Brand Copy Guidelines
How We Think About the Roles of Humans and Models
Why Brand Copy Matters More Than Ever
Words form trust and brands are built on trust. Trust is not just between the consumer but between employees too. Every word a company produces, from a calendar invite to a manifesto, carries weight that can make or break trust with any person the brand ecosystem.
Large language models are literally fueled by words. This is a powerful tool for content production but if we lean into these models too heavily we lose our brand soul and identity. This, in turn, impacts our ability to build trust and, furthermore, drive meaningful relationships and revenue. Our guiding principle when working on any form of copy with LLMs is simple…
The more meaningful the words, the more human they should be.
The Pyramid of Copy
We think about AI-assisted copy as a pyramid. It’s X and Y axis imply two things at once: the volume of words a brand produces and the degree of human involvement those words demand. At the base, you have the highest volume and the most AI autonomy. At the peak, you have the fewest words and the most human craft. The relationship is inverse: as the stakes rise, AI’s role shrinks.
Think of all the words and letters we produce in a year inside our own individual teams and businesses; admin tasks (emails, agendas, meeting notes, messages} probably account for millions of words. Social posts and marketing copy sit in the middle; fewer words, but each one is more intentional. At the top, blogs and narratives represent our smallest word count but our highest-stakes writing. These words define who we are.
We believe the future belongs to brands that reveal their identity more intimately to attract talent and customers. The “experience” of copy will always be important in both employee and customer journeys.
Operational Copy: AI as the Workhorse
AI Autonomy: 80–100% · Human Role: Review & Approve
This is the base of the pyramid and the bulk of our written output. These are the operational words that keep a business running.
Our Approach
For admin copy, AI is the primary drafter. The goal is efficiency without losing our voice. A calendar invite still sounds like us. An email still feels warm, direct, and human — even if a model wrote 90% of it.
The key to getting here is training. Out of the box, AI produces generic, forgettable copy. To reach the level of confidence where we can trust AI with these tasks, we invest in the following:
Voice Training: We configure writing styles in tools like Claude with our tone attributes — smart but not smug, technical but not exclusionary, friendly but not unprofessional. We feed it examples of past emails, Slack threads, and internal comms so it learns our patterns, not just our rules.
Context Loading: For recurring tasks like meeting summaries or project updates, we provide templates and past examples as context. The more familiar AI is with the format and our expectations, the better the output.
Review Cadence: Even at 90% AI autonomy, someone reads it before it sends. Not to rewrite, but to catch anything that feels off-brand. Over time, this review becomes faster as the AI’s accuracy improves but review is always recommended. About 10% of our emails are more critical, especially when connecting with new clients and leads, making it more important to write them from scratch.
Voice Copy: AI as the Creative Partner
AI Autonomy: 30–60% · Human Role: Direct, Edit, & Refine
This is the middle layer and these words touch our audience (clients, community members, potential customers) directly. Every caption, newsletter, and product description is a brand interaction.
Our Approach
AI should never fully write copy at this layer. It’s a creative partner that’s useful for generating options and accelerating drafts. The final voice has to be human, the writing needs to be stripped of any LLM colloquialisms.
A core element of our brand is trust. Our audience follows us because we sound like us, not like a language model. The moment AI colloquialisms and generic phrasing slip into our public-facing copy, we erode the trust we’ve built. Phrases like “dive into,” “harness the power of,” or “in today’s fast-paced world” are the fingerprints of lazy AI usage. Our audience will notice.
Since our marketing relies on creativity as a differentiator, we should never be lazy in our effort to execute. We’re a design company that talks about the importance of human creativity. Our copy has to prove that thesis, not undermine it.
Copy from the Soul
AI Autonomy: 10–20% · Human Role: Conceive, Write, & Own
This is the peak of the pyramid. The fewest words, the highest stakes. These are the sacred artifacts of our brand.
Our Approach
This content is human-driven, full stop. AI is a research assistant, not a ghostwriter. It can help us find information, organize our thoughts, and clean up our grammar but the ideas, arguments, and voice originate from us. Even though we might use AI to generate a decent amount of the body copy, we create the structure. We refine that structure and we read every single word and revise every sentence.
We believe creativity comes from lived experience and consciousness. Our experiences, the way we think, the way we feel; that needs to shine in our sacred work. We are not about optimizing everything and publishing things that don’t feel like us.
Principles Across All Layers
1. Add Context Before You Trust
AI copy quality is directly proportional to the context you give it. Before relying on AI at any layer, invest in training: load writing styles, provide example bodies of work, feed past communications, and configure tone parameters.
2. Voice is a Moat
In a world where everyone has access to the same AI tools, the brands that sound like themselves will win. Our voice — smart, technical, ambitious, friendly, confident — is a competitive advantage. It’s not something we hand off to a model. It’s something we protect.
3. No AI Fingerprints
If copy reads like AI wrote it, it fails. We actively audit our published content for AI colloquialisms and prefer character and errors over chasing a perfect pile of slop.
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