Don’t let AI wreck your brand: lessons from the ones who rushed it
If your logo looks like it was made in a well-lit panic room, it might be thanks to the new aesthetic sweeping the internet: ✨ AI-generated, strategy-free, eerily polished, and vaguely soulless ✨
You’ve seen it—the glowing gradient logos. The fortune-cookie slogans. The websites so sleek you can’t even tell what the company does—just that they’re disrupting something, probably in soft beige.
Welcome to the uncanny valley of branding.
But let’s be clear: AI didn’t get here on its own.
More and more businesses—startups, solo founders, even big-name brands—are turning to tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney to build their entire brand identity. Not just to brainstorm ideas or get inspired—but to do the whole thing.
The clarity? Missing.
The message? Nowhere to be found.
The strategy? Skipped entirely.
Instead, a prompt gets typed in—something like, “Make it clean, premium, earthy—but still disruptive.” And moments later, it’s live.
What follows is a wave of brands that look good on the surface—sleek, polished, easy to admire.But underneath? There’s nothing holding them up. No soul. No connection. Just beautifully rendered emptiness.
What’s missing?
Brand strategy isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s the thing that tells your brand who it’s for, what it stands for, and how it should feel.
Without that, AI does what it does best: gives you the most average, pattern-matched version of what you might have meant. That’s how you end up with a logo that looks like it came from a wellness brand name generator—or a tagline like:
“Empowering you for a better tomorrow,”
which could be about coaching, skincare, or life insurance for alpacas.
This isn’t a tech problem. It’s a clarity problem.
And AI just speeds up whatever mess you hand it.
When brands let AI drive the bus (into a wall)
Let’s talk about what actually happens when brands skip the thinking and go straight to prompting.
Mango’s AI-generated models
Fashion brand Mango tried swapping real models for AI-generated ones. What could go wrong? Well… the clothes didn’t fit right, the expressions looked haunted, and customers felt tricked. The vibe was less “fashion-forward,” more “digital mannequin in a haunted mall.”
Lesson: If your brand relies on human connection, don’t replace people with pixels.
Toys “R” Us AI brand film
At Cannes, Toys “R” Us premiered a fully AI-generated origin story. What was meant to be nostalgic and charming ended up creepy and off-brand. Fast Company called it a “creative flop,” and viewers felt like they’d been sucked into a dystopian fever dream.
Lesson: Even if the tech is shiny and new, emotional resonance > experimental weirdness.
McDonald’s AI drive-thru chaos
McDonald’s installed an AI voice assistant at drive-thrus—and it went off-script fast. Customers were getting charged for 300 chicken nuggets, bacon on ice cream, and orders that felt like dares.
Lesson: If your AI can’t get a McDouble right, your brand is the one that looks sloppy.
When Pak’n Save’s AI tried to poison dinner
But the worst was Pak’n Save’s AI meal-bot disaster.
In 2023, the New Zealand supermarket chain launched a well-meaning tool meant to reduce food waste by suggesting recipes from leftover ingredients. The idea sounded great—until people started plugging in things like bleach and ammonia… and the AI responded by recommending a “refreshing” drink that would literally create chlorine gas.
Yes, gas. Not a smoothie. A chemical weapon.
Other AI-generated gems included “bleach-infused rice surprise,” “ant poison sandwiches,” and one stew that, alarmingly, called for “human flesh” as an ingredient. Unsurprisingly, the tool was quickly pulled (and not mourned).
Lesson: If people might eat it, wear it, or trust it—you have to vet the AI output like your brand’s life depends on it. Because sometimes, it literally might.
Where AI branding really falls apart
It’s not just the words. The visuals are failing too.
One wellness startup used Midjourney to create their logo—and it looked amazing on Instagram. Until they realized it couldn’t be trademarked, didn’t scale, and wasn’t usable in any format beyond a pretty JPEG. They had to hire a designer anyway, which kind of killed the whole “save time and money with AI” idea.
And then there was Michaels—the beloved craft store—caught selling AI-generated Halloween artwork… complete with leftover Freepik watermarks. Nothing says handmade creativity like mass-generated, mislabeled art with licensing issues.
These aren’t outliers. They’re symptoms of a growing trend:
AI being used to generate brand assets with no foundation.
No direction.
No strategy.
Just vibes—and sometimes not even good ones.
So… should you use AI for branding?
Yes. But not like this.
AI is a brilliant assistant. It’s fast, flexible, and great at pattern matching.
But it’s not a strategist. It doesn’t understand your goals, your audience, or your values.
It doesn’t know how to create emotional resonance or visual cohesion. And it definitely doesn’t know how to make your brand feel like something real humans want to be part of.
That’s your job. Or your strategist’s. Or your designer’s. AI builds what you tell it. So if you're unclear, the results will be too.
What to do instead
If you want a brand that doesn’t just look good but actually works, here’s what to do:
Clarify who you serve, what makes you different, and why people should care
Build a real strategy—voice, values, visuals, the works
Then bring in AI to help with the execution—not to do the thinking for you
Or better yet—work with someone who knows how to translate strategy into a brand that’s not just “on trend,” but actually on point.
Ready to build a brand with a brain?
If your current brand feels like it was generated before coffee and without adult supervision—you’re not alone.
But you are due for a reset.
👉 Download the Visual Brainstorm Guide
👉 Or book a Brand Sprint and let’s build this right
Because the biggest mistake isn’t using AI.
It’s expecting it to think for you.