The AI Effect
Graphic by: Kelli Binnings, Source: Adobe Stock AI Generated Image, Credit: Mizwar. Prompt: Serene woman engaged in a mindful skincare ritual, gently dispensing a liquid into a glass bottle, creating an elegant visual for a beauty product mockup or wellness campaign.
I’ve been silently watching AI creep into every corner of our businesses, from operations and tech development to content ideation, creative thinking, and creative output.
As a business owner, I completely understand the appeal of cutting both time and costs, those tangible, measurable qualities that increase profit and productivity by eliminating busywork and creating efficiencies. However, it’s the intangibles, the meaningful, emotionally inspired moments resulting from pure “creative thinking” that are now being roped into AI, and that’s got me a little worried for the future of brand appeal.
A major part of being human lies in our ability to create unique outcomes based on our individual experiences and years of expertise. If we all start pulling from the same pool, we lose our edge, what makes us different, and our magic. Instead of sketches and blank pieces of paper, we’re becoming prompt wizards and machine personal trainers.
The effect AI has on this intangible value is spreading, causing audiences to emotionally disconnect and doubt whether what they see, read, or hear is real.
AI is doing exactly what it was designed and built to do. It’s consolidating, optimizing, automating, and producing at scale things that would ordinarily require a high level of skill, time, and money, or simply be humanly impossible in terms of research and summation. So again, I say I get the appeal. It’s a powerful tool, but it’s in how we use it.
Without moderation or intention, the content we create fails to resonate, creating a wake of confusion and misalignment, which don’t convert.
The more that brands rely on AI to speak for them, the harder it becomes for consumers to emotionally bond during brand interactions. For instance, areas of a business that were highly human, like customer service, advertising and marketing creative, story narrative, and educational articles, now offer a very different experience.
People want real where and when it matters most. This growing disconnect between what people see and how they feel about what they read, scroll through, and observe is creating hesitation where trust once lived. They’re asking themselves, “Did a human write this? Is that person real? Is that really their voice? Are those results really possible? All valid and very real questions. These questions didn’t exist before, making audiences more attuned to these previously subconscious micro-decision-making moments and, well, creating more opportunity for them to pass over anything that feels like noise.
AI is becoming the “Ozempic” of productivity because of its “quick fix, results-focused” output; remove the heavy-lifting, trim the fat, with the promise of content now without the effort.
But like everything, it comes with tradeoffs. Content may come, but your audience may not “feel” you in it, making it hard to rely on.
I think all this has caused people to grow tired of questioning what’s authentic, and to adopt and refine their internal filter for what’s real. They want to believe in the brands they follow and buy from, the leaders and teams that represent them, and the products and outcomes being promised. They want to see real faces, hear real stories, and feel like there is someone actually behind the scenes who gets them. They crave human nuance over machine-generated polish. Just raw, real, and relatable energy.
So how can brands get back in the game while keeping AI use in moderation and where it belongs? Isn’t life and business all about finding the right balance? Between quality and cost, time and effort, and risk and reward?
The answer is in experiential events. Intentionally crafted brand interactions that focus on a customer’s individual emotional response, strengthening the bond between brand and audience.
Experiential events invite audiences to fully immerse themselves in a brand, offering them a real-world experience they can engage with, believe in, and trust. The perception is rooted in an authentic moment, a valuable exchange, not a refined ideal they can’t fully grasp.
Brand psychology has shown me how deeply merged our identities, perceptions, and memories are with the brands and products we buy from. If we’re consistently showing our audiences ideals, impossible goals, or inauthentic content, we’re setting both the audience and our brands up for long-term disappointment. However, with experience-based brand interactions, we give them something to internalize, something unique to engage with and remember, strengthening the bond long-term.
So as you're making your year plans and setting quarterly goals, try working in some event-based experiences to really connect with your audience. Invite people into your brand. Offer them a unique opportunity to see and feel your personality. Don’t outsource and limit your creativity to an algorithm. Use AI to support your brilliance, not replace your voice, your ideas, or be the guide shaping your audience’s perception of your brand.
Subconscious or conscious, good or bad, people remember how you make them feel. Don’t make them question if what they feel is real.
Curious to know what you think? Email me to continue the conversation, or follow me on LinkedIn for more brand-building topics.
And if you’re looking for more ways you can drive influence and impact through your brand, download this quick read of an ebook, “Transforming Brand Perception: 7 Actions to Change the Way People See Your Brand.”
