Enter the passphrase Ryan shared with you.
A go-to-market compendium for the HQ Index — Together With's measure of how human a brand really is, and how well it uses AI to protect that humanity rather than erode it.
Together With has argued for years that brands win by being unmistakably human — useful, trustworthy, connected, principled. That was true before AI. It's the point of view Heidi has been teaching for the better part of a decade.
AI didn't create this truth — it set the clock running. When machines make everything abundant, instant and easy to fake, the ordinary signals of a "good brand" stop meaning anything overnight. Humanity becomes the new luxury — and the last durable advantage. That's why this gets measured now, not later: the HQ Index scores how human a brand actually is, and whether its AI protects that humanity or quietly strips it out.
Efficiency, scale, data. Technology made companies capable — and, in time, made capability ordinary.
Story, empathy, design. Brands became likable and relatable — until everyone learned the same moves.
Trust, judgment, care — treating customers as brand citizens, not targets. It's what now makes a brand worth choosing, and worth belonging to.
Smart, then likable, now genuinely human — each shift reset what a brand had to be. AI just moved the line again, overnight, and HQ is where it lands.
Used well, AI makes people more capable — faster service, better access, more useful products. It earns credit only where it improves a real human outcome.
Used carelessly, automation strips out the trust, judgment and care that made a brand worth choosing. A high AI score never rescues a weak human system.
So a brand earns its humanity first — across eight factors — and then AI is scored separately: does it strengthen that humanity, or fake it?
The HQ Index sits where no one else measures: the human system that decides whether capability becomes trust, preference and enduring value — or just more automated sameness.
The behaviors that have always separated brands people love from brands people tolerate.
AI makes sameness cheap and fakery easy — so being genuinely human is suddenly the differentiator.
Use AI where it amplifies humanity; keep humans where trust, judgment and care create the value.
Two audiences, one story: the leaders who believe brands should dare to be human, and the leaders who need an AI strategy that doesn't automate away the one thing that counts.
The score is a composite. Human Performance — the eight factors — is 60% and the heart of it. Public advocacy proves it in the market. AI is a separate amplifier, credited only where it improves human outcomes.
Solves real problems; makes life genuinely better.
Honest, consistent and transparent over time.
Builds empathy, affinity and loyalty.
Stands for something bigger than profit.
Invites people in, listens, builds together.
A respectful, human experience for its people.
Enriches culture and leaves society better.
Sustainable, long-term, responsible delivery.
Expert, evidence-based assessment of the eight factors (0–5 each). The core asset — the majority of the score.
Reviews, sentiment, NPS/CSAT proxies, employee reputation and ESG signals. Market validation.
An amplifier — credited only where AI improves CX, products, operations or people. Not a standalone virtue.
HQ = ( Human Performance × .60 ) + ( Public Advocacy × .25 ) + ( AI × .15 )
Because the score separates human strength, market proof and AI, it explains why a brand ranks where it does — and what to do about it. Two one-dimensional brands show why.
Exceptional purpose and advocacy, low AI maturity. Human strength alone is powerful — but exposed as rivals scale digital capability.
High AI maturity doesn't erase a trust deficit. The path is re-humanizing high-stakes moments — not more automation.
The point: a single trust score or AI score would miss both. The composite tells you which lever to pull.
Honest framing is the credibility strategy: this is an inaugural index; measurement is separated from recommendation, raw component scores are preserved, and the rubric is refreshed as we learn. We don't overclaim.
Consumer-first above the fold; institutional depth below it. Scroll into a living ranking that fades, right where it gets good, into "get the report."
Full-bleed motion: the flood of AI sameness, and the few brands whose humanity makes them impossible to fake. Ends on one question: what's your HQ?
Every company, category benchmarks, and the human-factor scorecard behind each score.
Get the report ›Score my brandShowing the scored example set from the current cohort (Human / Advocacy / AI / HQ). In production the list runs deep, then fades — the tease is the product.
Already believes the brand should do good and knows the publicity value. Our easiest yes.
Wants the dotted line to growth and stock price. Not a doubter — needs the evidence.
The hardest to move. Warm entries via Indie Agency News and LBB are low-hanging fruit.
Rewards the brands that treat people well — and shows why a good agency matters.
The launch platform. Every tactic feeds one flywheel: provoke the debate, reveal the index, reward the badge, convert the pipeline.
The human-vs-AI standard as a POV that earns press and stage time.
The public property teases scores and the 2026 ranking; gates the depth.
Honor badges + embeddable scorecards spread the mark and pull the next brand in.
Waitlist + ABM into HQ Foundations, the paid engagement.
The index diagnoses; these help a brand act. Both lead with the eight human factors; AI governance is the overlay, not the whole thing.
The universal truths, made practical: what the eight factors mean for your category, where you're strong, and the moves that raise your score. (Working name.)
An interactive coach: learn the eight factors, then govern where AI belongs — automate, augment, protect or rebuild — so technology stays in service of humanity. (Working name.)
Working: HQ (score) · HQ Index / HQi (ranking) · HQ Foundations (workshop) · HQ Mentor (AI tool). Finalize together — consolidating "Human Brand Index / Human Index / HQ" into one system.
Set: the eight human factors are the core; AI is a separate 15% amplifier, credited only where it improves human outcomes. Not one of the eight.
Tease the top of the ranking and the eight factors publicly; gate the full list, per-factor scores and method behind the report.
Eight human truths, measured honestly — with AI held to the same standard. More relevant because of the moment; true long before it.