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AI Is Not Your Strategy
By Luis Fernando Vergara, CEO & Founder of Branders Magazine
There is something strangely familiar about the current AI revolution. It reminds me of what happened when social media first transformed marketing. Suddenly, every brand believed it needed a Facebook page, a Twitter account, an Instagram profile, or a TikTok presence. The question was no longer Why should we be there? but simply How quickly can we get there? Strategy often came second.
Today, we are witnessing the same phenomenon with artificial intelligence.
AI has become one of the most powerful technological developments in marketing and advertising. Tools such as Synthesia, Google’s Veo, Meta AI, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT can generate scripts, images, audio, and video advertisements with astonishing speed and sophistication. For brands, the benefits are obvious: lower production costs, scalability, personalization, and the ability to produce content at a pace that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. And that is precisely where the danger begins.
When a technology becomes this powerful, it is tempting to use it simply because everyone else is. AI becomes another box brands feel obligated to check on their innovation list. But implementing AI does not automatically make a brand innovative. Sometimes, it simply makes a brand faster at doing something that never needed to be done in the first place.
The lesson from social media should be clear: having the technology is not the same as having a strategy.
AI can help brands create more content, but more content does not necessarily mean better communication. Research by Kirk and Givi (2025) found that consumers’ perceptions of AI-authored emotional marketing messages can influence perceived authenticity, positive word of mouth, and customer loyalty. The findings suggest that while AI can improve efficiency, how it is used—and the role it plays in communicating emotion—matters.
So before asking, “How can we use AI?”, brands should ask a much more important question:
“What are we trying to accomplish?”
The answer should determine the technology—not the other way around.
AI should not replace strategy. It should serve strategy. If the objective is to improve personalization, reduce production time, explore creative possibilities, understand consumers, or increase efficiency, AI may provide meaningful value. But if the only objective is to say that a brand “uses AI,” then perhaps the strategy needs to go back to the beginning.
The future will not belong to the brands that use the most AI. It will belong to the brands that understand when AI creates value—and when human judgment creates more.
This is the conversation we are bringing to BrandersFest 2026: SURVIVAL, happening November 4–5 in New York City.
Hosted by Branders Magazine, BrandersFest is a two-day working summit for brand leaders, creative directors, founders, marketers, and strategists navigating what it means to build brands in the AI era. Through curated conversations, masterclasses, workshops, and meaningful networking, we will explore the questions that matter most: What should brands protect? Where can AI create real value? What happens when speed replaces strategy? And how can brands embrace technology without losing the human qualities that make them meaningful?
Because building brands in the AI era is not just about what technology can do. It is about knowing what is worth doing—and why.
Join us at BrandersFest 2026 in New York City, November 4–5, and be part of the conversation shaping what comes next.
Research reference
Kirk, C. P., & Givi, J. (2025). The AI-authorship effect: Understanding authenticity, moral disgust, and consumer responses to AI-generated marketing communications. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114984
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