Amid AI Boom, Tech Expert Says Companies Must Own Their Brand Voice

Beauty incubator Maesa had a problem. The company wanted to shoot an ad campaign for its fragrance brand Fine'ry that was authentic to its luxury feel, but it didn't have a luxury budget.

According to Maesa's Chief Brand Officer Oshiya Savur, that's where the "Maesa magic" mentality came in.

"We have the scale of a strategic...but then also at the same time, we are agile and nimble and creative, and we think like a startup," she told Newsweek in an interview. "It's that whole notion of roll up your sleeves, you're an entrepreneur, don't take no for an answer, see how high you can jump."

With that attitude, Savur said the creative team took on this challenge head-on. The company, which is backed by Bain Capital, has used AI for years, mostly for social media and consumer-targeted marketing. But in 2023, it started experimenting with generative AI. Maesa set aside $10,000 for the project, with the best-case scenario being "we surprise ourselves and it will work out."

"Our CEO [Piyush Jain] always says we're a company of dreamers and doers, so we dream big ideas and then we do them well," she said. "We do them bit-sized, and we create enough tests and learn and then go from there."

And the curiosity paid off. Instead of spending excessive time, money and energy to find a prime location, assemble a team, shoot and edit, Maesa used generative AI to create a marketing campaign for Fine'ry that highlighted the "unique DNA, superpower and purpose" of the brand.

The Fine'ry brand's mission is to make high-quality fragrances accessible by creating "beautiful, luxurious fragrances at a fraction of the price of designer brands," according to the company website.

Much of the brand's Instagram content features videos of the fragrance bottles in various landscapes made using AI tools. Creating a desert scene without having to shoot in an actual desert has saved time, money and resources for Maesa, Savur said.

The company also hosted a pop-up last April in New York City where over 2,000 people attended to walk through rooms with Fine'ry content made through generative AI.

"If there is one thing we've proven, it's that with a very smart team, you can create content that looks like it came out of expensive shoots but actually was significantly cheaper," she said. "And the quantum of content we're creating is significantly higher than if it were just through traditional means."

In the rapidly changing tech environment, businesses across every industry are trying to keep up with the latest in artificial intelligence.

Scott Lux is the executive vice president at Esprit Holdings and has worked as a leader in the technology, e-commerce and marketing space for over two decades at companies like American Express, Intermix and Theory.

He told Newsweek that artificial intelligence has brought several advancements to the retail space, helping companies access actionable data in a more meaningful way. This includes fine-tuning customer experiences and gaining insights that adjust products, pricing and marketing to best meet customer needs.

But while everyone in the business world is chasing the "shiny new object" of AI, Lux said companies need to go after the right tools for the right reasons.

"The brands that will win [will] drive more efficiency, a better customer experience and be more well informed from your data to make near real-time decisions," he said.

Lux said it's good for teams to experiment with AI, especially as it relates to saving time on day-to-day tasks. Tools can do the heavy lifting when writing report summaries or building decks, which saves time for strategizing, mystery shopping other brands or anything else that pushes the brand forward.

One of the biggest challenges for companies is navigating the increasingly crowded AI field and deciding whether to seek outside help or build an internal AI model.

Aaron Luo is the co-founder and CEO of the handbag company Caraa and the Spanish charcuterie brand Mercado Famous. Smaller companies like Luo's may not have the resources to hire engineers and build out AI teams, but he encourages them to remain vigilant.

"You have to be curious about what's happening on the technology front," he told Newsweek in an interview. "They might not be big enough to have a dedicated CTO or CMO, but be curious about what's out there."

Luo said that there are plenty of AI companies that can help with marketing or customer service or supply chains, "but nobody's able to pull all that together."

"I'm looking at whichever vendor can provide a holistic solution that scales using AI," he said.

Whether companies are building AI capabilities internally or seeking outside help, Scott Lux encourages teams to familiarize themselves with GPT [generative pre-training transformer] models to become conversant in AI and keep up with the latest AI news and trends.

Building out an internal governance team around AI to bring together different groups within the company also helps to determine possible AI use cases and impacts, which helps with overall transparency and prioritization.

Once there is a rough road map, Lux said, companies can start to determine whether to build AI tools in-house or leverage external partners.

"There are a lot of different capabilities out there, and you have to be clear and aligned internally about what we are solving for and how tech enables that solution," he said.

It is also important to remain true to the core values and mission of the company. Lux worries that moving marketing strategies from Google SEO to ChatGPT will cause brands to lose the emotional connection creative teams bring.

"I think there are advantages to it, but the concern is you lose that distinct element in some of the control you had as a brand within SEO or other platforms," he said. "In light of all the tech and AI, you really have to be crisp in owning your brand voice and what you stand for in that experience. That's the only thing that makes a brand unique, because you could pretty much start a new brand today directly in AI."

As AI continues to dominate the workplace, experts warn that it isn't always worthwhile for companies to innovate for innovation's sake. Lux said AI is most successful when there are "tangible business use cases" that are "needle-moving and impactful for the business as a whole."

At Maesa, Chief Brand Officer Oshiya Savur said the teams want to disrupt markets and put the best products forward.

"To become known for experiments that we are doing that are actually scaling and creating real value for the business, that is something we are really proud of," she said. "One thing we hold ourselves accountable to [is] how we're going to launch new, better [and] different [products], creating new solutions for customers in ways nobody has done. That's our living mantra and why we exist as a company."

Maesa will be one of many brands submitting to Newsweek's AI Impact Awards, which recognize unique and innovative AI solutions that solve critical issues or advance capabilities across various industries. The awards highlight measurable impacts AI delivers in various business operations, including marketing, customer experience, product development and supply chain optimization.

Entries are open until April 25, and finalists and winners will be announced in late May ahead of the AI Impact Summit in June. The panel of expert judges is led by Newsweek Contributing Editor Marcus Weldon, an AI scientist and former president of Bell Labs. Both Aaron Luo and Scott Lux are judges on the panel.

For more information on the event and entry guidelines, please visit the AI Impact Awards homepage.