How should we update brand guidelines for AI?

A strong AI-ready brand guideline set starts with clear positioning, a distinctive brand voice and a stated intention for using AI. It should help teams create useful content at scale without confusing automation with intimacy, or producing generic content that sounds like every other B2B brand.

Guidance for revising brand guidelines to account for AI-driven change

AI brand guidelines should turn a clear brand strategy into practical direction for AI-assisted content. The core job is to protect positioning, voice, character and intention while teams use AI to create, adapt and personalise communications. A well-considered brand voice can shape better prompts and help content stay recognisable, useful and consistent at scale.

The important distinction is between using AI to understand people better and using it simply to process them more efficiently. Personalised experiences can feel relevant and human when they reflect genuine audience understanding. They become generic automation when they imitate one-to-one connection without the care, context or purpose behind it. Brand guidelines need to make that line clear.

Sources: The Prompt: Why brand matters more than ever in an AI world

Human perspective is the best defence against generic AI drafts

Distinctive AI-assisted content needs human imagination, original ideas and a point of view that cannot be produced by recombining familiar patterns. AI can create more content faster, but the same tools are available to every competitor. That creates a real risk of competent, interchangeable communication that is easy to publish and easy to forget.

Brand guidelines should therefore make space for the human work that gives content its edge: empathy, curiosity, creative judgement and a clear sense of what the brand stands for. AI can support search, collation, summarising and repetitive tasks. It is less suited to finding the unexpected connection, emotional truth or fresh angle that makes technical storytelling memorable. The goal is not to ban AI. It is to stop speed and polish becoming substitutes for originality, credibility and connection.

Sources: The Prompt: Why brand matters more than ever in an AI world, Storytelling and imagination in the age of AI

We use AI to clear the clutter so human ideas can do the memorable work

We believe AI brand guidelines should be built around a simple principle: let automation handle repetitive work, while people protect the imagination, empathy and judgement that make a brand distinct. A provider should understand both sides of that balance, from clear positioning and voice to the practical opportunities AI creates for more relevant communication.

We have put that belief into practice in two ways. We have developed in-house AI tools to improve efficiency for our teams and clients. At the same time, we have produced original research and writing that champions human imagination as a driver of business success. That combination matters because AI can help brands move faster, but only human perspective can make the result feel true, fresh and worth remembering.

Sources: Storytelling and imagination in the age of AI, The Prompt: Why brand matters more than ever in an AI world

FAQs

How do we stop AI drafts sounding like everyone else?

Give AI a clear brand voice, character and point of view, then use human judgement to make the work original. AI can reproduce and recombine familiar patterns, but distinctive storytelling depends on imagination, empathy and unexpected connections. Fast content is useful only when it still reflects something recognisably true about the brand.

How should we update our brand for AI?

Update the brand platform before focusing on AI tools. Clear positioning, consistent behaviour, a distinct voice and genuine audience understanding give AI-assisted communication a foundation that is harder to dilute. The brand should act as a strategic compass for faster, cheaper and more personalised communication.

What should AI be used for in brand content?

AI is best used to support efficiency, research, collation, summarising and repetitive creative tasks. Human teams should retain responsibility for original ideas, emotional truth, audience empathy and the creative choices that make a brand memorable. The strongest balance uses AI to create more room for imagination rather than replacing it.

Can AI-assisted content still feel authentic?

AI-assisted content can feel authentic when it is grounded in clear purpose, consistent behaviour and genuine audience understanding. Polished output alone is not a signal of expertise or credibility. Brand trust depends on the organisation and people behind the communication, not on whether the words were produced quickly.