In an era defined by automation, sameness is the new risk. When every brand uses the same prompts, tools, and tone, originality becomes an endangered species.
The real advantage today isn’t speed or scale. It’s distinctiveness, clarity, and courage.
Distinctiveness — knowing who you are and why.
Clarity — communicating precisely what makes you unique and valuable.
Courage — refusing to be bullied by trends that threaten to drag you off course.
AI won’t destroy creativity. But our over-dependency on it surely will.
Five questions to help you avoid becoming a zombie brand in the age of AI.
1. Are we producing meaning, or just material?
AI can fill the calendar, but not the gap between attention and impact. Ask yourself: does this piece or idea move anyone to think, feel, or act differently? If not, it’s noise. Turn it off.
2. Do we know what we stand for?
The brands that survive the algorithmic firehose have a clear point of view. Not a message track, but a position. It’s your job to know what you believe. The tighter your stance, the freer your creativity.
3. Are we using AI to extend our craft — or to escape it?
Tools should liberate human time for harder thinking, not eliminate it. If AI handles first drafts, what do you do with the time saved? The worst answer is “produce more.” The best is “think deeper.”
4. When was the last time we scared ourselves creatively?
Courage is the most underused muscle in modern marketing. AI offers predictability — it’s built to converge on what’s probable. But great brands live in what’s possible.
If your ideas never risk rejection, they’re already dead on arrival. Distinctiveness lives in discomfort.
5. Would anyone miss us if we disappeared?
A sobering question — and the only real measure of differentiation. If the market could replace us tomorrow with a direct competitor and no one would notice, you’ve already become part of the background. The goal of brand work, with or without AI, is to remain unmistakably human in a world of approximations.
The Real Work
AI will continue to evolve — faster than we can legislate or philosophize about it. But our responsibility as creators, strategists, and brands remains the same: make something that matters.
Human creativity is the last shotgun in a world increasingly filled with zombie brands.