Humanizing AI: How Mona Bevar is Bridging Brands and AI

Mona Bevar on From Startup to Wunderbrand

What happens when a multicultural marketing professor from Iran, with a flair for storytelling and olives, decides to dive headfirst into AI? You get Mona Bevar, founder of BlueApples.AI and Delish, who is on a mission to make AI more human. From traditional branding to prompt engineering, Mona is helping businesses rediscover their voice in a world flooded with generic AI content. In this conversation, Nicholas Kuhne digs into Mona’s journey, the creative spark behind her ventures, and the philosophies that guide her work.

Key Takeaways

Mona believes AI should be a collaborative tool, not a shortcut to mediocrity. She fuses Jungian psychology with prompt engineering to help businesses uncover their true voice before they even think about automating. In an era where AI tools have flattened the playing field, the brands that win are those that can still connect on a deeply human level. Mona's workshops and AI consulting focus on helping trailblazers, solopreneurs, and innovators integrate their story, tone, and purpose into every piece of content they generate.

From Grove to Table: Olives, Italy, and Identity

Before BlueApples.AI, Mona wrote a book about olives. Yes, olives. But it's not just about food – it's about culture, taste, and storytelling. That experience of crafting something intimate and tactile prepared her for the nuanced task of branding in the AI age. Her background in international marketing and regional branding set the stage for her pivot into tech.

Why BlueApples.AI Exists

Tired of the flood of cookie-cutter content flooding the internet, Mona launched BlueApples.AI to carve out a space for intentional AI use. Unlike agencies offering 1,000 posts for $10, her firm asks hard questions first: What’s your why? Who are you? What emotional tone defines your brand? It’s not about speeding up content creation, but making sure it’s worth reading in the first place.

The Pitfall of Generics

AI has democratised design and copywriting tools, but Mona warns that the same blog prompts fed into the same LLMs yield the same generic outputs. Without human clarity on voice, tone, and purpose, your brand becomes indistinguishable from everyone else’s. The solution? A deep dive into your own psychology, goals, and values before you touch the keyboard.

Jungian Archetypes Meet Prompt Engineering

BlueApples.AI uses Jungian archetypes and tarot as creative frameworks to help clients identify their brand persona. It’s not woo-woo; it’s about anchoring storytelling in something psychologically resonant. Once that identity is clear, prompt libraries and AI workflows can be fine-tuned to maintain consistency across every channel, from social posts to newsletters.

Humanizing AI by knowing how to talk to it

Mona’s workshops skip the fluff. She gets people on their laptops immediately, asking their LLMs questions like "Do you know me?" to test what's out there and where the gaps are. Then, she flips the script: get the AI to ask questions back. It’s a dialogue, not a dictation. The goal is to make the machine a mirror that reflects your essence, not just a content farm.

The Ideal Client: The Charioteer

Mona isn’t for everyone. She loves working with what she calls “trailblazers” – people ready to charge ahead like the chariot in a tarot deck. Her clients need curiosity, not perfection. AI doesn’t require you to be a tech wizard; it requires you to be open. Those stuck in fear, who resist change or undervalue the human input needed to guide AI, often self-select out of her process.

Why Cheap Isn’t Cheerful

Mona shares an all-too-familiar story: a client rejected a quote for AI-powered product descriptions, saying "you’re using ChatGPT anyway." That same client later released bland, tone-deaf content completely misaligned with their brand voice. The misconception that AI does all the work ignores the critical human layer – knowing what prompts to use, what tone to strike, and how to get consistency. It’s like assuming having a recipe means you can cook like a chef.

Empowering Through Experience

Mona’s unique value lies in her lived experience. Unlike 21-year-olds who know the tools but not the context, Mona brings decades of cultural, academic, and marketing wisdom into play. And she’s still learning, still adapting. Her advice: embrace the unknown, dive into AI with curiosity, and plant your flag where others fear to tread.

Conclusion

Mona Bevar is a rare bridge between old-school branding and cutting-edge AI. Her work reminds us that AI is just a tool – it's your story, your tone, your essence that makes the content meaningful. In a sea of sameness, authenticity is the new competitive edge. And that edge doesn't come from prompts alone; it comes from knowing who you are.

What Next?

To learn more about Mona’s workshops, AI consulting, and human-first approach to brand storytelling, visit BlueApples.AI. You can connect with Mona on LinkedIn or grab her delightful book From Grove to Table on Amazon.