Right now, every brand leader on LinkedIn seems to be posting the same kind of story: “How we used AI to create X … fasterbettercheaper.”
In Brand Land, there is no shortage of conversation about what elements of our work to automate. Generative AI can now shape logos, craft brand voices, and ‘vibe-code’ websites that would have passed for agency launches just years ago. Brand leaders are under pressure to define the role of AI in creative output. We are also duty-bound to create a future for our talented human teams.
Current discourse is understandably obsessed with AI tools and how to use (or beat) them. But when we limit conversations about AI in branding to the creation of artifacts (logos, decks, websites), we limit the definition of branding itself, and miss opportunities to make better use of our people.
As our industry has long said, “a brand is more than a logo”. Done properly, branding is a process of building trust, taking risks, and encouraging accountability - processes AI cannot automate, that humans should be paying more attention to than ever.
A brand is more than its assets
Every brand building effort is made up of (a) a process that produces (b) a set of deliverables. Discovery phases result in research insights. Definition stages generate brand strategies. Design processes create brand assets. Delivery periods build the teams, campaigns, and resources necessary to launch, grow, and protect a brand in the real world.
Current debates about AI’s impact on brand work focus almost exclusively on deliverables: surfacing insights with ChatGPT Deep Research, assembling decks in Figma Slides, imagining brand worlds in MidJourney, coding websites with Cursor.
These are obvious, game-changing ways AI can transform our work. But they do not reflect the full richness of what we do. That lives in the process part of the equation: nurturing trust with interview subjects, cultivating courage among client teams, rousing employees to go all in on a big change - even if they didn’t initiate it.
Focusing on deliverables risks reducing us to logo-makers, forgetting the full promise of brand posited by marketer Seth Godin over a decade ago: “The set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
Brand building is trust building
Imagine launching a brand built completely by AI: prompted, refined, and vibed into existence, without a single research interview, design crit, client meeting, or launch event. How attached would those responsible for it be to its success? What reason would consumers have to love it? Were it to cause harm, what recourse would the world have? The result would hardly be a brand at all - it would be meaningless.
Brand building is about stewardship, and stewardship is human-to-human work. It moves leaders to take creative risks, translates those leaps into better experiences for consumers and employees alike, and makes brands compelling and consistent - online and off.
Whenever we talk about using AI to enhance deliverables, we should also be talking about how we’re using humans to build trust. There are no brands without faith, and those for whom we build brands aren’t yet ready to place their faith in AI.
AI can’t be held accountable
Clients may be under pressure to use AI to create value, but they don’t currently trust it to make critical decisions.
According to Stanford Economist Nick Bloom, 69% of executives are using AI less than an hour a week, and 28% aren’t using it at all. In 2025, one study showed that just 38% of executives trust AI to make decisions on their behalf, and another found only 29% “strongly trust” embedding AI into key business processes.
Creative agencies are optimistic, ambitious, and paid to try new things. But the client-side part of our world can be naturally risk-averse. Big changes don't get signed off without humans getting made accountable for them.
This creates a world of human-led opportunity for brand teams in the age of AI. Technology can generate outputs, but cannot be held morally, socially, or legally responsible for them. That role is played by people, navigating uncharted terrain, needing their brand advisors to be more attentive, encouraging, and accessible than ever.
Whenever we deploy AI to create a brand artifact, we should also invest in the human skills, communities, and relationships on which brand building really depends. That’s where the best teams have always added the most value - and it’s where the magic still happens.
BIO
Nomzamo “Zami” Majuqwana is an independent design researcher, strategist and facilitator based in New York City. Previously, she led brand strategy at Wolff Olins, product strategy at Work & Co, and culture strategy at The New York Times. Outside of her freelance and consulting work, she writes LEGIT - a Substack questioning the orthodoxies of our time - and volunteers as an advisor to creative non-profits, schools, and professionals.
Right now, every brand leader on LinkedIn seems to be posting the same kind of story: “How we used AI to create X … fasterbettercheaper.”
In Brand Land, there is no shortage of conversation about what elements of our work to automate. Generative AI can now shape logos, craft brand voices, and ‘vibe-code’ websites that would have passed for agency launches just years ago. Brand leaders are under pressure to define the role of AI in creative output. We are also duty-bound to create a future for our talented human teams.
Current discourse is understandably obsessed with AI tools and how to use (or beat) them. But when we limit conversations about AI in branding to the creation of artifacts (logos, decks, websites), we limit the definition of branding itself, and miss opportunities to make better use of our people.
As our industry has long said, “a brand is more than a logo”. Done properly, branding is a process of building trust, taking risks, and encouraging accountability - processes AI cannot automate, that humans should be paying more attention to than ever.
A brand is more than its assets
Every brand building effort is made up of (a) a process that produces (b) a set of deliverables. Discovery phases result in research insights. Definition stages generate brand strategies. Design processes create brand assets. Delivery periods build the teams, campaigns, and resources necessary to launch, grow, and protect a brand in the real world.
Current debates about AI’s impact on brand work focus almost exclusively on deliverables: surfacing insights with ChatGPT Deep Research, assembling decks in Figma Slides, imagining brand worlds in MidJourney, coding websites with Cursor.
These are obvious, game-changing ways AI can transform our work. But they do not reflect the full richness of what we do. That lives in the process part of the equation: nurturing trust with interview subjects, cultivating courage among client teams, rousing employees to go all in on a big change - even if they didn’t initiate it.
Focusing on deliverables risks reducing us to logo-makers, forgetting the full promise of brand posited by marketer Seth Godin over a decade ago: “The set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
Brand building is trust building
Imagine launching a brand built completely by AI: prompted, refined, and vibed into existence, without a single research interview, design crit, client meeting, or launch event. How attached would those responsible for it be to its success? What reason would consumers have to love it? Were it to cause harm, what recourse would the world have? The result would hardly be a brand at all - it would be meaningless.
Brand building is about stewardship, and stewardship is human-to-human work. It moves leaders to take creative risks, translates those leaps into better experiences for consumers and employees alike, and makes brands compelling and consistent - online and off.
Whenever we talk about using AI to enhance deliverables, we should also be talking about how we’re using humans to build trust. There are no brands without faith, and those for whom we build brands aren’t yet ready to place their faith in AI.
AI can’t be held accountable
Clients may be under pressure to use AI to create value, but they don’t currently trust it to make critical decisions.
According to Stanford Economist Nick Bloom, 69% of executives are using AI less than an hour a week, and 28% aren’t using it at all. In 2025, one study showed that just 38% of executives trust AI to make decisions on their behalf, and another found only 29% “strongly trust” embedding AI into key business processes.
Creative agencies are optimistic, ambitious, and paid to try new things. But the client-side part of our world can be naturally risk-averse. Big changes don't get signed off without humans getting made accountable for them.
This creates a world of human-led opportunity for brand teams in the age of AI. Technology can generate outputs, but cannot be held morally, socially, or legally responsible for them. That role is played by people, navigating uncharted terrain, needing their brand advisors to be more attentive, encouraging, and accessible than ever.
Whenever we deploy AI to create a brand artifact, we should also invest in the human skills, communities, and relationships on which brand building really depends. That’s where the best teams have always added the most value - and it’s where the magic still happens.
BIO
Nomzamo “Zami” Majuqwana is an independent design researcher, strategist and facilitator based in New York City. Previously, she led brand strategy at Wolff Olins, product strategy at Work & Co, and culture strategy at The New York Times. Outside of her freelance and consulting work, she writes LEGIT - a Substack questioning the orthodoxies of our time - and volunteers as an advisor to creative non-profits, schools, and professionals.
