New Look, New Vision: Inside The Rebrand Of Teammates.ai
Kareem Ayyad, co-founder of Teammates.ai, offers a look behind the scenes of the rebranding exercise his UAE-based enterprise has gone through.
"Uktob was regional; Teammates is global.” With this statement, Kareem Ayyad, the co-founder of Teammates.ai – the UAE-based startup formerly known as Uktob.ai – captures the essence of the rebranding exercise his enterprise has gone through.
As Ayyad tells it, this rebranding wasn’t just about a change in name – it served as a reflection of his business’ evolved vision and mission.
Teammates.ai had launched in 2023 as Uktob.ai with its offering of a B2C platform that was powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI), which, thanks to the AI-powered assistant it created, Faheem, went on to organically acquire over 400,000 users.
“From the early days, we had a belief: AI and humans, working together, can accomplish more than either could alone,” Ayyad says. “Over time, our thesis became clear: AI isn’t just about creating content or assisting — it can autonomously run entire business functions without human babysitting. The greatest value creation lies in delegating entire business functions, unlocking the trillion-dollar labor budget, not just selling more software. By building AI ‘teammates’ that amplify, scale, and free up human talent for strategy and innovation, organizations can thus achieve exponential growth.”
As Ayyad thus saw his platform undergo a definite evolution, he and his team realized that its name, Uktob, which was rooted in its initial offering of B2C content creation and regional identity, no longer represented the scale of its ambitions, or the value that it brings to businesses. After all, the enterprise was now enabling businesses to deploy autonomous AI “teammates” that, while working alongside human talent, could manage entire business functions, end-to-end. “We needed a name that embodied this new global vision,” Ayyad explains. “And that was Teammates.ai.”
Kareem Ayyad, co-founder of Teammates.ai. Courtesy of Teammates.ai.
But how did Ayyad and his team actually pull off this rebranding exercise? Well, here’s his three-step guide:
Step 1: Anchor To The Vision
“We centered our strategy on a single question: why are we building this company? The answer was unmistakable: enabling businesses to hyper-scale using autonomous, instantly deployable AI teammates, freeing humans to focus on strategy, empathy, and innovation. This clarity informed every decision we made – anything that didn’t reflect our brand’s identity, personality, and cultural values was stripped away.”
Step 2: Build A Resonant Identity
“We developed a name, visual identity, and message that embodied our core belief that AI and humans, working side by side, could scale organizations exponentially. ‘Teammates’ was chosen for its ability to capture both collaboration and autonomy, at work – a perfect reflection of our mission.”
Step 3: Relentless Execution
“Every touchpoint, from legal transitions to stakeholder alignment and product user interface, was carefully updated to reflect the new identity. We didn’t just rebrand; we redefined how we communicated our value. The cornerstone was a compelling narrative shared across all channels, ensuring that users, partners, and stakeholders understood not just what was changing, but why it mattered.”
As for the outcome of all these efforts, Ayyad believes it to be indicative of the bold, unified future ahead for the company. “The result wasn’t just a new name,” Ayyad explains. “It was an entirely new alignment with our purpose. The rebrand set the foundation for scaling globally, positioning us to define and lead a new market category: AI teammates. This wasn’t a cosmetic shift; it was a strategic leap toward our vision of redefining work at its core.”
This article first appeared in the January/February issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.
