Maintaining brand integrity in an AI-driven world doesn’t feel like an easy task. Things are changing all around us, faster than most of us can keep up with, and AI in marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Companies have been left trying to find the right balance between embracing newly available tools and protecting their business from unknown risks.
In order to avoid everything from massive turnover to productivity loss, we can’t afford to ignore AI’s pros and cons, including opportunities for growth and how we can rely on AI to do some things without diluting the value of our hard-working brand ID.
Make your brand guidelines and values clear
Establishing a clear brand identity through your values and guidelines is the first step to maintaining your brand integrity. By aligning everything to your mission, vision, and purpose, you can make sure that your AI initiatives seamlessly integrate with the core of who your company is. Making sure everyone is well-versed in these brand guidelines will help make sure that even your AI-driven activities reflect your brand.
Train your AI models on your brand
AI is a bad-in, bad-out tool. If you are using AI tools that aren’t (or can’t be) trained to understand the ins and outs of your brand, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Look for AI tools that allow you to upload your brand guidelines, and that keep your information out of public hands. Make sure you’re also looking into the ethical and moral standards your AI tools were trained under to ensure they align with your company values. And don’t forget to check AI output carefully to make sure it’s staying on track.
Implement internal AI ethics now
Better use of AI isn’t just about people and processes, although they’re both pretty fundamental as well. Before your team starts producing AI-supported content, it’s important for you to have already put down some ground rules around the ways your content should be respecting privacy and avoiding bigotry. Establish a dedicated working group to periodically audit your content to make sure those ethics are being upheld.
Prioritize transparency
Don’t keep it a secret. If you’re leveraging AI tools, be open with your teams and your customers about how you’re making it happen. Make sure your audience–and stakeholders–understand how you’re gaining efficiency and productivity, but also how you’re making sure safety, creativity, and expertise aren’t getting lost in the process.
Keep it human
If you’re considering replacing your marketing team with AI, please don’t. Maintaining human oversight is going to be a necessity in marketing for a long time to come (hopefully forever). There is a lot that AI tools can do, but they aren’t meant to replace human judgement or our unique ability to connect with each other. Make sure your AI tools are enhancing your experts skills, not replacing them.
Check in regularly
Make sure your processes and workflows have planned check-ins to monitor and review your AI tool usage. Keep track of team feedback about how it’s helping and what’s not working well so that you can continue to evaluate its value.
Get curious
Don’t ever stop learning. AI is changing every second, and there is always some new capability emerging … usually right alongside a new concern. Keep tabs on both sides of the AI development story to make sure you’re keeping in mind the good and the bad.
There are a lot of ways we can benefit from some of the wins AI represents, and savvy marketers need to get on board before they get left behind. But that doesn’t mean we have to stumble blindly into AI for everything. Instead, we need to keep our marketing hats tightly on our heads, and employ the same strategic and tactical reasoning skills we’ve developed in the field to make sure AI is working FOR us. By staying ahead of the planning and procedures, and regularly checking in on the performance of your AI-generated content, you’ll be setting up a much-needed wall around the integrity of your brand.
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