Key Points:
- AI is leveling the playing field in business.
Smaller companies can now compete with large corporations by leveraging affordable AI tools for branding and marketing. - Speed is the new branding advantage.
In the AI era, success in branding hinges on how quickly businesses can adapt, create, and respond to change. - Human creativity still matters.
AI can generate content fast, but true branding impact comes from blending emotional intelligence with technology. - The future favors agile thinkers.
Businesses and professionals who combine creative insight with AI capabilities will lead the next wave of branding innovation.
The business world is going through a massive shakeup right now, and AI is the driving force behind it. If you’re wondering what this means for your company’s brand and future, you’re not alone.
The End of Corporate Giants
Let’s face it – those massive corporations with thousands of employees? Their days might be numbered. Industry experts are seeing a future where even the biggest companies might operate with just hundreds of people, while actually growing faster and making more money.
This isn’t just about cutting costs. It’s a complete flip of what we’ve always believed about business success. Being big used to be an advantage, but AI is changing the game. Now, being smaller and more nimble might actually give you the edge.
The AI Branding Revolution
Marketing guru Mark Schafer nailed it when he said future success in branding will come down to one thing: speed. How quickly can you adapt? How fast can you respond to market changes? These questions matter more than ever.
The really exciting part? AI tools are so affordable that smaller companies can now go toe-to-toe with the giants. You don’t need a massive team or budget anymore to create impactful branding that resonates with your audience.
The Industry Impact of AI Branding
When Sam Altman from OpenAI claimed that 95% of what companies hire agencies and creative professionals for will soon be handled by AI “easily, nearly instantly, and at almost no cost,” it sent shockwaves through the industry.
While that prediction might be a bit extreme, it points to a major shift in how branding works. As bigger companies downsize and smaller ones gain ground, we’re seeing a whole new landscape emerge.
The Future of AI in Branding
Here’s the truth that many are missing: despite all these incredible AI tools, there’s still a huge need for human expertise. AI can create content quickly, but it often misses the soul of what makes branding work.
The real winners in this new world will be those who can blend:
- Creative human insight and emotional intelligence
- Technical know-how with cutting-edge AI tools
- The ability to pivot quickly as technology evolves
For smaller businesses, this is your moment. You can now compete with the big players, but you’ll need to be smart about how you approach branding in this AI-powered landscape.
For branding professionals, don’t fear AI – embrace it! There’s an incredible opportunity for those who can merge timeless branding principles with AI’s speed and efficiency. The future belongs to those who can think deeply but move quickly.
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Podcast Transcript:
Mike Carr (00:04):
We’re going to talk about how AI is going to eradicate big companies. The days of most companies needing tens of thousands of employees, I believe, and I think others do too, it’s coming to an end with AI and robotics and other tech companies that had tens of thousands of folks are actually going to be able to grow faster and deliver more profits to the bottom line with perhaps just hundreds of employees. And if they don’t downsize, if they don’t lean into technology, competitors that do that are faster and nimbler and agile are going to put ’em out of business. Big companies historically have been slow. They’ve been bureaucratic, but their big size has given them an advantage in the past. I don’t believe this is the case any longer. Their large size is going to be their greatest competitive disadvantage. It’s going to be a weakness to be big.
(01:13):
AI is going to be this great leveler. Here’s something I’ve thought about that I think is significant. AI not just removes the size advantage, it actually reverses it. That’s a big deal in most industries because historically, that scale, that reach, that depth of resources has been able, the big companies to outcompete, that’s no longer going to be the case. Small has almost always been more agile and more nimble. Mark Schafer, who’s written a number of books and is sort of a guru in this space, has talked about how in the future, the best marketers, the best branders, the best sales folks. It’s all going to be about speed. This pace, this need to increase the general acceleration, the speed of business is going to become so important. And because AI is so cheap, there’s no barrier to entry. So the small companies that have historically been the nimbler, the more agile, the faster can use AI to make up for the deficiencies that they’ve had in the past compared to the big companies.
(02:33):
And the big companies can also use AI to replace a lot of the employees, A lot of the folks that have skill sets that AI can now do, or at least supplement or compliment. Now, Sam Altman said here a few months ago, and this is a well-known quote when he was talking about AI. AI will mean that 95% of what use agencies and strategists and creative professionals for today, 95% will easily, nearly instantly, and at almost no cost be handled by AI. So Sam is one of the big guys at OpenAI, and he’s one of the industry visionaries, but there’s been some disagreement and pushback about AI over the next couple of years, eliminating 95% of these jobs. What I think should be added to Sam’s statement is 95% of what marketers at big companies use agencies and strategists and creative that will be eliminated.
(03:46):
Why? Because they’re going away. The marketers at these big companies aren’t going to be at big companies anymore, but there’s an opportunity. Where are they going to go? Just like AI is going to eliminate a lot of the big companies, at least they won’t have nearly as many employees. There’s going to be an explosion of these small companies that can’t effectively compete with companies that have historically been much larger than them. So a lot of these folks are either going to be on their own, or they’re going to go to work for some of these smaller companies, and they’re going to be all kinds of mistakes made at these smaller companies, right? Because AI is seductive in how easy it seemingly makes writing great copy or doing something cool in social media. It makes it fast. It makes it easy, but misses some very foundational and fundamental things.
(04:47):
So the opportunity and almost this new industry that I think is going to be created are marketers who combine that creative, that artistic, that craft ability that historically has been such an important part of what agencies have delivered with an awareness and an ability to leverage AI and technology and pivot quickly and stay up to date with the newest apps, the newest agents that run on top of the LLMs. This is something very different, right? It’s the combination of this creative with this ability to accelerate that creative and leverage that creative with the technology and the pace of change. This is a new industry, and the need for this industry is going to be coming from all these new small businesses that now can compete with the larger companies, but they’re not necessarily competing the right way because they’re trying to go down what just AI tells it, and they don’t have the domain expertise in branding or in naming or in marketing or in sales to do it right. So the opportunity for us is huge, and I actually want to thank AI for this opportunity. We are going to see an explosion of jobs and careers and excitement for those that can embrace both the way it used to be done, that craft side, that creative, that think thoughtful thinking, pondering about the best solutions, but then accelerating it with the technology, the speed, and the efficiencies that AI bring to the table. Lots of disruption, lots of change, and lots of opportunity for those that can move quickly. See you next week.
