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Kili, a Paris and New York AI training platform founded in 2018, helps businesses take a data-centric approach to AI, with subject experts working alongside in-house tech teams to build high-quality, unbiased data sets. Its argument is that good AI depends on good data. In 2023 it hired British agency Ragged Edge to cut through industry hype, Creative Review and Transform reported.

Creative Review set the scene: the best-known AI brand was OpenAI, whose swirling hexagon was echoed in the vortex-like logos of DeepMind, Stability AI and Synthesia. Ragged Edge went another way, putting human intelligence at the centre. Its strategy was to move the conversation about AI from science fiction to pragmatic expertise. Co-founder Max Ottignon said the rebrand recognised that people have a lot to gain from AI, but that AI first has a lot to learn from people; in an industry of soulless hyperbole, the brand was built on good data and human intelligence.

At the heart of the identity is a simple, cartoon-like Kili mascot, animated by a specialist studio, whose job is to explain complex technical points in an easy, emotionally engaging way. Around it sit a tone of voice combining pragmatism with empathy, a warm colour palette, an accessible approach to interface design, and a full range of iconography, infographics and product illustrations. The system stretches from the product to marketing and events.

Transform said Kili hoped to bring warmth and humanity to a category short of both.

In a field of gradient vortexes and glowing orbs, a friendly character is a genuine differentiator, and pairing it with data training makes sense: a mascot implies something that learns. The risk is that cute undersells the expertise for enterprise buyers, but for a young company, being remembered is worth that trade.