Branding sits in a strange moment. AI floods every channel with faster, cheaper output, while trust feels thinner. This issue explores what still matters and how to build identity that cuts through the noise.

I’m Dustin Byerley, and I’ve spent 30 years developing authentic brands for big companies you know and smaller brands making meaningful impact in the world.

In this issue, we will:

• Talk about how it appears branding is dead

• Where the misconception came from

• And how we can advocate for meaningful branding in the AI age

Watch the video version of this week’s episode on YouTube → Subscribe.

Throughout 2025, the landscape has shifted. With AI now a mainstay for both large and small businesses, everyday audio, visual, image, and copy are now being generated with AI tools. This content creation, which used to be a specialty industry, is now available to anyone at a moment’s notice. Posts, taglines, images, and videos are being pumped out at increasing speed. You no longer have to find the talent, plan, pay, or wait for results. You just do it yourself, and it’s saving businesses a lot of time and money. Designers, marketing people, and brand developers are feeling the pinch. Calls simply aren’t coming in anymore, and it seems like, in just under a year, our entire industry has been wiped out. Branding is dead.

Or is it?

If perceived value or dollars are the indicator, then maybe, yes, it is dead, but the misconception lies here. Most people don’t even know what a brand is, how you build one, and why it really matters. The general view is that a brand is a logo, some about copy, and maybe some supporting visuals. But those are simply a few brand assets. Things that communicate aspects of the brand. But a brand isn’t something you see. A brand is how people feel about you. It’s their gut feeling about you at any given moment. Any of these media pieces that AI creates can’t define or manage that feeling people have about your brand.

Being loud, talking a lot, and being whiz-bang with tons of media output is not a brand; it’s a lot of noise. And if everyone is doing it, it’s just a lot of the same noise from everyone, and we find ourselves drowning in a lot of nonsense.

The art of expression, the art of identity, and the art of branding are nowhere to be found in generic AI output. AI is predictive output based on synthesized preexisting knowledge. It has the ability to generate unlimited output, but it is inherently only as original as what has already been done and as impactful as the user who guides it.

This means that even if the common person even understood what branding was, the best help you could get from AI is a homogenized brand based on existing brands, and even that is limited by the guidance of the knowledge of the person guiding the AI.

So basically, that’s a long way of saying: generic AI slop.

Let’s get to the root of this

Brands need defined identities before they become brands. How can AI tell you who you are? And if you don’t know, then what the hell are you saying to the world? This incongruence between who you are and what you’re saying becomes your brand. When people experience your brand, they sense this dissonance, and it’s off-putting. So you end up doing much more harm than good for your own brand.

It’s not to say AI can’t help. AI is actually a very powerful tool, and I’m a huge advocate of it. You just need to know that it’s a tool, and like any tool, it needs to be used in the right way in the right situation.

AI only helps once identity is clear and sets clear boundaries. It accelerates in ideation and outlines, can mimic styles from clear examples, create variations, and even on-brand images and visuals. But you have to know who you are, what you’re doing, and why. Without this foundation, you’re simply working really hard to screw your brand over. Lack of focus, lack of consistency, and lack of cohesion make you look like a fumbling fool. People can sense depth and value, and if you don’t put the work in, your brand is toast. These tools can be the kiss of death. And in this sense, AI is definitely killing branding, not just the industry, but brands themselves.

Human judgment still carries the work where it matters. Lived perspective, uncovering innate value, aligning vision, purpose, and context into lived coherence, is a hybrid art of observation, intuition, and expression, applied in the right channels at the right cultural moment, and is a living art that takes human consciousness to meaningfully move other humans’ consciousness. That’s real branding. And once the AI hype dies, any business wanting to stand out from the pack will invest even more into human-directed brand development. There is something essential that bridges human insight to human value.

What we’ll witness is a stage where brands drift toward look-alike content, decision quality weakens, trend alignment dulls experience, and dependency grows while distinctiveness thins. Yes, output rises, but at the cost of trust.

So how do we advocate for meaningful branding in the middle of all this chaos?

As an industry, we need to get educated and educate others. As business owners, it should be a sobering moment to take pause and consider if more output, when not totally clear on your identity or offer, is helping or hurting.

If branding is how people feel about you, then you should probably get really clear about who you are and how you present yourself. Get in touch with your innate value and learn how to articulate that value, that offer to the world, in an honest, focused, and compelling way.

So, did AI kill branding? It’s killing branding jobs from businesses that don’t understand the importance of branding, and it will most likely kill their own brands by turning them into indistinguishable noise. And for the brand developers waiting on the sidelines while the hype builds and dies, it’s a time to go deeper into identity. Not visual identity but the artform of uncovering the human truth behind someone’s purpose or vision.

If you are a business owner or brand developer looking to dig deeper into the future of branding, and how to stand out or reposition yourselves while the market loses itself in the illusion, you can book a 1:1 consultation with me to help guide you to the next level.

I’ll see you next Monday for more identity insight.

WEEKLY EXERCISE

Reflect on what you are putting out to the world. Is it human-rooted and human-directed, or has the convenience of AI commandeered your brand’s direction? Identify a few steps you can take this week to re-humanize your brand.

AROUND THE STUDIO

Authentic Alchemy Premiers on YouTube

I am excited to announce the launch of my YouTube channel as part of our weekly exploration into authentic expression. A new episode drops every Monday, delivered as a video, a newsletter, and Shorts on Instagram and Facebook.

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dustinbyerley
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustin.byerley

SHARE THE JOURNEY

If someone in your life is navigating purpose, creativity, or building something meaningful—they're welcome here. Simply copy and paste the section below and text or email it to them. Thank you!

LET’S CONNECT

Book a 1:1 Identity, Branding or Creative Session with Dustin Byerley
https://dustinbyerley.com/services/brand-business-consultation

Book Dustin for brand development or mindful AI media integration.
Contact our project manager, Heidi: [email protected]

Weekly Identity + Branding Insight on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@dustinbyerley

Learn more about my work and read testimonials
www.dustinbyerley.com

Identity + Branding Updates on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/dustin.byerley

Identity + Branding Insight on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581547743147

Share or subscribe to the free Authentic Alchemy Newsletter
https://dustinbyerley.beehiiv.com

Authentic Alchemy Philosophy

A Framework for Becoming

Authentic Alchemy is a structured process for uncovering and expressing the core identity of any entity, whether a brand, business, leader, or individual. It emerged from the realization that the principles of brand science offer powerful tools for guiding any entity toward its highest expression.

Every entity holds innate value, though it’s often hidden by emotional patterning, inherited beliefs, and social pressures. These internal blocks can stifle genuine expression across personal, relational, and business contexts, masking the true value of your unique offering to the world. For those ready to explore meaningful self-discovery, Authentic Alchemy provides the clarity, structure, and tools necessary to uncover and clearly articulate this genuine identity.

Our core principle, Truth, realigns an entity into a state of homeostasis where it can begin to function with ease, embodying its vital character, unique perspectives, and genuine ways of being. Empathy deepens this connection by recognizing that expression is inherently relational. It attunes entities to how others experience their offer, ensuring the message is received clearly and resonates meaningfully. Together, truth and empathy create resonance, an undeniable frequency that naturally attracts alignment and connection. This resonance creates coherence, a natural alignment between identity and expression that fosters genuine magnetism.

Drawing from diverse frameworks, Authentic Alchemy also integrates tools and insights from ancient and esoteric traditions alongside proven brand science, broadening its impact into a holistic dimension. This approach marks a clear break from conventional methods that rely on superficial appeal or manipulation. When your innate value is aligned with truth and resonance, success becomes intrinsic and inevitable. Any distortion or inauthenticity disrupts this natural resonance, which is why the process must begin and remain rooted in truth.

The result? You become more than visible. You become inevitable. When you achieve this level of coherence, you naturally attract the right people, opportunities, and outcomes because you're operating from a place of effortless authority.

Authentic Alchemy connects core identity to how it is experienced in the world. It moves from self-discovery to full expression, translating essence into clear language, visuals, and presence. This is identity as signal, turning purpose into impact.

KeepeSmiling :)