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AI Is Eating the Resume Business: A $1.2 Million Career on the Brink

AI cut Richard Lambert's seven-figure résumé business as clients try "good enough" tools. Sell voice, strategy, risk reduction, and outcomes to stay paid.

Categorized in: AI News Writers
Published on: Sep 20, 2025
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AI Is Eating the Resume Business: A $1.2 Million Career on the Brink

Writers vs. AI: What Richard Lambert's Income Drop Signals for Your Career

Richard Lambert built a seven-figure résumé-writing business, earning $1.2 million in 2024. Then AI cut his monthly revenue by about a third as clients shifted to quick, low-cost tools for basic applications.

His story isn't an outlier. It's a warning shot for every writer who sells premium customization and speed without a clearer edge.

The Market Shift: Faster Tools, Thinner Margins

Clients are testing tools like ChatGPT for "good enough" first drafts. That pushes writers into a crowded middle where price pressure is constant and differentiation is weak.

Meanwhile, companies are spending heavily on AI infrastructure, but big productivity gains aren't evenly showing up yet. The gap creates a messy transition: local displacement (like résumé services) without broad windfalls to absorb the shock.

What This Means for Writers

  • Basic drafting is now a commodity. Voice, judgment, and outcomes are the new premium.
  • Your edge is no longer "I write well." It's "I reduce risk and increase results."
  • Buyers want speed and proof. Package both.

Where the Risks Are Growing

Analysts are sounding alarms about knowledge work exposure. Creative fields are already feeling income pressure as AI produces passable content at scale.

If your offer is execution-only (words on a page), your rate will be challenged. If your offer includes strategy, positioning, and measurable outcomes, you're insulated.

Build an Offer AI Can't Replace

Shift from "Writing" to "Writing + Advantage"

  • Positioning Systems: Turn fuzzy client value into a clear message stack (audience, pain, promise, proof, personality).
  • Voice Architecture: Create a reusable voice guide (syntax, diction, tone sliders, forbidden phrases). AI helps draft; you certify the human signal.
  • Outcome Design: Define success upfront (response rate, interviews, conversions) and work backward into copy, assets, and follow-ups.
  • Risk Reduction: Fact-checking, bias reviews, compliance and ATS checks, privacy-safe process. AI drafts fast-your process prevents mistakes.

Productized Services That Sell Now

  • AI-Boosted Résumé Sprint (48 hours): Intake interview, AI draft, human rewrite, ATS audit, recruiter review loop.
  • Portfolio Story Kit: Case study structure, narrative arcs, proof assets, social snippets for distribution.
  • Interview Prep Lab: Simulated interviewer, objection handling, story bank creation.
  • Job-Search OS: Tracker, outreach scripts, follow-up cadences, KPI dashboard.

Pricing That Matches Value

  • Tiered packages: Draft-only, Draft + Strategy, Draft + Strategy + Outcomes support.
  • Performance add-ons: Bonuses tied to interviews scheduled, recruiter replies, or qualified leads generated.
  • Retainers: Ongoing optimization for active job hunts or content engines.

Workflows That Make You Unignorable

  • Prompt Library: Role-specific prompts, tone toggles, red-team checks for hallucinations and bias.
  • Verification Pass: Source verification, metrics checks, client approval gates.
  • Distribution Built-In: LinkedIn posts, outreach messages, email follow-ups-delivered with the core asset.
  • Proof Pack: Before/after samples, win rates, testimonials, recruiter feedback. Lead with receipts.

Where Policy and Industry Trends Fit

Music and media offer a preview: income compression without strong protections will continue. Writers should treat this as an operating constraint, not a temporary blip.

Debates about safety nets and income support are growing, but your best near-term hedge is to sell outcomes, not words, and to productize what you do better than a prompt.

One-Week Action Plan

  • Day 1: Define your ICP and problem. Write a one-sentence offer: "I help X achieve Y in Z days."
  • Day 2: Build your Voice Architecture template. Turn it into a client-facing deliverable.
  • Day 3: Create a 3-tier package with clear outcomes and timelines.
  • Day 4: Assemble your Proof Pack. Ask 3 past clients for specific metrics and recruiter quotes.
  • Day 5: Build an intake form and a 60-minute interview script that extracts assets AI can't guess.
  • Day 6: Draft your prompt library and verification checklist. Bake them into your proposal.
  • Day 7: Publish one case study and one offer post. Send 20 targeted outreach messages.

If You're Considering a Pivot

  • AI Implementation for Agencies: Build prompt systems, QA gates, and voice guides for teams.
  • Editorial Ops: Automate briefs, outlines, and first drafts; you own the standards and the edits.
  • Talent Services: Résumé/portfolio + outreach system + interview coaching under one umbrella.

Helpful Resources

The takeaway: AI will keep eating the easy work. Writers who package voice, strategy, and measurable outcomes will keep winning-even as the baseline gets cheaper.