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The number of millionaires in the U.S. grew last year, setting the U.S. apart as a world leader in global wealth.

UBS, an investment bank and financial services company, released its annual global wealth report on Wednesday, looking back at wealth trends in 2024. The company defined a millionaire as anyone with a net worth of at least $1 million.

UBS found that the U.S. added over a thousand new millionaires per day on average in 2024, far more than the 380 new millionaires per day experienced in China, which was in second place. Altogether, there were 379,000 new millionaires in the U.S. last year, followed by China’s 141,000. The two countries made up more than half of the 684,000 new millionaires overall.

Wealth growth in North America was “driven by a stable U.S. dollar and upbeat financial markets,” according to the report. Financial markets did well last year: The S&P 500 was up by more than 23% in 2024, and the Nasdaq was up nearly 29%.

Related: This Self-Made Millionaire Who Lived in a Trailer Park Before Starting a Business at 19 Reveals Her ‘Superpower’ — and 1 Quality That Sets Successful People Apart

UBS found that the U.S. has the greatest number of millionaires in the world, more than Western Europe and China combined. The U.S. has 23.8 million people in the seven-figure club, the highest out of any other nation, and holds almost 35% of the share of global personal wealth. China comes in second with 6.3 million millionaires and close to 20% of the share of personal wealth.

Countries such as Japan, France, Germany, the U.K., and Canada have over two million millionaires as of 2024.

In sum, there are almost 60 million millionaires in the world who control a total of $226.47 trillion in assets.

Related: Barbara Corcoran Says If You Want to Become a Millionaire Do This 1 Thing: ‘I Out-Try Anyone’

UBS expects the number of millionaires to keep rising, and an additional 5.34 million people to become worth seven figures by 2029, a 9% increase from 2024.

“Over the next five years, we expect North America and Greater China to be the main drivers of global wealth growth,” the report reads.

A separate report from Henley & Partners and New World Wealth, released last month, shows that the number of liquid millionaires in the U.S., or those with assets of more than $1 million, has increased by 78% in the past decade.

Most entrepreneurs reserve public relations (PR) for major announcements like product launches, funding rounds or crisis management. But the most successful founders don’t wait for pivotal moments to seek attention. They invest early in building a personal and business reputation that speaks for itself.

In crowded markets, credibility acts as a natural attractor and risk reducer. It signals integrity, reliability and trustworthiness — qualities that not only shape public perception but also open the door to unseen opportunities.

After two decades working with founders, C-suites, and visionary brand leaders, one truth has stood out: those who prioritize consistent visibility and strong messaging over the long haul outperform those who treat PR as a one-time tactic. Brands that embed credibility into their DNA — ideally from day one — are better positioned to attract capital, strategic partners, loyal customers and media attention.

If you’re serious about long-term success, it’s time to treat visibility and credibility as core business strategies — not last-minute fixes. Here’s where to start:

1. Clarify and own your value proposition

Most founders know their product, but struggle to explain their deeper purpose. Media readiness starts with clarity: What problem does your solution uniquely solve? What market space do you dominate with authority?

Your messaging should present your distinct value in a clear, compelling narrative that can be understood in seconds by investors, customers and the press. This is the foundation of credibility: people can’t believe in what they can’t understand.

Related: How to Build Credibility When Selling to Customers Who’ve Never Heard of You

2. Invest early in thought leadership

Thought leadership isn’t self-promotion — it’s a public expression of your expertise, perspective and values. Founders who share insights generously (before asking for attention) establish themselves as credible voices.

Start by writing advice-driven articles, speaking at relevant industry events or offering commentary as a media expert. Participate in real-time discussions through platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit AMAs, Instagram Live or niche Slack and Discord communities. These casual, interactive formats humanize your brand and demonstrate accessibility, transparency and relevance.

Credibility is built through consistency, not by sporadic posts or self-serving announcements.

3. Leverage your origin story

Every entrepreneur has a story. The best know how to use it.

Your company vision came from somewhere—your frustrations, your experiences, your drive to solve a particular problem. That story makes your brand relatable and memorable. It’s the emotional bridge between your mission and your market.

Your personal narrative should appear on your “About” page, in social content, in media interviews and as part of your pitch strategy. People remember stories, not specs. Facts inform — but stories persuade.

4. Build media relationships before you need them

Breakthrough media coverage rarely comes from blasting out a press release. It comes from relationships.

Whether you DIY or work with a publicist, start by identifying journalists, editors, and podcast hosts who cover your industry. Follow their work. Comment thoughtfully on their articles. Share insights or story angles that align with their focus.

Position yourself as a trusted expert before you pitch. That way, when a critical moment comes — your product launch, your funding round, your viral moment — they already know who you are.

5. Create a digital footprint that reinforces your authority

In today’s world, your first impression lives on Google. If someone searches your name or company, will what they find reflect your expertise and credibility?

Audit your digital presence. Make sure your bios are consistent across platforms. Treat LinkedIn as your thought leadership hub. Ensure your website reflects professionalism and authority, not just basic functionality.

In short, make it easy for people to believe in you, because they can find evidence that others already do.

Related: How to Build Credibility and Trust With Effective Content Creation

Visible Credibility leads to strategic leverage

People respond to those they trust. They take meetings, return emails, and share opportunities with leaders who’ve earned their attention through visible, consistent credibility.

Entrepreneurs who treat trust-building as an ongoing strategy — not a crisis response—are the ones who build resilient, opportunity-rich businesses. When the pressure hits (and it will), your credibility will do the talking.

When you’re building a startup from scratch, there are two things nobody warns you about enough: one, you’re going to have to sell. And, two, you’re probably going to be terrible at it at first.

I know I was. I didn’t have sales experience when I launched my previous company, Vungle. But we had no sales team, no leads and no brand to fall back on. If I wanted the company to survive, I had to learn to sell anyway.

I can say now, given hindsight, that the process of figuring it out the hard way is what set the foundation for what came later. Within a few years, we had grown to 250 employees across eight offices, with over $400 million in annual revenue. None of that would have happened if I hadn’t done the early sales myself.

Below are sales lessons I learned from those years, plus tactical tips any founder can apply, especially when no one’s answering your messages.

Related: 4 Steps to Becoming a Sales-Focused Founder (and Why It’s Important)

Find ways to show up where your customers already are

In our earliest days, we were trying to get mobile game developers to use Vungle’s ad tech, and cold outreach just wasn’t cutting it.

So we did something unconventional: We started playing the games themselves. Our team would log hours on popular titles just to land on the leaderboards. Once we were ranked, we’d change our usernames to short custom messages like “FromVungle_Please_Call_Us.”

This approach got us into conversations with developers who would’ve ignored us otherwise. In a sea of templated outreach, we stood out by embedding our message in the experience our customers were already having.

Now, I’m not saying that you should gamify your every outreach (unless, maybe, if your users are gamers). What I am suggesting is, if your cold outreach is falling flat, ask yourself: Are you showing up where your users are already engaged? Or are you just sending emails they didn’t ask for?

Stop talking about your product

Founders love talking about their product. That’s understandable given how this product is probably your labor of love. The catch is, in a cold message, your product isn’t the hook — your user’s pain is. For Vungle, one of the best-performing openers was something along the lines of:

“Hi, I saw your app on the charts. We’ve helped other developers boost revenue by 20% without changing the user experience. Worth a quick chat?”

See how we didn’t list our credentials or explain our tech stack? Instead, we led with something our audience cared about: incremental revenue for minimal effort.

If you’re doing cold outreach, assume the person reading your message has no context on who you are and doesn’t care yet. You need to earn that interest.

This matters more than it seems. Per a 2024 Salesforce report, 86% of business buyers are more likely to buy when their goals are understood. That means most early founders are leaving opportunities on the table by focusing their pitch too much on themselves and empathizing with their customers too little.

When you take time to craft your first message without thinking of it from the lens of a sales email, it’s proof you care enough to be relevant. That’s how you earn the right to pitch later.

Related: Give Your Employees The 3-Point Strategy They Need To Drive Sales

Build a repeatable engine first before you hand it off

It’s tempting to hire a salesperson the moment you feel overwhelmed. But hiring too early is one of the biggest mistakes I see founders make.

At Vungle, we didn’t hire a full-time salesperson until we’d already built a repeatable script and could train them on what worked. Until then, we built documentation like we’d build product docs: call flows, objection handling, competitive comparisons, sales enablement materials.

That’s what allowed us to scale sales from $850,000 to $15 million in one year, and then to $56 million the next.

If you don’t do this, you risk churning through sales hires. In that scenario, it’s very tempting to blame it on “bad fit.” In reality, you most likely just didn’t have a system.

How I see it, your biggest responsibility as a founder leading sales is actually NOT closing deals but writing the playbook. Until you’ve closed 10–20 deals yourself and can explain how you did it, you’re not ready to outsource.

Treat your sales outreach like an extension of product (because it is)

Founders often treat sales as something separate from product work. But early-stage selling is one of the fastest ways to refine your product. It shows you what customers actually care about. What they’re confused by. What they’re willing to pay for.

For instance, we thought our value proposition at Vungle was around the speed of integration. But during sales calls, we kept hearing that development teams were worried about crash rates and performance. We shifted our pitch — and later, our product roadmap — around those insights. That realignment made a huge difference in our win rates.

Early customer conversations reveal the “why” behind objections. It’s going to be very validating listening for praise. But resist the temptation. Instead tune in closer for confusion, hesitation and indifference. That’s the true product goldmine.

Related: How to Avoid These Costly Mistakes in Your Startup’s Sales Strategy

Reps > theory

If there’s one truth I’ve seen across every startup I’ve advised or invested in, it’s this: You can’t learn founder-led sales by reading about it. You have to do the reps.

Even as you outgrow founder-led sales, you’ll see that “sales” is actually not a temporary phase. It’s the muscle that helps you discover new markets and opportunities, raise money, recruit talent, and evangelize your mission. The sooner you build it, the more compound interest you’ll get on every part of your company.

All that’s to say: yes, founder-led sales is hard! It’s humbling. But it’s also the best path to real traction. If you’re in the early grind, remember that the best founders likely weren’t naturals either. They just cared and hustled enough to put in the reps

The lavish wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and book author and helicopter pilot, Lauren Sánchez, is expected to take place next week in Venice. Most reports say the event will host 200 guests and last three days, from June 24 to June 26, though the couple has not confirmed.

But Venice residents have been protesting against overcrowding and mass tourism, something that they say is negatively affecting the small (the main island is about 2 square miles) city that receives about 20 million visitors yearly. The overcrowding has become so bad that the city charges a 5 Euro daily entrance fee on some high-season dates. (It’s also not just Venice — in Spain, tourists are being shot with water guns on crowded streets.)

Related: Jeff Bezos’ Neighbors Just Sold Their Land. Here’s How Much It Costs to Live Next to the Amazon Founder.

And now the Bezos-Sánchez wedding is in the crosshairs.

^{People gather to protest against the wedding of Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice on June 13, 2025. ANDREA PATTARO/AFP | Getty Images}

For the past few days leading up to the wedding, protesters have been making signs and chanting, “No space for Bezos,” in an obvious play on words regarding the space company Bezos founded, Blue Origin.

However, the AP reports that, despite the protests, the betrothed have used local vendors for about 80% of the provisions, and the businesses they spoke to were happy about the extra orders.

The 6th-generation owner of Rosa Salva, a bakery that has been making pastries since 1876, told the AP that his business made a selection of items for the goody bags for the wedding and was happy to see the city in the national spotlight.

“Events like this bring quality tourism to Venice,” he said. “I don’t see how an event with 200 people can create disruptions. It’s responsible tourism. It’s prestigious that a couple like this, who can go anywhere in the world, are getting married in the city.”

The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, is also excited for the event.

Brugnaro told the AP this week that it was “an honor” that Bezos and Sánchez chose Venice.

“Venice once again reveals itself to be a global stage,” he said.

Related: Jeff Bezos Is Selling Billions Worth of Amazon Stock, According to a New Filing

Following the unexpected success of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which have sold two million pairs since launch in late 2023, Meta is releasing new versions of its AI smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands.

According to a CNBC report released Tuesday, Meta is expanding its partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the parent company that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley and has a licensing agreement with Prada. The new Oakley Meta smart glasses will target athletes and active customers, while the Prada partnership will give Meta a high-end deal with a notable fashion house.

Related: Apple Is Reportedly Developing AI Smart Glasses to Compete with Meta and Google

The Oakley glasses will reportedly start at $360, a higher price point than the $299 Ray-Ban Metas, but have a more weather-resistant style, a source told CNBC. The glasses will be able to take photos and videos, make calls and send text messages through voice commands, livestream content, and play music, just like the Ray-Ban Metas. They will also have AI capabilities, so users can ask questions through a “Hey Meta” voice command.

Bloomberg also reported in January that the Oakley glasses were set to be released later this year, and the camera will be in the center of the frame instead of on the side, like the Ray-Ban Metas, so that “cyclists and other athletes” could record footage.

Meta previewed the Oakley partnership on social media on Monday by creating a new Instagram account for “Oakley | Meta” with one post that reads: “The next evolution is coming on June 20.”

Prada, meanwhile, renewed its eyewear licensing agreement with Luxottica for the next decade in December. Former Meta employees told CNBC that Prada eyewear designs were a good fit for Meta because the glasses feature thick temples that can house more technology.

Meta has yet to announce the Prada deal or a timeline for when the smart glasses will hit the market.

Related: Google Is Making AI ‘Intelligent Eyewear’ With Warby Parker After Eyeing Meta’s Ray-Ban Success

EssilorLuxottica and Meta first joined forces in 2019 to work on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Meta released a first-generation pair in 2021 and a second-generation pair in 2023.

The second-generation glasses took off; EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri said during an earnings call in February that the AI smart glasses were “a great success” and that the company plans to produce 10 million of them by the end of next year.

Meta, meanwhile, is also making a broader push into artificial intelligence. The company announced last week that it would invest $14.3 billion in AI data labeling startup, Scale AI, in exchange for a 49% stake. Some Scale AI employees, including CEO Alexandr Wang, will join Meta as part of the move.

Becoming a first-time parent is one of those transformative life experiences that fundamentally reshapes your perspective. As a CEO and a new father, my world recently flipped upside down, in the best possible way. Fatherhood brings immense joy, but it also introduces a whole new set of challenges around balancing motivation, delegation, mental fitness, opportunity pursuit and time management.

For leaders accustomed to full-throttle work, the transition to parenthood can seem daunting. Yet, if navigated thoughtfully, it can strengthen your leadership capabilities, sharpen your strategic thinking and enhance your personal growth.

Related: 5 Ways Becoming a New Dad Has Made Me a Better Leader

Finding motivation in new priorities

One immediate impact of parenthood is an evolution in what motivates you. Prior to becoming a father, my drive was predominantly professional — launching products, hitting revenue targets, scaling teams. But fatherhood quickly reshapes priorities, anchoring your motivations around family stability, long-term security and creating a legacy that extends beyond the boardroom.

Take Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, who openly shares how becoming a parent changed his outlook. After the birth of his daughters, Zuckerberg notably increased his commitment to philanthropy, dedicating significant resources toward initiatives aimed at improving education, health and community well-being. Parenthood encouraged him to think deeply about the broader societal impact of his work, showing that new motivations born from family can profoundly enhance leadership.

Mastering the art of delegation

As a first-time parent, your available time shrinks drastically. Suddenly, the hours you could freely dedicate to your startup narrow significantly, requiring a greater reliance on delegation. This constraint, though initially frustrating, is actually a hidden gift, forcing you to become a better, more efficient leader.

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, openly discusses his approach to delegating critical tasks after becoming a father to multiple children. Musk stresses the importance of building strong, capable teams to whom you can confidently delegate substantial responsibilities. As a CEO, the necessity to delegate effectively is heightened by parenthood, compelling you to empower your team more intentionally and thus accelerating organizational growth.

Related: How I Started a Business and Had a Baby in One Year Without Going (Completely) Insane

Staying mentally fit and sharp

Balancing the demands of parenthood and leadership requires impeccable mental fitness. Sleep deprivation, emotional stress and shifting priorities can test your mental resilience. However, by establishing routines that prioritize mental health, you not only become a better parent but also a more effective CEO.

Meditation, regular exercise and deliberate rest become non-negotiables rather than luxuries. Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square, has often spoken about how mindful practices such as meditation became integral to his routine after significant life shifts. These routines sharpen decision-making capabilities, increase emotional intelligence and foster resilience, all critical to both effective parenting and leadership.

Aggressively pursuing opportunities with new constraints

While parenthood introduces constraints, it also teaches efficiency in pursuing opportunities. With limited hours, every minute of work becomes more strategic, targeted and intentional. Parenthood can clarify what truly matters, pushing you to aggressively chase the right opportunities rather than simply every opportunity.

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and father to Olympia, has been vocal about how parenthood refined his perspective on work and investments. His advocacy for parental leave and family-friendly policies also opened new professional avenues aligned with his personal values, demonstrating that parenthood can help clarify and focus your professional pursuits.

Balancing work, life and legacy

Ultimately, balancing parenthood and CEO responsibilities isn’t about compartmentalizing your life into work and family boxes. It’s about creating harmony and recognizing how each role enriches the other. Parenthood expands your empathy, enhances your strategic thinking and deepens your understanding of long-term planning.

Jeff Bezos famously prioritizes family breakfasts, maintaining that quality time with family sets a positive tone for his professional engagements. These habits create an integrated, sustainable approach to balancing responsibilities, ensuring that neither your business nor your family suffers at the expense of the other.

Related: What Entrepreneurship and Parenthood Taught Me About Empathy

Looking forward

Becoming a first-time parent as a CEO is undeniably challenging. It demands significant adjustments in how you delegate, prioritize, maintain your mental health and pursue opportunities. Yet, this life-changing experience is not just a personal milestone but an extraordinary professional advantage. Parenthood shapes you into a leader who is more focused, empathetic, strategic and resilient.

To fellow CEOs entering parenthood for the first time: Embrace the challenge. Recognize that your experiences as a parent don’t detract from your role as a CEO; they elevate it. By thoughtfully integrating parenthood into your leadership style, you can achieve greater professional success while nurturing a fulfilling, meaningful family life.

We’ve all seen the stats: a huge percentage of professionals say they want to write a book. But between client calls, internal meetings, and just keeping your inbox manageable, it’s no surprise that the manuscript remains a Google Doc titled “Book_Outline_FINAL_v3”.

That’s where Youbooks comes in. It’s an AI-powered non-fiction book generator built for entrepreneurs who have insights worth sharing with the world, but not 300+ hours to write them down. And unlike most tools in the productivity or publishing space, this one comes with a lifetime subscription for $49 (reg. $540)—no monthly fees and no subscription fatigue necessary.

There’s no need to even pick up a pen

Youbooks pulls together the power of multiple AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama) and a 1,000-step production pipeline to create structured, research-backed manuscripts up to 300,000 words. It even integrates real-time online research to keep things current and customizable, down to tone and voice.

The platform’s credit system gives you 150,000 monthly AI credits, enough to produce dozens of full-length drafts annually. You can export in formats like PDF, EPUB, DOCX, or Markdown—and yes, you get full commercial rights to your content. That means you’re free to publish, monetize, or pitch to traditional publishers without any of the usual licensing headaches.

While YouBooks takes your ideas and makes them come to fruition in manuscript form, it’s not a magic wand—you’ll still need to edit, review, and shape your book. However, this tool handles the heavy lifting that often stops the process before it starts.

If you’ve been sitting on an idea for a leadership guide, professional memoir, or industry handbook for fellow colleagues, this could be your easiest on-ramp to publishing. And with a one-time price tag that’s lower than most online courses, it may also be one of the smartest.

Good ideas shouldn’t stay stuck in your notes app forever.

Put your ideas into a long-form manuscript with help from this Youbooks lifetime subscription, now just $49 while supplies last.

Youbooks – AI Non-Fiction Book Generator: Lifetime Subscription

See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Is your electric bill higher than normal? Sure, it’s summer in the U.S., and a higher bill due to air conditioning costs can be expected. In fact, CBS reports that electricity prices have risen 4.5% in the last year, according to recent data from the Labor Department.

But what about a higher bill due to AI? It’s happening to electric customers across the country, even if they’ve never asked a chatbot a question.

Related: Saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’ to ChatGPT Costs OpenAI ‘Tens of Millions of Dollars’

Customers in New Jersey, for example, are fuming over the news that their electric bills could surge up to 20% this summer due to data centers, per a new report in the local Patch outlet. But the entire U.S. could soon be affected.

Floodlight reports that the way electric companies currently set rates won’t work with the unprecedented demand Big Tech has with AI, and highlights a report from Harvard’s Electricity Law Initiative that said, unless the current system changes, U.S. consumers will be the ones who pay “billions of dollars” for it.

Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, told CBS MoneyWatch the same — that the American taxpayers will be the ones footing the bill — not the AI companies.

“As utilities race to meet skyrocketing demand from AI and cloud computing, they’re building new infrastructure and raising rates, often without transparency or public input,” Wolfe said. “That means higher electricity bills for everyday households, while tech companies benefit from sweetheart deals behind closed doors.”

Related: Excess Energy from AI Servers Is Heating the Pool at the 2024 Olympic Games — Here’s How

Digital automation company, Schneider Electric, found that electricity demand will increase at least 16% in the U.S. by 2029 due to data centers. This is only expected to grow as the number of data centers also grows (it already doubled in the U.S. between 2021 and 2024, per a report from Environment America). And the number is increasing with generative AI and other technological advances.

Meanwhile, the rise in electricity needs could result in “lower system stability,” according to a recent report by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., and a grid operator in 13 states and Washington, D.C., PJM, said data center demand could lead to “capacity shortages” in its 2025 forecast.

The “Godfather of AI” says that some fields are safer than others when it comes to being replaced by AI.

Geoffrey Hinton, 78, is often referred to as the Godfather of AI due to his pioneering work on neural networks, which began in the late 1970s. He won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on machine learning and is currently a professor emeritus in computer science at the University of Toronto.

In a recent interview on the podcast “Diary of a CEO” that aired on Monday, Hinton said AI has the potential to cause mass joblessness.

“I think for mundane intellectual labor, AI is just going to replace everybody,” Hinton said. “Mundane intellectual labor” refers to white-collar jobs. He specified that the replacement would take the form of “a person and an AI assistant” doing the work that “ten people did previously.”

Related: These 3 Professions Are Most Likely to Vanish in the Next 20 Years Due to AI, According to a New Report

Hinton gave one example, noting that paralegals were at risk of losing their jobs to AI, and said that he would be “terrified” to work in a call center right now, due to the potential for automation. However, he pointed out that blue-collar work would take a longer time to be replaced by AI.

“I’d say it’s going to be a long time before it [AI] is as good at physical manipulation,” Hinton said in the podcast. “So, a good bet would be to be a plumber.”

In the interview, Hinton also challenged the notion that AI would create new jobs, stating that if AI automated intellectual tasks, there would be few jobs left for people to do.

“You’d have to be very skilled to have a job that it [AI] just couldn’t do,” Hinton said.

^{Geoffrey Hinton. Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images}

AI has the potential to decrease hiring, especially for entry-level jobs. A report released last month from venture capital firm SignalFire found that big tech companies have stopped hiring new graduates for entry-level roles as much as they did in the past, and AI is a significant reason for the decline.

The report found that the percentage of new graduate hires at companies like Meta and Google dropped by 25% from 2023 to 2024, reaching just 7% in 2024.

Related: Investment Firm CEO Tells Thousands in Conference Audience That 60% of Them Will Be ‘Looking for Work’ Next Year

It’s not just the tech industry — Wall Street also shows signs of being impacted by AI. In March, Morgan Stanley announced layoffs of 2,000 employees, intending to replace some with AI. A report released in January from Bloomberg Intelligence showed that AI could cause as many as 200,000 job cuts across 93 major banks, including Citigroup and JPMorgan, within the next five years.

In a digital-first world, your first impression rarely happens in person. It happens online — in Google results, on LinkedIn, in your byline. Whether you’re a founder, freelancer or future exec, how you show up digitally shapes the opportunities you get. But until recently, building a credible, polished personal brand required time, money and professional help.

AI is changing that. It’s not just transforming how businesses operate. It’s transforming how individuals present themselves.

AI can amplify — or undermine — your brand

AI branding tools promise speed, scale and studio-quality polish. But here’s the truth: AI won’t fix a messy brand. It will just make the mess more visible.

Too many people expect AI to do all the work — to generate their voice, define their message and reach their audience. But when you skip the foundational work, the content it produces tends to feel generic or misaligned. The brands that succeed with AI are led by people who are clear about what they stand for, how they speak and who they’re speaking to.

AI is an amplifier. If you feed it clarity, you get consistency. If you feed it confusion, you get noise.

Related: How Generative AI Will Revolutionize The Future of Your Brand

Creative vision still matters

Think of AI as your assistant, not your replacement. The best results come when you approach it like a creative director — providing direction, editing with care and injecting personal perspective. AI can help you write faster, create visuals and automate workflow, but it can’t replace your lived experience or your intuition.

Your tone, stories and opinions are what make your brand memorable. AI helps scale that — not substitute it.

Applying AI with intention

If you’re just getting started, focus on three areas where AI can make the biggest impact.

Start with your visual identity. If you don’t have professional photos, AI-generated headshots can instantly upgrade your presence across LinkedIn, websites, pitch decks and even speaking proposals. One consultant I worked with used consistent AI-generated photos across her content, creating a recognizable image that made her brand feel more credible and cohesive — without a photoshoot.

Then, apply AI to your messaging and content. Use it to brainstorm ideas, draft outlines and edit posts. But always refine the output to make sure your voice comes through.

Finally, look at workflow automation. AI can summarize calls, suggest content ideas and even help manage your calendar.

What success looks like

I’ve personally seen solopreneurs use AI-generated headshots, content templates and automation to transform their brand on a shoestring budget — getting booked for podcasts, signing new clients and landing speaking gigs.

The common thread? They didn’t treat AI as a shortcut. They treated it as a creative partner.

What to watch out for

Of course, AI isn’t without risk. The biggest mistake is outsourcing your voice completely. If your content starts to sound like everyone else’s, you lose what makes you distinctive. Authenticity is still the currency of trust.

Another trap is tool overload. New AI platforms launch daily, but chasing them all will scatter your focus. Start simple. Master one or two that support your workflow, like ChatGPT for writing or Gemini for quick summaries, and grow from there.

Related: AI for the Underdog — Here’s How Small Businesses Can Thrive With Artificial Intelligence

The future belongs to those who adapt

AI is no longer optional. It’s a strategic advantage for anyone building a reputation online. As it becomes more embedded in content creation, branding and business ops, the people who learn to use it thoughtfully will stand out.

More importantly, AI is lowering the barrier to high-quality personal branding. You no longer need a team or a five-figure budget to look like a pro. What you do need is vision, clarity, and the willingness to lead the process.

If you bring the perspective, AI can bring the power.