A recent report shows what might be the biggest shift in the history of consumer activity: AI is starting to take over shopping. Everything your business has done to build brand loyalty is at stake.
AI agents “can behave differently from human shoppers: they prioritize price, user ratings, delivery speed, and real-time inventory over brand familiarity or loyalty,” Boston Consulting Group reports. “This has the potential to reshape how retailers compete and how purchase decisions are made.”
There’s no time to waste in meeting this new reality. This year, 52% of consumers plan to use generative AI for online shopping, according to Adobe. Some will use it to simply get a list of options, and may pick their favourite brand from among them. But when they see those options listed together without brand identities or logos, price is even more likely to be the differentiator.
And soon, agentic AI will take on even more of the buying process. It’s like having “a personal shopper who deeply understands your preferences, lifestyle, and budget, effortlessly curating tailored product recommendations from thousands of options,” BCG says. “Your shopper seamlessly anticipates your needs, secures the best prices, and completes transactions autonomously.”
The way business works today, organizations will lose a lot through “disintermediation,” in which consumers bypass a brand’s e-commerce platform altogether, the report adds. “The growth of zero-click search and agent-driven interactions is eroding direct traffic—along with the retailer’s ability to observe, influence, and understand consumer behaviour at scale.”
There are steps businesses can and must take now to prepare.
Your Own Agentic Experiences
The most important step is to create your own platforms that make consumers want to come directly to you. These platforms must offer all the same end-to-end shopping as third party AI applications like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
The good news is that your business has a big advantage in this battle: proprietary information about customers. By combining that information with the power of AI, you can provide experiences that make people want to shop there.
Building an agentic experience requires taking all the data you have about each individual customer and using it to personalize their journey, making them feel recognized and valued. That means leaving nothing on the table. Be sure to gather every piece of information from every interaction your brand has ever had with each customer, across any and all channels.
A well designed Unified Customer Experience Management (UCXM) platform can achieve this. It serves not only as a way to consolidate information, but also as a system for everyone across a company to collaborate. This way, people across different functions access the same records; update them in real time; and contribute to finding solutions to customer challenges.
Since these tools keep learning over time, they become more precise and successful, guiding each customer to their best possible experience. Everything about an agentic experience can be hyper-personalized, from an agent’s voice to its manner of speaking to the products and services it recommends.
Building a ‘moat’
“To drive revenue growth and improve ROI, business leaders may need to commit to transformative AI possibilities,” McKinsey says. “As the hype around AI subsides and the focus shifts to value, there is a heightened attention on practical applications that can create competitive moats.”
Your brand is like its own castle. The experience of going to it can be so enjoyable that customers keep visiting. And by ensuring that competitors can’t get in — that they’re unable to access your precious customer data — you keep the experience distinctive.
Of course, this is not the only part of the solution to the seismic shift ahead in how people shop. BCG notes that brands must also work to ensure discoverability on popular AI tools, through both “earned visibility” and paid opportunities.
On this, brands have an opportunity as well. Adobe found that when people arrive at a retailer’s site from a generative AI source, they are 10% more engaged, with 32% longer visits and a 27% lower bounce rate. “This indicates that with AI tools, shoppers are becoming more informed and focusing on the most relevant retailers during the research/consideration phase,” Adobe’s report said.
With a UCXM in place, your brand can know exactly how a customer arrived at your site each time, and use that to tailor their experience.
As with so many other revolutions, the AI revolution presents an opportunity. By developing new strategies, you can compete and win in new ways. The key is to see the possibility — not just the problem.
Your portfolio looks incredible. Your work wins awards. Yet clients ghost you after initial interest, and competitors with weaker portfolios land bigger projects.
The disconnect isn’t your design skill. It’s your brand architecture.
Some design professionals treat branding as an aesthetic exercise—a logo here, a color palette there, maybe some Instagram templates. Meanwhile, strategic positioning sits neglected in a Google Doc nobody reads. This misalignment costs you clients, credibility, and eventually, confidence in your own expertise.
I’ve watched talented designers struggle for years before realizing their branding mistakes were systematic, not creative. The good news? Systems can be rebuilt. Let me show you the ten structural failures that undermine design brands and the frameworks that replace them.
Why Do So Many Design Brands Feel Identical Despite Different Aesthetics?
Because they confuse decoration with differentiation.
Two studios can have completely different visual styles yet occupy the exact same position in a client’s mind: “another freelance designer.” The brand foundation determines perception. Visuals simply express it.
Think about it. When a potential client visits your website, they’re not evaluating your Pantone choices. They’re asking: Do you understand my problem? Can I trust you to solve it? Why should I choose you instead of the dozens of others I’m considering?
Your brand foundation answers these questions before your portfolio ever loads.
What the Brand Foundation Framework Actually Includes
I call this the Strategic Core Architecture—five elements that must crystallize before you touch a single design file.
Mission Clarity: Not a fluffy statement about “creating beautiful experiences.” A concrete answer to what change you create in the world through design. For example: “We help sustainable fashion startups compete visually with fast fashion giants” is a mission. “We create meaningful brand experiences” is vapor.
Values Articulation: Specific principles that guide decisions and client relationships. Values like “transparency” mean nothing until you define them: “We share our complete process, including failures and pivots, in weekly client updates.”
Audience Precision: Demographics matter less than psychographics. Who exactly feels the pain you solve? A “small business owner” is too broad. “A second-generation family business owner trying to modernize without alienating their legacy customer base” is a person you can design for.
Offer Definition: What exactly are clients hiring you to deliver? “Brand identity” spans everything from a logo to a complete market repositioning. Specificity attracts. Ambiguity repels.
Positioning Statement: The single sentence that differentiates you. This isn’t a tagline. It’s strategic: “Unlike generalist agencies, we only work with healthcare technology companies navigating FDA compliance in their branding.”
Here’s what happens when you skip this foundation: You design a gorgeous visual identity that communicates nothing about who you serve or why you matter. Clients see pretty shapes. They don’t see relevance.
Branding Mistake #1: Building Visuals Before Strategy
Designers love creating. Strategy feels like homework. So they skip straight to mood boards and logo sketches, hoping the strategy will emerge from the aesthetics.
It never does.
The Consequence of Visual-First Branding
Without strategic grounding, your brand becomes a decoration engine. Beautiful, perhaps. But interchangeable. When a client can’t articulate why they chose you beyond “I liked your style,” you’re competing purely on taste—the most subjective, unreliable differentiator possible.
Additionally, visual-first branding leads to constant redesigns. Every trend shift makes you question your entire identity because you have no strategic anchor. Should you adopt that trendy gradient? Switch to that popular font? Without a strategy, you’re rudderless.
The Strategic-First Approach
Start with the Brand Foundation Framework I outlined above. Document every element. Be ruthlessly specific. Then, and only then, begin visual exploration.
Your visuals should express your strategy, not create it. When someone asks why you chose that particular colour palette, you should have a strategic answer rooted in audience psychology and positioning goals.
Furthermore, this approach makes design decisions easier. When you know exactly who you serve and what you stand for, typography choices become obvious. Colour psychology aligns with audience preferences. Every visual element supports the strategic foundation.
Branding Mistake #2: The “Everyone Is My Client” Delusion
Broad appeal sounds smart. Cast a wide net, catch more fish. Except branding doesn’t work like fishing.
Why Generalist Positioning Fails
When you position yourself as “a designer for everyone,” you trigger a psychological phenomenon I call Relevance Dilution. The human brain categorizes and simplifies. “Designer for everyone” translates to “designer for no one specific” in prospect psychology.
Moreover, generalist branding prevents word-of-mouth growth. Satisfied clients can’t refer you effectively because they don’t know who else you serve. “You should hire Alex, they’re a great designer” is weak. “You’re launching a fintech app? You need Alex—they exclusively brand financial technology startups” is powerful.
The Specialization Strategy Matrix
Choose your specialization axis deliberately. You have several options:
Industry Vertical: Serve only restaurants, or only SaaS companies, or only nonprofits. Deep industry knowledge becomes your competitive advantage.
Service Horizontal: Focus exclusively on one service—packaging design, environmental graphics, or digital product branding. Become the undisputed expert in that specific deliverable.
Audience Segment: Serve only women entrepreneurs, or only second-career professionals, or only Gen-Z founders. Understand their unique worldview intimately.
Problem Domain: Specialize in rebrands, launches, or legacy brand modernization. Each requires different expertise and attracts different clients.
Pick one. Dominate it. Then, if growth demands, expand strategically to adjacent specializations.
Branding Mistake #3: Inconsistent Visual Systems Across Touchpoints
Your website uses one colour palette, while your Instagram uses another. Meanwhile, your proposal templates look like they came from a different company entirely.
How Inconsistency Destroys Brand Equity
Every inconsistent touchpoint forces prospects to rebuild their mental model of your brand. This cognitive friction accumulates. Eventually, they just move on to a competitor whose brand feels coherent.
I’ve seen designers lose projects because their email signature used different fonts from their portfolio. It seems trivial. But these micro-inconsistencies signal sloppiness. If you can’t maintain consistency in your own brand, why would a client trust you with theirs?
Building the Brand System Architecture
Create what I call a Touchpoint Coherence System—a documented framework ensuring visual consistency everywhere your brand appears.
Colour Application Rules: Don’t just list hex codes. Define usage rules. Primary colours for headlines and CTAs. Secondary colours for accents. Neutral palette for body text and backgrounds. Specify ratios and combinations.
Typography Hierarchy: Assign specific roles. Heading font, subheading font, body font. Define sizes, weights, and spacing for each level. Document when to break these rules (rarely).
Logo Usage Guidelines: Clear space requirements. Minimum sizes. Approved backgrounds. Incorrect usage examples. Treat your logo like a legal trademark because it essentially is one.
Imagery Style: Define your photographic or illustrative approach. Lighting style, composition preferences, and subject matter themes. Create a visual reference board.
Layout Principles: Grid systems, alignment rules, white space standards. These invisible structures create visual consistency even when content varies.
Document everything in a living brand guide. Update it as your brand evolves. Reference it religiously.
Branding Mistake #4: Overengineered or Oversimplified Logo Design
Logos occupy a strange middle ground. Too complex, and they become unusable. Too simple, and they disappear into generic minimalism.
The Logo Complexity Paradox
I’ve watched designers spend months crafting intricate logos with symbolic meaning in every curve. Beautiful work. Completely impractical. When that logo shrinks to favicon size, it becomes an indistinct blob.
Conversely, the minimalism trend produced thousands of sans-serif wordmarks that achieve simplicity by sacrificing all personality. Your logo shouldn’t require a manifesto to explain it, but it also shouldn’t be indistinguishable from every other “modern” brand.
The Recognition-Scalability Framework
Effective logos balance three variables: distinctiveness, simplicity, and scalability. Optimize for all three simultaneously.
Distinctiveness means your logo doesn’t resemble competitors. Research your market thoroughly. If everyone uses geometric shapes, consider organic forms. If everyone goes minimal, explore expressive typography.
Simplicity means limiting elements ruthlessly. Can you achieve the same effect with two colours instead of five? One shape instead of three? Always simplify without losing character.
Scalability means testing rigorously. Print your logo at a half-inch width. Does it still read clearly? Convert it to solid black. Does the design hold up? Display it at billboard scale. Does it look intentional or accidentally enlarged?
Additionally, consider these practical constraints: Does it work in embroidery? On a pen? As an app icon? In a Zoom background? Real-world applications expose design weaknesses fast.
Branding Mistake #5: Cluttered Layouts That Bury Your Message
More elements seem more impressive. More colours, more fonts, more imagery, more information. Except the opposite is true.
The Cognitive Load Crisis
Every element you add increases cognitive load—the mental effort required to process your design. Humans have limited processing capacity. Overload it, and they disengage entirely.
I call this the Attention Budget Principle: Every viewer arrives with a fixed amount of attention. You can invest it wisely in communicating one strong message, or squander it across a dozen weak ones.
The Hierarchy-First Design Method
Start every layout by identifying your single primary message. Not your three main points. Your one essential takeaway. Everything else is secondary.
Visual Hierarchy means guiding the eye deliberately. Size, contrast, colour, and position all create hierarchy. Your primary message gets the strongest visual emphasis. Supporting elements recede proportionally.
White Space Strategy isn’t emptiness—it’s emphasis through absence. Space around an element makes it more prominent. Dense layouts make everything equally ignorable.
Element Reduction Protocol: Design your layout. Then remove 30% of the elements. Force yourself. You’ll discover most were redundant. The remaining 70% becomes significantly stronger.
Furthermore, establish a clear entry point for the viewer’s eye. Where should they look first? Then the second? Then the third? Intentional visual flow transforms chaos into clarity.
Branding Mistake #6: Typography That Undermines Professionalism
Font choices seem subjective. They’re not. Typography communicates at a subconscious level, triggering immediate associations about professionalism, trustworthiness, and quality.
How Typography Shapes Perception
Research shows people make judgments about your credibility within 50 milliseconds of viewing your content. Typography drives much of that instant assessment.
Default fonts signal carelessness. Overused fonts signal a lack of originality. Trendy fonts signal trendiness (which ages poorly). Incompatible font pairings signal poor attention to detail.
The Type System Framework
Limit your brand to a Type Trio: one font for headlines, one for body text, one optional accent font for special use.
Headline Font: Distinctive enough to create personality. Legible enough for quick scanning. Usually slightly heavier weight. This is your brand’s voice at its loudest.
Body Font: Maximum readability. Neutral enough to disappear into the reading experience. Generous x-height. Clear letterforms. This is where people spend most of their time.
Accent Font: Use sparingly for quotes, callouts, or special emphasis. This adds flavour without overwhelming. Many strong brands skip this entirely.
Additionally, master these technical fundamentals: appropriate line spacing (generally 1.4-1.6x font size), comfortable line length (50-75 characters), consistent hierarchy through size and weight, and adequate contrast ratios for accessibility.
Test your typography at actual usage sizes. A font that looks perfect in your design file might be illegible on mobile devices.
Branding Mistake #7: Cheap Visuals That Broadcast Amateur Status
Generic stock photos. Low-resolution images. Poorly composed photography. Outdated graphics. These visual choices communicate more about your brand than any mission statement.
The Image Quality Perception Effect
Humans are visual creatures. We process images 60,000 times faster than text. This means your imagery creates instant impressions before anyone reads a word.
Moreover, there’s a documented psychological phenomenon called the Aesthetic-Usability Effect: People perceive attractive designs as more usable, trustworthy, and professional, regardless of actual functionality.
The Visual Asset Strategy
You need a consistent approach to imagery across all brand touchpoints. This doesn’t mean every photo looks identical. It means they feel cohesively related.
Photography Style: Define your approach. High contrast or soft lighting? Composed or candid? Studio or environmental? Colour palette preferences? Depth of field standards?
Illustration Approach: If you use illustrations, maintain style consistency. Line weight, colour application, level of detail, and rendering technique should remain constant.
Custom Over Stock: Invest in original photography whenever possible. Stock images, even good ones, appear across thousands of brands. Custom imagery is exclusively yours.
Image Quality Standards: Establish minimum resolution requirements. Implement quality control before any image goes live. A single blurry photo undermines an otherwise polished brand.
Furthermore, consider image authenticity. Audiences increasingly detect and reject overly staged or artificial imagery. Authentic visuals build trust faster than perfection.
Branding Mistake #8: Inconsistent Voice Across Channels
Your website reads like a law firm, yet your Instagram captions sound like a teenager. To make matters worse, your email newsletters adopt a completely different personality. This fragmentation confuses your audience and dilutes your brand identity.
The Multi-Personality Brand Problem
Inconsistent voice triggers what I call Brand Dissonance—the uncomfortable feeling when different touchpoints send conflicting signals about who you are.
Clients start questioning which version represents the “real” you. This uncertainty prevents the trust-building necessary for high-value relationships. Additionally, an inconsistent voice makes your brand unmemorable because people can’t form a coherent mental model.
The Voice Architecture System
Document your brand voice with specific guidelines beyond generic descriptors like “professional” or “friendly.”
Voice Characteristics Matrix: Define where you fall on key spectrums. Formal vs. casual (and how formal/casual). Playful vs. serious. Authoritative vs. collaborative. Technical vs. accessible. Emotional vs. rational.
Vocabulary Guidelines: Maintain lists of preferred and forbidden words. Some brands say “clients,” others say “partners.” Some say “projects,” others say “collaborations.” These choices compound into personality.
Sentence Structure Patterns: Long, flowing sentences create different impressions than short, punchy ones. Document your preferences. Notice how your sentence structure is reading right now—direct and explanatory, establishing authority through clarity rather than complexity.
Perspective and Pronouns: Consistent use of “we,” “I,” or “you.” Each creates different relational dynamics. Choose deliberately based on your positioning.
Create a voice guide with specific examples. Show correct and incorrect usage. Make it actionable enough that anyone representing your brand can apply it consistently.
Branding Mistake #9: Trend-Chasing That Destroys Longevity
Gradients are hot, so you redesign around gradients. Brutalism trends, so you adopt harsh typography and raw layouts. Maximalism returns, so you add decorative elements everywhere.
The Trend Adoption Trap
Trends move in cycles. What’s fresh today looks dated in eighteen months. Constant redesigns to chase trends create multiple problems simultaneously.
First, recognition suffers. Brand recognition requires consistency over time. Frequent visual overhauls reset that recognition-building process to zero.
Second, resources drain. Every redesign costs time and money, better invested in delivering client value or developing real competitive advantages.
Third, positioning weakens. Trend-chasing signals that you follow rather than lead. Clients seeking innovative partners won’t choose the studio that desperately copies whatever’s currently popular.
The Timeless Foundation Method
Build your brand on Era-Resistant Principles—design approaches that transcend temporary aesthetics.
Classic Typography: Choose fonts with decades of proven performance. Helvetica, Garamond, Futura, Gill Sans. These have survived because they work, not because they’re trendy.
Fundamental Colour Theory: Instead of adopting the year’s colour trends, choose colours based on psychological impact and audience resonance. Blue for trust. Red for energy. These associations persist across trend cycles.
Structural Design Principles: Strong hierarchy, clear focus, intentional white space. These fundamentals never go out of style because they’re rooted in human perception, not fashion.
Trend Integration Guidelines: When you want to incorporate current aesthetics, do so as accent layers, not foundational elements. A trendy illustration style on your Instagram is fine. Rebuilding your entire visual identity around it is risky.
Strong brands evolve gradually. They refine rather than reinvent. They adapt without abandoning their core identity.
Branding Mistake #10: Neglecting Your Digital Brand Presence
Your website hasn’t been updated in two years, while your social media profiles still use outdated logos. Meanwhile, your Google Business listing shows closed, and your LinkedIn features work from 2019.
Digital Decay and Brand Credibility
Digital neglect communicates active messages, not passive absence. An outdated website doesn’t say “we’ve been busy.” It says “we don’t care about details” or worse, “we might be out of business.”
I’ve seen designers lose significant projects because prospects googled them and found inactive social accounts or broken portfolio links. The prospect didn’t reach out to ask. They simply moved to the next candidate.
The Digital Maintenance Protocol
Establish a Digital Touchpoint Audit System—a regular review of every digital property representing your brand.
Website Refresh Cadence: At a minimum, update your portfolio quarterly. Add new projects. Remove weaker old ones. Check all links. Verify load speeds. Test mobile responsiveness. Update your bio to reflect current positioning.
Social Media Consistency: If you maintain profiles, maintain them properly. Inconsistent posting is worse than no profile at all because it signals abandonment. Either commit to regular updates or redirect energy elsewhere.
Search Presence Management: Google your brand regularly. What appears? Outdated directory listings? Incorrect information? Dead links? Claim and update every listing you find.
Performance Optimization: Page speed impacts both user experience and search rankings. Compress images. Minimize code. Use modern hosting. A slow website broadcasts technical incompetence regardless of your actual skills.
Mobile-First Design: Over 60% of web traffic is mobile. If your site doesn’t work flawlessly on phones, you’re eliminating most potential clients from considering you.
Additionally, maintain consistency with offline brand materials. Your digital and physical presence should feel like the same brand, not distant cousins.
The Integration Framework: Making It All Work Together
Understanding individual branding mistakes helps. But real transformation requires systematic integration across all elements.
Building Your Brand Operating System
Think of your brand as an operating system, not a collection of isolated assets. Every component connects to and reinforces the others.
Your strategic foundation informs your positioning, which in turn determines your visual identity. Through consistent touchpoints, that visual identity gets expressed to your audience. Meanwhile, your voice reinforces your positioning across every interaction. Finally, your digital presence maintains accessibility to all of these elements.
Implementation Sequence: Start with strategy, move to core visuals, document systems, roll out consistently, then maintain actively. Skipping steps or reversing order creates the mistakes we’ve covered.
Quality Control Mechanisms: Establish approval processes before anything goes public. Every piece of content should pass through a brand alignment check: Does this support our positioning? Does it maintain our voice? Does it meet our visual standards?
Evolution Planning: Your brand should evolve, not revolve. Plan refinements annually, major updates every 3-5 years. Document the reasons for changes so evolution remains strategic, not reactive.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to fix branding mistakes and build a strong foundation?
Strategic foundation work typically requires 2-4 weeks of focused effort. Visual identity development adds another 4-8 weeks. Full implementation across all touchpoints might span 3-6 months. However, you’ll see benefits immediately as each element improves. Don’t wait for perfection before launching improvements.
Can I fix my branding mistakes gradually, or do I need a complete rebrand?
Gradual refinement works if your foundation is sound, but execution is inconsistent. Complete rebranding becomes necessary when your positioning is fundamentally wrong, or your visual identity actively contradicts your strategy. Assess honestly: are you fixing or rebuilding?
What’s the most critical branding mistake to address first?
Always start with a strategic foundation. Without clarity on positioning, audience, and differentiation, every other fix is cosmetic. You can have perfect visual consistency and still fail if you’re consistently expressing the wrong message to the wrong audience.
How do I know if my brand specialization is too narrow?
Test market size and growth potential. A viable specialization has enough prospects to sustain your business and room to grow. If you’re struggling to find clients, you might be too narrow. If prospects don’t see you as specialized, you’re too broad. Aim for “riches in niches” but avoid niches so small they can’t support you.
Should I hire a brand strategist, or can I do this myself?
You can absolutely develop your own brand strategy, especially if you’re a designer with strategic thinking skills. However, an external perspective helps overcome blind spots. Consider this: You wouldn’t self-diagnose a serious medical condition, even if you’re medically knowledgeable. Sometimes paying for expertise saves time and prevents expensive mistakes.
How often should I update my brand guidelines and visual assets?
Review your brand guidelines annually. Make minor refinements as needed. Plan major updates every 3-5 years or when your positioning significantly shifts. Your portfolio should be updated quarterly with new work. Social presence needs weekly attention at a minimum.
What if my current branding mistakes are already hurting my business?
Acknowledge the situation honestly with existing clients if relevant. Most will respect transparency and improvement. For prospects, focus on presenting your improved brand going forward. Don’t apologize for past work—simply demonstrate your elevated current standards. Strong brands evolve. Show evolution, not error.
How do I maintain brand consistency when working with team members or contractors?
Comprehensive brand guidelines are essential for team consistency. Create detailed documentation covering voice, visuals, and decision-making frameworks. Conduct onboarding training. Establish review processes. Make brand alignment a standard part of quality control, not an optional consideration.
By identifying and systematically correcting these ten branding mistakes, design professionals can transform their positioning from forgettable to strategic, building brands that attract ideal clients and stand the test of time. Don’t hesitate to browse WE AND THE COLOR’s Branding and Graphic Design categories to learn more.
Augmented reality (AR) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s coming for brand marketing next, according to Tom Emrich of Niantic.
In 2022, research from McKinsey showed that the metaverse has the potential to generate up to $5tn in value by 2030. This value creation has attracted brands from across the business landscape, with many dipping their toes into the metaverse for the first time last year.
2022 was defined by these metaverse explorations. Brands innovated, learned, and iterated, all with hopes of unlocking the tremendous business value the metaverse promises.
Gazing into the future, I expect that 2023 will be remembered as the year brands realized that the metaverse will enhance our real-world experience. The driving force behind that progress will be augmented reality (AR).
No app required: browser-based AR as the go-to for brand content
Web-based AR, or WebAR, will see a significant increase in adoption in 2023. The simple, compelling promise of WebAR is that it allows consumers to access AR content via their browser, from anywhere in the world, with no app required.
Whether you’re on Android, iOS, or a future headset, all you’ll need is web access to engage with the infinite possible experiences brands can bring to life through this technology.
Why does this matter for brands? For one thing, it affords marketers massive reach. When anyone with a smartphone can access an experience, brands unlock a massive pool of consumers. And consumers are hungry for AR experiences, with at least 54% of mobile AR users engaging weekly, and at least 75% monthly.
Second, WebAR allows for easier access to AR experiences. One of the main points of friction preventing consumers from enjoying AR – the need to download an app – is completely removed. Downloading a new app is a major drawback for consumers, but switching to browser-based technology streamlines the experience.
AR drives increased ROI across the purchasing funnel
As consumers demand more immersive experiences, brands will embrace the full potential of WebAR to extend the life of campaigns and create richer, more meaningful relationships with customers. This year, AR will become a bigger part of the e-commerce experience, driving dwell time, click-through rate, sales and more while matching heightened consumer expectations for shopping experiences.
With global retail e-commerce sales expected to pass $8tn by 2026, WebAR helps brands unlock the full potential of this boom. For online shoppers, it collapses the purchasing funnel without taking anything away from the customer journey. Consumers move from awareness to intent to purchase, all within one experience that can be accessed without an app and seamlessly integrated into existing e-commerce channels.
For example, Saatchi Art launched a WebAR feature on its website called ‘View My Room’ which allowed art buyers to view over one million pieces virtually. This feature lets buyers see how the artwork looked in advance – a key element in purchase consideration – and resulted in an average 17% increase in spending.
Retail brands will lead the charge on AR commerce
This year, expect retail brands to use WebAR to make the bricks-and-mortar experience more digital and the e-commerce experience more physical, all while driving ROI and continuing to delight consumers.
We’re already seeing adoption in e-commerce, with AR enabling customers to see how different clothes look on them, or see how different items would fit into their living rooms. Adding this more physical and personalized element to e-commerce gives customers more information, increases sales, and reduces return rates, leading to a more satisfying experience. In 2023, this will become more commonplace and part of every consumer’s expectations when they enter their customer journey.
Equally, AR can augment bricks-and-mortar locations to keep the shopping experience fresh. Brands can use AR to enhance their in-store experience, and to drive foot traffic with location-based WebAR experiences. These engaging, personalized experiences give consumers a new reason to shop in-store, leading to more business. Retail brands can even gamify the shopping experiences via activations like in-store scavenger hunts which encourage consumers to spend more time shopping and discovering new items.
We want to know what you think is the best logo ever made. Sure, we have our best logos list, which includes some of the most well-known logos in the world (and some lesser known ones) chosen by professional designers. But we have a hunch some of you might not agree with our list – and that you see greatness elsewhere. We will add the winner to our list – and share the overall results and comments, too.
Our current list includes:
Apple
Audi
Bass Ale
CBS
Coca-Cola
Cooper Union
Crate&Barrel
Davidelfin
Dunkin’
FedEx
Hillary Clinton
I Love New York
Jordan Jumpman
Kelloggs
Lacoste
LG
London Underground
McDonald’s
MIT Media Lab
Mozzo
MTV
NIKE
Open University
Penguin
Playboy
Qantas
The Red Cross
Santa Cruz
Shell
Sony VAIO
Syncopy
Tate
Toblerone
So, what do you think? Do you love a logo that’s as iconic as its brand, or have you got a sneaky secret no-one else has heard of? Is it a new, old or redesigned logo you want to crown? Are there any picks in our list you’d relegate?
Feature image credit: Adidas/Coca-Cola/Shell/Wendy’s/NBC/New York Yankees
For early-stage brands, marketing on social media can feel like a choice between gaining visibility or controlling costs. With limited budgets and high expectations, marketing leaders for young brands often need content strategies that move the needle without relying on big productions or paid reach.
Below, Forbes Agency Council members offer their best advice on what budget-conscious brands should prioritize. Here’s how to create social media content that cuts through the noise, builds trust with audiences and drives real impact for a brand that’s just starting out.
1. Start With LinkedIn And Canva
I run a PR firm, but early in my career, I worked at a social media agency, where the key to growing a community was engagement. For early-stage, budget-conscious B2B brands, I suggest leveraging LinkedIn, as it’s often the best place to start. Invest in Canva for simple design needs. Any PR coverage can then get amplified via social, extending impact and reach without added spend. – John McCartney, Jmac PR
2. Create Clear, Real Content
Prioritize clarity over polish. Content that clearly answers real audience questions consistently outperforms overproduced work. Consistency and authenticity scale better than spend, which is something I see reinforced repeatedly in peer discussions among agency leaders. – Mike Demopoulos, hosting.com
3. Publish Short-Form Video Content
Start publishing short-form video content on every social platform: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Then allocate some ad budget to the best-performing videos. Things to consider before you begin creating vertical videos: 1. the hook (you have two to three seconds to capture attention); 2. positioning of yourself; 3. storytelling; and 4. a punchline or call to action. – Nikos Xydas, Humble
4. Prioritize The Message, Not The Medium
When working with a limited budget, you need to ensure your marketing cuts through the clutter, avoids becoming “just another solution,” and stands out in a crowded marketplace. Don’t rush the creative process; think about the one thing that your customers will remember. – Darrell Keezer, Candybox Marketing
5. Establish Your Founder’s Brand First
Focus on building the founder’s brand first. This will get you a wider audience faster, and the company brand will ride on its coattails. Today, founder content outperforms content made by the business brand content by a wide margin. – Dean Seddon, Maverrik
6. Answer These Three Questions
Answer the three most important questions: What am I selling? Who am I selling it to? Why should they care? Then craft every single message with that in mind. Write like you talk, and be human. – David Farinella, Farinella LLC
7. Build Topical Authority On Community Platforms
Prioritize building topical authority on community platforms like Reddit and Quora over high-production visuals. In the AI era, generative engines look for “human-verified” expertise found in long-form discussions to validate a brand’s credibility. By solving problems in these niches, you create high-value references that boost your authority in AI-driven search without advertising spend. – Uri Samet, Buzz Dealer
8. Focus On Insight, Not Volume
One sharp perspective grounded in real client outcomes—what worked, what failed and why—outperforms constant posting. Thought leadership compounds when content teaches, not entertains, and credibility scales faster than budget. – Anton Kovalchuk, QliqQliq
9. Trade Time And Expertise For Visibility
“Give me time or give me money” is the old adage for gaining broad market exposure. Being early stage means time investment over ad spend, so stretch those marketing dollars by sharing and amplifying your industry expertise through podcast appearances, guest contributor articles and thought leadership blog posts. In other words, create a trust “footprint” that SEO and AEO will recognize and reward. – Phillip Davis, Tungsten Branding
10. Treat Marketing As A Non-negotiable Expense
Treat marketing as a core startup expense, not a leftover line item or an afterthought. When it’s built into your operating financial model, it scales with revenue instead of becoming a cost you fear. Impactful social content doesn’t require big budgets; it requires a deep understanding of your audience and how your story connects emotionally. Efficiency comes from clarity, not spending. – Cagan Sean Yuksel, Dreamspace
11. Establish And Follow Clear Brand Guidelines
“Build it and they will come.“ Design a social media brand guideline that establishes who you are and what you stand for. Follow that guideline for consistent posting and responding. Naturally, a community will grow. Teaming with the right publicist or social team can take that weight off of you so you can focus on building the company. – Pierce Kafka, Kafka Media Group
12. Plan Content In Advance And Batch The Work
Plan ahead. Start by locking in your key messages, then use your favourite generative AI platform to draft content in batches. Review it, humanize it and schedule it out. Chunking up the social media work and leveraging tech saves hours and staves off the weekly scrambles. – Chintan Shah, KNB Communications
13. Create Content From Real Use Cases And Moments
Prioritize content that comes from real use cases, customer questions and behind-the-scenes moments. These are cheaper to produce and tend to feel more authentic than staged shoots. When content reflects how people actually interact with your product or brand, it builds trust and drives engagement without requiring a large budget. – Hernan Tagliani, Tagliani Multicultural
14. Leverage Creator-Generated Content Across Channels
Prioritize creator-generated content from influencers that you can reuse everywhere. One CGC partnership can populate your organic feed and fuel paid social, often for less than in-house production. You get platform-native content that performs, and you own it outright, with no ongoing usage fees. – Danielle Wiley, Sway Group
15. Reuse Strong Ideas Instead Of Reinventing Them
I’d tell early-stage brands to prioritize reuse over reinvention. Early brands overspend trying to make everything new. One strong idea can show up as a post, video, comment or a founder’s point of view. Repetition builds recognition, and recognition builds trust. Amplifying a message across channels, in more than one way, is what drives impact. – Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding
16. Maximize The Tools You Already Have
Prioritize the tools already available to you, especially AI tools with free trials. Test them hands-on and find image or video platforms that genuinely fit your brand. The right setup can turn one photoshoot into dozens of usable content variations without increasing production costs. – Bernard May, National Positions
17. Build Recognition With Consistent Visuals
Make sure your graphics are prepared with care and intent from the beginning and stay unified with a brand look and feel. Consistency on social media builds recognition faster, and a simple visual system adds credibility without overspending. Repetition through templates isn’t a limitation for new brands—it frees teams to focus on message and timing. – Goran Paun, ArtVersion
18. Document What You’re Already Doing
Prioritize documenting what you already do every day instead of creating content from scratch. Record short explanations, decisions, mistakes and customer conversations, and then shape them into posts. This costs nothing and builds credibility fast. When people see how you think in real situations, trust grows naturally and leverage comes from repetition, not production spend. – Vaibhav Kakkar, Digital Web Solutions
19. Build A Personal Brand On Social Platforms
Building your personal brand on Instagram, Threads and TikTok is the lowest barrier to entry. Post consistently with authentic, unpolished content that addresses your audience’s problems, not your achievements or product features. Raw, value-driven posts that speak directly to what your customers need will outperform expensive campaigns every time. Focus on reach first and engagement will follow. – Fernando Beltran, Identika LLC
20. Have An Opinion Worth Arguing About
Budget-conscious brands can’t outspend competitors, but they can outthink them. Take a clear stance on something your industry gets wrong. Thought leadership doesn’t require a production budget—it requires courage. One bold point of view generates more engagement than a year of safe, forgettable posts. If done well, it opens up conversations and doors! – Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
Do you ever feel like your phone or computer is spying on you? You pop open YouTube, and seconds into the video, an ad about your favourite chocolate brand shows up out of the blue. And you feel a bit of a chill since you were just talking about your sudden craving for that exact brand and type of chocolate. Well, it turns out that it can be like that. Information you enter online and through apps can be used to collect data such as your interests, hobbies, and simple search queries. Google is notorious for this. Companies love giving you personalized ads, and to avoid them, you usually have to opt out through the settings.
What’s really creepy about ads, besides their relevance, is their timing. It almost feels like they come up right after you’ve had real conversations about their products. This can happen for various reasons, one being search queries. You could have talked to your family about a want or a craving, and they might have looked it up online to see if it was in stock, or you’ve subconsciously checked the topic through an app or browsed online. It can also happen on social media: your friends could spark a conversation about what they like after you’ve posted about it or clicked on a related link. Moreover, ad targeting can also be based on your connections, which means you might end up receiving ads because someone else in your inner circle has liked or interacted with a particular topic or product.
Your digital footprint might be more extensive than you think
Hengki Lestio/Getty Images
As an Android user, having a Google account is a must. Plus, if you’re using one of the many services that exist on Chromebooks, desktops, and even other smartphones, like Google Chrome, Sheets, or even YouTube, anything you do is tracked for ads unless you sign out of your account or tell Google to stop ad targeting.
But having all your information in one place, especially when apps love using the “Sign in with Google” tactic to link it, doesn’t help. That contributes to your digital footprint, which is what makes up your profile online. Advertisers can use that digital footprint to get more information about you, like your age, gender, and occupation. It can also learn about your interests, your product purchase history, and link you back to others you interact with. Marketing companies love to review this so they can show relevant ads. Google is only one example, but Apple, Meta, and Amazon are all major players in the advertising space. It’s just that Google is the most dominant, so much so that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has challenged Google’s monopoly over the ad technology stack.
Your online behaviour gets tracked, and your data is harvested
Bestforbest/Getty Images
Installed apps love tracking your behaviour. It is partly to help with ad targeting, and partly because algorithms need it to give you relevant suggestions. Apps with a For You feed, found in many social media apps like TikTok, use it to show videos and images based on artists, creators, or even people in a social group that a user interacts with. But sometimes when you opt out of personalized recommendations and ads, those feeds stop working correctly.At other times, apps might abuse their privileges and collect more information about your habits without your permission, claiming they’re doing so to improve the app. But that doesn’t mean they should always have extra diagnostic information, such as your device ID.
Another issue is on-device permissions. Some apps abuse access when it isn’t necessary to function. Why does a random utility app like a calculator or a flashlight require microphone permissions to function? On the other hand, enabling that makes sense for audio-detection settings in sleep-coaching apps. So the question becomes: Why are apps asking for more permissions than necessary? In truth, apps that don’t need it could be doing so to harvest and monetize your data through third-party agencies. And thanks to those privacy-invasive practices, some people become paranoid that their apps are eavesdropping or straight-up spying on contacts when they shouldn’t be.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri told a court during a Los Angeles trial that he does not believe that users can be “clinically addicted” to the platform. His testimony was part of a series of significant social media trials accusing companies of intentionally designing addictive features that negatively impact young people’s mental health. Mosseri, the first executive to testify in the trials, refuted claims that the platform prioritized making money over the mental health of young users. “There’s always trade-off between safety and speech. We’re trying to be as safe as possible and censor as little as possible,” Mosseri said. He emphasized the importance of distinguishing between “clinical addiction” and “problematic use” when it comes to social media. Mosseri defines problematic use as “someone spending more time on Instagram than they feel good about.” The 43-year-old emphasized Instagram’s commitment to teen safety, noting that the platform tests new features for young users before launching them. The case centres around a 20-year-old referred to by the initials “KGM,” who claims her mental health was adversely affected by the platform’s addictive features. When asked about the plaintiff spending 16 hours on Instagram in a single day, Mosseri responded, “That sounds like problematic use.”
It’s the one that consistently makes them more money.
People don’t ignore advice because it’s wrong—they ignore it because it’s uncomfortable.
Saving money means spending less today. Eating healthy means passing up what tastes best right now. And effective marketing? That usually means doing more than what feels safe—or sane.
After providing 128,706 business owners nationwide with results-based marketing campaigns, I can tell you this with certainty: The marketing strategies that create real, lasting growth are rarely the ones people want to hear.
I’ve spent over 25 years helping businesses generate leads and grow revenue. Along the way, I’ve noticed something fascinating. There’s one piece of advice I give that consistently makes business owners uneasy. It’s questioned and debated. In fact, they flat-out hate it.
Here it is: To effectively grow your business, you have to market more than your competitors—more than you think is actually sane.
That statement alone turns people off. It sounds excessive. Risky. Maybe even self-serving, coming from someone in marketing. But the truth is it doesn’t matter who you market with—or even whether you do it yourself or hire help. The principle stands on its own.
But you don’t have to take my word for it—I come with receipts.
To reach growth goals, spend more on marketing
Gartner research demonstrates that the average 2025 marketing budget stalled at 7.7 percent of company revenue—and that is the same level as 2024. The recommended average marketing spend is 10 percent, but my mantra is do as much as you possibly can and then some!
You have to be willing to market yourself in quantities that feel insane to others. That’s what it takes to create real growth and momentum.
Take a look at these companies who spent far more than 10 percent within the last year, and it made a huge impact on their revenue:
Monzo, a UK-based bank, increased its marketing spend 77 percent in 2025 and surpassed £1 billion in revenue, a first for them.
Indian retailer Nykaa decided to increase sales and marketing spend 29 percent and reported a 61 percent increase in quarterly profit growth and a 27 percent rise in revenue as a result.
Guardant Health, a cancer screening biotech firm, increased sales and marketing spend 30 percent and reported a 21 percent year-over-year revenue increase.
I also have firsthand experience, so you know I practice what I preach.
To stay on top, be consistent with your marketing
I started PostcardMania in 1998 with no investors and no cash—just a marketing plan I refused to abandon. That commitment took our revenue from zero to over $100 million a year.
Early on, I spent more on marketing than I paid myself—and I still do. I drove the same paid-off Nissan well past our first $1 million because I understood one simple truth: The size and consistency of my marketing directly controlled our growth. Growth was my top priority then, and still is.
Today, I mail about 232,000 postcards weekly and invest roughly $50,000 a week in online ads just advertising my business. Since 2020, we’re averaging nearly 15 percent annual revenue growth every year after a decade of averaging 5 percent annual growth. Just last year, we set a new all-time company record in leads generated. I can point to many factors behind that success—but it all starts with my dedication to marketing more than anyone thinks is sane.
So when I say this works, I’m not speaking in theory. I’ve lived it.
I know committing serious dollars to marketing can feel scary—but discipline beats comfort every time. Trust the process, track everything, double down on what performs, and refine what doesn’t.
Do that consistently, and the payoff isn’t just possible. It’s inevitable.
Never let the economy affect your marketing investment
Unstable economic conditions are not a reason to cut your marketing budget—in fact, they’re the exact reason not to.
When things get tight, most businesses pull back or shut off their marketing entirely. That instinct feels safe, but it’s also one of the fastest ways to hamstring your revenue or even put your business at real risk.
When the pandemic hit, Coca-Cola cut its advertising budget by roughly 35 percent, but Pepsi didn’t make any cuts.
Due to this decision, Coca Cola experienced big losses in 2020. Their quarterly revenue shrunk over $1 billion in a single quarter, dropping 16.9 percent from Q1 to Q2. They went from being up 6.96 percent in 2019 to down 28.48 percent in June of 2020 in year-over-year quarterly growth.
In fact, Coca-Cola revenue was down the entirety of 2020 and didn’t rebound until 2021. Meanwhile, PepsiCo returned to growth mode after being down a single quarter. That growth ended up lasting years as they gained more market share.
I made the same call PepsiCo did. When shutdowns began, I refused to stop marketing—and I refused to lay anyone off. That decision wasn’t easy—PostcardMania’s weekly revenue dropped about 40 percent, a swing of more than $500,000 a week—but it paid off.
I stuck to my guns and kept our marketing budget fully funded. And recovery came fast.
By April, revenue was back to pre-shutdown levels. By July, we set a new company record for monthly revenue—and broke it again in October. Despite the economic chaos, we finished 2020 up 10 percent over 2019. Then the momentum compounded. We entered 2020 as a $60 million business, and today we’re at nearly $120 million.
Marketing aggressively—when it feels uncomfortable or even “insane”—has been a massive growth lever for my company and countless others. And it can do the same for you.
So when you are at that fork in the road to take the shortcut or the uphill one, take the challenge. You’ll be far stronger and happier you did.
A researcher has resigned from OpenAI, warning that ChatGPT ads could manipulate users in subtle ways. The concerns highlight a growing debate about how much influence AI systems should have over the people who rely on them.
Is OpenAI evil? It sounds like a definitive “maybe,” after reading this piece from former researcher Zoë Hitzig.
OpenAI and other AI-adjacent companies have seen a spree of high-profile resignations recently, with ascending levels of alarm over the impacts its products are, or potentially will have on society.
In nature, superior iterations of species tend to eradicate lesser versions of themselves. We’ve seen research from Anthropic, showing its AI literally choose to murder humans in virtual scenarios rather than allow itself to be shut down. We’ve seen other LLMs actively opt into deception and other dark patterns to achieve their results, raising the spectre of misalignment scenarios — akin to what happens in The Matrix. “The best way to save humanity is to destroy it,” and the like.
Fears about OpenAI and other large language model tech companies run the gamut from Terminator-style sci-fi doomsday scenarios to potentially more grounded fears over economic upheaval. Our entire economy is based on human-led work. What does a post-human economy look like? What does a post-human society look like?
ChatGPT ads will manipulate users in ways we don’t have the tools to understand.
Companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft aren’t really waiting around to figure those questions out. Instead, they’re planning to let them play out in real time and pick up the pieces later, whether we like it or not.
One thing that could put the brakes on the self-imposed destruction of society is pure economics. Today, OpenAI costs billions of dollars per year to run and brings in a paltry amount of revenue. Investors have become increasingly spooked by the costs associated with AI, and have handed Amazon and Microsoft multi-billion-dollarwrite-downs on their market capitalization as a result.
Companies like Microsoft and OpenAI are desperately trying to figure out how to actually monetize this AI stuff. Microsoft is focusing on improving efficiency with custom chips, OpenAI, however, is looking to ads … (Image credit: Microsoft)
Companies like Google and Microsoft are prioritizing enterprise applications and data centre efficiency improvements to help offset their AI costs, but OpenAI isn’t really in a position to achieve some of this. They don’t have the software stack and enterprise relationships that Microsoft does, nor do they have the first-party cloud infrastructure that Microsoft, Google, or Amazon do.
So, the firm is turning to ads.
Surprise, surprise, right? Nothing is free. Facebook, YouTube, Bing, Google … — if it’s free, it’s usually powered by ads. But the application of those ads gets increasingly nefarious the deeper you get into it. Based on your interests on Facebook, YouTube, and so on, Meta and Google can serve you granular, laser-targeted ads that can exploit your characteristics. I’m in my late 30s, and I’ve started getting a lot of ads about hair replacement treatments lately on Instagram, for example.
I’d say today’s ad platforms are fairly innocuous, and perhaps irritating at best. Some are worse than others, of course. Exploiting users’ fears and desires is commonplace if you use TikTok and Instagram for ads, but a recent article in the New York Times caught my eye about how much darker and dystopian ChatGPT‘s own ad platform might end up being.
OpenAI has seen a flurry of resignations over the past couple of years, as researchers fear the “not-for-profit” firm has fully lost its way. For one former researcher, Zoë Hitzig, ChatGPT’s ad platform was the final straw. In her op-ed, she sounds the alarm over the scale of potential harm OpenAI’s ad platform might do to its users, and potentially, society at large.
ChatGPT is getting ads, and they may end up more dystopian than even Meta’s. (Image credit: Sam Altman photo (Getty Images | Bloomberg), edit Windows Central)
“I once believed I could help the people building A.I. get ahead of the problems it would create,” Hitzig explains. “This week confirmed my slow realization that OpenAI seems to have stopped asking the questions I’d joined to help answer.”
Hitzig specifically calls out OpenAI’s insertion of ads into the free tiers of its ChatGPT products. She believes that OpenAI is sprinting towards monetization without consideration for the potential harm this could do — and it revolves entirely around just how honest users are with the uncanny chatbot.
“I don’t believe ads are immoral or unethical. A.I. is expensive to run, and ads can be a critical source of revenue. But I have deep reservations about OpenAI’s strategy,” Hitzig continues.
“For several years, ChatGPT users have generated an archive of human candor that has no precedent, in part because people believed they were talking to something that had no ulterior agenda. Users are interacting with an adaptive, conversational voice to which they have revealed their most private thoughts. People tell chatbots about their medical fears, their relationship problems, their beliefs about God and the afterlife. Advertising built on that archive creates a potential for manipulating users in ways we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone prevent.”
Imagine a salesman armed with the entire summation of humanity’s research on market psychology, with the turbo-charged greed of a multi-national corp, and the cold dispassionate amorality of a sociopath.
Hitzig is essentially suggesting that because of how people use ChatGPT, OpenAI will eventually afford itself the world’s most manipulative ad-delivery mechanism in history. Right now, ads on Instagram are pretty spooky already for their ability to target your interests, but imagine an ad engine that can actively talk you into buying shit you don’t need by exploiting your specific psychology. Imagine how youngsters or vulnerable people could be exploited by a high-powered artificial intelligence. Imagine a salesman armed with the entire summation of humanity’s research on market psychology, with the turbo-charged greed of a multi-national corporation, and the cold dispassionate amorality of a sociopath.
“OpenAI says it will adhere to principles for running ads on ChatGPT: The ads will be clearly labelled, appear at the bottom of answers, and will not influence responses. I believe the first iteration of ads will probably follow those principles. But I’m worried subsequent iterations won’t, because the company is building an economic engine that creates strong incentives to override its own rules.”
I remember the first iterations of ads on Facebook and Google, easy to ignore, appearing in the sidebar, and easily blocked by uBlock or something similar. Compare those to today’s high-tech, eerie Instagram or TikTok ads that themselves have become memes for seeming to know about things you want before you even know yourself.
Indeed, this isn’t even vaguely far-fetched or even slightly controversial or conspiratorial — Instagram and Facebook are half way there already.
Imagine that turbocharged even further, with an industrial-scale alien intellect distilling your entire psychological profile with the express goal of selling you stuff. Forget the fairy tale claims of “boosted productivity,” curing deadly diseases, or becoming an interplanetary species. Envision a generation, our generation, mired in an epidemic of weapons-grade loneliness, with tailor-made AI companions who not only love you, but know exactly what you must buy.
ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of monthly active users, the vast majority of whom are sharing incredibly intimate details about themselves, the likes of which Facebook can only dream of, unless, of course, it ends up admitting its messaging services don’t actually have end-to-end encryption. But I digress.
When OpenAI changed ChatGPT’s “personality” with its GPT-5 update, people were actively furious because many had come to see the chatbot as a true friend. A confidant … an external, anthropomorphized entity garnering real trust. The greatest product recommendations come from word of mouth. You know, friends and family. What if the ad itself were your friend?
I can only imagine the cartoonishly evil conversations that have taken place in OpenAI’s investor meetings over some of these fundamental marketing concepts. Facebook and YouTube are currently facing a lawsuit in the United Kingdom, accused of actively engineering addictive behaviour in youngsters. I think scrolling memes pales in comparison to the harm ChatGPT and other similar products potentially represent on this scale.
Hitzig optimistically hopes OpenAI still has principles, but I think she’s sadly naïve. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has shown himself to be fairly devoid of any sense of social responsibility thus far. It’s perhaps mildly alarming at best that many former researchers, like Hitzig, are abandoning ship at an abnormal cadence — while loudly citing “principles” as the primary reason.
Make no mistake. If this dystopic vision of cyborg-driven ad-hypnosis wasn’t the plan already, it definitely will be very soon.
Feature image credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto / Edit: Windows Central
While we once worried about older adults being left behind online, the digital divide narrative has shifted as they fully embrace social media. Now, the question is: what happens when they dive in too deep?
Seniors are now among the fastest-growing 13 globally. In the US, adoption among those aged 50 and older has soared, with 90% engaging with such platforms, according to data from AARP, with nearly half of older adults spending over an hour daily on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.
Similar patterns can be seen elsewhere. In Brazil, where the population is highly connected, the percentage of social media users aged 60 and over jumped from 44,8% in 2019 to 69,4% in 2024, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Many seniors discovered digital connection during pandemic isolation, and some never logged off. A number of studies have established links between social media use with positive effects such as higher wellbeing, social support and sense of community.
On the other hand, studies have been mainly focused on younger users and given that large economies are aging rapidly, the debate is now moving to the downsides of using social media, particularly when it is done so in an excessive way.
But, what constitutes as abnormal use of social media among older adults, and what could be the consequences?
Potential issues
From a cyberpsychology perspective, problematic social media is characterized by compulsive behaviour with uncontrollable and excessive use. This could be accompanied by a fear of missing out on something, for example, and even phantom perceptions (like assuming the device is vibrating with notifications when it is not), a Turkish study with seniors has found.
This usage pattern is driven by the way platforms are built, with features such as infinite scrolling and instant notifications. Algorithmic design also means that even problematic use can be perceived as rewarding, despite all the negative impacts this may bring, including poor sleep and sedentary behaviour. Increased depression and anxiety among seniors were also linked to use of social media for over six hours a day, according to a 2025 study with over 15,000 retirees in Shanghai.
For older adults, platforms built for excessive use can potentially become a bigger issue. That is because natural changes within the prefrontal cortex can make compulsive checking harder to resist. Suddenly, staying connected with grandchildren can turn into YouTube rabbit holes and Facebook refreshes every half an hour.
In addition, seniors might be encountering algorithmic persuasion at a vulnerable life stage, a point in life which can include major events including retirement identity loss, bereavement, and health issues such as reduced physical mobility. In that scenario, the promise of constant connection can feel like a salvation, rather than a product being sold.
Fragmented attention caused by constant task-switching within social media platforms can also be a problem. Attention split between games, messages, videos, news and notifications coupled with infinite scrolling may contribute to cognitive strain or undermine protective habits like deep reading.
Vulnerability to online crime is another significant issue that can impact older social media users, since they are more exposed to scams tailored for them, including prizes, lottery and investment scams or fake emergencies involving relatives.
Numbers on financial fraud impacting seniors demonstrate the sheer size of the problem. Estimated total losses including underreported cases cost older adults up to $81.5 billion in the United States during 2024 alone, mostly due to investment scams advertised on social media, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission.
However, none of these risks mean that older adults are uniquely incapable of navigating digital environments. The problem is not age itself, but the interaction between platform design, life stage, and patterns of use. Recognizing structural vulnerability should not slide into portraying seniors as passive victims.
Agency within risk
While problematic use patterns of social media can create psychological and cause harm to more vulnerable senior users, it is important to challenge the infantilizing narrative around older users and technology, and assuming that all of them are vulnerable to the same kind of dynamics. Research on smartphone use reveals this double-edged sword, arguing that device engagement appears to be cognitively protective, countering the assumption that intensive use always harms older brains.
Intensity of use alone doesn’t determine harm, but the quality of engagement matters, the study suggests. That is why active, purposeful use of social media (for communication or learning, for instance) can support cognitive functioning, while compulsion-based use creates stress, or phantom perceptions for example.
It is also important to distinguish misinformation from information overload – and the research has highlighted older adults’ agency in managing both. Overload is a cognitive and attentional challenge (too much, too fast, with insufficient filtering tools) while misinformation is an epistemic challenge, with content designed to deceive.
An older adult struggling with notification fatigue needs different support than one who shared false health content. Lumping them together produces generic digital literacy interventions that address neither well.
Frequently, the seniors and social media debate tends to adopt a blanket approach, framing them as passive algorithmic victims that are credulous, overwhelmed and in need of rescue. However, treating seniors as uniformly gullible could be a form of ageism that shapes paternalistic policies, condescending digital literacy campaigns, and communication strategies that talk at rather than with older populations.
As the debate on social media use among seniors advances, designing for intentionality could be one of the ways forward. Platforms and public health campaigns should help users develop metacognitive awareness of, for instance, why they’re reaching for their phones, rather than assuming older users specifically need supervision.
Also, strategies that distinguish the overload problem from the misinformation issue could offer older adults filtering tools for the former and critical framing support for the latter, without assuming they are incapable of thinking for themselves.
And finally, research models should involve older adults as co-investigators of their own digital experience rather than simply framing them as subjects to be studied and protected. Solutions built on ageist assumptions will consistently miss the mark.
Feature image credit: Moment Editorial/Getty Images
