Is your AI-generated brand strategy identical to your competitors? You may be falling into the trap of AI convergence: thinking your AI output is strategically differentiated, when in fact it's indistinguishable from the competition.
I illustrated the idea of AI convergence in my last post with a parlor trick: I predicted what ChatGPT would generate from a prompt that doesn't seem to contain any design direction. Everyone gets a similar result even though it's not obvious why.
The hidden reality is that AI uses words like coordinates to find the most common associations, not the most distinct, which can be a huge pitfall for defining strategy.
This week, I want to turn it into an experiment. I've taken the most typical inputs for a competitive strategy program at a mid-size B2B managed service provider, and put them into a prompt for creating the company brand's mood board.
𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘐𝘛 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳. 𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘪𝘥-𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴, 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵, 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦-𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 24/7 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴' 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥: 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭, 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳-𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥.
The images on this post are my results from ChatGPT and Perplexity, and even though none of the specific elements are specified, my prediction is you'll get something significantly similar:
- Blue dominant palette
- Shield, lock, cloud iconography
- Diverse people in front of computer screens
- Hands shaking
- Server rooms with blue LED lighting
- Stylized cityscapes or globes suggesting scale and reach
- Abstract server nodes suggesting connectivity
- San-serif font; gradient overlays
Run the prompt and post your result. Let's see how close they converge.
The point isn't that you 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 do strategy with AI. It's that you can't outsource the hard work of thinking through your ICP, positioning and differentiation in order to give AI a clear and unique direction.
If not clearly pointed in a unique direction, AI will make your brand look exactly like every one of your competitors taking the same AI shortcuts.
