LinkedIn has become a factory for AI slop, with 81 per cent of long posts in July likely AI-generated, according to Originality AI. Startups offer AI-powered post generators, and offshore Filipino virtual assistants are paid $7 an hour to feed prompts into ChatGPT and post for western executives. This has led to "broetry"—generic writing riddled with clichés and line breaks.

Now, users yearn for human posts and pay a premium. AI is creating more ghostwriting jobs on LinkedIn. Toronto-based Tony Albrecht, who has nine ghostwriters serving about 40 US lawyers, says his business has more than doubled in the past year. A UK ghostwriter earns roughly £350 per LinkedIn post, typically interviewing CEOs for an hour to find a balance between divulging business operations and not exposing secrets.

Sakshi Agrawal, a LinkedIn ghostwriter from Nepal working for Indian founders, builds trust via monthly voice notes. The ghostwriting community in India is tight-knit. The profession has developed as a reaction to the influx of polished AI content. AI output is trained on other people's mediocre text, lacking unique perspective. Bernie Hogan of the Oxford Internet Institute says hiring a ghostwriter is rational when deliberating too much.