India, May 24 -- In the corporate world, the tables are turning so fast, even AI is confused. Ask an image generator to imagine a branding expert. It'll likely churn out visuals of a middle-aged man, wearing neon specs to look cool. In the real world, strategists in their 20s are helping older CEOs build their online personas, and stand out on social media. Age gap? It's a feature, not a bug. Young people have grown up online, have been shaped by YouTube sidebars, Reddit threads, Instagram captions and viral apology videos. The don't need a workshop to understand digital storytelling. They've learnt by scrolling, posting, cringing and resharing. They roll their eyes over empty mentions of "impact" and "innovation". Sought-after branding experts now work remotely from Jorhat, Jaipur, Indore - away from networking brunches and agency fluff. It's made them braver, willing to test fast, fail fast, and move on. It's exactly what CEOs need. See how some strategists get it done. If there's one word Ayushi Somani keeps returning to, it's friendship. "I don't see myself as a service provider," says the 27-year-old founder of the personal-branding agency WildGO Media. She cares more about a client's heart, personality, and experiences, rather than what they're selling. "I have to become a trusted partner, a safe space, so they can open up." Somani started out in 2018, juggling a preschool teaching job in Jaipur and writing content for companies. By 2020, she'd moved to writing full-time and had become known for her emotionally intelligent storytelling. She has since amassed more than 140k followers on LinkedIn and is one of the top voices on TopMate. She has helped one of the Sharks from Shark Tank India build a strong personal brand as well. Her hacks are subtle: Dress well, get people to laugh. "I try to say something inoffensive but funny right from the first call with my clients." She's found a lucrative niche too - getting introverted clients to open up. "I start by asking them to share their day-to-day activities, their opinions on trends, their interests. Then, we dive into the personal." That's where the tiny but powerful stories hide - a hiring failure, a founder's note to their younger self. It's what turns a social-media-averse CEO into a viral hit. In Indore, 29-year-old Prakhar Sharma is spin-doctor to CEOs who feel invisible online or struggle with inconsistent messaging. He worked at an ad agency, but quit two years ago after realising that some posts he'd ghostwritten had gone viral. When his first international client was willing to pay $3,000 for two months of LinkedIn content, he knew he'd make it. Templated content doesn't stand out. Formulaic ideas never go viral. "It's all about how you package it," Sharma says. "If I can stop a person mid-scroll, or make them think about a post long after they've read it, I know I've created a valuable post." First, he asks a client what they want to be remembered for. "Most people don't know. And that's the real gap. Not algorithms. Identity." He helped one woman tell the story of how she rose from intern to boardroom in the same company. The post, equal parts humble and hard-hitting, reached some 2.5 lakh people, and landed her a speaking invitation at a conference she'd only dreamed of attending. When a marketing agency owner was afraid of posting content ("What if I sound cringe?"), Sharma helped them lead with vulnerability - the perfect touch that works online. Saijal Taparia, 24, grew up in Jorhat, Assam, far away from any digital strategists. She dreamed of studying at IIM Ahmedabad, but two years ago, she abandoned that plan for a job that B-schools weren't coaching for. "I began by writing posts on LinkedIn, documenting, experimenting and testing formats," she recalls. Most of it was geared towards helping CEOs and stuffy bosses appear more human. "I simply believed that if someone had a powerful story but didn't know how to tell it, I could help." Work trickled in. The founder of an AI-performance firm in Cyprus reached out to her for help with looking more presentable on social media. She tweaked the tone from stuffy to smooth, made the firm seem like it genuinely cared about what it did, and turned the brand's persona around. Later, she helped a Vietnam-based customer-service coach sound more approachable online. That she was a kid with a laptop and Wi-Fi, didn't matter. "Once you help someone land a podcast, a feature, or a lead, they don't care about your age." For the most part, Taparia's job is to cut through clutter. Her golden rule: A visitor should be able to answer three questions within 10 seconds of landing on your profile or website: What do you do? Who do you help? How can the visitor work with you? "You don't have to be loud or overly opinionated. But you have to sound like you." A few months ago, someone sent Ananya Narang, 24, an impressive LinkedIn DM seeking work at her Delhi-based content and personal branding company, Entourage. But something was off; the placeholders in the text were empty. "Turns out, ChatGPT wrote it," she says. "There wasn't even an attempt to pretend it was human. That's the problem: We hit "send" without thinking. Outsourcing identity." "People think AI will save them time. But your audience can feel when it isn't you." She's worked her way up from ghostwriting bios and fixing clunky About Us pages as a college student. Now, she helps CEOs and creators articulate their message, minus the fluff. She's also helping clients such as Arjun Vaidya, founder at Dr Vaidya's: New Age Ayurveda, build a LinkedIn audience. Her sharpest lesson for 2025: "Use AI to help you brainstorm or tidy up, but your voice has to come through."...