As Head of Marketing, I view AI as a great efficiency tool—but not a brand guardian. Our voice is one of the most valuable brand assets we possess, and emotional connection is where long-term loyalty originates. So, when using AI, we always apply a "human lens" before anything goes live. For example, we once used AI to create product descriptions for a seasonal campaign. The initial drafts were accurate but sounded more like catalog listings—clear but lacking personality. We aimed to give the brand a stronger personality by connecting with what customers truly want rather than just listing features. Instead of saying, "High-performance filter with 3-layer design," we changed it to, "Breathe easier every day with triple-layer protection you can trust." This small shift from discussing functions to focusing on feelings significantly improved engagement and conversions. What worked best was creating brand voice guidelines specifically for AI prompts, ensuring that tone, phrasing, and emotional intent are baked into the generation process. We also pair every AI draft with a human editor who understands the brand on a gut level. Ultimately, AI gets us 60% of the way, but the last 40% is where real connection happens. That's still a job for people who know the heart of the brand.
Honestly, we're ensuring our brand's voice and emotional connection stays intact by simply not using generative AI for content creation. It's really as simple as that. Companies may think that they are being more efficient by using AI to generate their content, but the additional efforts that may require to make sure what's generated aligns with their brand voice may actually add up to more time and effort being spent. Using AI for this can simply add another unnecessary obstacle.
When working with AI-generated captions for a UGC project, I noticed they sounded flat. The sentences were clean, but they missed warmth. Instead of using them as-is, I rewrote them in a way that felt like a real person talking. I added little touches like playful questions, casual phrases, or relatable feelings. That shift made the posts feel more like a friend sharing, not a robot explaining. One thing that worked best was reading the copy out loud. If it didn't sound natural, I knew it needed fixing. AI can write fast, but it doesn't know the brand's heart. Human edits bring back the emotion and vibe that connect with people.