How to Use AI for Branding

AI is more than a content tool—it can act as an assistant in breaking down complex (and not-so-complex) branding tasks for your business. Whether it’s helping you to create workflows and automations, analyze the branding of your competitors, create a logo, or develop a tone of voice for your business, AI assistants can cut down on time and effort.

How can you leverage AI to help build your brand? We’ll highlight some practical examples and tools to get you started. If you’re a new entrepreneur or just looking for ways to refine your existing brand, AI could be the creative partner you didn’t know you needed. 

How AI works in branding

AI uses algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data, learn patterns, and generate insights or outputs based on that information. For branding, this means AI can summarize what works in the market, report trends in consumer behavior, and assist in creative tasks such as generating design ideas.

AI tools can use machine learning, data analytics, and natural language processing to help businesses create logos, taglines, customer personas, and even entire marketing campaigns. By doing some of the heavy lifting, AI can help you focus on refining and personalizing your brand’s identity rather than getting stuck in the early research and design phases.

But remember, good brands must be human in the way they sound, act, write, and interact with the world. So think of AI tools as a collaborator or an assistant, not the whole solution for your voice and point of view.

Learn more about how artificial intelligence works

Benefits and drawbacks of using AI in branding

While AI can be a powerful tool for branding, it’s important to understand what AI is good at—and what it’s not. AI is an efficient and low-cost way to break through creative blocks and process large amounts of information. But, by nature, it can lack uniqueness and nuance, so you’ll need to ensure output is accurate and human.

Benefits of using AI to build your brand include:

• Speed and efficiency: Complete tasks in a fraction of the time it would take a human. 

• Data-driven insights: Analyze large datasets and generate insights on customer preferences, industry trends, and competitive landscapes to get data-backed guidance for branding decisions.

• Creativity boost: AI can provide inspiration and ideas, whether it’s for logo design, messaging, or campaign concepts. It opens up creative possibilities you might not have considered.

• Cost-effective: Compared to hiring a full team of branding specialists, AI tools are often far more affordable, making them ideal for startups and small businesses.

• Consistency: Repeating AI prompt language can help ensure that your brand assets—like design plans, websites, or social media content—are consistent.

Drawbacks of using AI to build your brand include:

• Lack of human touch: AI can produce results that feel generic or lack the emotional connection that you bring to the table. Refining your results with a personal touch is often necessary.

• Risk of similarity: Many AI tools draw on similar data sources and trends and average them to generate a result, meaning that your brand might risk looking or sounding like others if you rely too heavily on AI-generated ideas.

• Limited understanding of nuances: AI may struggle with cultural nuances, personal storytelling, or niche audiences that require a more tailored approach.

• Dependence on data quality: AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on. Poor quality or biased data could lead to errors or suboptimal suggestions for your brand.

The key to using AI effectively is knowing when to trust its outputs and when to add your own unique voice and insights to the mix. We recommend treating it as one tool to help shape an idea you bring to the table yourself, but not a starting or ending point for your brand.

5 practical applications of AI beyond content

AI can do much more than just generate content or images. Here are several instances where AI can help simplify your branding process, from researching competitors to saving you time on administrative work.

1. Market research: Quickly analyze competitors and market trends. For example, you can use prompts like, “Make a list of top businesses in [insert niche] and their mission statements,” to see how major companies are positioning themselves.

2. Customer persona development: Organize or ask for summaries of customer data, social media behaviors, and feedback to create detailed customer personas. This allows you to better understand your audience and tailor your branding accordingly.

3. Brand naming and taglines: Struggling to come up with the perfect brand name? AI tools can instantly generate dozens of suggestions based on your industry, brand voice, values, and target market.

4. Competitor analysis: Get an overview of your competitors' branding strategies, social media presence, and product offerings to identify gaps you can fill and gain an edge.

5. Workflow automation: Beyond the creative aspect, AI tools can automate everyday tasks like sending customer surveys, following up on leads, or updating your website with the latest brand assets.

Try the free business name generator

How to choose the right AI tools

With so many AI tools available and new ones popping up everyday, it’s important to choose tools that align with your goals. So before you begin, identify your needs, evaluate your budget, and check for integration with the digital tools you already use.

Some tools may be better-suited for what you want to accomplish than others or might be more intuitive for you to use. AI that works with your existing tools also keeps you from jumping between platforms to get work done.

For example, NOAN is an AI design tool that’s partnered with Squarespace and allows you to create and refine a brand identity using AI design prompts. NOAN can quickly generate logos or select a brand color palette, which you can then bring to your Squarespace site.

On Squarespace, tools powered by AI and curated by Squarespace design experts include can make suggestions for fonts, SEO and copy, email, page layouts, and more.

Selecting the right toolset allows you to automate repetitive tasks and avoid spending too much time or money on unnecessary features. Consider testing out the same tasks on a few different platforms to get a feel for what’s comfortable for you.

Learn more about Squarespace Design Intelligence features

5 AI prompts for branding tasks

AI thrives on prompts that clearly define what you need, so coming up with the right requests for what you want to accomplish can unlock the full potential of a tool to support you. Here are some example prompts you can use across different stages of branding.

1. Brand voice development: Based on the copy on this website, describe the personality of the business and how it could be made to sound more serene.

2. Mission statement: Create a mission statement for an eco-friendly skincare company that emphasizes natural ingredients and environmental responsibility.

3. Logo ideas: Suggest five logo ideas for a high-end coffee shop to convey warmth and luxury.

4. Competitor analysis: Analyze the Instagram marketing strategies of [link to popular fitness influencers or brands].

5. Brand values and vision: Summarize the brand values for a tech company that prioritizes innovation and user privacy.

These prompts show how you can use AI to speed up manual research, like in the competitor analysis example, or to assist with deeper strategic thinking in your branding process, like checking your brand voice or helping you brainstorm logo concepts to share with a designer.

How to ensure your brand is unique

While AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting, people connect with brands because the authentic touch and care behind them excites them or speaks to them personally. Here’s how to make sure AI supports, rather than overtakes, your creative process.

• Use AI for inspiration, not final decisions. Don’t treat AI suggestions as the first or final word. Start with your goals and vision first, and treat AI outputs like mock-ups in your creative process.

• Personalize your brand. Infuse your story, values, and perspective into every decision and representation of your brand. AI can generate a list of potential brand names, but you should choose one that fits most with your vision and tweak it to make it yours.

• Test and edit. AI can offer drafts and prototypes, but always test them with your target audience and refine as necessary. This ensures your branding resonates with your specific customers.

• Blend human insight with AI. While AI can suggest patterns or designs based on data, your intuition and understanding of your business and market can elevate the brand’s identity beyond what AI alone can offer. Trust your gut and your audience.

Remember, AI is a tool to assist you, not replace the human element in branding. By combining the power of AI with your own creativity, you can develop a brand that feels fresh, authentic, and uniquely yours.