AI can help brands churn out more content, faster. But quantity isn’t connection, says Think Folk’s Courtney Henderson. Brand love comes from stories with meaning, context and human spark – which only people can bring.
No one has ever said: “I love that brand – they’re so efficient at pumping out content.” So I’m going to ask you to humour me for a second. Take a breath, close your eyes and think about what brands you absolutely love.
Why do you love them? Chances are, it has something to do with their storytelling.
If you’re a marketer in New Zealand, whether you’re a one-person team, fresh in your career or a CMO, I’d hazard a guess you’re under pressure. Pressure to create content. Pressure to respond with more content. Pressure to optimise by producing even more content.
Missing richness and authenticity
We’ve been travelling down this path of “more, more, more” for some time, and it goes without saying that the intense and rapid rise of LLMs has accelerated it even further.
But this constant churn is a major problem for a number of reasons – one being the richness and authenticity of a brand’s story. Because while ChatGPT, Claude or any of your other AI friends can churn out words, images and even broad campaign concepts in seconds, they can’t create the lived experiences that make a story worth telling.
Maybe it’s the journey the winemaker has taken to establish their own winery, the travel and culture that influenced a designer’s new range or the humour, quirks and inside jokes that are built into a community. These stories are rooted in people and place. AI might be able to mimic the structure of a story, but it can’t understand why it matters – in that moment, to your audience, across the right channels and with all the nuance that makes it land.
Subtleties and context
When it comes to creativity, the same rule applies. Truly good marketing ideas are built from knowing your customer, understanding cultural shifts and picking up on the subtleties that shape how people might respond. It might be the difference between a reference that resonates in Auckland but misses in Hawke’s Bay, or knowing when your hot take will land and when it risks falling flat. Those calls can only be made by people who understand context.
Without human perspective, storytelling quickly becomes bland, safe and interchangeable. Do you want your brand to feel bland, safe or interchangeable? Unless you’re happy to be forgettable, probably not.
And we can’t forget the spark – that hard-to-pin-down magic we’ve all felt. The late-night conversation that spirals into a knock-it-out-of-the-park idea, the offhand comment that turns into a tagline, the laughing out loud during a campaign brainstorm, or that moment when you’re driving along in the car and the idea for this article pops into your head. These are human moments. And if you’ve been in the game for a while, you’ll know they’re where the best brand stories begin.
Use AI to protect creativity
Sure, AI can speed up repetitive work and free up time – an offer that’s too good to refuse for an under-pressure marketer. But the real opportunity for brands isn’t in using AI to replace creativity, it’s in using it to protect it. The edge won’t come from producing more content, faster. It will come from giving yourself space to choose quality over quantity, and telling stories with depth and originality, grounded in people, culture and experience.
AI can scale content. Only humans can create connection. And connection is what makes a
brand loved.
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 85, Dec 2025-Feb 2026. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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