In the 1990s, Sony was preparing to launch a household robot. Their technology was impressive but imperfect: the robot could mishear commands or simply get them wrong. So, instead of launching the product as a robot (think block-y design, 3CPO-like interface, computer-like voice), the team launched it as a dog.
And this completely changed expectations of the robot. Instead of criticizing the product when it did not function perfectly (useless robot…), customers layered on the association of a pet. Oh, he's being disobedient today. Look how cute he is. The dog is acting up again.
The product was called the AIBO and Sony sold 130,000+ of them (Source: HBR). The dog positioning did not just lower expectations of the technology. It also helped Sony attract an audience beyond the typical early-adopter cohort:
Categorizing the robot as a pet helped Sony attract lead consumers who were more demographically and psychographically diverse — ranging from the elderly to very young children — than typical technology early adopters. — HBR
Artificial intelligence (AI) apps like ChatGPT could be said to be in a similar position. The tech is impressive and game changing. It's also not always accurate. The models are changing in real time, and key players are hoping to attract a wide audience in order to become the next layer of the internet.
Can clever positioning help AI players win the race to become the dominant app?
Top AI apps include ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity
- ChatGPT is backed by Microsoft.
- Anthropic's Claude is backed by Amazon.
- Gemini is from Google.
- Perplexity is backed by a cohort of investors including NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos, Y Combinator's Garry Tan, and Google's Jeff Dean.
They all have similar interfaces (friendly greeting, open chat box, some prompt ideas to get you started):
However, where they differ is in positioning. Looking at this selection of players reveals two broad positioning strategies: technical supremacy (Google Gemini, ChatGPT) and human aids (Claude, Perplexity).
Brand Positioning 1: Technological supremacy
Microsoft-backed ChatGPT and Google's Gemini app both position themselves as cutting-edge technology, built on powerfully accurate models.
The name 'Gemini' is a reference to Project Gemini, a two-person spacecraft from NASA's early moonshot program, and links Gemini to some of humanity's biggest technological advancements:
"I was immediately sold on the name, because the monumental effort of training LLMs resonated with the spirit of launching rockets," says Oriol Vinyals, Gemini's co-technical lead. "It was very fitting to name the most ambitious project we have ever embarked on as Gemini." - Google
ChatGPT's name is as robotic as it gets (GPT stands for General Pre-trained Transformer), and ChatGPT's tone of voice tends to follow a recognizably wordy and robotic flow that no human would utter.
On the one hand, the techy positioning feels correct. If you want to gain adoption as a tool, positioning yourself as the most technically advanced should incentivise adoption. But on the other hand, it's similar to Sony launching their robot as a robot. This positioning sets expectations high. When Gemini doesn't offer a perfect response, the brand promise is broken.
This positioning also implies that technology is better than humans. Which may have been part of the impetus behind Google's since pulled Olympics ad for Gemini. The ad featured a young girl writing a fan letter to her favorite Olympian. Instead of speaking from the heart, she needed to get the wording 'perfect,' — so she had Google Gemini write the copy.
The result was an ad that felt … icky. It's one thing to have AI help with your work. It's another to have AI replace the best parts of being human.
Brand Positioning 2: Human aids
Instead of technical supremacy, AI apps Claude and Perplexity lean into humanity for their positioning.
Claude owns this fully, beginning with its human name, potentially a reference to mathematician Claude Shannon. Like Sony's dog, the reframing from technical name to a human one shifts Claude from robot to friend. Claude's brand identity is also humanlike — the colors are warm and vintage, text is serifed like an old keyboard, and graphics look closer to crayon-generated than computer-generated. It feels friendly.
Claude's out of home ads position the brand as an enhancer, rather than a replacement to humanity.
Perplexity, another AI app, also follows a human aid strategy. Their visuals reflect a vintage aesthetic and Perplexity's copy suggests that AI is a partner, rather than a replacement, for human ingenuity:
What's most interesting about Perplexity is their growth strategy. If you have ever worked in fashion or beauty, you know that the most powerful marketing strategy is getting your product on influential people. Imagine launching a new hat. If you advertise it someone might buy it. But get Hailey Bieber to wear your new hat? Watch it get sold out everywhere.
Perplexity's team realized the power inherent in humans to influence others — and is mobilizing them for their growth strategy. They have a campus ambassador program where students promote Perplexity's app to classmates. The reward for promoting Perplexity on campus? Meetings with important humans — Perplexity's leadership team.
Perplexity founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas regularly posts a ranking of university sign ups — building hype and excitement around the brand.
Perplexity also associates the product with their ideal customer. Perplexity offers a free Perplexity Pro subscription to Uber One subscribers (likely urban-based professionals with high disposable income) and Linkedin Premium subscribers (almost definitely high income, senior title professionals) who are likely to mention it to friends and colleagues.
The spoils of winning the AI adoption race are potentially massive.
AI platforms could combine the ad search business of Google (Why search when you can ask AI?) with the retail margins of Amazon (AI can suggest products for any need) and the office tooling of Microsoft (create documents, code, presentations directly in the AI platform) plus the capabilities of every other online business from Expedia (AI, make me an itinerary for Paris) to Bon Appétit (What's a good 30 minute recipe for a vegetarian?) to WebMD (What do my symptoms mean?).
Google and Microsoft have a huge leg up in the race as they can simply add their AI products to their existing search and office tools. Google lists Gemini results alongside Google search results and Microsoft has already integrated its AI Copilot into Microsoft 365.
This distribution matters. Case in point: Slack. Slack disrupted office communications with their chat format. But Microsoft Teams has a significantly higher chat market share after Microsoft integrated Teams into its Microsoft 365 subscription.
For Perplexity and Claude, the challenge is significant: get audiences to choose to use their products outside of Google and Microsoft. They won't win that playing the same game as Gemini and OpenAI. Instead, their positioning as a product that is friendly and empowering is aimed at building wide adoption and easing in trust of the new technology. Marketing that emphasizes human ingenuity, like Claude's empowering subway ads and Perplexity's partnerships programs position the product well. This isn't a cold robot app that over promises and under delivers. And it's certainly not a product designed to replace you. This is your friend and teammate. You can trust it. (Maybe).
Can the more human marketing of Claude and Perplexity beat the distribution benefits inherent to the Google and Microsoft-backed products?
Time will tell.