It’s becoming an obvious insight by now: as powerful AI tools become available to everyone, the real competitive edge lies not in access, but intention. In taste. In knowing what to do with them.
As Olya Kuryshchuk recently wrote in 1 Granary headline titled “In an AI-driven world, taste is the ultimate currency”:
“AI can design, write, compose, and code at scale. But the easier it gets, the noisier things become… The ability to say, ‘This is the one that matters’ is taste. And that will become the most valuable decision-making skill of our time.”
At Scandinavian MIND, we’ve long argued that the creative director or editor is more important than ever in an AI-driven world. But what’s becoming equally clear is this: the same logic applies to brands.
Consumer behavior is shifting fast. The classic Google search experience – ten blue links and a maze of SEO-optimised headlines – is replaced by conversational search via tools like Chatgpt, Perplexity, and Claude.
Earlier this year I interviewed Erik Wikander, founder of AI-driven marketing platform Wilgot. In the episode, title Fashion marketing gets crushed by AI, he said:
“The buyer journey will happen inside the chatbot. You may never go into a website again.”
This shift is seismic. For years, brands have optimised for Google’s algorithm. But marketing directors are now asking: How do I secure my brand’s presence inside the AI feed?
The answer, inevitably, is content. But not just any content – useful, trustworthy, and unique content that AI agents want to surface.
The rise of information gain
In researching this topic, I came across a concept that now feels central to the future of brand communication: Information Gain.
This is the idea that in a world where 90% of content will be AI-generated by 2026, the only content that stands out is the kind that adds something new. Content that brings fresh insights, lived experience, expert perspective, or proprietary data. In short: content that provides value beyond what’s already out there.
If AI will write everything, then how you direct that writing – what you feed it – will define your visibility, your differentiation, and ultimately your success.
AI is making content creation cheaper. But attention is not cheap – and trust is priceless. Brands now face a massive challenge: you must generate more content than ever, but it must be deeply aligned with your customer’s evolving, highly specific needs.
And because AI agents are conversational, your content must respond to questions that haven’t even been asked yet. These are not just keyword searches—they’re life moments, context-rich queries like:“I’m going to a spring networking event in Stockholm. What should I wear to stand out but stay on brand?”
For your product to be the answer to that question, your brand must already have published something relevant, timely, and discoverable.
AI-amplified, not AI-recycled
This doesn’t mean every brand needs to hire an army of writers. In fact, the opposite is true. The actual writing can and should be automated using tools like Wilgot. But the source material—your unique insights, your tone of voice, your product philosophy – must be human-led.
AI content needs to be amplified, not recycled.
And that requires strategy. Structure. And, yes, taste.
—
We at Scandinavian MIND work with companies across fashion, design, and lifestyle to help them rethink their content strategy from the ground up. To learn more, contact us here.