AI: Machine-Made Marketing

Epizodes

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  Your Customers Already Told You 22.07.2026 19min

  On this episode, we are joined by Matt Hixson, Co-founder and CEO of Tellagence. We talk about the next step for AI in marketing: moving beyond dashboards and reports to actually understanding customer intent. Matt also explains why the future isn't more data—it's knowing which data matters.
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  Making Room to Think 09.07.2026 16min

  Today we are joined by Rebecca Sykes, Partner and Head of AI at Brandtech Group. We talk about taking the repetitive & mundane work out of marketing so people have more time to think, why AI should create opportunity instead of simply cutting costs, what agentic AI actually changes, and why the brands that come out ahead will be the ones that change their culture, not just their technology.
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  Stop Bolting AI Onto Broken Marketing 01.07.2026 21min

  On this episode of AI: Machine Made Marketing, we're joined by Oz Etzioni, CEO & Cofounder at Clinch. Oz explains why AI is exposing the cracks in marketing instead of fixing them. We also talk about connecting creative and media, making every campaign a learning opportunity, and why rebuilding your workflow matters more than adding another AI platform.
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  AI Is Not the Strategy. Growth Is. 17.06.2026 21min

  This week we're joined by Chan Suh, Senior Partner and Chief Digital Officer at Prophet. We talk about why AI is changing business the way the web once did, why measuring AI adoption misses the point, and how companies can move beyond endless pilots to create real growth. Chan also shares new research on consumer trust and explains why the brands that put people first will have the advantage.
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  Human First, AI Enhanced 03.06.2026 31min

  On this episode, I sit down with Steve Bevilacqua, Principal Consultant at Cella by Randstad Digital, for a candid conversation about what AI is actually doing inside marketing organizations today. We dig into the gap between executive expectations and real-world adoption, why leaders need to be hands-on with AI instead of simply directing others to use it, and how marketing teams can avoid creating bland, homogenized content. Along the way, we share a few laughs about six-fingered AI images, caveman prompting, and why AI should be viewed as a powerful tool rather than a replacement for human creativity. It's a practical, entertaining look at where AI delivers value today and where marketers still need to keep a human in the loop.  
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  Engineering the Outcome in an AI-Driven Open Web 29.05.2026 23min

  On this episode of AI: Machine Made Marketing, Ivan Doruda, Global CEO at MGID, joins the show to discuss how AI is changing search, publishing, and performance marketing across the open web. From the shift away from traditional SEO to the growing importance of monetization, contextual intelligence, and generative engine optimization, Ivan shares a grounded look at where the industry is headed and why human expertise still matters in an increasingly automated world.
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  Making AI Work Without the Fear Factor 20.05.2026 20min

  In this episode, Daniella Harkins, SVP of Product GTM at LiveRamp shares a practical, grounded look at making AI actually useful inside marketing teams. From starting with simple use cases and leaning into trusted partners, to building stronger first party data foundations and using AI to improve decisioning, optimization, and measurement, this conversation is less about hype and more about what helps marketers work smarter, think more strategically, and move forward with confidence.
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  AI Can Generate Anything. Taste Is the Real Competitive Advantage 13.05.2026 14min

  On this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we sit down with Nick Valenti, CEO of Mādin, to unpack why AI isn’t replacing creativity — it’s raising the bar for what actually matters. Nick explains how Mādin uses AI as a creative collaborator rather than a creative director, accelerating ideation, testing, and execution while doubling down on the human elements machines still can’t replicate: taste, empathy, judgment, and cultural intuition. The conversation explores how AI is collapsing the gap between instinct and proof of concept, why the future of agencies belongs to smaller high-taste teams instead of bloated organizations, and how brands can avoid drowning in “AI-generated sameness.” Nick also shares why Rick Rubin’s philosophy on creativity has become required reading inside Mādin, how AI is democratizing high-level creative production for startups, and why strategy and storytelling are becoming more important — not less — in the age of generative media.
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  Creative Strategy in the Age of AI: Getting to Better Work, Not Just Faster 06.05.2026 19min

  In this episode of AI: Machine Made Learning, Leslie Walsh, GM & Head of Strategy at RYA, joins the show to talk about why speed alone is not the goal in an AI-driven world. From the risk of “AI slop” to the importance of human taste, cultural nuance, and proprietary data, Leslie breaks down how marketers can use AI to elevate creative—not dilute it. The conversation explores the balance between machine efficiency and human judgment, and what it really takes to produce work that resonates and stands out.
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  Meet Edna: Getting Beyond Personas & Letting Customers Surprise You 29.04.2026 30min

  On this episode of AI: Machine Made Marketing, I’m joined by Justine Frostad, CMO of Cognitiv, and Sam Choi, Founder & CEO of Manual Labor, to talk about why it’s time to move past static personas and rethink how we understand audiences. We get into the “Meet Edna” campaign, the role AI plays in the creative process, and why transparency—and a strong human point of view—still matter more than ever.
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  Not Your Granddad’s MMM: AI, Creativity, and What Comes Next 20.04.2026 26min

  On this episode, I sit down with Jeff Matisoff, North America CEO & Managing Partner at The Brandtech Group, to talk about how AI is reshaping everything from MMM to creative and media. We get into what real-time, scenario-based measurement actually looks like, why conversational data is changing how teams work, and how keeping a clear North Star—and a strong human point of view—matters more than ever as the tools get smarter.
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  From Collaboration Tool to Agentic OS: How Slack Is Rewiring Work in the AI Era 01.04.2026 22min

  Ryan Gavin, CMO of Slack at Salesforce, unpacks the shift from Slack as a collaboration platform to something far more ambitious: a conversational operating system where humans, data, and AI agents work side by side. From Slackbot acting as a personalized AI partner to the rise of “orchestrators of work” over traditional specialists, Gavin explains how leading companies are already moving at “light speed”—and why employee productivity is becoming the single biggest driver of growth. The takeaway: AI isn’t just changing marketing workflows—it’s redefining how work itself gets done.
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  The AI Front Door: How LLMs Are Rewriting Brand Discovery with Johann Wrede, CMO of UserTesting 04.03.2026 26min

  For decades, brands controlled their first impression — the homepage, the paid ad, the carefully crafted Google snippet. Not anymore. In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we sit down with Johann Wrede, Chief Marketing Officer at UserTesting, to explore what happens when AI summaries — not websites — become the new brand front door. As consumers increasingly stay inside ChatGPT, Gemini, and other LLM experiences instead of clicking through to brand sites, marketers are losing control of the narrative. Johann explains why this shift is fundamentally different from the SEO era — and why we’re now entering the age of LLM optimization.
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  Stop Trying to Fool People: How Movers+Shakers Uses AI to Amplify Creativity, Not Replace It 25.02.2026 23min

  Everyone wants viral AI content. Most brands are doing it wrong. On this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, Jeff MacDonald, Director of Innovation and Technology at Movers+Shakers, joins us to unpack what separates AI gimmicks from true creative acceleration. Jeff sits at the intersection of social-first storytelling and AI tool-building—helping one of the internet’s most viral agencies design systems that compress time without compromising taste. His take? AI shouldn’t be used to trick audiences or replace human instinct. It should function like special effects: enhancing the story, not pretending to be the story.
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  Relevance Rebuilt: How Agentic AI Is Redefining Contextual Advertising with Thomas Ives, RAAS Lab 11.02.2026 19min

  Agentic AI is changing what contextual advertising can actually understand — and that shift could help fix some of programmatic’s biggest failures.   In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, Thomas Ives of RAAS Labs (Relevant Advertising at Scale) explains how AI-driven contextual intelligence is moving beyond keyword traps and brand-safety false positives to interpret content with human-like nuance — unlocking higher-quality placements, better timing, and stronger relevance in the moments that matter most.
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  Tuning the Brand Voice: How AI Helps Global Brands Speak with One Voice—Without Losing Their Soul 04.02.2026 20min

  As brands expand across regions, platforms, and formats, the challenge isn’t just translation — it’s tuning. How do you scale content globally without flattening tone, losing cultural nuance, or breaking brand trust? In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we’re joined by Jason Hemingway, CMO at Phrase, to explore how AI-powered language technology is reshaping the way brands create, localize, and personalize content at scale. Jason breaks down the shift from manual, slow, human-only workflows to intelligent automation that blends machine translation, quality scoring, and human oversight. We discuss when AI should lead, when humans must stay in the loop, and how “tuning” content — not just translating it — helps brands protect voice, accelerate go-to-market timelines, and unlock real performance gains across global audiences. If you’re a marketing leader navigating global growth, brand consistency, and creative pressure, this conversation offers a practical roadmap for using AI where it truly adds value — and avoiding it where it doesn’t.
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  AI-First by Design: How Tomas Forsbäck and Readpeak Are Rebuilding Programmatic for the Open Web 28.01.2026 26min

  AI is no longer a performance enhancement — it’s the architecture. In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, Tomas Forsbäck, Group CEO of Readpeak, explains why the next era of programmatic advertising will be built AI-first, content-first, and privacy-first — or not at all. We unpack how Readpeak was designed specifically for contextual, native, and outcome-driven advertising on the open web, why legacy impression-based models are holding publishers and brands back, and how AI is already transforming creative effectiveness, media workflows, and trust in programmatic buying. Tomas also shares real-world results from AI-generated creative testing, discusses the shift from attention to measurable outcomes, and outlines what marketers should be rethinking today if they want to stay competitive in an AI-driven landscape heading toward 2030. If you’re navigating the future of programmatic, privacy-safe media, or AI-powered marketing strategy, this episode offers a grounded, practical look at where the industry is headed — and who’s best positioned to lead it.
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  From Verification to Growth: How AI Is Redefining Media Quality and Performance with Anna Forbes, RVP Northern Europe, DoubleVerify 21.01.2026 16min

  AI is no longer just a tool for risk mitigation—it’s becoming a catalyst for smarter media investment, better outcomes, and real business growth. In this episode, we’re joined by Anna Forbes, RVP for Northern Europe at DoubleVerify, to unpack how AI is transforming digital advertising from the inside out. Drawing on more than two decades in ad tech, Anna explains how automation is helping media teams reclaim hours lost to repetitive tasks, how AI-driven optimization is improving performance inside opaque environments like walled gardens and CTV, and why media quality is rapidly evolving from a hygiene factor into a competitive advantage. From attention measurement and fraud detection to outcome-based optimization and the future of streaming TV, this conversation cuts through the hype to explore how AI is actually being used today—and what it will take to unlock its full potential tomorrow.
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  How AI Is Rewriting the Brand–Consumer Relationship with Domenic Venuto, Horizon Media 14.01.2026 14min

  AI is no longer a feature—it’s the invisible operating system shaping how consumers experience brands every day. From connected kitchens and cars to predictive personalization and real-time decisioning, AI is quietly raising expectations across every touchpoint. In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we’re joined by Domenic Venuto, EVP and Chief Data & Product Officer at Horizon Media, the world’s largest independent media agency. Venuto shares insights from CES, explains how AI is collapsing traditional marketing roles into real-time collaborative workflows, and makes the case for agencies reclaiming their role as true strategic partners—not just executional middlemen. We explore why independence can be a competitive advantage in an AI-first world, how AI-native platforms are transforming client relationships, and what will separate agencies that thrive from those that fall behind as AI reshapes marketing at speed. 
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  Deep Learning, IntentGPT, and the New Rules of Performance Marketing — With Jaysen Gillespie of RTB House 07.12.2025 21min

  In a marketing world reshaped by privacy shifts, fragmented identity, and the rise of next-generation AI, performance advertisers face both a reckoning and a renaissance. In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we sit down with Jaysen Gillespie, Global Head of Analytics and Product Marketing at RTB House, to break down how deep learning is redefining personalization, why contextual targeting is being reborn, and how marketers should prepare for the volatile years ahead.   Jaysen unpacks the evolving “cookie-reduced ecosystem,” the difference between machine learning and true AI, and why the marketers who win will be the ones who embrace curiosity, diversify their toolkits, and lean into incrementality as their guiding metric. He also takes us behind the scenes of IntentGPT, RTB House’s breakthrough approach to contextual relevance powered by large language models.