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  • July–August 2025
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review

Don’t Let an AI Failure Harm Your Brand

By: Julian De Freitas
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:8
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Abstract

How companies market their AI systems affects the repercussions they face when their products fail. Marketers must promote their AI products with potential failure in mind. To do that, they must first understand consumers’ unique attitudes toward AI. Marketers who avoid the five pitfalls of promoting AI—people tend to blame AI first, view one AI failure as contaminating other AIs, place more blame on companies that overstate AI capabilities, judge humanized AI more harshly, and become outraged by programmed preferences—will limit the damage caused by AI failures.

Keywords

AI and Machine Learning; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Attitudes

Citation

De Freitas, Julian. "Don’t Let an AI Failure Harm Your Brand." Harvard Business Review 103, no. 4 (July–August 2025): 126–133.
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About The Author

Julian De Freitas

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • June 2025
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    AI and Brand Management: Promises and Perils

    By: Julian De Freitas and Elie Ofek
    • June 2025
    • Nature Machine Intelligence

    Unregulated Emotional Risks of AI Wellness Apps

    By: Julian De Freitas and Glenn Cohen
    • June 2025
    • Journal of Consumer Research

    Ideation with Generative AI—In Consumer Research and Beyond

    By: Julian De Freitas, G. Nave and Stefano Puntoni
More from the Author
  • AI and Brand Management: Promises and Perils By: Julian De Freitas and Elie Ofek
  • Unregulated Emotional Risks of AI Wellness Apps By: Julian De Freitas and Glenn Cohen
  • Ideation with Generative AI—In Consumer Research and Beyond By: Julian De Freitas, G. Nave and Stefano Puntoni
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