Building a brand with AI – How to (and how not to)

I’m only two minutes down the street when the first van passes by. Plain white, with a blue-green sticker on it. On the sticker? A brand name as generic as a Monday morning. And above that name, a visual in that oh-so-recognizable AI image generator style (cough, Dall-E), equally meaningless. Another electrician dreaming of a futuristic image, probably talked into it during a chat with the free version of ChatGPT. I won’t even get started on the print quality of that blown-up AI image. Building a brand with AI? Let’s just say I have my reservations.

Anyway, I’m not a fan of visual identities churned out by AI tools. But I get the temptation. It’s cheap, it’s fast, and the person you asked to do it was probably super positive about it. “Truly!” – that typical AI talk. I’m launching a startup myself. And yes, that comes with a lot of costs. With my background in branding and marketing, I’m naturally quicker to spend money on convincing packaging, sharp printwork, and a polished website. I can perfectly imagine that for many entrepreneurs, branding and marketing are somewhere near the bottom of the priority list. The promises of AI tools are alluring then: it’s super-fast, they always agree with you (because they’re not programmed to truly challenge you), and it’s practically free.

But the price you think you’re saving now, you’ll pay sooner or later.

Where’s the connection? Where’s the personality? Don’t get me wrong: I’m absolutely not anti-AI. I use it pretty much every hour of the day. But I’ve learned to work with it. The most important thing is the input you give these tools. Without that input, the output is bullshit and all cookie-cutter. Because a lot of people are asking, ‘How do I build a brand quickly?’, ‘Come up with a brand name for my new IT startup’,… You get the picture.

A brand must be unique, it must move people, and it must resonate. And those nuances are incredibly personal. That story comes from you. You have a mission in your head, and we need to get that across effectively. That’s precisely why they choose you, and not someone else.

Here, I’ll share a few tips on how you (don’t) build a brand with AI tools.

Building a brand quickly and cheaply with AI (But watch out for hidden costs)

AI tools seem ideal for startups and entrepreneurs looking to cut costs. Take content creation. With a single click, various tools transform your text into a polished presentation (often lacking depth). A new blog post? Check! These tools are handy for whipping up a first draft of stories. Analyzing a long document? They’re a whiz at it – at least, for a superficial scan. By using AI tools smartly, you can save costs in certain areas.

As a self-employed professional, I find it great for bouncing ideas, texts, drafts, and even a whole lot of embarrassing questions off AI tools (like ChatGPT or Gemini). By now, I know how to ask things. And that’s where many go wrong. The aim is to give the AI tool a clear assignment with a huge amount of context. The more context, the better. For example: ‘GPT, from now on, you’re an SEO optimization pro. I have a blog post ready about AI tools and branding. I want people to find this blog post for keywords X, Y, and Z. Can you fully optimize this blog post? Rewrite where necessary.’ Here, I clearly indicate the role I want the tool to play, the context, and what my desired result is.

And those extremely repetitive tasks? They’re great for those. Quickly modifying a column with 1000 URLs? That would take me manually at least a full day. Or processing large amounts of data? Ideal. Although I always try to limit the amount of data I share (like that column with 1000 URLs). Errors creep in very quickly if your batches are too large.

But anyway, I digress. What’s the real price of that speed and convenience when it comes to building brands?

The limits of a machine

My car can do 260 km/h (according to that little needle on my dashboard). That’s clear. I know what to expect. When I log into ChatGPT, there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that tells me what that tool can or can’t do. And certainly not where its limitations lie. We shouldn’t be too quick to be satisfied with that 2-millisecond output. Take everything you’re served with a grain of salt. Or rather, a massive salt crystal.

An AI tool can’t be truly creative. Yes, they’re trained on existing data, vast amounts of it even, but it’s still existing data. As a result, answers to similar questions will often be suspiciously alike. AI reproduces and combines. You can see it coming… ‘I’m an electrician. Come up with an original brand name and also create a logo for my van.’ Result? Cookie-cutter. All the same.

There’s no human spark. It’s not original. It doesn’t have groundbreaking ideas. That spark? That comes from you (or from your creative partner who gets you (hey!)). That’s where we can make the difference.

Emotion? That’s unprogrammed. An AI can use words that describe emotion, but it can’t feel it. Let alone convey it authentically. Your brand needs to touch people. If you can do that, those people will choose you. And recent research (like NIQ’s) confirms this: AI-generated ads activate our memory much more weakly than traditional ads, even if they look good at first glance. If your brain isn’t stimulated, why would you take action or remember the brand?

Building a brand or telling a story (what’s the difference anyway?) requires human analysis, empathy, and critical thinking. In-depth market or target audience research that uncovers the “why” behind the data? I would never entrust that to an AI tool. And that’s precisely my strength.

Your story demands your nuances. Because your brand story is personal. Rooted in your passion, experiences, and history. An AI tool misses that context, no matter how well you explain it. And it’s precisely those nuances that make your brand so unique. It’s the difference between a photo of a delicious burger and its actual taste. My job is to make your customers’ mouths water. To let them taste that flavor in their minds.

The rise of the cookie-cutter and the flight of authenticity

Scroll through your feed, check your inbox, or look around on the street (you might see that van again). Because everyone is using the same AI tools (and often asking the same context-free questions), all messages, visuals, and even brand voices are starting to look suspiciously alike. Pure cookie-cutter output.

And I see it everywhere. More and more these days. Those dreadful AI logos. Those flat, soulless, generic logos and images. Often paired with an equally uninspired brand name. This is anti-advertising. Besides, studies show that consumers intuitively recognize AI-generated ads and perceive them as less engaging, and even “annoying,” “boring,” or “confusing” than traditional ads. Low-quality visuals in AI creations also require more cognitive effort to process, distracting from your message and leaving a negative impression of your brand. This “negative brand halo” is exactly what you want to avoid. But maybe I’m biased. Or am I wrong?

In this sea of mediocrity, it becomes all the more important to swim ahead of the pack. And that’s exactly what your brand needs.

Humanity is worth gold

Precisely because everything is becoming more distant, people crave connection. Remember that lockdown? Well, we’re in something similar now. It feels like one of those futuristic or utopian movies where we’re sitting on the couch all day with our Apple Vision Pro, staring at AI-generated ads. Soon, nothing will truly stand out anymore.

But this is precisely the moment to fully leverage your unique (brand) personality, your story, your ‘why’. That’s an incredibly powerful weapon against this gray mass. Because people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And that ‘why’ is steeped in emotion. An AI tool can help you find words, but that emotional charge, that has to come from you.

And sooner or later, brands that lean too heavily on AI (or agencies that do) will be found out. People see through that façade. People choose authenticity, stories that resonate, and brands that make them feel understood.

The AI tool as brand assistant, never as architect

I don’t want to completely dismiss AI. That would be too shortsighted. Here’s a tip: Never (and I mean NEVER) let an AI tool ‘come up’ with the foundation of your brand. Your core values, your mission, your vision, your brand personality, your unique positioning… that’s all sacred. That’s human work, strategy, the soul of your brand. So never let an algorithm decide that.

So, what do I use AI tools for? For execution. After the strategy is nailed down. Think of drafts for content (blog, social media,…), outlines for web pages or presentations, data analysis (with human interpretation!). For example, AI can help reinforce existing, human-defined brand associations in communications. But even then, you need to be vigilant: if the overall perception of the AI-generated content is negative, as research suggests, this benefit can quickly be nullified. It remains a tool that requires thoughtful human guidance.

And yes, hiring a professional is more expensive than the free version of GPT. You pay for expertise, for creativity, for a partner who understands and strengthens your vision. But your brand is more than worth that investment.

Human intelligence, artificially enhanced. Not the other way around.

The future of branding is certainly not AI or human. It’s human and AI. Definitely. But the human is in the driver’s seat, not the other way around. AI can be a fantastic tool to work more efficiently, to lighten the load of tedious work. But it can never replace the strategic thinking, creative genius, emotional intelligence, and authentic passion needed to build a strong brand.

At Apex Pro Studio, I embrace technology without selling my soul – or your brand’s. I stand for brands with character, a story, a heart. Brands that truly connect.

Is your brand ready to look beyond the AI buzz and make an indelible impression? Then you know where to find me.