About

I've spent 30 years making brands distinctive. Now I help them to be more distinctive with AI.

Everyone's rushing to AI. Most are losing what made them special in the process.

I'm Ben Afia. I help brand directors and CMOs use AI to scale their marketing - without flattening what makes their brand distinctive.

I don't just talk about AI - I use it to transform how marketing teams work. Right now I'm leading a 2-3 year programme for a Fortune 500 life science company, building and scaling a team of AI agents to power the marketing workflow across 300+ marketers - backed by training, change management and brand governance. The goal: every marketer working at the level of their best. One unmistakable brand. A world-class marketing team that becomes a benchmark for AI-enabled marketing.

I'm an alumnus of SmarterX's AI Academy, which since 2020 has trained professionals on scaling AI in large organisations. As a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association, I run talks and workshops that help brand teams adopt AI with confidence, not fear.

But here's the difference: I've spent three decades helping companies like Vodafone, E.ON, Legal & General and Boots build distinctive brands and transform their cultures. I was setting tone of voice standards at Boots before most people knew what it meant. I helped Ronseal figure out exactly what to say on the tin.

I understand what makes brands tick - the tone, the values, the unwritten rules, the culture that holds it all together. That's the foundation AI should build on, not flatten. Backing me up is a team of technical specialists with deep AI experience, including a top 1% Microsoft Solutions Partner.

I'm not another consultant playing with prompts. I'm a brand person helping you grow with AI.

Why this matters now

You've built something distinctive. A brand customers trust. A voice your people believe in. Real differentiation, not just a logo.

AI promises speed, but threatens to flatten everything that sets you apart. Generic outputs. Robotic responses. Lost personality. 77% of consumers can spot AI content and 68% trust it less.

You don't have to choose between scale and distinctiveness. I'll show you how to use AI to turn up the volume on your brand, not water it down.

What makes me different

I'm not an AI consultant who's just discovered branding. I'm a brand expert who understands AI's role.

For three decades, I've been the catalyst who:

• Built Aviva's brand voice to make complex insurance feel simple and distinctive
• Helped Vodafone transform how 1,000 agents spoke with customers, boosting NPS by 15-20 points
• Transformed Aldermore Bank's entire customer journey
• Guided E.ON through culture and brand transformation reaching 16,000 people
• Built lasting partnerships with brand leaders at ManyPets, LV=, OVO Energy, TalkTalk, and BP

I understand what makes brands tick - the culture, the voice, the character. That's the foundation AI should amplify, not replace.

How I work

I create change with you, not to you.

Using Appreciative Inquiry, I start with your people to discover what your brand is like at its best. Then I build that into your AI tools - custom agents, governance, systems that make you more you, not less. Whether it's a focused project to protect your brand voice, workshops to codify what makes you distinctive, or training to build real AI skills across your team - everything is grounded in brand strategy and the practical frameworks in my book, The Human Business.

I've always been about getting to the heart of what makes a brand special, then scaling that essence without losing it. AI just makes this more critical - and more possible.

The person behind the work

I live in Nottingham with my wife and our youngest (mostly at uni), while our eldest has made his way to my birthplace, London, to work in cyber security. I'm the slowest swimmer at a competitive club, a keen gardener, a car enthusiast and a closet deep house fanatic.

These details matter. Character is what makes brands distinctive too. The details that set your brand apart shouldn't be erased by AI.

Let's protect what makes you, you

Your competitors are racing to implement AI without thinking about what they're losing. That's your opportunity.

The brands that win won't be the ones that produce the most content. They'll be the ones that stay unmistakably themselves.