Distribution of Knowledge is Changing. Are We Ready?
- Patrick Beggs
- Jun 27
- 4 min read
I’m going to be straight with you: this month’s newsletter packs in more information than I usually share, but I think it’s important.
More importantly, I want to share it with you, the people who work hard to create knowledge, information, and research-backed insights. I don’t want the gap between the loudest and the smartest to widen as the next digital evolution unfolds.
So let’s talk about the distribution of knowledge. Of information. Of change.
Over the past month, I’ve been speaking with people across sectors, education, health, tech, mental health, care and the thread running through every one of those conversations is this:
How do we get the right knowledge into the right hands at the right time, have it land and be used?
It’s not a new question. But the urgency behind it feels different now.
Because the truth is: many organisations are still catching up. Not just to the latest wave of AI and automation. Many are still digesting the last disruption, platform algorithms, performance metrics, the rise of influencer culture, the collapse in institutional trust.
We design with care. We test. We launch. But what we’ve built often disappears into the scroll.
Then comes the question: Why didn’t it land?The Messy Middle
Somewhere along the line, distribution got treated as a postscript, something to tack on at the end.
But what I’m hearing again and again is that distribution needs to be part of the design process, not just the delivery process.
That messy middle moment, where the people you’re trying to reach could be co-creators, testers, messengers, is often where trust is built, relevance is shaped, and momentum begins.
“If people didn’t help shape it, they’re unlikely to carry it forward.”
This insight mirrors what the evidence tells us. In their landmark systematic review, Greenhalgh et al. (2004) found that an innovation “is more likely to be widely and successfully adopted if the developers or their agents are linked with potential users at the development stage in order to capture and incorporate the users’ perspective.”¹ Likewise, Fixsen et al. (2005) show that sustained implementation depends on early stakeholder involvement, supportive relationships, and shared values.² In other words: design with the people who will use it, and distribution begins long before launch."
Meanwhile, the Ground Is Shifting
We’re also entering a phase where the mechanics of distribution are changing dramatically.
Azeem Azhar warns that AI’s shift toward "zero-click search" is already reshaping how people encounter information. Azhar references key developments from Apple and Google that signal a shift in user interaction, where AI-generated responses bypass traditional search results entirely. But the good news is, this is a change is being felt by everyone and its only just beginning.
In this world:
The top result isn’t an ad. It’s a summary.
Google’s early AI Overviews cut organic clicks to leading publishers by up to 44 % in tested verticals.¹
Promptability replaces searchability.
According to Similarweb/SparkToro (2022), more than 65 % of Google searches in the US already end without a click, a trend accelerated by zero‑click formats.²
Chat‑style retrieval is accelerating.
A March 2024 Statista survey found 23 % of US adults now use an AI chatbot weekly to answer questions they once typed into a search bar.³
Structure, clarity, and machine legibility become prerequisites for visibility. If your content can’t be summarised accurately by a model—or if metadata is missing—it may never surface.
That changes the role of distribution entirely.
We’re not just designing for reach anymore. We’re designing for transmission. For what gets surfaced. For what survives.
What happens to nuance in a world of summaries? How do we help complexity travel through systems that are designed to flatten it?
These aren’t rhetorical. They’re design questions and distribution questions too.
What Might Be Next?
We don’t think the challenge is just “getting things seen” anymore.
We think it’s about getting things shaped in ways that matter, and that can move even inside a system increasingly run by AI prompts, feed logic, and attention scarcity.
This means:
Co-creation
Contextual thinking
Structuring information so it’s both human-readable and machine-legible
Four Elements of Distribution That Sticks
Clarity of message – If people don’t get it, they won’t share it.
Respect for context – What else is competing for their attention?
Trust in co-creation – Let people shape it. Let them own it.
Commitment to momentum – Distribution isn’t a launch. It’s a long game.
Final Thought
This isn’t a blueprint. It’s an observation.
We’re not just designing for impact anymore. We’re designing for transmission, for what survives the AI summary, the algorithmic feed, the fractured scroll.
To do that:
Start earlier.
Invite more people in.
Design the distribution alongside the content.
As Derek Thompson writes in Hit Makers, “People don’t just like what they know. They like what they recognise.” The trick, he says, is in the blend: make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar.
If we want our knowledge, ideas, and care to travel, we need to make sure they’re built for both memory and momentum.Onward, Patrick
