As AI continues to advance and become more prevalent in marketing and communications, brands are presented with both opportunities and challenges in maintaining their unique voice and authenticity. Misalignment between AI strategy and brand strategy has the potential to harm brand voice with homogenized content, loss of individual voice, and diluted authenticity. With companies like Dove pledging not to use AI in communications, it’s worth examining when it’s most appropriate to use AI to amplify brand voice and empower authenticity. 

Our 2024 Retail Industry Trends report that retailers are projected to invest heavily in AI-enabled tools, with spending expected to reach $7 billion in 2024 and $30 billion by 2028. While AI offers significant potential for personalization and improved customer experience, only 40% of customers are comfortable with AI-driven personalization. To succeed, retailers must strike a balance between leveraging AI’s benefits and maintaining brand authenticity. Strategic implementation of AI, such as pre-purchase chatbots, has shown promise, with 63% reporting an increase in conversions. Ultimately, the key is to carefully integrate AI into the existing strategy to enhance rather than dilute brand identity and consumer trust.  brand identity and consumer trust. Below, we unpack how to build an authentic brand voice with AI for the retail industry.

Maintaining Brand Authenticity While Using AI 

At the core of an authentic brand voice is the human element. Even with new generative AI tools, the human element remains at the core, as inaccurate or misaligned results can undermine a brand without proper supervision. Generative AI tools can create lower-cost and copyright-free content in the form of video, audio, and text, like a chatbot, helping ease the work on marketing professionals and content creators. Examples include ChatGPT for textual outputs, Sora for video generation, and Udio for music generation.  

With these new tools, generative AI is available not to undermine the creativity of content creators but to help refine and personalize the content to a larger audience. It’s especially important to supervise generated outputs to ensure alignment with brand values and messaging. Additionally, transparency about AI use in content creation can allow brands to build trust with their consumers. 

While you can leverage AI modalities as a toolkit to empower content creation and creative freedom, it’s important to develop a clear AI strategy that measures its impact and establishes brand guidelines and policies for ethical use. In doing so, brands can harness AI’s benefits while preserving their unique voice to improve efficiency in content creation, maintain consistency across platforms, enhance personalization without losing the human touch, and stay innovative while remaining true to core brand values. 

Empower Brand Accessibility and Personalization 

Accessibility plays a crucial role in building an authentic brand voice as it helps brands connect with diverse audiences. Generative AI allows brands to create personalized and inclusive content, enabling brands to express their voice more authentically while reaching a wider audience.  

Traditionally, creating digitally accessible, personalized content for a wider audience requires a higher allocation of resources and effort to create audio, video, and image captions. With generative AI, low-cost translations enable a new level of accessibility and inclusivity, allowing deaf, hard-of-hearing, and visually-impaired customers to experience the broader brand connections. After all, 55% of consumers say they are willing to spend more for a customized experience that caters to their personal wants and needs. 

This AI-driven personalized content revolution has significant implications for retailers, including:  

• Enhancing customer reach through accessible content 
• Improving brand perception by demonstrating commitment to accessibility 
• Leveraging data-driven insights powered by AI-enabled advanced analytics 
• Delivering customer personalization at scale by referencing customer data 
• Enabling a cost-effective implementation for retailers of all sizes 

These benefits enable brands to identify gaps between the intended and perceived brand image to create more authentic experiences and unlock new opportunities for growth, enhancing the overall brand experience. 

Elevating Omnichannel Presence with AI and AR 

Brands are leveraging digital innovations, particularly AI and immersive technologies, to expand their omnichannel presence. By combining generative AI and AI-powered advanced analytics, brands can create personalized customer interactions by offering recommended product try-ons, analyzing individualized customer behavior, managing inventory, and optimizing pricing and marketing strategies. However, it’s crucial to acknowledge that some consumers may be wary of excessive personalization, requiring a thoughtful approach to implementation. 

Augmented reality (AR) is also playing a crucial role for retail, with the global market size projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2028, from $3.4 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 28%. AR and virtual reality (VR) allow brands to reconstruct physical stores to reinforce the customer journey by creating organized store flows and using sensory immersion at entry to increase customer lifetime value. It’s also important to note that IT leaders should be champions in realizing the vision and communications across channels. 

Future of Retail: Balancing AI Innovations and Brand Authenticity 

The integration of AI technologies is reshaping the retail landscape – from enhancing post-purchase support and optimizing inventory management to revolutionizing social commerce and content creation. These advancements, however, present challenges in maintaining brand authenticity, and retail leaders must provide the necessary curation and creative direction through AI risk management strategies.  

Generative AI and AI-powered advanced analytics present a powerful toolkit for brands to amplify their authentic voice and create personalized, accessible experiences across channels. However, brands should strike the right balance between leveraging AI’s capabilities and preserving the brand’s unique identity. This balance can be achieved by establishing clear guidelines and policies for ethical AI usage to keep a “human in the loop” approach, where AI augments human decision making rather than replacing it entirely. 

Ultimately, the successful integration of AI relies on the human element to provide the necessary oversight that ensures authenticity remains at the core of the brand voice. Retailers that harness the full potential of AI technologies while preserving their unique identity can thrive in the increasingly competitive and technologically driven marketplace.  

Interested in chatting more about leveraging AI to amplify your authentic brand voice? Connect with our digital analytics team and AI experts today. 

Coauthor and contributions from Hai Huang