in any context: those who show they understand earn the attention of those who want to understand.
How do you tell a genuine expert from someone who signals expertise without having it?
Three signals. Specificity: those with real expertise write about precise things, with details that only direct experience produces. A willingness to be wrong: those who hold genuine positions defend them and update them; those who perform depth always stay vague. Consistency over time: a point of view is built over years, not weeks.
How do you build credible thought leadership in the age of artificial intelligence?
Credibility comes from a recognisable perspective, backed by experience, research and continuity. Publishing a lot of content or commenting on every development is not enough: you need to identify the topics on which the brand or the professional genuinely has something to add, and develop specific, verifiable and sometimes even controversial positions over time.
Bliss builds these territories through positioning, editorial strategy and the definition of a proprietary voice. Artificial intelligence can support research and production, but the point of view must remain human: that is what stops content from becoming interchangeable and turns expertise into a reputational asset.
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