AI Is Forcing Brands to Look Human Again

Every day I see the same comment appear under brand posts. Is this AI? That question tells the whole story. People no longer know what is real. Almost 90% of online content could be AI-generated by next year. Most of what they see feels smooth and finished, but also hollow. The distance between brands and people has widened.

When I look at this shift as a brand person, I don’t think it is about technology. I think it is about care. The more content we produce, the less time we spend showing care. AI has made that problem visible. It reminds us how easy it is to make something that looks perfect and means nothing.

Brands that understand this are embracing honest storytelling, highlighting skilled craftsmanship, and committing to ethical practices. Companies like Hermès, Berluti, and Brunello Cucinelli have made craftsmanship the centrepiece of their marketing strategy. They highlight hand-stitched seams and heritage-inspired collections as signals of values like patience, detail, and respect for tradition.

Burberry does it incredibly with their nostalgic pencil-sketched reels. These hand-drawn animations showcase the artist's process. Each sketch line becomes proof of human involvement. The fashion brand Reigns uses paper as a consistent visual language in their content. They keep that human touch that signals quality and effort.

Death to Stock understands this shift. With striking imagery, they create visuals that don’t just feel random but fit within your story. Fully licensed for creatives and by creatives, they decode cultural trends in real time on socials. Their catalogue is backed by what’s happening in the real world. Over 8,000 fully licensed visuals position them as the antidote to AI slop.

Recent data shows that around 71% of images shared on social media are already AI-generated. Most consumers draw conclusions about a brand based on imagery and graphics rather than text. When everything looks the same, the imperfect becomes precious. The oversaturated, glowy, uncanny valley look that defines AI slop has made audiences more sophisticated in detecting artificial content. Visual brand language now means more than colour palettes and typography. It means creating experiences that feel like rituals. Templates are efficient, but luxury demands experiences that feel like they belong only to that brand. The way a product zoom mimics the motion of turning jewellery in your hand. How filters unfold like a fan.

For years, art direction was about control. Every surface was corrected until it felt distant from real life. I think that era is ending. The next phase of visual branding will be about human rhythm—the slight unevenness that shows intention. That doesn’t mean brands should reject technology. It means they need to use it with awareness.

Studies already show that 62% of consumers are less likely to engage with AI-made content. People trust what feels made by hand.

I believe the future of strong brands will depend on how well they balance skill and sincerity. Images can be made by any tool, but judgment still belongs to people. The work that feels genuine will come from teams that understand when to stop editing.

Art direction used to be about making brands look bigger than they are. Now it is about making them look more human than they are. The brands that figure this out first will own the next decade. The ones that do not will disappear into the sea of perfect, forgettable AI content that nobody trusts. What people want now is to sense the person behind the screen. That presence has always been the core of brand trust. It only feels new again because we forgot how to show it.