We are in an epidemic of doing without thinking.

I use AI in my own work, and I expect to use much more of it. It can accelerate exploration, prototyping and production enormously. But making something easier to produce doesn’t make it strategically right for the brand.

AI has made it incredibly easy to produce something.
An image. A post. An ad. A piece of brand communication.

But just because something can be made in seconds doesn’t mean it should be put in front of your customers.

This Spider-Man poster was drawn by a cinema employee because the official artwork hadn’t arrived. It’s imperfect. But it has character. It has a story. Somebody cared enough to solve the problem with what they had. The poster is memorable because the thinking and human response are visible.

We all understand that the secret to a quality product is quality ingredients. Product is king. Obsess over the product. Only use the best ingredients. So why do businesses put enormous care into what they make, then damage a good product by allowing speed to replace judgement?

Before prompting AI to create something for your brand, ask: What does this give us? How will our customers see it? What problem does it solve? And what problem might it create? Good brand strategy starts with questions like these, not with making things.

This isn’t anti-AI. AI has its uses, but it isn’t a substitute for thinking. So, I suppose this is a pro-thinking rant.

The question isn’t whether a brand should use AI. It’s whether the person using it has made a deliberate decision about what the brand needs, what the customer will see and what problem the communication is meant to solve.

If a quality product depends on quality ingredients, a well-built brand depends on quality thinking.

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