The eighth song of Why Don’t We’s 2019 project, in which they release a single a month, was first teased on August 18, 2019, when people subscribed to Why Don’t We’s text message updates received a video link of the chorus from “What Am I.”

Following this, the release date was confirmed on the band’s Instagram, with each member also posting a snippet of the track. In the caption, the band mentions that “What Am I” is an important one in their career, commenting: “this is more than just 8/12”.

The world premiere of the track was paired with a music video, released at 12 AM Eastern Standard Time. Two weeks later, a lyric video for the track was posted to YouTube.