Quick answer: The Gary Vee warning at LevelUp 2026 in Dallas was this: technology is coming for every industry, AI is as big as electricity, and the only real protection is your brand. His advice: put out far more content, on every platform, in whatever format suits you, use AI to do it, stop blaming the algorithm, and start putting in the hours to learn AI properly now, while attention is still free.

I’m sitting in Dallas at LevelUp 2026 and we just got hit with the reality stick by Uncle Vee. Content has been responsible for around 80% of my business for well over a decade, and now AI is sending people to me directly. Here’s what he said, what it means for you, and why I’m about to post way more.

TL;DR

• Brand is the moat. When technology comes for your industry, your reputation, and whether people even know who you are, is the only thing that protects you.
• AI is electricity, not “the next internet”. Gary compared it to the invention of electricity. That’s the scale of change he expects.
• Volume is now required. His brand posts 600 to 900 pieces of content a day, and he wants to hit 10,000 a day by Q2 2027. AI means you won’t need a huge team to do the same.
• Pick the format that suits you. Don’t love the camera? Write. He called Substack his “favorite platform of underpriced attention right now”.
• There is no algorithm to blame. Social media shows people what they’ve shown interest in. If it isn’t working, the content needs work.
• Free reach won’t last forever. He believes free social media goes away when we move from phones to glasses.
• Your best year is your riskiest year. If business is good and you’ve been dragging your feet on AI, you’re the one he’s most worried about.
• What to do now: commit the hours to learning AI, build your brand at all costs, publish every day from your own material, and own your audience.

What’s in this post

1. The warning
2. Why I’m taking this personally
3. Warning 1: Technology is coming for you, and brand is the moat
4. Warning 2: AI is electricity, not another app
5. Warning 3: Volume of output is now a requirement
6. Warning 4: You don’t have to be on camera, but you do have to show up
7. Warning 5: There is no algorithm, there’s only merit
8. Warning 6: Free attention won’t last forever
9. Warning 7: Your best year is your most dangerous year
10. Warning 8: The threat isn’t big companies, it’s ambitious people with AI
11. The antidote: practical optimism and total accountability
12. What to do now: your 10-step plan
13. Copy-and-paste prompts to start today
14. FAQs

The warning

I’ve just walked out of Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynote at LevelUp 2026 in Dallas, and my head is spinning.

I was also a speaker at LevelUp 2026 this year, talking about running a 7-figure SaaS company with AI operations.

If you don’t know him, Gary Vee is an entrepreneur, investor and six-time New York Times best-selling author who has been preaching the power of content for more than 20 years. He took his family’s wine store online back in the 90s, and he’s been early on almost every big shift in attention since.

He opened by saying something that set the tone for the whole talk:

“I think that we are living in an unprecedented moment right this second.”

And then he spent 45 minutes explaining exactly why, and exactly what he thinks business owners need to do about it.

It wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t meant to be. Gary told the room he was saying it “from a place of love”, because he wanted us to get ahead of what’s coming. He also said that some of us would hear him, and a smaller percentage would actually do something about it.

I want to be in that smaller percentage. And I want you to be in it with me.

So here’s my breakdown of his key warnings, what each one means for you in plain terms, what I’ve seen in my own business, and what to do about it this week.

Why I’m taking this personally

Here’s my truth.

Content has been responsible for around 80% of my business for well over a decade. Blog posts, videos, social posts, books, free workshops, talks. Almost every client, student and opportunity I’ve ever had can be traced back to something I created and put out into the world. I’ve been in business for more than 20 years, and I’ve been creating educational content online (blogging, LinkedIn and then YouTube) since around 2011.

I’ve posted pretty much every day since around 2019.

And now something new is happening. AI is sending people to me directly. People are asking ChatGPT and other AI tools who can help them, and those tools are naming me, because there are years and years of my original material online for them to find, read and trust.

That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because I kept showing up, every single day, long before it was obvious that it mattered.

I also know what it feels like when technology comes for you. In 2022, when ChatGPT came out, I lost my curriculum development career practically overnight, after almost 20 years in a highly qualified profession. I wrote about that whole experience in What to do if AI is threatening your work. I had no choice but to embrace AI and teach people how to use it to do the job I used to do for them.

So when Gary stood up and said technology is coming for you, I didn’t hear a prediction. I heard my own story.

Sitting in that room, I felt very inspired to take advantage of what I can only describe as the last advantage we have to dominate in our niche before the world changes forever.

So I’ll be doing way more. More posts, more articles, more videos, in more places. And I’m going to show you how I’m doing it, so you can too.

Warning 1: Technology is coming for you, and brand is the moat

Gary told a story from years ago. He had just invested in Uber, and he was giving a keynote to the National Taxi and Limousine Association in Washington DC. He told them, honestly, that they needed to be worried about this new thing.

In the Q&A, a man from New York stood up and said:

“Gary, you are so naive.”

His argument was that he’d been doing business in New York for 40 years. He had the taxi medallions. He had the relationships with City Hall. Nothing was going to touch him.

You already know how that story ended.

Gary’s point was this:

“Your reputation, how people think of you, and do people even know who you are, is the only defense mechanism to when technology comes for you, and let there be no confusion. Technology is coming for you.”

He called brand “the moat” and later said it again:

“The only thing that’s defensible when technology comes along at scale is brand.”

What this means for you

The cab owners thought their protection was their licences, their contacts and their history. It wasn’t. Their protection would have been customers who loved them so much they wouldn’t switch.

Your qualifications, your years in business and the way things have always been done in your industry won’t protect you on their own. What protects you is:

• People knowing who you are
• People trusting you
• People choosing you on purpose, even when a cheaper or faster option exists

That’s brand. And you build it by being visible, being useful and being consistent.

What I’ve seen

My brand has carried me through every shift so far, including AI wiping out the service I used to sell. When I pivoted, I didn’t start from zero. I had an audience who already knew me and trusted me to teach them. That is the moat Gary was talking about.

Warning 2: AI is electricity, not another app

Gary has lived through the arrival of the internet, mobile, social media and blockchain. He was very clear that AI isn’t just the next item on that list:

“This isn’t the internet. This isn’t mobile. This isn’t social. This isn’t blockchain. This AI thing is electricity.”

He asked the room to imagine the world before electricity. Every job, every home, every business, every industry changed.

What this means for you

If AI really is that big, then “I’ll look into it later” is not a strategy. You wouldn’t run a business today without electricity. Within a few years, running one without AI will feel just as strange.

This doesn’t mean you need to panic. It means you need to start treating AI as part of how your business runs, not as a fun extra you play with when you have time.

What I’ve seen

AI now does a huge amount of the work in my business. My AI agents help me draft emails, manage my ads, edit my course videos and turn my talks into articles. I shared exactly how in 20 Human Jobs That AI Did for Me This Week and How to Turn AI Into a Real Business Team. Two years ago I couldn’t have imagined it. Now I couldn’t imagine running my business without it.

Warning 3: Volume of output is now a requirement

This was the part of the talk that made the room go quiet.

“I’m sorry. I wish it wasn’t like this, but volume of output is a requirement to compete in the competition for attention.”

Gary shared that his brand posts somewhere between 600 and 900 pieces of content a day, across 10 platforms and about 100 different accounts. He has a 30-person internal team plus a full AI setup. And then he said:

“I am hoping to post 10,000 pieces of content a day in Q2 of 2027.”

Here’s the bit every small business owner needs to hear. He said the money he spends on that team used to be his advantage over you:

“That money used to be my advantage against you. Now it’s not.”

Because AI means you won’t need a big team to produce at that kind of volume.

But he balanced it with something just as important. He opened his talk by saying:

“Reverse engineering value is disproportionately the way people build something meaningful.”

He even shared a business idea he never built: a social network that only lets you post once a day, because:

“…if humans were forced to only post one thing a day, it would force us to post something meaningful.”

What this means for you

Volume matters, but volume of rubbish doesn’t. Gary’s message wasn’t “spam the internet”. It was “make far more useful things, for far more places, and ask what’s in it for the person watching or reading”.

If you’re posting once a week, you are competing against people (and soon AI influencers, which Gary also warned about) who are posting many times a day. You don’t have to match Gary. But you probably need to do a lot more than you’re doing now.

The good news is you don’t need a 30-person team. You need your own original material and an AI that can turn it into many formats.

What I’ve seen

Posting daily since around 2019 is what built the body of work that AI now reads and recommends. Every post is another way for a person, or an AI, to find me. Every one of those posts came from my own experience, my own stories and my own teaching, which is why it works.

Warning 4: You don’t have to be on camera, but you do have to show up

Gary was surprisingly gentle here. He said that through his years of pushing people to post more, he learned that people are “incredibly insecure”, and he wanted to be empathetic about that.

“There is no primary form of content that is dominant.”

Video isn’t the only option. If you’re a good writer and you’re not keen on the camera, write. In fact:

“My favorite platform of underpriced attention right now is Substack, and that, my friends, is a writing platform.”

He also mentioned Beehiiv for writers. And he shared that, despite being a six-time best-selling author, he doesn’t actually type his books:

“I can talk, and talking can be turned into written form.”

He used to have two full-time writers turn his audio notes into words. His comment on that now:

“Now AI can do that in 30 seconds.”

And it works the other way too. Write something on Substack or LinkedIn that does well, then use AI to turn it into an audio piece, and then into a video with supporting visuals.

What this means for you

Stop using “I don’t like being on camera” as the reason you’re invisible. Pick the format that suits you:

• Love talking? Record voice notes or videos, then have AI turn them into articles and posts.
• Love writing? Write, then have AI turn your words into audio, carousels and short videos.
• Love teaching? Run a workshop or webinar, then turn the recording into a whole month of content. I explained how in How to Turn a Webinar or Video Into a Lead Magnet in Minutes.

One idea, many formats, many platforms. That’s how you get volume without losing yourself.

What I’m doing

This blog post is a great example. I used AI to help me write it, working from my own original material: my notes, my story and the transcript of Gary’s keynote. From here, it becomes a LinkedIn article, a Substack article, social posts and an email, all from one source. I’m now putting my articles on LinkedIn and Substack too, because that’s exactly the underpriced attention Gary was talking about.

If fear of being seen is what’s holding you back, read Why Fear of Looking Silly Is Holding Back Your Business Growth.

Warning 5: There is no algorithm, there’s only merit

This is where Gary got blunt.

“We are entering the greatest era of merit and opportunity that the world has ever seen.”

He explained that anyone, at very low cost, can now compete with anyone. The problem, he said, is that we don’t like merit. When someone posts 30 times, it doesn’t work, and they decide they’ve been shadow banned, he had this to say:

“If you’ve tried social media and it is not crushed for your business, it doesn’t mean that social media doesn’t work. It means you suck at social media.”

And then:

“There is no algorithm.”

He explained that the “algorithm” is simply written to show people the things they’ve shown the platform they’re interested in. He even showed how he retrained his own feed by tapping “Not interested” a few times and searching for the topics he actually wanted to see.

What this means for you

This is tough love, but it’s freeing. If your content isn’t working, that’s not a conspiracy. It’s feedback. And feedback is something you can act on.

• Look at what has worked for you before and do more of it
• Make the first line or first three seconds about the reader, not about you
• Teach something useful in every post
• Keep going long enough to actually get good

What I’ve seen

Not every post is going to land, and that’s normal. Posting every day for years has taught me that the answer to a post that doesn’t work is another, better post, not a complaint about the algorithm. Real stories and practical teaching are what make content stick, which I explain in How Your Personal Stories Make Your Content More Powerful and Memorable.

Warning 6: Free attention won’t last forever

This one hit me hardest, because it’s the reason I’m about to post so much more.

Gary pointed out that for the last 20 years you’ve been able to reach the entire world for free. You can run ads to amplify, but you don’t have to. Then he said:

“It’s free, and it’s going to go away.”

He believes that when we move from phones to glasses as our main device, free social media as we know it will no longer exist. And until then:

“This is the biggest opportunity for individual humans in the history of the world.”

What this means for you

Right now you can reach your ideal customers without paying a cent for the attention. That’s an incredible gift, and it has a shelf life. Nobody knows exactly when it ends, but if Gary’s right, the business owners who build their audience now will be the ones who still have one later.

That’s why I called it the last advantage. Use it while it’s here.

It’s also why you need to own your audience. Social platforms can change the rules overnight. Your email list and your website are yours. Every post should be pointing people somewhere you control.

What I’m doing

I’m turning up the volume across every platform, and I’m making sure my website is easy for AI tools to find and recommend. If you want to do the same, start with How to Get ChatGPT to Recommend You as the Expert and Why Blogging, SEO, AEO and AI Search Matter More Than Ever.

Warning 7: Your best year is your most dangerous year

Gary asked everyone having the best financial year of their career to raise their hand. Plenty of people did. He told them to be proud. And then he said:

“The hands that are up are actually the ones I’m most worried about.”

His reasoning was simple. When things are going well, it’s easy to get comfortable and ignore what’s coming. He said the real reason many people are down on AI isn’t the reasons they give. It’s that they don’t want to put in the work:

“…you do not want to put in the 500 hours to 1,000 hours of research and learning and doing…”

He asked for at least 100 hours of research from the people who’ve been dragging their feet. And he was very clear about what doesn’t count:

“If you’re using ChatGPT or Claude instead of using Google search and that’s all you do, you’re not into AI.”

He also said that self-awareness and humility are what make all of this possible:

“Self awareness is the most important thing.”

And then, perhaps the line of the day:

“If you’re not all in on AI right now, you’ve become your grandma.”

What this means for you

If business is good right now, that’s brilliant. It’s also exactly when you have the money, time and headspace to learn what’s next. Don’t wait until it’s not good anymore.

Typing questions into ChatGPT is a start, but it isn’t the finish line. Being “into AI” means connecting it to your tools, giving it your own material, and having it actually do work in your business.

What I’ve seen

When ChatGPT arrived and wiped out my curriculum work, I didn’t get a warning. If you’re reading this, you are getting one. That’s a privilege. Use it. If you’re feeling the grief of that change already, AI Is Replacing Jobs… So Stop Clinging to Your Old Identity is for you.

Warning 8: The threat isn’t big companies, it’s ambitious people with AI

Most people worry about big corporations using AI to replace staff. Gary said that’s not the real threat to business owners:

“It’s about entrepreneurs that are going to weaponize AI that are going to take their business.”

He described himself as exactly that kind of problem: someone with ambition, resources and thousands of AI agents, going after industries like real estate, SaaS and insurance. And he said what anyone in that position would say: this is competition.

His instruction for the next few years was direct:

“You must AI out everything. You must social media out everything. You must build your brand at all costs.”

And if you’d rather not be the face of your business, that’s fine, but you still need a brand:

“There’s Beyonce and there’s Nike. You can pick which one you want, but you need to pick one.”

What this means for you

Your next competitor might not exist yet. It could be one person with a laptop and a team of AI agents who decides your industry looks interesting. The best defence is to be that person in your own niche first.

You don’t have to be Beyonce. You can be Nike. But either way, people need to know your name and what you stand for.

The antidote: practical optimism and total accountability

For all the warnings, Gary finished on a hopeful note. He summed up the whole talk in four words:

“This is practical optimism.”

He believes AI will make humans far more productive, and that the fear-based “hot takes” about it will look very different in hindsight. He reminded us that every big technology has had its bad side, but focusing only on that means missing the good.

And then he put the responsibility right back where it belongs:

“You’ve never been more empowered because of social media for free and AI at low costs than you are today.”

“If you win in the next decade, it will be on your own two feet, and if you lose in the next decade financially, it will be on your two feet.”

His final warning was about the people trying to frighten you:

“Pay very close attention to who’s trying to scare you.”

What this means for you

You can’t control what AI does to your industry. You can control whether you learn it, use it and build a brand that people choose. Nobody is coming to save you, and the good news is, as Gary put it, “You can help you.”

I’m with Gary on this. I’m not scared of AI. I’ve been hit by it, and I came out the other side teaching it. That’s what practical optimism looks like.

What to do now: your 10-step plan

Here’s how I’d turn Gary’s keynote into action, starting this week.

1. Book your learning hours. Put two hours a week in your calendar for AI learning and doing. That’s 100 hours in a year, the minimum Gary asked for. More if you can.
2. Go beyond chat. Connect your AI to at least one real tool in your business (email, calendar, CRM, website or social scheduler) and give it a real job to do.
3. Gather your original material. Your talks, workshop recordings, voice notes, old blogs, emails, books and stories. This is what makes your content yours and not AI slop.
4. Choose your main format. Talking, writing or teaching. Whatever you’ll actually keep doing.
5. Make one pillar piece a week. A video, a talk, a long article or a workshop.
6. Turn every pillar into many pieces. Use AI to turn it into an article, LinkedIn post, Substack post, short videos, carousels, an email and quotes.
7. Post every day. Start with one meaningful post a day on your main platform, then add platforms as your system gets easier.
8. Show up as a person. Share your story, your opinions and your lessons. Pick Beyonce or Nike, but pick one.
9. Own your audience. Every post should point somewhere you control, like your website, a lead magnet or your email list.
10. Get found by AI. Publish on your own website, answer real questions clearly, and keep publishing on your topic so AI tools can recommend you.

If you want a detailed walkthrough of steps 3 to 6, read How to Write AI-Optimised Blog Posts That Rank on Google and AI Search.

Copy-and-paste prompts to start today

Here are three prompts you can paste into GrokBot, Claude or ChatGPT. They work best when your AI already has your own material to draw from.

Prompt 1: Turn one talk into a week of content

Here is the transcript of a talk or video I recorded. Using only my own words, ideas and stories from this transcript, create: 1 long-form blog article with a “how to” headline about the reader, 1 LinkedIn article, 1 Substack post, 5 short social posts that each open with a problem my audience has, and 3 ideas for short videos. Keep my voice. Don’t invent facts, results or quotes. Flag anything you’re unsure about.

Prompt 2: Find your content gaps

Review my last 30 posts and blog articles. Tell me which topics got the most engagement, which questions my audience keeps asking that I haven’t answered properly, and give me 20 post ideas that would help AI tools and Google see me as the go-to person for [my topic].

Prompt 3: Your 100-hour AI learning plan

I run a [type of business]. Build me a 100-hour AI learning plan over the next 12 months, at 2 hours a week. Focus on AI that actually does work in my business, not just chat. Include which tools to connect first, what jobs to hand over, and how to check the quality before anything goes to a customer.

Want help doing all of this?

Everything I’ve talked about here, building your brand, creating content from your own material, getting AI to do the heavy lifting and getting found by AI search, is what I teach inside the Legends Lab, my business education program for experts who want to be known.

Inside, you get the step-by-step how-to, live calls where you can bring your questions, every prompt I use, and my GrokBot Masterclass and Claude CoWork Masterclass. They all come included in the Legends Lab.

Join the Legends Lab

Gary said some of us would hear him and a smaller percentage would actually do something about it. Let’s be the ones who do.

Sarah x

Read next

• 12 Things Every Business Owner Must Know in 2026 (from Ryan Deiss)
• What to do if AI is threatening your work
• How to Get ChatGPT to Recommend You as the Expert
• Why Blogging, SEO, AEO and AI Search Matter More Than Ever
• How to Turn AI Into a Real Business Team
• How Your Personal Stories Make Your Content More Powerful and Memorable

FAQs

What did Gary Vee warn business owners about at LevelUp 2026?

Gary Vaynerchuk warned that technology, and AI in particular, is coming for every industry, that AI is as big a shift as electricity, and that your brand and reputation are the only real protection. He urged business owners to produce far more content, use AI to do it, stop blaming the algorithm and put in the hours to learn AI properly.

What does Gary Vee mean by ‘brand is the moat’?

He means that when new technology disrupts an industry, licences, contacts and history won’t protect you. What protects you is people knowing who you are, trusting you and choosing you on purpose. He used the taxi industry and Uber as his example.

How much content does Gary Vee post a day?

At LevelUp 2026 he said his brand posts somewhere between 600 and 900 pieces of content a day across 10 platforms and about 100 accounts, and that he hopes to post 10,000 a day by Q2 2027 using AI.

Do I have to be on video to build a brand?

No. Gary said there is no single dominant form of content. If you prefer writing, write, for example on Substack or LinkedIn. If you prefer talking, record voice notes or videos and have AI turn them into written posts and articles.

How many hours should I spend learning AI?

Gary asked business owners who have been dragging their feet to put in at least 100 hours of research, and said real competitiveness takes 500 to 1,000 hours of learning and doing. Booking two hours a week gets you to 100 hours in a year.

How can I start creating more content without burning out?

Create one pillar piece a week from your own material, such as a talk, workshop or long article, then use AI to turn it into an article, social posts, short videos and an email. Post one meaningful piece a day and add platforms as your system gets easier.

A note on the quotes: all quotes from Gary Vaynerchuk are taken from the recording of his keynote at LevelUp 2026 in Dallas on 29 October 2026, with filler words lightly removed. I used AI to help me write this article, working from my own notes, my own story and that transcript.