Visual Appeal, Personalisation and Convenience: Why Brands Lean on AI-Generated Content
By Dr Pritee Saxena ( Senior Director & Campus Head, IBS Mumbai)& Dr Priyanka Dhingra (Associate Dean, IBS Mumbai)
Consumers in their brand consciousness talk about the value of authenticity and look for brand promise. They admire brands that feel honest, grounded, and human. Messages that reflect everyday lives, real emotions, and cultural nuances earn loyalty quickly. People in India have always built trust through slice of life stories drawn from day to day lives of family, neighbours, colleagues, and now Influencers. This is why founder-led brands such as Mamaearth, boAt, and Sugar Cosmetics gained the trust of consumers fast. The founders of these brands openly shared their journey through their struggles and motivations. These heartfelt informal narratives connected with consumers because they felt real.
Additionally, genuineness is closely related to the emotive style of storytelling in India, because it reflects the common man’s life. Advertisements such as Tanishq’s remarriage commercial, Cadbury’s “Not Just a Cadbury Ad,” and Surf Excel’s “Daag Achhe Hain” struck an emotional chord. Consumers also grew increasingly conscious of overly idealistic marketing over time. They promptly point out exaggerated claims as unrealistic. This has led to consumers wanting truthful narratives.
The Visual appeal has overtaken the Cognitive ability
Though consciously valuing authenticity, customers are consuming AI-generated content because of easy access, speed and fresh appeal. To make matters worse, impatience and shrinking attention spans are making it more and more addictive with every passing day. No doubt AI has made things easy to instantly generate multiple versions of any content and update it to catch up with trends.
AI-driven customisation adds another perspective to addictive consumption. E-commerce apps like Instagram, YouTube etc continuously track the consumers’ usage behavior. Q-Com services like Swiggy and Zomato send engaging content using AI. Fast fashion brands like Myntra make recommendations using sophisticated AI tools. And Influencers add another layer to the ecosystem, one that isn’t always easy to unpack.
Similarly, providers across food, travel, and beauty categories heavily depend on AI tools to create crisp graphics and high impact layouts. As a result, consumers enjoy the content even if it is AI generated.
The Indian Paradox
Which aspect of human Self-concept do these cues appeal to? Is it Actual, Ideal, Social or Extended Self of the consumer persona? Or is it just mindless consumption driven by addictive behaviour. Whatever it might be – it is powering consumption, market share and shaping the growth narrative. A lot of consumption is coming from the bottom of the pyramid consumers giving rise to the expanding businesses of Blinkit, Rapido and Snabbit. These platforms erase the regret of time and distance and make everyone feel equal by offering similar advantages. Brands often share “customer stories” that begin as real experiences but are enhanced through AI support to improve the narrative. The emotional core stays intact, but the delivery becomes smoother.
Crisis communication
Crisis communication is another domain where authenticity is non-negotiable however in order to generate quick impact, AI-driven puffery often crosses into exaggeration. This is where the need for strong regulations is felt, to avoid tampering with human emotions. To support this when brands face backlash, audiences expect human intervention that cannot be substituted by AI generated content. Consumers want real assurance, not automation. Authenticity becomes the real currency of trust. But not to undermine AI generated content as it is here to stay. It provides entertainment, information, routine communication, simple how-to videos that do not rely on emotional storytelling.
Conclusion
The way forward is to combine authenticity and AI technology intelligently to protect the consumer from the pitfalls of unchecked consumption. Hence brands should safeguard the art of storytelling that blends cultural understanding, emotional insight, and a compelling idea that forms the USP of the brand, delivered responsibly with the support of AI.
Dr. Pritee Saxena – Senior Director and Campus Head – IBS Mumbai
Dr. Priyanka Mathur Dhingra – Associate Dean – SDCC – IBS Mumbai