Many Substack Publishers Are Using AI in Their Publications, According To Official Report

A recent Substack official report revealed that, although not quite the majority, many Substack publications are created with the assistance of AI.

The report was the result of a survey sent to about 2,000 Substack publications, with 21% of them being bestsellers (defined as having “at least 100 paid subscribers”).

The result is that while not the majority, 45.4% of publications surveyed used AI, with male publishers aged 45 years and over being more likely to adopt AI to help manage their publications.

Percentage of publishers using AI and by subscription revenue. Courtesy of On Substack (fair use)

Substack publications focusing on Technology, Business, and Finance are more likely to adopt AI, while creative industries such as literature are less likely to adopt AI, as shown in the infographic below:

Percentage of AI users in each category. Courtesy of On Substack (fair use)

Most AI users on Substack use AI “for knowledge work (research, writing assistance, ideation) rather than for content generation,” with the most common usage of content generation using AI being in the image generation category, at 41%. In addition, AI has helped many people with disabilities to create their content, and AI has also helped people to translate works from another language, as described in the report.

Most of the content generation users tend to be over 45 years old, as shown below:

Key differences in publisher AI use by age. Courtesy of On Substack (fair use)

Despite the AI use, not all publishers use AI to generate full articles. The report said that only a few publishers use AI to completely automate their publication, with very few publishers using it up to 100%.

Next is the tools used. ChatGPT rules the AI usage tools, at 77.8%, followed by Claude, at 28.2%. The report also noted that “[i]mage and video generation tools like Midjourney (8.1%), Runway ML (1.6%), and Lumen5 (1.1%) remain relatively niche,” with a special shout-out to the AI search engine Perplexity as a tool they use and love.”

Next are their opinions on how AI revolutionized their writing. Most AI users saw AI being a beneficial tool for their use (at 57.3%), while non-AI users don’t use it due to “ethical concerns.”

Finally, their opinion on the future of AI. AI users claim that AI would have a bright future and very beneficial, while non-AI users claim the opposite, as shown below:

How publishers on Substack expect AI to impact their work and careers over the next 5 years. Courtesy of On Substack (fair use)

What are your opinions on the use of AI on Substack? Leave a comment down below.

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