Holger Volland on AI, Content Splitting, and Visualizing Desired Futures

Holger Volland, chairman of Brand eins Medien AG, discusses the splitting of the content market into synthetic utility content and human-made premium products in the "Fantasiemuskel" podcast. His childhood, shaped by a bookseller mother and an early programmer father, led him to study information science, focusing on how information becomes a commodity. This prepared him for digital disruptions in culture and publishing. The podcast, hosted by Friedrich von Borries and Alexander Doudkin, starts from a prediction that by 2026, 90% of online content will be AI-generated. Volland wrote the book "Overload" tracing the flawed origins of this prediction while acknowledging impending major changes. He foresees a clear differentiation: cheap, quickly available AI-generated "utility content" (like elevator music) versus valuable, intensive human experiences (live concerts or carefully crafted stories). Volland advises training one's "transformation muscle" rather than the imagination muscle, recommending visualizing desired futures to maintain openness to change amid technological and economic acceleration.