AI Is Not Your Creative Director: How to Use ChatGPT for Brand Strategy
So last week I posted on Threads:
“Use AI as an administrative assistant, not a creative director,” and it struck a chord.
Turns out, I’m not the only one side-eyeing ChatGPT’s attempts to “be creative” (no offense, AI!).
But before you call me a hater, let me break down what I meant.
AI is incredible at handling the admin-y, stuff. Need to brainstorm and put your thoughts into a categorized list? Done. Summarize a blog post? Easy. Find different ways to say “luxurious” because you’ve used it 10 times in your copy? It’s got you. It handles repetitive, data-driven, and organizational tasks with speed and accuracy, which frees up our mental bandwidth for more creative and strategic work. It also excels at idea generation, data analysis, editing, and creative collaborations.
But here’s the catch: AI doesn’t get nuance. It’s working with patterns, not purpose. It can write a tagline that sounds polished, but it might lack that spark that connects with your audience on a deep, emotional level. It can suggest color palettes or layouts, but it’s not tuned into the vibe of your brand, your audience, or that je ne sais quoi that sets you apart.
For example, you might ask AI for “luxury wellness branding ideas” and get back something like “Serene Balance Co.” or “Harmony & Co.” (yawn). It’s not bad, but it’s missing the point. What’s your story? What makes you you? That’s where human creativity steps in—and shines.
Even when you've got a strategic brand foundation and you can clearly articulate your purpose, your ideal audience, and your difference, the next step of creating fresh marketing content that's aligned with your essence can still feel overwhelming. This is where I love to bring in AI, especially tools like ChatGPT or Claude.
My #1 tip is super simple:
Upload your brand guidelines document to ChatGPT and teach it about your values, messaging tone, brand voice, and human persona. The more you can input specific guidance about your brand, the better the output will be. (This will also improve over time with more usage!) You can even ask ChatGPT to ask you questions about your brand to keep training it
Once you feel confident that it “understands” your brand, then you're ready to streamline and maximize your marketing.
The limitations of AI today:
It doesn’t understand context the way humans do (yet).
It can’t dream up fresh ideas; it’s pulling from what already exists.
It struggles with true originality or gut-level intuition—things we, as humans, are hardwired for.
But let’s keep it real: AI is evolving fast. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day it does get closer to cracking the creativity code. And when that happens? It won’t replace creatives—it’ll just push us to level up, to bring even more of our human ingenuity to the table.
So, for now, think of AI as a creative collaborator—not your replacement. It can generate ideas, save time, and even spark inspiration, but it needs our human touch to make the final product truly impactful.
