Grammarly just killed Grammarly.
What Grammarly's rebrand says about the "race to AI."
Yes, Grammarly just killed Grammarly.
After 16 years of being one of the most popular writing assistants, they’ve rebranded to “Superhuman,” named after the company they acquired this year.
Typically, when a company acquires another, it will integrate it with its existing identity. Grammarly is doing the opposite — abandoning a name that became synonymous with better writing to adopt the identity of a lesser-known email client.
Even their CEO admits some customers won’t even call them by the new name, similar to how many of us still call X, Twitter(guilty as charged).
Instead of being the go-to grammar checker, they’re betting on becoming a full AI productivity suite. Basically everything except what made them valuable in the first place.
This is the “race to AI” and we’re witnessing brands fighting to participate in. Brands left and right are implementing AI tools in every crevice of their platform (like Canva did this past week), betting on becoming an “everything app.”
Grammarly built a $13B valuation by solving one problem only: helping people write better.
Now, they want to increase its viability as a productivity suite to compete with brands like Notion or ClickUp.
But when every platform races to do everything at once, what is left for the users who subscribed to these brands simply for doing the thing they were supposed to do?
The person who paid $12/month to fix comma splices may not want their grammar tool to appear in every other app they own. And when brand scope expands, customer relationships change.
This is what happens when companies optimize for AI capabilities instead of user needs — they chase relevance and lose identity.
Duolingo got dragged this year for their “AI-first” approach.
The backlash wasn’t about AI itself, but more so abandoning what made them valuable in the first place.
The pattern becomes predictable: a company builds loyalty by excelling at one thing, AI hype creates pressure to evolve, then, the company pivots to integrate AI into everything.
As a result, core users feel abandoned and companies compete in a saturated market, losing what made them distinctive in the first place.
When everyone’s racing to be everything, the real competitive advantage might just be to stay the same.
What are your thoughts on Grammarly’s rebrand? Or should we say Superhuman?