How to stand out in a sea of AI brand voices

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Imagine if AI rewrote one of the most iconic lines in cinema history (and our namesake). ‘Your boat needs to be bigger’ just doesn’t pass the same vibe check, does it? That’s because communication isn’t just about the words – it’s about the delivery, character, and the feelings they evoke.

Today, AI tools like Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Apple Intelligence promise efficiency – polished emails, slick articles, perfectly structured captions. But there’s a catch. Beyond every company sounding the same, if you don’t use AI right, it can go very wrong. And that can kill your authority and trust.

But, before you despair, know this: the fact that so many businesses are now over-relying on AI brand voice tools can be used to your advantage. Here, we share practical strategies to ensure your messaging stays authentic, engaging, and unmistakably yours.

The importance of brand TOV

We’re social creatures. The way something is said can be the difference between being noticed or ignored, liked or disliked. And in branding, where attention is won or lost in milliseconds, a real, distinctive tone of voice (TOV) is one of the most powerful assets a business can have. Tone builds trust, helps people relate, and communicates values, making it one of the most important ways to stand out in a sea of same.

Of course, we can learn how to humanise AI content to some degree. We can guide AI to mimic, refine, and optimise our desired tone of voice (more passion! 👏 more energy! 👏) and, with the right prompts, it can churn out some impressive responses. But it can’t originate. It can’t draw from lived experience, cultural intuition, and empathise with the people our brands serve.

Should you use AI for your brand voice?

If you got even a whiff that AI was behind a company’s brand voice, would it still feel authentic to you? Would you trust it? Studies have shown how algorithmic responses can increase the use of positive emotive language, making people think we’re better at communicating. But here’s that catch we mentioned:

If readers suspect writers have used AI brand voice prompts to filter their tone, they view them in a more negative light. Crucially, if you don’t use AI right, it can go very wrong.

When language experts describe AI-generated content as “the ultimate superficiality”, they’re pointing to its struggle with emphasis, nuance, and many different aspects behind human conversation – the very things that make messages and stories memorable. Meanwhile, Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook has a different way of looking at AI, saying: “It’s still coming from you. It’s your thoughts and your perspective.”

How to create and maintain your unique brand voice

Before you can create a one-of-a-kind brand voice, you need to unearth what it is that will make people choose you over a competitor. While AI can analyse data and generate formulaic ideas for you, it can’t tap into the real emotions, ambitions, and quirks that set your brand apart. It might be a story that’s never been told, an underappreciated strength that only a colleague notices, or an unexpected comment from a client that gives a fresh perspective on how you help.

As we’ve found out in our tried-and-tested Think Big brand strategy workshops, the real magic behind a brand personality starts with human conversations – not algorithms. We bring real voices together from across your company: not just the marketing experts, but everyone from customer service to leadership, to explore diverse insights from real-life experience.

As part of this workshop, we look at your brand tone of voice in a fun, immersive way, with engaging activities that challenge you to look at your brand differently. Only by posing the questions in this workshop can we look beyond the obvious. We uncover vital (and sometimes surprising) values and personality traits that enable us to successfully and uniquely craft your brand tone of voice in a way that meets your beliefs, values, and ambitions.

Using AI in marketing: Striking the right balance

Once you’ve defined your tone of voice, it’s vital to use it consistently and then monitor how it’s being adhered to. This is perhaps where time-strapped brands may turn to AI. Maybe you need to write a quick email, or update a page on your website. The challenge here isn’t necessarily avoiding AI altogether, but to use it strategically. Here’s an example:

1. Start with your own creative thinking and human-written content (even if this is just in note form) so the originality, research, and facts are there from the get-go.

2. Then, ask AI to format and polish the content, according to its purpose.

3. Always, always, always craft and finalise using your own intelligence and instincts.

To maintain brand trust, companies should treat AI as an assistant, not an author. It should enhance communication, not replace human judgement. Real oversight needs to go into every final approval to avoid any copy falling flat, or worse: misjudging tone completely. For instance, if you use AI to write a heartfelt apology to a customer or a sensitive email during a crisis and the result is too stiff, too detached, or clearly auto-generated, you risk alienating your audience.

Beyond tone, AI can also generate factually incorrect information, posing a significant risk. A misquoted statistic, inaccurate claim, or misleading detail could damage your reputation. Some public AI tools also use inputs from users to train their models, meaning businesses might be unknowingly exposing sensitive customer data. Ultimately, brands that rely too heavily on AI content, without checking everything with a fine-tooth comb, risk sounding inauthentic, making mistakes, and in many cases, eroding the very trust they’re trying to nurture.

Hold onto your hat (and your brand personality)

As the tech giants continue to develop bigger, better AI tools, brands must stay ahead when it comes to preserving their unique voices. AI can never replace human intuition and experience when it comes to brand voice and communications. But companies that strike the right balance between AI efficiency and genuine emotion – taking the time to think through your language and grammar, the vibe you want to give off, and the way people perceive you – will be the ones that thrive.