VOL.98/2026.09

 

AI Reshapes the Reading Landscape

From technology to everyday language

 

2025.10.02

 

A “quiet revolution” in our bookshelves

 

According to statistics from the online bookstore Aladin, out of roughly 65,000 new titles published in a single year, no fewer than 2,027 carried the keyword “artificial intelligence (AI).” Even more striking is the pace: of the 5,719 AI-related books registered with Aladin to date, fully 35.4%, more than one-third, were released in just this past year. This is no mere trend, but a market-shaking “explosion.” This surge is fundamentally unlike the period before ChatGPT. In the past, the AI section was filled with specialist texts on machine learning and deep learning for developers; now it has been taken over by practical guides and business strategy titles targeting professionals, creators, and small-business owners. The tidal surge of AI has at last broken free of specialist domains and swept into everyday life.

 

 

Two seismic waves mark the turning points of this change. The first arrived in November 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT. Reaching 100 million users in just two months, this astonishing tool pulled AI out of research labs and onto everyone’s screens. In the face of this first wave, the market was swiftly reorganized by practical books on the usage of ChatGPT, opening the curtain on AI’s mass adoption. The second wave struck in 2024 with even greater force. It has become natural for people to use AI for drawing illustrations, editing videos, or drafting business plans. Beyond simple curiosity, people began to recognize AI as a “tool for addressing the problems of their work and daily lives.”
This trend has brought significant changes to the city market as well. Readers now seek specific answers on how to integrate advanced technologies such as “AI agents,” “multimodal AI,” and “retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)” into their own work and creative practices. No longer content with merely being “users,” they aspire to become “designers” who can build and train their own AI systems. This desire has opened the next chapter in the AI book market.

 

 

What sparked the “big bang” of AI books?

 

So, what has powered such a dramatic shift? It can be summarized from four angles. First, AI has transformed from “novelty technology” to “capable colleague.” AI has ceased to be something exceptional and has become a natural part of everyday life. Tasks like meeting-note summaries, draft reports, and image generation now sit alongside Excel and PowerPoint as standard tools of knowledge work. With AI now embedded in everyday work infrastructure, a massive wave of “let me try it, too” has been propelling the market for related books.
Second, the grammar of creation is shifting toward being “AI-native.” From planning through production to distribution, AI now pulses through every vein of the content industry. Keywords like “short-form video production” and “ad copy generation” appear on book covers as a matter of course. Readers now flock not to books that merely list functions, but to those that map the entire creative process, the “A to Z of making,” through AI.
Third, bookstores themselves are serving as “megaphones” for AI books. Dedicated sections for AI titles and promotional displays at major bookstores act as powerful marketing engines themselves. Where readers’ eyes linger, books sell; what sells, inspires more titles. This is the very “economics of curated promotions,” where supply creates demand and demand in turn stimulates further supply, convincing readers that the world is filled with nothing but talk of AI.
Last but not least, AI education has shifted from “optional” to “essential.” As AI literacy and prompt engineering entered corporate and academic curricula, a stable market for “textbooks” has emerged. Unlike short-lived fads, this demand is institutionally rooted. The AI book market thus spans a layered ecosystem, from “light introductions” to “weighty course materials.”

 

How to find “true gems” in the deluge of AI titles

 

With so many AI titles pouring forth, how can readers avoid losing their way? I recommend choosing AI books according to the following three principles. First, set a “goal” rather than a “tool.” Instead of vague curiosity, such as “Well, because AI is all the rage these days,” define a specific problem you need to solve, for example, “I want to cut campaign planning time by 30%.” A book that provides a clear workflow and measurable indicators for solving that problem will be the true solution that saves your time.
Second, focus on the “essence” rather than knowledge with a short shelf life. The specific functions of AI may change overnight, but the core principles of problem-solving do not change easily. What you should learn from books is not the ever-shifting location of buttons, but solid “frameworks” that endure over time, such as problem definition, results evaluation, and organizational application. One should note that books carry wisdom that endures.
Third, choose books that prove out the “process” rather than merely showing the “results.” A book that stops at “Look at this amazing image I made with AI” is difficult to apply to your work. What we are really curious about is the story behind it: “What idea did you start with? How did you solve the problem after dozens of failures? And as a result, how much did you reduce the cost?” The commands, that is, the prompts, needed to obtain proper outcomes are what truly matter. Only books that contain the “language of the field” through concrete results and trial and error can fulfill not only the ability to use AI, but also real, practical needs.

 

It is time to ask the question

 

Let us return to the number mentioned earlier: over the past year, the keyword “AI” appeared 2,027 times among new releases. This figure goes beyond a passing fad and poses an important question to us: “Amid countless possibilities, what will we choose, and how will we put them to use?” AI has moved past the stage of proving “what it can do” to asking us, “so what will YOU do?” In a rapidly changing world, the only way not to lose your way is to equip yourself not with piecemeal features, but with an unwavering personal “architecture and context.” May the AI book on your shelf serve as a fine compass for that journey.

 

 

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Written by Kai Song (Editor-in-chief at Hanbit Media)