When a large company plans a relaunch, AI tools now sit right at the centre of the strategy deck: AI for audience insights, AI for creative testing, AI for customer support. That sounds modern and efficient—until the launch hits the real world and people feel watched, replaced or creeped out by “machine-made” branding.
This post walks through how AI can turn a high-stakes relaunch into a controversy, using recent real-world examples of AI in products and campaigns, plus data on adoption, trust and consumer reactions.
Why AI Became the Hero of the Relaunch Deck?
By 2025, AI will no longer be a side experiment. A recent global survey found that 78% of organisations use AI in at least one business function, with marketing and sales among the top adopters. Another large survey reported that 88% of marketers now use AI in their day-to-day roles, mainly for content generation, segmentation and optimisation.
In a typical relaunch plan, that translates into:
- AI-generated imagery and video to refresh the brand look
- AI-written copy and personalisation across web, email and ads
- AI-driven assistants and recommendation engines in the product itself
On paper, this looks like a smart way to stretch budgets and hit deadlines. AI imagery can be generated in hours instead of weeks. Generative tools can create thousands of headline variants for testing. Boards also see AI as strategic: more than 88% of organisations report some AI use, yet only 39% of large US companies disclosed any board-level AI oversight as of 2024—so the technology often moves faster than governance. That gap is exactly where controversy tends to appear.
When AI Imagery Undermines Brand Authenticity?
Imagine a heritage brand relaunching with a big visual campaign. The agency leans heavily on AI-assisted imagery to create surreal, “shareable” visuals. Online, people quickly decide the work feels cheap and inauthentic.
This is not theoretical. In 2025, Valentino’s AI-heavy campaign for its DeVain handbag was widely criticised as “tacky,” “cheap,” and “uncomfortable,” with commentators arguing it prioritised efficiency over artistry. Luxury audiences, who are used to human craftsmanship and hand-built visuals, read the AI look as a loss of care and effort.
Academic work backs up that reaction. One recent study on generative-AI images in luxury advertising found that disclosing AI-generated imagery tends to lower perceived brand effort and authenticity, and can produce more negative attitudes toward the ad and the brand—unless the creative output is exceptionally strong. Another paper showed that AI-generated visuals for premium brands can trigger a sense that the company is “cutting corners,” which depresses trust and purchase intent.
In a relaunch context, that’s dangerous: if the new logo, hero film or flagship imagery carries an obvious AI sheen, you risk signalling cost-cutting instead of renewal.
Internal Culture Shock and Layoff Anxiety
AI is not just a branding or product issue—it cuts straight into how employees experience a relaunch.
In 2025, Accenture reorganised around “Reinvention Services” and began calling its 800,000 employees “reinventors,” positioning AI as central to the firm’s future direction. The move came alongside 11,000 layoffs and a heavy emphasis on gen-AI upskilling. Critics noted the risk that this kind of rhetoric can feel hollow—or even threatening—if employees suspect AI is mainly a justification for cuts rather than a tool to support them.
Across the economy, similar patterns show up. Surveys of small businesses and corporates reveal that:
- Around 78% of organisations say they already use AI somewhere in the business.
- A recent US report found that almost 60% of small businesses now use AI in operations.
At the same time, trust is fragile. The Edelman Trust Barometer noted that mismanaged innovations like AI are as likely to ignite backlash as to advance society, and stresses that implementation and impact management matter as much as the invention itself.
In a relaunch, if AI is framed as the “new brain” of the company while people are losing jobs or seeing tasks automated without clear support, employees may respond with cynicism or open resistance. That internal pushback has a habit of leaking into the public sphere.
Consumer Backlash: AI as a Shortcut vs AI as a Tool
Marketers love AI for efficiency. But audiences are increasingly sensitive to how and when it shows up in campaigns.
In 2024 and 2025, Coca-Cola’s AI-generated Christmas ads sparked repeated criticism. Viewers described the AI remake of its classic “Holidays Are Coming” spot as uncanny and emotionally flat, even as internal testing claimed strong effectiveness scores. Industry analysis of these and similar campaigns notes that people notice glitches and stylistic oddities, and that seeing a beloved brand lean too hard on AI can feel like a betrayal of its creative heritage.
Other brands—Guess, J.Crew, Skechers—have faced cycles of online criticism when their advertising looked AI-generated, even when the companies were vague about whether AI was used. A 2025 marketing report observed that as more digital video creatives move toward AI, consumers show lower emotional trust when ads carry an “AI-made” label, forcing marketers to juggle efficiency with brand equity.
Behind the scenes, research on consumer attitudes shows:
- Many people now assume brands are using AI, but trust drops when they feel automation has replaced genuine human effort.
- Roughly 35–36% of consumers report little or no trust in AI-generated search results, highlighting a broader scepticism about automated outputs.
In a relaunch, that means the mere perception that “a bot did the logo, copy or visuals” can become a story of its own.
Conclusion
AI tools now shape nearly every major corporate relaunch, from testing logos to producing campaigns and personalising products. Adoption is almost universal, but trust and governance lag. When AI visuals feel lazy, features seem invasive, or staff feel replaced, renewal turns into mismanaged innovation.
The lesson is to slow down and design around people—customers seeking authenticity, employees wanting security, and regulators ensuring accountability. Relaunch plans that treat AI as a quiet partner, not the star, will feel more modern, human, and trustworthy.
