Anthropic and OpenAI are spending millions on human creativity and traditional brand building, writes KWP Partners executive director of advertising Sam Talbot. Do the companies building AI trust the technology to build a brand?

Anthropic could have used AI to create its first major ad campaign. They build artificial intelligence for a living. Instead, they spent millions hiring humans. An ad agency called Mother. Film crews. Actors. They shot traditional TV spots and bought space in The New York Times.

OpenAI did the same thing. Shot their ChatGPT campaign on 35mm film. Bought NFL primetime slots. Hired real directors and photographers.

It poses a serious question: do the companies building AI trust the technology to build a brand?

And if they’re not betting on automated, performance-driven marketing, why are you?

AI is fundamentally reshaping how customers discover and choose businesses, and the rules keep changing.

Over the past year, Google has repeatedly shifted where AI-generated summaries appear in search results. First at the top, bypassing everything. Then below paid ads. Now buried in an ‘AI mode’ toggle. Search habits are evolving in real time as users adapt to AI chatbots, AI-powered browsers, and recommendation engines.

This instability is causing real problems for brands. When the platform changes the rules every few weeks, performance marketing strategies that worked last quarter break this quarter. Australian businesses report dramatic swings in organic traffic as AI features roll out, roll back, and........

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