My friends often say, “Janelle, not everything has to do with ACL tears”, and maybe they have a point. But using AI to build a stronger brand? That definitely does.

I’ve torn both my anterior cruciate ligaments while playing a variety of sports. It’s been a few decades since my last reconstruction and I’d like to keep it that way, so naturally, I picked up a new sport (skiing) and went down a ChatGPT rabbit hole to see just how far AI’s power extends. “Can AI help me never tear my ACL again?” The short answer: “No.”

Imagine my dismay. But here’s what I discovered: AI can help me plan and personalise a training regimen, analyse and optimise my performance, and make steady progress over time.

Building a stronger, more resilient knee with AI is a lot like building a future-proof brand with AI. For some steps of your brand-building journey, AI can be a helpful coach and trainer. For others, it might just be the thing holding you back.

Know your path forward

This isn’t about training for your brand’s super-G podium moment. This is about studying your trail map, setting your brand’s course and knowing what cliffs are out there and where.

AI is great at synthesising massive amounts of data in all its forms and turning it into an actionable plan. With it, you can quickly surface industry trends and patterns, identify new audience segments, opportunities and anomalies, and play out infinite what-if scenarios and gauge the likelihood of each. You can run predictive models, evaluate current brand performance and generate informed, tried-and-true steps to move it forward.

Used in this way, AI can turbo-charge your decision-making power and give you a broader, clearer view of where your brand stands now and what options lie ahead.

Prevention is cheaper than recovery

If there’s anything AI taught me about skiing, it’s that what I do off the mountain to prepare matters. Mobility and strength training, balance building, muscle mechanics and technique – these are the things that will make (or break) my skiing experience before I even put a foot in my boot.

The same is true for brands. Whether you’re launching a campaign, product or business, your foundation has to be solid. Your positioning, value prop and target audience. Your voice, messaging and visual identity. And how your brand behaves, especially if you are considering making AI a part of your frontline brand experience. The work you put in upstream shapes everything that comes next.

AI can’t do that work for you, just like it can’t build your strength or fix your form. What it can do is identify brand weaknesses, inconsistencies or gaps. It can surface trends and patterns, and help crystallise opportunities.

So when the terrain gets tough, the mountain doesn’t steer your brand. You choose the turns you make.

Measure, monitor and time it right

Fatigue causes injuries. Just like I can use AI to analyse my biomechanical data and see when my technique starts going downhill, brands can use AI to determine where engagement drops off – with which audiences, after which messages, on which channels and after how long.

With these insights, your team can determine when to rotate and refresh campaign messaging. You can see which content types are performing best and focus resources there. If conversion rates are high with some audience segments and low with others, you can take steps to diversify your reach or double down where your brand’s been most effective.

Whether it’s shaping your audience strategy or sharpening cross-channel performance, AI offers insights that can help you optimise your spend and your reach, and potentially point your team in new creative directions.

Think outside the bot

AI can’t touch snow. It can’t make judgment calls or understand conditions – weather, human or otherwise. Rely on it too much, and its blind spots could hurt your brand.

When I think about some of the most memorable moments in sports, they’re the most unexpected. It’s the last-second comeback we never saw coming, or a world record, rewritten. It’s athletes and teams and coaches taking a risk during a high-stakes moment and having it pay off.

The most memorable brands make similarly unexpected moves. They know themselves and their audience, and they pursue ideas that strike surprising chords.

I think of brands like Patagonia and its Don’t Buy This Jacket campaign, which sparked debate around consumerism, the environment and corporate responsibility.

Avis and its historic We Try Harder campaign that leaned into a perceived brand weakness (always coming in second to rental car giant Hertz) and leveraged it as a strength.

Or canned water brand Liquid Death and its “Murder your thirst” tagline that offered an edgy alternative to mountain springs and serene streams.

Sometimes ignoring the data can lead to lightning-in-a-bottle ideas.

You know your brand best

While AI can offer decision-making support, it’s no replacement for a sharp point of view or a core brand strategy.

AI can turn messy data into actionable insights. You choose which opportunities to act on. AI can help identify your audience. You know how to move them. AI can point out risk. You determine which risks are worth taking.

AI can help you build a stronger, more resilient brand. You decide when to take your brand off-piste and conquer mountains of your own making.

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‍Build a brand that cuts through in an AI world. Look out for more insights and opinions from The Prompt, or get in touch for a conversation about your challenges.