Hi Reader,
Love it, hate it, or fear it, AI has been a very hot topic over the last several years and -- as someone who works with a lot of brands -- I've definitely developed my own love-hate relationship with it.
Now if you're anything like me, you see "AI" written anywhere and immediately tune out.
BUT.
(Big "but".)
I do want to talk about how I see it influencing branding, in particular...
Recently, I purchased a course from a colleague who's very knowledgeable of the podcasting space, and one of the modules was specifically dedicated to teaching AI your "voice".
(Very quick refresher: your "voice" is how you express yourself.)
What I did was upload 3-5 examples of actual, real, self-written long-form content to give my AI agent. Mine included an email, a LinkedIn post, and a transcript from a older podcast I was on.
From there, I uploaded a copy/paste prompt from this course to a dedicated project space within my AI agent. This space is my go-to spot for any internal conversations about my own brand (it's a goal of mine for the remainder of 2026 to grow my audience).
The prompt essentially gave these steps for my bot to follow:
- Ask me to paste my voice samples one at a time.
- Once you have all my samples, analyze it.
- Present your findings.
- Ask me a few follow-up questions to fill in any gaps.
- Create a reference file containing your updated findings that I can save.
From there, I uploaded that document to my internal workspace. It also gave me an abbreviated version of that doc if I'm on the go, as well as guardrails to follow in general.
Y'know...like, omitting:
It's not A, it's B.
Or No X. No Y. Just Z.
Or anything that has to do with clarity.
You know what I'm talking about.
Now, I need to pump the breaks real quick and let you in on how I personally interact with AI so you can decide whether or not you align with my standards:
- I never use it to write my newsletters or any long-form content
- I never use it to write transcripts for my videos
- I use it as a starting point for emails I genuinely don't know how to respond to
- I always use it as a template, never the literal thing
That being said, I do have some work that I outsource to people who aren't me for social media. That documented "voice" analysis gives them standards and criteria for them and their own bots to follow if they're doing work on my behalf.
That helps preserve my image, style, and me-ness without sounding like 100% AI bullsh*t.
Again, whether you love, hate, or fear it, it can be a useful internal resource for small teams -- especially if you can't be everywhere at once.
BUT.
(Another big "but".)
My own philosophy is that AI and all its trinkets are tools. Not solutions, not services, not answers. If they are, you're lazy.
With that in mind, I can foresee this kind of resource being used in branding in the very near future. Branding includes values, colors, font, style, VOICE, and lots of other "packaging" that inform peoples' perception of you.
The term voice here is starting to develop a new definition, thanks to AI. It's very easy to over-sensationalize these things and say that what we knew about marketing (SEO, voice, newsletters, blogs) is dead.
But with any new technological advancement, there's almost always an adaptation period before there's ever a true "death".
The good news is that tolerance for AI slop is sinking. Facebook's cracking down, and LinkedIn's recently developed a button to report it.
What do you think? Should AI have guardrails with custom prompts and standards, or should it be dropped all-together?
Hit reply and let me know.
Onward,
Lauren Erickson
Founder & CEO of Onwardbound Marketing
I help smart people make money from what they already know.
