I've done a 180 when it comes to the use of AI. Instead of viewing ChatGPT as a threat, I now look at AI more broadly and view it as an opportunity. Original, well-articulated ideas stand out in GEO-driven searches much more than they ever did in SEO-driven search. As such, there's a huge opportunity to articulate and amplify thought leadership, which is what we've been doing all along. - Margy Sweeney, Akrete
Artificial Intelligence has quickly become one of the most powerful accelerators marketing has ever had. There is no doubt that Gen AI tecnologies are expected to shape the future of marketing for companyies. Used well, it sharpens execution, unlocks efficiency and expands creative possibilities. Used poorly, it quietly erodes trust, weakens brands and forces painful strategic reversals. Recent years' examples make this contrast clear.
The advertising world is obsessed with boxes. By boxes, I mean predefined formats - like a 30-second TV slot, a radio jingle, a digital banner, or a billboard - created by entertainment platforms for advertisers to place their messages within. While these boxes offer clear advantages - such as consistency, interoperability, and simplicity - their very design reflects a one-way dynamic: the industry pushes adverts to consumers in return for their engagement with content. The intent and direction are entirely industry-led.
Despite the hype, most customers don't want a fully automated experience. In fact, 93.4% of U.S. consumers say they prefer interacting with a human over AI for customer service, according to OutreachX's report, "If Bots Handle Support, Who Handles Trust?" It also found 88.8% believe companies should always offer that option. That's not a glitch in the adoption curve - it's a signal.
I've spent the last year focused on building meaningful relationships on LinkedIn - sharing personal and professional experiences to create genuine connections. Each of these words have shaped this journey: staying curious about what my audience cares about and wants to learn from me, experimenting with creative ways to share my experience and engage with others, and embracing the courage it took to get started and be vulnerable.
Marketing is evolving faster than ever, powered by cutting-edge tech and changing consumer habits. And marketers aren't just keeping up-they're leading the charge. AI is now a game-changer, with 59% of marketers worldwide recognizing it as key for campaign personalization and optimization, underscoring its power to streamline operations and free up valuable time. That same momentum is driving strong investment in connected TV (CTV), which has firmly secured its place as a top-tier channel.
Posh's blend of community and commerce captures the theme of this year's Under 30 Marketing & Advertising class of founders and marketing leaders turning fast-moving technologies into new engines of creativity and connection. As the boundaries between tech, entertainment and advertising blur, these innovators are building tools, platforms and campaigns that reflect how people actually engage with brands today. Some are leveraging AI to reimagine the creative process.
There is an enormous disconnect between marketers' perceptions of AI's impact on customer experience and how consumers actually experience it. According to Invoca's " B2C AI Marketing Impact" report, 86% of marketers believe AI is enhancing the customer journey, only 35% of consumers agree. This gap in perception represents more than just a difference of opinion-it risks eroding trust and diminishing the very experience AI is meant to improve.
The world of marketing measurement is buzzing about AI. But when it comes to complex techniques like media mix modeling (MMM), the field is awash with false promises about the benefits that these new technologies offer. This creates enormous risks for enterprise marketers who regularly base multimillion-dollar decisions on such models. The hard truth is that AI, especially LLMs, produce confident-sounding but often wrong statistical analyses that can lead to poor budget allocation decisions.
Our industry is rushing headlong toward an AI-powered future. The promise is captivating: intelligent systems that can predict market shifts, personalize customer experiences and drive unprecedented growth. Yet in that race, many organizations are short-changing or even skipping a critical first step. They are building sophisticated engines but trying to run them on unrefined fuel. The result is a quiet crisis of confidence, where powerful technology underwhelms because the marketers don't trust the data it relies on.
Throughout the past few years, I've observed that many people in the marketing world have moved past their initial worries about AI. A common theme I'm hearing these days? It isn't that AI will take over, but rather that we're moving toward incorporation. I see AI as a fast, intuitive tool. But as marketers, how should we use it?
We're combining the incredible data ingestion and A.I. capabilities of Palantir with our engineering team out of the Coating Theory network and centrally that really has the marketing knowhow. And together we're aiming to create what I call the Holy Grail of marketing. That's where you sit. You sit back when you're in a big company and you say, Give me all those people who might need back to school.
Every week, I read at least three to five new articles confidently announcing that marketing as a profession is on the verge of extinction, soon to be replaced by artificial intelligence. I could read hundreds more if I wanted to. The argument is almost always the same: AI writes better copy, analyzes data faster, automates campaigns and even predicts customer intent. So, what's left for the humans?
As automation and artificial intelligence processes accelerate, many brands are convincing themselves that A.I. can replace the strategic and creative work of social media professionals. It's a decision often driven by budget cuts and misconceptions on what social media managers actually do, the skills they have and what truly makes social media marketing effective. A recent survey revealed that 39 percent of CMOs and brand marketing executives plan to reduce labor costs as they adopt A.I. and other automation tools.
The study of more than 800 marketers across eight countries reveals that investment in affiliate marketing is increasing, with 74% of brands saying they have increased affiliate investment in the past year due to other marketing channels becoming more expensive. 30% of brands allocate between 10 and 20% of their marketing budget to affiliate marketing, while 38% allocate between 21 and 30%.
According to Epsilon's 2025 "State of AI in Marketing" report, 94% of organizations now use AI to prepare or execute marketing, with content optimization ranking as the top use case at 51% of teams. Walk into any marketing department and you'll see teams generating blog posts, social captions and email copy at unprecedented speed. But here's what I've discovered after working with hundreds of communications students at the University of Oregon.
Marketing agencies are in a period of transformation, thanks in part to AI, and they're using the opportunity to think about purposeful reinvention, according to a survey of agency leaders. The report, " AI's Effect On The Marketing Industry" (registration required), from Sunup found AI is already responsible for changes in the hiring practices of many agencies. Agencies are fundamentally rethinking what they offer clients, how they structure their teams and what skills the marketer of 2030 will need to succeed, according to the report.
"AI won't change the fact that audiences reward consistency, transparency and real commitment," she says. "What it will change is the signal-to-noise ratio. Purpose-driven communication that is truly lived out by a company will stand out even more because people will crave rare authenticity amidst a flood of optimized narratives."
We have come a long way since then-from simple websites to dynamic social and digital marketing ad campaigns powered by artificial intelligence. Aside from being just a new kid on the block (at least, in the mainstream), AI has become a prominent piece of our digital marketing landscape. Now, you might want to know, as many of our clients do, how you can leverage AI for your digital marketing efforts.
"I think the biggest change is the lack of rigidity, which I think is a good thing in that sort of classic funnel marketers always like to talk about. What we're seeing, or have seen over the last few years, is that channels can play any role. And that's brilliant from a planning point of view, because it gives us creativity. It gives us flexibility to kind of do more interesting things, rather than the sort of classic broadcast-to-narrowcast targeting that we used to do."
UK marketers are proving that AI success isn't about chasing hype, it's about embedding the right tools into existing workflows to deliver meaningful value. What we're seeing in this data is a shift from experimentation to purposeful adoption,
Storytelling has always been at the core of brand marketing. Now, with AI becoming more deeply embedded in creative workflows, marketers are finding new ways to scale emotional, multimodal narratives that connect with audiences across channels. According to a recent study conducted by DMEXCO and Kantar, emotional advertising increases brand demand by more than 60%. In a dynamic and crowded landscape, emotional narratives - especially those that can be personalized, scaled and optimized in real-time - can drive greater impact.
Deema has an impressive background, spanning Xbox, Microsoft, YouTube, Google, Flipboard, Unity, Scribd and Figma. She joins us to share her experiences and insights on the fast-paced changes in marketing and tech, primarily driven by AI advancements. Our discussion covers the resurgence of brand marketing, the evolution of advertising and how AI is transforming creative and performance marketing. Deema also reflects on her involvement with nonprofits and the potential of AI to revolutionize this sector.
AI is reshaping email marketing, starting right in the inbox. Clicks are becoming optional - sometimes unnecessary. That's convenient for subscribers but potentially disastrous for marketers. Zero-click marketing is emerging as the response: content that delivers value instantly, whether through snippets, previews or summaries, without requiring a click. Instead of spelling the end of email, these changes could make it more valuable - if you adapt in time.
Every industry has a story. But telling that story effectively is another story. This is especially true of niche industries, which typically cater to very specialized audiences. Growing that audience is a natural goal for every brand, but doing so while still maintaining that niche appeal can be a challenge. Fortunately, with a smarter approach to storytelling, niche brands can grow their following without losing the same brand identity that helped them appeal to their original audience.
The digital marketing landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. As third-party cookies disappear or deteriorate and consumer privacy takes center stage, marketers face a pivotal choice: adapt or become irrelevant. Success in this new era means moving beyond mere compliance to build strategies rooted in trust. The terrain is complex. Regulations such as GDPR and CCPA are a net positive for consumer rights, but can create issues for marketers.
One-third of consumers now regularly use AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude throughout their shopping journey, according to a report by Cordial. The report, " Brands Battle for Attention as AI Redefines the Funnel," (registration required) found Millennials (33%) and Gen Z (11%) are leading in AI adoption. But despite this growing consumer behavior, nearly half of all brands (47%) maintain minimal or no AI agent presence, while only 7% have developed comprehensive AI optimization strategies.
