Brand identity in the age of a billion AI agents
The opportunity is in front of us – reinforcing trust, brand values, and brand character while leveraging AI + blockchain technology.
One of the surprises from the most recent conversations I’ve had on this subject with builders, creators, and brand leaders is how few people are really aware of how fast this change is coming and how we’ll build for it. While there’s a growing awareness of its importance, the constant pressure of day-to-day demands make it challenging to keep up with building for what is next.
We’ve gotten used to advancements being teased and then not happening for decades. That isn’t happening now. UX complaints about the complexity of managing crypto assets are disappearing with every passing day. Wallets acting as onboarding to entire ecosystems of services like Phantom’s wallet or Coinbase’s Smart Wallet are setting new standards.
And even with all the attention AI is getting, very few people have accepted that in the next 6 to 18 months every human being with $50 and access to the internet will have PhD-level AI guides for everything they need to do. Advancements in AI generated media and applications built with decentralized computation are here now – think about thousands of idle or specifically built computers around the world rendering 3D assets for your game or app so your computer or mobile device doesn’t have to.
10x more productivity. 10x more opportunity. And 10x more applications for your communities to engage with.
“When we reach PhD-level AI agents, it is likely to trigger what is known as an “intelligence explosion” wherein AI is programming the next level of AI.”
– Peter Diamandis
Let me lay out some more landscape for you. It was only November of 2023 that the first wave of commercially available LLMs (Large Language Models) began to produce significant outcomes for average users. Today, these models are getting cheaper, faster, and more intelligent with each release.
The second most recent model from OpenAI, GPT 4.o, demonstrates a notable improvement over GPT-4 with increased accuracy and precision in generating contextually relevant responses, enhanced handling of ambiguous queries, and superior multimodal (involving multiple forms of input or output, such as voice, text, images, etc.) capabilities.
You only need to ask yourself, in the future will there be fewer transactions online or more? The answer is obviously more. Not just from people, but from all of the of AI agents and bots that will run tasks for you personally and for your business.
“Our vision is that there should be a lot of different AI out there and AI services, not just one singular AI… I think we’re going to live in a world where there are going to be hundreds of millions or billions of different AI agents eventually, probably more AI agents than there are people in the world.”
“Every business in the future, just like they have an email address, a website, and a social media presence today, is going to have an AI agent that their customers can talk to in the future.”
– Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Meta
Imagine wallet domains and AI agent ID tokens working just like official domains for business websites. These blockchain-based domains give you a unique, verifiable identity in the Web3 world, making transactions and interactions smooth and secure.
Just as a website domain signals a business’s online presence, your wallet domain will become your digital identifier. Meanwhile, AI agent ID tokens will ensure your AI agents operate safely and transparently, much like SSL certificates for websites.
In this new world, long term relationships are supported by a long term data storage system – if it’s on chain, it’s on chain for the life of the chain. For as long as your community has access to their wallets, they can access and accrue and share and engage with rewards. If they have a single token, they can have access to apps you create, events you throw, special services you offer, and AI personalities that you create.
Style guides, tone of voice guides, personas, and now soon, AI personality guides to ensure the characteristics of your brand are imbued in the AI personalities you choose to represent you. Online, in applications, at kiosks and installations and every other brand touchpoint.
Important ways to think about blockchain technologies
Let’s look at simple ways to think about this tech and how to position your business early to take advantage.
- Internet Next: Read Write Own
- Authenticated identity
- Programmable money
- The currency your robots are using
Internet Next: Read Write Own
In Web 2.0, large corporations act as gatekeepers, monetizing user data by collecting, analyzing, and selling it to advertisers. Users have limited control over their personal information, which often results in privacy concerns and exploitation. In contrast, Web3, powered by blockchain technology, shifts this paradigm by enabling true data ownership. Users have control over their data, deciding when, how, and to whom it is shared.
This fosters a more equitable internet where concepts of ownership are redefined, empowering individuals to engage with platforms of their own choosing – based on the value being offered or the personalities that offer them. This shift promotes greater privacy, security, and user autonomy.
Authenticated Identity
Blockchain technology ensures secure, verifiable digital identities that are tamper-proof and can be authenticated without centralized authorities. This enhances privacy, reduces fraud, and simplifies identity verification processes across various online services and platforms.
Programmable Money
Cryptocurrencies revolutionize financial interactions by using smart contracts. These self-executing contracts operate on transparent, immutable code, enabling a wide array of automated financial activities. Imagine creating decentralized insurance policies that automatically disburse claims when predefined conditions are met, or launching complex financial instruments like derivatives and loans without intermediaries. Programmable money also supports microtransactions, subscription services, and royalties that can be distributed instantly and fairly. This automation not only reduces the risk of human error and fraud but also opens up innovative business models and revenue streams previously unimaginable, all while ensuring transparency and trust.
The Currency Your Robots Are Using
Blockchain-based currencies enable AI agents to seamlessly transact on behalf of small business owners in various scenarios. These digital currencies allow AI systems to manage subscriptions, transfer funds, and consider preferences and transaction dates autonomously. For instance, an AI agent could handle monthly software subscriptions, automatically pay suppliers, or manage payroll, ensuring transactions are executed on time and according to predefined preferences. This enhances efficiency and allows business owners to focus on strategic tasks, knowing that routine financial transactions are managed reliably and securely.
What are brand leaders thinking?
Many brand creators and leaders are still coming to terms with these swift advancements. To explore how they’re preparing for this shift, I asked several industry leaders how they are thinking about branding right now.
Question:
When advising companies about best practices for branding, are you including considerations for how customer-facing AI agents will represent brand characteristics?
Nick Hall, Human Brand Experience Group | behuman.ca
Absolutely, and there are two facets to consider. First is understanding which of the brand touchpoints are most appropriate for AI implementation. As a bit of a rule, more personal or important touchpoints (in the customer’s eyes) are poor candidates for AI.
Second is considering how the AI being implemented can be tailored (or coached) to reflect the brand personality and support the promise.
Marc Stoiber, Brands Investors Love | brandsinvestorslove.com
I find myself working much more in strategy than creative execution these days, but one truth still rules all: the customer’s experience needs to be good, and consistent. If the customer is interacting with a chatbot, that means the chatbot needs to actually engage – not point people to a menu of ‘helpful links’ and run away. In my personal experience, most chatbots fall woefully short. If your chatbot doesn’t feel like a real human who gives a crap about me, you’re making it hard for me to like you – and you’re making it easier for me to tell all my friends that you have crap customer service.
Ken Chong, Scale Projects | scaleprojects.ca
When advising companies on branding best practices, I’m 100% addressing the future technological landscape and what that may mean to them and their business. One essential is, of course, how customer-facing AI agents will be engaging with potential clients and existing customers alike. We’ve stopped talking about business card stock weight and blind debasing, and now we’re ensuring we understand brand tone of voice, and ensuring that AI reflects the brand’s personality and responds in a style that aligns with the brand’s values and messaging.
Our end goal remains the same, building a brand that remains consistent across all consumer touchpoints in the aim of fostering trust and loyalty among consumer audiences. Incorporating brand characteristics into AI interactions helps with that, and by humanizing the technology, we make it more relatable and engaging for customers.
Question:
In your opinion, what is one thing every brand over 5 years old should be doing right now but isn’t?
Nick Hall
Figure out where they can use AI to amplify their brand offering, not just to make their business processes more efficient, less expensive, faster, or better. It will require imagination and a steadfast understanding of what the brand represents, but the results will be well worth it. There’s sustainability in achieving this as well.
Marc Stoiber
Every brand – period – should understand why it exists in the world. What is the change it’s trying to make, and who is it working hard to serve? That’s a fancy way of saying ‘value proposition’. In my capacity running Brands Investors Love, I talk to a lot of investors. They say the #1 thing startup founders forget is their value prop. How could they all be missing this?
Ken Chong
We are at an exciting time in history; this moment marks a significant milestone in technological and societal growth; the rate of which, we have not seen since the advent of the internet itself. In my opinion, every brand over 5 years old should be going through an internal brand audit to understand where they are, so they can prepare for where they will need to go. This is especially true for brands who take aim at the increasingly digitally-savvy audiences of Millennials and Gen Z.
I recommend focusing on innovations, both in products and branding efforts, to ensure continued relevance and appeal in this fast-evolving market.
Question:
If you could only give one piece of branding advice to build a successful identity going into the next decade for a fresh new startup, what would it be?
Nick Hall
Positioning. Take a good hard look at who you’re going up against and make sure that you are meaningfully differentiated in comparison, and then own the shit out of that differentiation.
Marc Stoiber
One piece of branding advice? Build a community. Reach out to people who love you, and ask what you mean to them. Too many brands are built in an ivory tower. If you build yours with real input from real people, you’ll be more relevant to the people who love you – and more interesting.
Ken Chong
Advice I would give to a fresh startup would be to build a brand with purpose, learn storytelling, and speak with authenticity.
Today’s landscape is an increasingly competitive and values-driven marketplace, consumers are gravitating towards brands that have a clear purpose beyond just making a profit. Their purpose should resonate with their target audience and reflect the core values and mission of the company. Whether it’s a commitment to sustainability, innovation, community involvement, or other causes, having a well-defined brand purpose can differentiate your startup and set the foundation for a strong connection with their consumers.
Storytelling is social currency. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, so brands who can effectively tell stories and engage audiences win screen time. Executing your storytelling in a genuine and authentic way is how you exchange that social currency for cash.
Experiment now, like right now, today.
“The paid media landscape has changed quite a bit over the past 2 years for us, especially in the tech sector. We’ve seen reductions in experimentation campaigns, or initiatives that are more involved, like sponsored content and sponsorships. Resources have been constrained within marketing departments so they have resorted to consolidating spend back towards search and programmatic exchange buying. Some of the decision making around budgets has also shifted away from CMO’s and marketing leaders over to CFO’s as part of a more holistic fiscal approach as spending has been pulled in from the ‘free money’ era of ‘21 & ‘22”
– Andrew Dertinger, Buy Sell Ads | buysellads.com
For most businesses budgets are tighter, hiring inconsistent, teams overburdened. Yet now is exactly the right time to start experimenting, building and planning for what is coming – choosing one area to focus on makes this easier. Maximum value created for a targeted community that will engage with your brand in entirely new ways.
The tools we’re building now, Transmitter Studios and our partner companies, will make it easier to add AI functionality to critical customer-facing applications, use data collected by AIs within those apps, and read & write blockchain data. All to build better performing, and more engaging community tools.
- Targeted community-building campaigns
- Loyalty reward programs
- Tokenization of every kind through data rich Progressive Web Apps
Imagine being able to engage a verified customer that opens emails from your mailing list, signs into your application, has data in your CRM, and can be rewarded for all of that with crypto in your loyalty program. We can do that.
Now also imagine:
- A decrease in fraud/misallocated rewards.
- Higher lifetime value per customer.
- Community participation and advocacy you’ve only dreamt of.
- Your brand’s character engaging with your community on a level never seen before.
This is worth repeating: long term relationships are supported by a long term data storage system – if it’s on chain, it’s on chain for the life of the chain. For as long as your community has access to their wallets, they can access and accrue and share and engage with rewards. If they have a single token, they can have access to apps you create, events you throw, special services you offer, and AI personalities you create.
Let’s talk about what to build for you right now.