AI and Brand Management: Promises and Perils

As AI gains traction across industries, companies anticipate that AI will revolutionize both backend processes and customer-facing interactions—with brands eager to leverage AI for tailored marketing materials and automated consumer engagements. Yet, despite a dramatic market expansion from 2023 to 2024, high-profile incidents in consumer-facing applications revealed critical limitations, generating viral backlash and jeopardizing long-cultivated brand equity. Showcasing the experiences of brands such as Google, Levi Strauss & Co., The LEGO Group, Intuit, the case highlights the promise of AI alongside its perils. While some companies successfully leveraged AI to reinforce core brand values and differentiate from competitors, others seemed to suffer severe reputational damage when AI’s outputs proved offensive, factually incorrect, or incongruent with their brand identities. By contrasting breakthrough successes with high-profile mishaps, the case invites discussion about when and how companies should deploy AI in ways that boost rather than erode brand equity.