The Winner of the AI Wars Will Be the Best Brand

To date, success in the nascent generative AI market has been driven by who has the best product. OpenAI brought LLMs into the mainstream with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. The comically techy name (even the CEO describes it as “horrible”) and unremarkable visual identity were almost irrelevant. And certainly didn’t harm its adoption. The combination of an extraordinary leap forward with an intuitive interface helped ChatGPT become the fastest-growing consumer application in history, surpassing 100 million monthly active users within three months of launch. Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, and Perplexity all offer broadly similar features and performance. The last 12 months have been characterized by a race to add features at a bewildering rate. Add in a proliferation of open-source products such as DeepSeek, and the days of winning through a markedly better product are probably over. But since then, the category has started to mature, and that clear product advantage has started to disappear. We’re already seeing that backed up by the numbers. OpenAI’s advantage has significantly eroded in the enterprise market, while Meta AI and Google Gemini have gained huge ground in terms of overall users. There comes a point where it’s no longer enough to build the best product. The winner will be the company with the strongest brand. The importance of brand language In the case of large language models, it’s only natural that the language itself should take the lead in defining the brand. And there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that people are choosing which model to use based on its tone. While ChatGPT and Gemini are more neutral, Claude’s default is more thoughtful and humanlike, and Grok is more candid. Outside of the product characteristics themselves, there’s still opportunity to create distinctiveness. The language of the category remains relatively bland and, in places, laughably technical. The model names in particular are generally impenetrable. How should a casual user decide whether to use GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, or GPT-4o mini-high? ‘Don’t make people think’ Tech brands in emerging categories are generally designed product-first. While some of the terminology might be inaccessible, their visual identities often take the opposite approach, following the time-honored product design principle of “don’t make people think.” OpenAI’s early visual brand followed this to a T: black and white, simple sans serif font, minimalist design, and an icon that feels instantly familiar. This approach worked wonders on launch, but now seemingly every nascent AI product has an iteration of the OpenAI icon (just search “AI” in the App Store). Recognizing this trend, OpenAI underwent a recent brand refresh that has the confidence and swagger of a market leader. This attitude was also reflected in its Super Bowl ad, which eschewed celebrities and mega-budget spectacle in favor of a distinctive, ownable visual language. Love it or hate it, what’s different gets noticed. Branding with conviction Anthropic has taken a step in the right direction. Its identity feels both distinctive for the category and coherent in its execution. The naturalistic tone of its LLM, Claude, is mirrored across the rest of the brand experience. Visually warmer, natural tones are complemented by a painterly illustrative style that feels welcoming. The tone is casual and more conversational. Even the model names are a little more evocative: Sonnet, Haiku, and Opus give you a clue as to their different purposes. As LLMs become more mainstream, the job of the brand becomes less about normalizing the product and more about helping it stand out. A better product will only get you so far if you’re not also prepared to commit to building a better brand.

Voice

The Winner of the AI Wars Will Be the Best Brand

Building the best product is no longer an AI firm's key differentiator.

Max Ottignon

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