In the "you are that" statement, the indicated meaning of the "you" aspect is the pure witness awareness. It is the same indicated meaning of the "I" aspect of the "I am brahman" statement also. That very pure witness is denoted as brahman here. The "brahman" aspect has the same meaning as the "that" aspect. In this manner, the meaning of "you are that" is the same as "I am brahman". The teacher says to the student - "you are that", you are that very brahman, and the wise student experiences "I am brahman".
Here, the I is not mixed with brahman, nor is the brahman mixed with I, to get at "I am brahman". Both are notions (bhaava). If the one who has inferior knowledge (alpajnya) mixed the I in brahman and takes that form, then who will say "I am brahman"? And if brahman mixes in I, then when was it not mixed? This is not a practice of action, worship or yoga samaadhi. This is because the "are" (asmi) aspect (pada) denoted reality, not any ritual. But yes, even without the knowledge of the synthesis of aspects (pada samanvaya), by repeating the thought flow of "I am brahman", the "samprajnyaata samaadhi" in the form of "asmitaa lambana" is attained. This statement does not even create impressions in the body or internal organ like a mantra, since these statements have no connection with any action. It is also not the case that asserting the I as the brahman is a self recollection (svayam paraamarsha), in reality both the I and brahman are without essence, they are void. In Vedanta, the meaning of this statement "I am brahman" is different than all of these objections.
I am, this is an eternal immediate knowledge. But "I am brahman", though the self is immediate, is an unknown. In fact, "I am not brahman", this is the knowledge. Brahman is known in the form of anther, in the form of an unknown non-immediate reality through various statements in scripture. The great statement "I am brahman" reveals that unknown non-immediate brahman as our known and immediate self. Through the means thought flow of the "I am brahman" statement, the unknown imagined disconnectedness experienced in the self gets cut. And the unknown-ness, otherness, non-immediacy gets cut. With this unknown-ness removal, the self-illumined awareness brahman is known and established as our own self.
"I am brahman" is the negation statement of all superimpositions that are ascribed on the self. I am the body, this is a natural superimposition. I am so-and-so, of this creed, this caste, this life stage, fair-dark-thin-fat, I am hungry, thirsty, I am wise, I am stupid, enjoyer, happy, I am sad, I am a soul, worldly, I am disconnected - all these superimpositions have been ascribed on the self by society, religion and scripture. When they stay, there is nothing wrong with their respective transactions, but the realization of the self is not possible, and then as long as ignorance remains, the entire world with its misfortune cannot be removed. "I am brahman" says that our "I" is of the form of superimposition in its meaning and transactions. This superimposed I-sense should be purified, and our I should be experienced in its form of pure witness awareness. For this, seer-seen, three-body, tristate, five sheath and contemplation of dissolution etc. process should be used. After that, with the "I am brahman" statement, that pure awareness self alone is experienced as devoid of all three distinctions, non-dual, in the form of existence consciousness bliss, all-substratum, since the nature of the pure self is this brahman alone.
"I am brahman" does not mean that the "I" referring to some person called Mohan or Sohan is brahman. This is not Vedantic knowledge, this is Virochana-based (aasuric) knowledge.
The Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad has this topic in it : Prior to the manifestation of the names and forms of this world, there was brahman. It knew itself as "I am brahman" and as soon as that happened, all this arose. Sage Vaamadeva know that "I only was Many, I alone became the sun". Even today, he who knows "I am brahman" becomes all this (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 1.1.10). In the Chhandogya, existence alone was prior to creation, in the Brihadaaranyaka it was brahman, and in the Aitareya it was the self. It means that what is existence alone is the aware self and it alone is brahman. By this alone is the oneness in meaning of the great statements "you are that" in Chhandogya, "I am brahman" in Brihadaaranyaka, "brahman is awareness" of the Aitareya established. The result of knowing "I am brahman" is that its knower becomes all. It means that the non-brahman-ness and non-all-ness of the self is proven by ignorance, and knowledge removes it. The self alone is all-substratum, all material, non-modified non-dual in essence, but everything is happening due to error (vivarta).
"That which is my I is the supreme self, that which is the supreme self is my I, and that which is the visible world also is non-different than the I (the self essence" - the revelation and means to this knowledge is made through the great statement "I am brahman". You will not gain this knowledge in heaven, nor in samaadhi, nor in emotion. For this, the great statement-created thought flow is needed here and now.
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