EE: Adding focus to AI, it’s the rise of the Brand Bots

By ARTHUR GERMAIN //

As a writer, editor and brand architect, it feels like I’m supposed to defend humanity from the onslaught of AI like I’m the hero in a dystopian sci-fi movie – but I kind of enjoy the AIs.

Sure, they make things up. They get things wrong. And they can’t quite seem to help themselves from offering to follow up with more after a task: “Would you like me to turn this discussion into a 10-slide PowerPoint deck that you can share with your prospective clients?”

The biggest challenge that I’ve heard from my own clients and peers often revolves around focus. How can they use AI without falling down a rabbit hole or becoming distracted by multiple ideas?

My answer was to use AI to build some focused tools – a series of Brand Bots, in my case, each with a specific task.

For example, in my book “The Art of Brandtelling,” I discuss a paper-and-pen tool I use to determine brand tone of voice. I used Claude to turn that analog process into a simple interface, the Brand Voice Shifter. Now you can analyze where your brand voice currently sits across five strategic axes and adjust it to match your positioning strategy. If it doesn’t “sound” quite right, you can adjust a shifter to see what changes you need to make.

In this case, the tool has one function: read the copy you give it and display where that copy sits on my 5×5 scales, using only two small API calls to Claude in the background.

After pasting this article into the tool, here is what it returned: “This voice is predominantly conversational, contemporary and friendly with accessible language that makes professional concepts approachable. The author positions themselves as a relatable guide navigating AI’s practical challenges with humor and hands-on solutions rather than theoretical debates.”

Grammar issues aside – I think it wants me to be more than a single author – that’s pretty on the mark.

The Brand Voice Shifter is one of six Brand Bots I’ve launched. Each one has a single task – from converting complex file formats to simple markdown (so you don’t waste credits when using your AI of choice) to helping you develop a unique brand voice through a Category of One Intensive (I created a virtual assistant to ask you and your team a series of questions to get to the heart of what makes your company different).

Perhaps the most useful tool is my Brandtelling Story Builder. It takes you through a series of questions to uncover what makes your voice unique – what you like and dislike when creating copy, words you use and words you choose to avoid. It then develops a personalized skill file that you can upload into your favorite Chat AI.

This skill file makes your Chat usage sound more in-line with your language. It’s not perfect and it still can’t run off and write a novel for you, but it works well when you’ve written something yourself and asked it to review your copy. It finds grammatical errors and offers suggestions based on your own preferences, rather than some random guidance.

For example, I’m aware that seeing an em dash in copy these days makes some people go crazy (“The AIs are coming! The AIs are coming! Hide your copy!”). So I have instructed my skill file to check for my own usage. I like em dashes – they set off copy in a way that commas just can’t or won’t – so sometimes I skip this “guidance.” But it’s nice to have it read through.

In short, focus is the way to make the most of your AI usage, in my opinion. By using tools designed to achieve a single task where an AI can provide assistance, you avoid the AI-pocalypse everyone is so worried about.

I hope.

Most of my Brand Bots are free and all of them are easy to use. Give them a try right here.

Arthur German is principal and chief brandteller at Brandtelling in East Northport.