Why “Authenticity” No Longer Works

And What Brands Should Measure Instead

November 25, 2025

Welcome to Authenticity Report - Issue #81

This week, Authenticity has lost its meaning in the age of AI sameness—so it’s time for brands to shift their focus to coherence and specificity.

Our Roundup: spotlights Patagonia’s honest progress report, the rise of passion-driven micro-influencers, and why intentional self-presentation may matter more than raw authenticity.

Plus check out NEW TOOLS from Authenticity.co with insights to help you master business basics and apply authentic strategies for personal and brand success.

This Week’s Report
—> Why Authenticity Fails as a Brand Metric
—> Tell Us
—> Takeaways
—> Authenticity Roundup
—> Top Voices

What Do You Think? We are reshaping and expanding our Authenticity platform, we'd love to have you on board and contribute! Email us directly at [email protected] 

Read Time: 3.5 mins

photo: Quiksilver

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

by Sunny Fassler

A strange thing has been happening in workshops and strategy calls lately. When someone mentions "authenticity," nobody pushes back, nobody questions it, nobody even asks what the word means. They all just nod along, as if the definition is obvious and agreed upon.

It isn't.

For years, authenticity operated in a strange space in marketing. It couldn't be graphed, couldn't be fed into dashboards, couldn't be tied directly to conversion rates, yet it held more weight in some industries than traditional KPI's ever could. It was the thing that separated brands people believed in from brands people bought from out of convenience.

In industries built on counterculture like surf or snow, authenticity carried even more weight. A brand's relationship with its community was almost biological, with authenticity functioning like an immune system that could reject anything that felt manufactured or calculated.

But we've hit a point where authenticity barely means anything anymore. Somewhere along the way, the term got sanded down into a marketing claim.
A vibe. A design direction. A phrase you toss into a creative deck when you need to signal virtue without actually proving any.

And now AI has poured gasoline on that fire.

Because AI dilutes brand voice and flattens differentiation. It narrows language into predictable shapes, and as a result, entire industries end up with dozens of brands claiming the same attributes, all written in the same cadence.
 
The problem we end up with is that authenticity was already hard to define, but the emergence of AI has made it nearly impossible to interpret (and trust). When every brand uses the same language to signal it, the signal loses its value.

People aren't responding to what brands mean anymore; they're responding to the patterns they recognise, and once something becomes a pattern, it stops carrying weight.

And that's a liability.

Within any industry, when brands start saying the same things, looking the same, and chasing the same quick wins, the metric collapses entirely.

Authenticity becomes a race to the middle where everyone's trying to communicate the same values in the same way. The more brands converge on what "authentic" is supposed to look like, the less it means anything at all.

So what replaces it? 

Specificity. Brands that don't need to tell you who they are because their choices already do.

Maybe we should stop measuring authenticity altogether and use coherence instead because coherence can't be faked at scale, templated, or mistaken for someone else's.

| Tell Us

Has "Authenticity" Become A Meaningless Buzzword

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| Takeaways

• Authenticity Has Become an Empty Signal
The term is so overused and vague that it no longer differentiates brands or builds real trust.

• AI Accelerates Brand Sameness
With AI flattening language and tone, brands are starting to sound identical—even when they aren’t.

• Pattern Recognition Is Replacing Meaning
Consumers now respond to familiar formulas, not genuine intent, weakening authenticity as a metric.

• Coherence Is the New Competitive Advantage
Clear, consistent choices—not claims—create brands that stand apart and can’t be easily replicated.

| Time To Choose

What Brands Are Authentic? It is time once again to choose which brands you feel are authentic for 2025. Please tell us via our survey (it takes less than 5 minutes to fill out).

The results of your decisions will be part of our annual Authenticity 500 Index rankings, which you will receive for free.

| Authenticity Roundup

This week's curated reads from web

 business
• Patagonia Releases 2025 Work In Progress Report

Three years ago, Patagonia made Earth its only shareholder. Since then, reporting to her hasn’t been easy. Their first Work in Progress Report details the truth about how we’re messing up, where we’re making progress, and all the stubborn challenges ahead.

Read More → patagonia

 social media
•  Authenticity, Expertise, Passion Now Power Influencers

Influencer marketing is shifting from celebrity reach to genuine experts and passionate micro-creators who build trust, meaningful engagement, and real community impact.

Read More → retail touchpoints

personal
•  The Hidden Costs of Chasing Full Authenticity

Why “being yourself” is often unrealistic, risky, and misunderstood—arguing that intentional, self-aware performance is healthier than radical authenticity in modern life.

Read More → psychology today

| Tools

STARTING DEC 1st - NEW PORTAL FOR TOOLS

We are excited to launch a new platform that gives you access to powerful tools from Authenticity.co, along with insights to help you master business fundamentals and implement authentic strategies for personal and brand success.

Unlock your potential with us!

For a limited time, these will be available for free to our subscribers.

| Past Reports

| Top Voices

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