By Ben Knapp, Executive Director, Labs at Saffron Brand Consultants / Vicky Bullen, CEO at Coley Porter Bell / Ivan Mato, Executive Creative Director at Elmwood Brand Consultancy / Luke Bliss, Managing Partner PR & Creative, Fuse
As brands hurtle toward 2026, AI is reshaping everything from content production to customer journeys. However, amid the acceleration, one truth is becoming impossible to ignore: technology can scale creativity, but it can’t substitute for it. Distinctiveness, emotional resonance and cultural relevance – the foundations of strong branding – still rely on human judgment, lived experience and a point of view no model can fully replicate.
To explore where AI enhances branding and where it risks homogenising it, leaders have shared their perspectives on why brand identity still needs a human core, how small and mid-size businesses can use AI intelligently, and where over-reliance on automation can dampen originality rather than amplify it.
From empathy that can’t be synthesised to the creative gaps machines can’t yet cross, these experts chart the path for brands determined to stay compelling, and unmistakably human, in an AI-saturated landscape.
Ben Knapp, Executive Director, Labs at Saffron Brand Consultants
AI can produce content at scale, but it can’t decide what a brand should mean to people – that requires human judgment about values, culture, and the messy emotional truths that create genuine connection.
The risk isn’t that AI-generated content looks robotic (it often doesn’t). It’s that brands start sounding alike. When everyone’s drawing from the same models trained on the same data, distinctiveness evaporates. You get competent beige.
For small and mid-size businesses, the smartest approach is using AI for efficiency on execution – first drafts, variations, scheduling – while protecting the upstream decisions: who are we, what do we believe, why should anyone care? Those answers should come from humans who understand your specific customers, context, and competitive reality.
The real pitfall is outsourcing brand thinking, not brand tasks. AI can help you say things faster. It can’t tell you what’s worth saying.
Vicky Bullen, CEO at Coley Porter Bell
It all comes down to distinctiveness – brands live and die by their ability to grab attention and hold it. Brands first need to unearth the human truth, which will make them relevant and compelling. AI might be able to help with this, but then they need to have an idea at their heart to communicate that which is unexpected and unordinary.
This needs to be unordinary enough to stop people scrolling. To be memorable and sticky. Unordinary enough to create distinction. Over-reliance on AI means brands risk saying the same thing as the other brand, simply because the same prompts have been used. AI should be used to do research, provide stimulus, create prototypes and generate versions. But to be truly distinctive, brand owners also need the blend of human creativity and strategy that will help them get to an unordinary idea.
Ivan Mato, Elmwood
Why human touch is still important for building compelling & authentic brand connections?
Empathy can’t be synthesised.
AI can analyse sentiment, but it can’t truly understand what it feels like to be overwhelmed by choice, anxious about money, or delighted by an unexpected moment of connection.
Brands are built on understanding the messy, contradictory reality of human experience: the context, the cultural nuance, the tone-deafness that only someone who’s lived it can spot.
Synthetic personas are exactly that: synthetic. They’re data patterns, not people. Only humans know what it feels like to receive bad news on your birthday, to celebrate a small win after a terrible week, or to need comfort food at 2am.
That lived experience is what creates authentic brand connections. Building brands with real impact requires seeing clearly enough to understand what people truly need. AI can help us work faster, but it can’t feel what our customers feel. And if you can’t feel it, you can’t truly connect with it.
Tips on how small/mid-size businesses can incorporate AI effectively while retaining their unique identity?
Think of AI in two distinct ways.
First, Utility: Use AI to support the work humans already do – automating repetitive tasks, speeding up production, increasing efficiency. Let your team focus on strategy and creativity while AI handles the grunt work.
Second, Creativity: Use AI to augment human imagination, not replace it. Experiment boldly, explore new possibilities, democratize innovation across your team.
AI lets a small business test ideas that were previously too expensive or time-consuming. But here’s the key: AI should amplify your unique perspective, not generate it. Your brand identity comes from your values, your story, your understanding of your customers. Breakthroughs don’t happen by accident – they require intent. Use AI as a tool to express that identity more effectively and explore it more deeply – but never let it define who you are.
The pitfalls of relying too much on AI for branding and brand messages?
We’re drowning in AI slop – endless, forgettable, algorithmically-generated content that all looks and sounds the same.
Here’s the paradox: when everyone can generate personalized content at scale, personalization stops being a competitive advantage.
What stands out now? Big, bold, culturally distinctive ideas that create shared experiences. AI can only remix what’s come before – it’s fundamentally backward-looking.
Without human intervention, your AI-generated marketing is just a sophisticated echo of everything that already exists. The real danger isn’t that AI will replace human creativity; it’s that brands will settle for “good enough” AI content and lose what made them distinctive in the first place. Brands that shape the future rather than follow it need to see clearly enough to lead with conviction. In a sea of AI-generated sameness, the brands that win will be the ones brave enough to be genuinely different, culturally relevant, and unmistakably human.
Luke Bliss, Managing Partner PR & Creative, Fuse
AI is doing more and more of the grunt work, but it’s clear human overlay has become more critical. AI can be used for a number of purposes now in PR: spotting trending stories and news angles, tracking and reporting on coverage, drafting pitches for journalists, curating the perfect media list and coming up with creative solutions (dare I say it). But it does create a sea of sameness. So, once the grunt work has been done, there’s a human need to tweak, improve and create, so your work stands out. AI will continue to accelerate the way working practices change in PR, but it comes with a health warning.
