For over a decade, my work has been about finding the edge—the tools, the trends, and the insights that move the needle. Today, the single most powerful force reshaping our industry isn’t a new platform, it’s AI. But if you think this is about replacing human marketers with automation, you’re missing the point. Marketers have a new mandate to be more human, not less.AI and predictive analytics are no longer hypothetical; they are the main technology drivers of growth for businesses today. Senior leaders know this; in fact, 63% of them identified AI and predictive analytics as top contributors to growth in 2025. The power of AI is that it draws on huge amounts of customer data, so we can go beyond basic demographic and idea about segments of customers to facilitate personalization and segmentation on the basis of rich behavioral information and of real-time customer behaviors. The outcome is a type of personalization that is both authentically personalized and massively scalable, which builds deeper and authentic relationships with customers and measures business outcomes.
AI and predictive analytics are no longer hypothetical; they are the main technology drivers of growth for businesses today. Senior leaders know this; in fact, 63% of them identified AI and predictive analytics as top contributors to growth in 2025. The power of AI is that it draws on huge amounts of customer data, so we can go beyond basic demographic and idea about segments of customers to facilitate personalization and segmentation on the basis of rich behavioral information and of real-time customer behaviors. The outcome is a type of personalization that is both authentically personalized and massively scalable, which builds deeper and authentic relationships with customers and measures business outcomes.
But here’s the paradox: While AI is incredibly efficient at creating content at scale and streamlining workflows, it also creates a risk of brand homogenization. A recent report revealed that while 71% of marketers feel they must “win with the algorithm” to avoid invisibility, 79% fear that over-optimizing for those algorithms will result in a “sea of sameness”.
The truth is, AI is “exceptionally good at prediction,” but creativity is, by its very nature, “unpredictable”. This is where the human marketer becomes more valuable than ever. Our job is to “out-human the algorithm” by discovering distinctive personal truths and cultural insights that an AI simply can’t duplicate. A case in point: Nutella did use AI to generate 7 million unique labels for their jars, but the creative leap was creating a jar that was unique to each customer. That’s what led to them selling out. Or consider CeraVe’s Super Bowl campaign, which got them 32 billion earned impressions, where they had meticulously constructed a crafted, story-driven type of mystery developed by human insight that would be impossible for a machine to invent.
In this new era, your team’s role is changing. We are not just digital content creators anymore; we are the strategic creative director, with AI as simply a tool to help execute our vision. The new future for our craft is about balancing technology and human empathy to produce memorable brand experiences that are sophisticated, and smart, but also in each case unforgettable.