AI logos. Let's talk about it.

I use AI every day. For planning, research, sense checking content and generally making my working day run more smoothly. It's a genuinely useful tool and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But when it comes to using AI to generate a logo or brand identity, I think we need to have an honest conversation about what you're actually getting.

The practical reality

Not every business has the budget for professional brand design at the start. Sometimes an AI generated logo feels like a pragmatic stepping stone and honestly, I understand that. Getting something in place so you can get moving is better than being paralysed by the cost of doing it properly. But it's worth going in with your eyes open about the limitations, because there are a few that could cause real problems down the line.

It's not as original as you think

AI generates imagery by drawing from vast amounts of existing work. Every image it produces is essentially a remix of patterns it has learned from, which means what you end up with isn't truly original. It might look distinctive on the day you generate it, but there's no guarantee it isn't similar to something already out there. For a brand that's trying to stand out and be recognisable, that's a problem worth thinking about.

The ownership situation is murky

This is the one that catches most people off guard. In many cases you don't have clear, enforceable rights over AI generated assets. The legal landscape around AI and intellectual property is still evolving and varies by jurisdiction, but the short version is that copyright law generally requires human authorship. If there's no human author, there may be no copyright, which means you may not actually own your logo in any meaningful legal sense.

That becomes a real issue if you ever want to trademark your brand, take action against someone using something similar or properly protect the identity you've built. It's not a hypothetical risk. It's a genuine gap that's worth understanding before you build a brand around an asset you might not own.

A logo without strategy is just decoration

Beyond the legal side, there's a bigger point that I think gets lost in the conversation about AI and design. A logo isn't just a visual. It's meant to communicate something. Who you are, who you're for, what makes you different and why someone should choose you over everyone else doing something similar.

AI can generate something that looks the part. It can produce something clean, modern or on trend. But it can't think critically about your positioning. It doesn't know your audience, your values or the specific thing that makes your business worth choosing. It can only generate based on patterns, which means what you get is something that looks like a brand without actually being one.

Strategy is what gives a brand its foundations. It's the thinking that happens before a single visual decision is made, the work of getting clear on who you are, who you're talking to and how you want to be understood. Without that, even the most beautifully designed logo is just decoration. An AI generated one even more so.

So what should you do?

If you're at the very start of your business journey and budget is genuinely tight, an AI generated logo might be a temporary solution that gets you moving. But treat it as exactly that, temporary. Something to use while you find your feet, not something to build a brand around for the long term.

When you're ready to invest in your brand properly, start with strategy. Not a logo. Understanding who you are and who you're for is the foundation everything else is built on. Get that right and the visual identity that follows will actually mean something.

AI is a brilliant tool. I'll keep using it every day. But your brand deserves more than a prompt.