Most franchise brands are still treating artificial intelligence like a side topic, which is a mistake. AI is already shaping how franchise candidates discover and evaluate brands. Whether franchisors are actively participating or not, AI is beginning to shape the narrative around them. That means brands that fail to create the right content and signals now risk being left out of the conversation entirely.
The good news is that this is still an early window. Brands do not need to outspend everyone else. They need a better plan.
“AI is creating your narrative now, whether you are contributing or entering the room or the arena or not,” Nick Powills, chief strategy officer at GoodSpark Franchise Growth Accelerator, said in a recent podcast. “So you need to understand what it’s saying about you.”
Before creating anything new, franchisors need to understand their current position. Ask AI the same kinds of questions a candidate would ask. That means prompts such as:
This gives franchisors a starting point. It shows what story is already being told, where the gaps are and how difficult it may be to reshape that perception.
“You’re not gonna be able to change it overnight,” Powills said. “But now you guys are building a game plan to enter the arena in the narrative.”
Many brands jump straight to more content without fixing the basics. But the first priority should be simple, foundational website updates that help AI understand the brand. That starts with an AI-ready anchor statement in the footer and on key pages.
“If you're just getting started, what is the one foundational page you're going to create on your website that AI is going to use as authoritative and feed that story?” said Charles Internicola, CEO of GoodSpark. “So if I were a franchisor and I'm just getting started, let's create that AI-driven narrative page: what the brand is, when it was founded, who it serves, what makes it unique, why it's a compelling opportunity and then facts all related to the franchise.”
Some franchise brands may have a decent sales pitch, but they have not framed their opportunity in a way that helps AI compare them to other concepts, which is very different from how a human evaluates. A human buyer may respond to brand purpose, emotion and transformation, but AI reads that story differently.
“AI is going to be very linear. It’s going to look at category, intent, buyer, fit and outcome signals,” Internicola said.
In practice, that means franchisors need content that answers questions such as:
If the brand does not provide those answers, AI will fill in the blanks from whatever it can find.
According to Internicola, there’s a sharp line between strategic AI use and lazy AI use.
“What I’m seeing right now is that AI is giving brands immense tools to deploy if they use it the right way,” he said. “The wrong way is creating generic AI content, being lazy and flooding websites and web pages with AI content. I think that's sort of like a killing field. We're going to group everyone in this bucket of AI, and from a visibility standpoint and a marketing standpoint, they're going to get hurt there.”
That kind of content may create volume, but it does not create authority. And over time, it can make a brand less credible, not more. Content needs to be thoughtful, specific and tied to real buyer questions.
That means brands should publish thoughtful material around subjects candidates are actually trying to understand, including category education, alternative business models, growth challenges and signs of success.
“What does success look like for home service franchisees or for restaurant franchisees or QSR franchisees? Because now that's not an article that's specific to your brand. That's industrywide,” Internicola said. “If someone's seeking another brand or evaluating whether it's profitable to own a restaurant, if you're giving that industry information, your brand's going to come into the story.”
Video still matters, especially when it captures genuine, unscripted language. But video works better when it is paired with text, structured context and clear distribution. AI picks up genuine remarks made in conversation and uses them to understand the brand.
“That's why brand story at the foundational level — who you are, why you, why now, how you help franchisees — that all needs to be there and genuine, and then you build the story around it, and then you optimize it for AI,” Internicola said.
Publishing alone is not enough without distribution across LinkedIn, YouTube, drip campaigns and internal sharing.
“Now I need to make sure it's not trees falling in the woods,” Powills said. “You take a piece of content, you put it to work. It's not necessarily about where you tell [your story]. It's about how you tell it. Is it in-depth? Is it exciting? And then secondly, how do you distribute it and create some noise around it?”
Volume alone will not win, but neither will one or two isolated thought pieces. Brands need consistency, depth and repetition around the right topics.
“And then also validation through third-party sources, where AI sees repetition of what's being put out there,” Internicola said. “I think the biggest problem is brands and businesses that put it on autopilot. They're mass generating content. They're not going to get the results because they're not correlating the brand messaging the right way.”
AI may still be changing in real time, but it’s already clear that brands that are not shaping their own story are leaving that job to everyone else. And in franchise development, that is a dangerous place to be.
Watch the full podcast here.
For more information on GoodSpark and its services for developing franchises, visit https://www.goodsparkfranchise.com/.
GoodSpark
SPONSORED
Franchisors that want to stay competitive need a clearer AI content strategy, stronger brand positioning and content that helps candidates evaluate the opportunity.
Most franchise brands are still treating artificial intelligence like a side topic, which is a mistake. AI is already shaping how franchise candidates discover and evaluate brands. Whether franchisors are actively participating or not, AI is beginning to shape the narrative around them. That means brands that fail to create the right content and signals now risk being left out of the conversation entirely.
The good news is that this is still an early window. Brands do not need to outspend everyone else. They need a better plan.
“AI is creating your narrative now, whether you are contributing or entering the room or the arena or not,” Nick Powills, chief strategy officer at GoodSpark Franchise Growth Accelerator, said in a recent podcast. “So you need to understand what it’s saying about you.”
Before creating anything new, franchisors need to understand their current position. Ask AI the same kinds of questions a candidate would ask. That means prompts such as:
This gives franchisors a starting point. It shows what story is already being told, where the gaps are and how difficult it may be to reshape that perception.
“You’re not gonna be able to change it overnight,” Powills said. “But now you guys are building a game plan to enter the arena in the narrative.”
Many brands jump straight to more content without fixing the basics. But the first priority should be simple, foundational website updates that help AI understand the brand. That starts with an AI-ready anchor statement in the footer and on key pages.
“If you're just getting started, what is the one foundational page you're going to create on your website that AI is going to use as authoritative and feed that story?” said Charles Internicola, CEO of GoodSpark. “So if I were a franchisor and I'm just getting started, let's create that AI-driven narrative page: what the brand is, when it was founded, who it serves, what makes it unique, why it's a compelling opportunity and then facts all related to the franchise.”
Some franchise brands may have a decent sales pitch, but they have not framed their opportunity in a way that helps AI compare them to other concepts, which is very different from how a human evaluates. A human buyer may respond to brand purpose, emotion and transformation, but AI reads that story differently.
“AI is going to be very linear. It’s going to look at category, intent, buyer, fit and outcome signals,” Internicola said.
In practice, that means franchisors need content that answers questions such as:
If the brand does not provide those answers, AI will fill in the blanks from whatever it can find.
According to Internicola, there’s a sharp line between strategic AI use and lazy AI use.
“What I’m seeing right now is that AI is giving brands immense tools to deploy if they use it the right way,” he said. “The wrong way is creating generic AI content, being lazy and flooding websites and web pages with AI content. I think that's sort of like a killing field. We're going to group everyone in this bucket of AI, and from a visibility standpoint and a marketing standpoint, they're going to get hurt there.”
That kind of content may create volume, but it does not create authority. And over time, it can make a brand less credible, not more. Content needs to be thoughtful, specific and tied to real buyer questions.
That means brands should publish thoughtful material around subjects candidates are actually trying to understand, including category education, alternative business models, growth challenges and signs of success.
“What does success look like for home service franchisees or for restaurant franchisees or QSR franchisees? Because now that's not an article that's specific to your brand. That's industrywide,” Internicola said. “If someone's seeking another brand or evaluating whether it's profitable to own a restaurant, if you're giving that industry information, your brand's going to come into the story.”
Video still matters, especially when it captures genuine, unscripted language. But video works better when it is paired with text, structured context and clear distribution. AI picks up genuine remarks made in conversation and uses them to understand the brand.
“That's why brand story at the foundational level — who you are, why you, why now, how you help franchisees — that all needs to be there and genuine, and then you build the story around it, and then you optimize it for AI,” Internicola said.
Publishing alone is not enough without distribution across LinkedIn, YouTube, drip campaigns and internal sharing.
“Now I need to make sure it's not trees falling in the woods,” Powills said. “You take a piece of content, you put it to work. It's not necessarily about where you tell [your story]. It's about how you tell it. Is it in-depth? Is it exciting? And then secondly, how do you distribute it and create some noise around it?”
Volume alone will not win, but neither will one or two isolated thought pieces. Brands need consistency, depth and repetition around the right topics.
“And then also validation through third-party sources, where AI sees repetition of what's being put out there,” Internicola said. “I think the biggest problem is brands and businesses that put it on autopilot. They're mass generating content. They're not going to get the results because they're not correlating the brand messaging the right way.”
AI may still be changing in real time, but it’s already clear that brands that are not shaping their own story are leaving that job to everyone else. And in franchise development, that is a dangerous place to be.
Watch the full podcast here.
For more information on GoodSpark and its services for developing franchises, visit https://www.goodsparkfranchise.com/.
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