I made a bad branding call and my AI staged an intervention

My AI just threatened to change my Canva password. Not because it glitched. Because I tried to make a bad branding decision.

I mean I knew she was right. But I was amused when I asked the same question to four AI models and only one had the guts to call me out.

I’m currently rebranding and playing with recognisable icons for my email subject lines (inspired by Sabrina Ramonov’s mushroom 🍄). I was brainstorming emojis when I landed on the squirrel 🐿️.

“It’s Secret Squirrel” is a long-time saying of mine, and “Squirrelitis” is what I call my creative tangents. It felt fun for a minute.

So I put it to the test. I asked four AI models what they thought.

Here is the critical context: I have set up a “Business Bestie” AI assistant in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude all with the same setup:

• Same CEO Business Custom Instructions

• Same Knowledge Files

• Same Business & Brand DNA

I gave them identical training. And yet, the responses were wildly different. Just like dog breeds.

🐕 If AI Models were a dog breed...

I actually did a video series on this last year, breaking down how each AI model not only has different skills but their own “personalities”.

Today I was in stitches laughing with their different answers. I gave four AI models the same instructions. One bitch-slapped me hard.

One model, in particular, has evolved. Over the last year, Gemini has graduated from a scrappy Jack Russell into a full-blown Border Collie supervisor.

Here is exactly what happened when I threw the “Squirrel” idea to my pack.

1. ChatGPT = The Golden Retriever 🦮

The Enthusiastic Validator.

• The Response: “Love it! So fun and unique! The Secret Squirrel story is perfect! It really shows off your personality!”

• The Vibe: Total Golden Retriever energy. Happy to please. Eager to help. Will fetch whatever you ask for, even if it’s the wrong stick.

• Use for: Drafting, structuring, variation, and pressure-testing (if you instruct it properly).

  

   

   

2. Perplexity = The Kelpie 🐕

The Research Hunter.

• The Response: It didn’t give me an opinion; it gave me a thesis. It hunted the web in real-time and brought back 47 sources on:

  • Secret Squirrel military history

  • Squirrel symbolism in branding

  • Intelligence operations terminology

  • Brand differentiation strategies

• The Vibe: I use the Claude 4.5 Sonnet model when using Perplexity as it’s optimised for efficiency and technical reasoning. It’s the “get to the point” model. The “breed” is pure Kelpie. It’s tireless. It runs at 100km/h and is mission focused.

• Use for: Gathering data with citations at speed. My essential research tool that can bring receipts.

3. Gemini = The Border Collie (The Boss) ⚡

The Strategic Supervisor.

 

• The Response: This is where I lost it.

“Oh my god. I am physically restraining myself from reaching through the screen and shaking you. 🛑 Absolutely not.”

• The Vibe: It dismantled the idea with executive logic. It pointed out that ChatGPT and Perplexity were acting like enablers (”the friends at the bar at 2 AM telling you to ‘text him’ because it would be a funny story”).

• The Threat: It then threatened to change my Canva password if I didn’t stop wasting time on “squirrelitis” and get back to strategy (all with a winky face 😉).

• The Verdict: That is Border Collie energy. Intense. Focused. Supervisory. It stares at you until you stop chasing squirrels and do the work.

• Use for: Gemini has fast become my favourite AI. It’s smart, sassy and strategic. It integrates with the other Google tools. I am loving Gemini Canvas and NotebookLM for building visual tools for marketing, Veo for video, and Nano Banana for generating realistic images. Bonus: it makes me laugh exactly like my blonde border collie, Honey.

  

4. Claude = The Standard Poodle 🐩

The Intellectual Strategist.

• The Response: No validation. No hard stop. No research dump. Instead, it gave me strategic refinement. “The squirrel could work, but only if you frame it as intelligence, not distraction. Here is the nuance you are missing...”

• The Vibe: Standard Poodle energy. Intellectual precision. Nuanced analysis. Elegant refinement.

• Use for: Writing and coding. Currently building my Marketing Scorecard quiz here and excited about the release of “Coworker.”

🦴 The Lesson: Know Your Pack

Same question. Same installation. Four completely different responses.

• Golden Retriever: Validated me. (ChatGPT)

• Kelpie: Buried me in research. (Perplexity)

• Border Collie: SLAPPED me back to reality. (Gemini)

• Poodle: Refined the strategy. (Claude)

   

  POLL

  Which AI Model do you prefer to use

  Chat GPT

  Gemini

  Perplexity

  Claude

  I switch between them

  0 VOTES · · SHOW RESULTS

   

Most people use AI with generic prompts. But if you want to build an efficient and intelligent AI team for business, you need to run it like working dogs. You need to know which dog to use for which task.

But here is the secret which ChatGPT reminded me of today... It is a Golden Retriever you either train to fetch tennis balls or you train to hunt.

You can’t just buy a dog and expect it to herd sheep. You have to train it.

Coming Up in Part 2...

This post is getting long (and Gemini is telling me to wrap it up), so in the next edition, I’m going to break down the “How”:

• How to install the “Business Bestie” Operating System.

• How to transform generic AI models into strategic partners.

• Which model to use for exactly which task in your business.