81% of CMOs say AI makes brand preference matter more

Large language models are reading everything a company publishes—ads, product pages, press coverage, even annual reports—as one continuous brand script. That is the warning from Vincenzo Riili, global CMO of IKEA Retail, in an interview with Digiday arranged by Dentsu.

“It’s not only about communication anymore,” Riili said. “It’s also about other elements that go and get fed into the algorithm.”

Distribution, not creation

Riili’s central line is that LLMs should be used “to distribute your brand not to create your brand.” The distinction matters because a model cannot invent consistency; it only repeats what already exists. IKEA’s long-held proposition, as Riili puts it, is “beautiful, affordable furniture for many people,” which gives the model a steady signal. Brands that switched propositions tactically for short-term sales now read as noise.

In practical terms, the brand now extends to every word about the company, much of it written by people who have never opened a brand book.

What the CMO data says

Dentsu Creative’s latest CMO survey of 1,950 senior marketers puts numbers behind the anxiety:

• 81% expect AI agents to make strong brand preference more important than ever.
• 78% worry those agents will make their brand experience invisible.
• 31% would be very comfortable letting an AI agent develop their annual report on their own.

That final figure is the trap in disguise. If a model writes investor documents and also answers consumer questions, the annual report is no longer a compliance exercise—it is brand copy.

From brand book to brand brain

Patricia McDonald, global chief strategy officer at Dentsu Creative, frames the shift as moving from a brand book to a “brand brain”—a living system that shapes decisions, incentives and structure, not just aesthetics. Jon Roberts, chief innovation at People Inc., made the same argument to publishers in London: the brand travels further than any single channel, and “AI just scales bigger and cheaper than you will ever do.”

At IKEA, the AI rollout has been phased. The first phase was speed—adapting local content faster. The second is effectiveness: helping marketers make better decisions and build stronger relationships. Creative automation, Riili says, is not there yet. In his words, AI is “a companion,” not the author.

What to do about it

The practical move is to audit your brand as if an LLM will summarise it tomorrow. Use AI to distribute a position you already own, not to invent one.

Do: Treat every public surface—investor filings, product pages, creator briefs—as one voice.

Don’t: Let AI draft your positioning out of thin air. Scale a position you already own.

Creator partnerships are the stress test. IKEA relies on creators across markets, including staff whose TikToks can pull a million views. Riili says the deal must be win-win, and creators should speak in their own voice—with non-negotiables on purpose and values. That balance is the new brand discipline: freedom in expression, consistency in intent.

Source: Digiday