Jemma Lightfoot, Director and Head of Brand Health Tracking, Ipsos
In the rapidly evolving landscape of brand management, artificial intelligence (AI) has introduced a new, often invisible touchpoint for brands.
Consumers now rely on large language models (LLMs) for information, advice, and inspiration on products and services, reshaping the path to purchase.
This technological shift presents both opportunities and challenges, calling for a dual focus on AI and human intelligence (HI) to drive growth and build lasting value.
Master AI search: control your narrative with GEO
AI is not just a tool; it has become an environment where brand perceptions are formed and solidified. The era of search engine optimisation (SEO) is evolving into generative engine optimisation (GEO), where brands must ensure their narratives are accurately represented in AI-generated answers.
As a result, it is necessary for brands to do the following:
• Conduct a GEO audit: Understand your brand’s performance with generative AI for a competitive edge.
• Identify consumer queries: Leverage intelligence to map consumer questions about your category.
• Collect AI responses: Gather data on AI-generated answers to understand brand visibility and sentiment.
• Optimise for influence: Ensure your content is authoritative and AI-friendly to be recognised by AI models.
Use AI for scale and humans for truth
Brands need to leverage AI tools for speed while grounding strategy in real human insight to ensure accuracy and avoid bias. Australians are sceptical about companies using AI to protect their personal data, with only 33% agreeing that they trust that companies that use AI will protect their personal data (and 58% disagreeing)*.
This highlights the need for transparency and a clear value proposition when implementing AI in Australia.
Ensure you invest in human intelligence and prioritise qualitative, ethnographic, and cultural insights to uncover the human stories behind numbers. And communicate the AI value proposition transparently: be clear about the benefits of AI for consumers.
Win with ‘HI+AI’: scale AI with human empathy
The future of brand management lies in integrating AI with human empathy. Brands that master this duality will thrive by using AI to listen more intently, understand more deeply, and connect more meaningfully.
This is particularly important in Australia, given that our global research shows Australians (more than in other markets) prefer human-driven content over AI-generated content.
How HI + AI can be achieved
• Focus on human-centric content: Prioritise authentic, empathetic storytelling to build trust.
• Invest in cultural understanding: Move beyond demographics to explore the underlying tensions and values shaping consumer behaviour.
• Use empathy to drive growth: Creative ideas grounded in empathy are significantly more likely to drive brand choice, according to Ipsos’ meta-analysis.
• Build brand closeness: Emotional bonds with brands drive higher spending, where people spend up to seven times more on brands they feel close to^.
Build trust through creativity
Finally, invest in bold, human-centric creativity that machines cannot replicate. Brands that succeed are those that adopt AI with respect and a keen focus on serving their human audiences.
Double down on human-centric brand assets and nurture bold, emotional, and unmistakably human ideas.
The future of brand management lies in successfully integrating AI with human empathy. Brands that adopt AI purposefully and respect human engagement will succeed in creating meaningful connections.
Sources: *Ipsos AI monitor 2025 – a 30-country Ipsos Global Advisor Survey – June ’25
^ Ipsos meta-analysis global brand value creator database