When AI can generate a hundred variations in minutes, volume stops being the advantage.

The marketing skill that’s now even more important is knowing exactly what your brand stands for and being disciplined enough to protect it. Relevance isn’t about chasing every trend. It’s about understanding which cultural and consumer shifts are meaningful to your brand, and responding in a way that feels like you.

As Jess Burns, SVP, Global Marketing & Communications at rag & bone, puts it:

“The brands breaking away from the pack aren’t the ones with the most data – they’re the ones willing to evolve in public, testing and rebuilding fast without losing the thread of who they are. In a world where AI can generate infinite options, it’s still conviction, taste, and a genuine connection with your customer that make people care.“

Let AI do the busywork. Leave taste & trust with us humans.

Across executive discussions, a clear consensus emerged: leverage automation for routine tasks, including report generation, initial drafting, and standard customer support queries.

Highlighting the shift once routine production duties are offloaded, Ana Gerst, VP of Marketing, Brand & Medical at Hiya, notes:

AI is taking over the production side of creative. The resizing, the endless variants, the admin that used to eat a team’s week. I’m excited about it, because it burns off everything that was never the real work and leaves the two things that are: taste and trust. A machine can generate a thousand versions of an ad. It can’t tell you which one is honest, or which one people will actually believe. That’s human, and it stays human.”

Leverage AI so your team can focus on what humans do best.

INSIGHTS FROM THE DIRECT 60

The Lead interviewed executives transforming go-to-market strategy across leading global brands. Explore the leaders, and the ideas, shaping what comes next.

MEET THE DIRECT 60 →

Use AI to move from tracking to remembering.

The best teams are going beyond just collecting more data. In fact, they’re getting better at reading signals.

Here are some real instances:

• Rather than relying on guesswork, one team identified the key behavioral trigger separating browsers from buyers using AI and then designed the experience around that signal. 
• Another recognized that forcing customers into narrow paths reduced conversions, so they moved from to a fluid feed showcasing an overarching style based on “vibes” rather than rigid filters.
• Another brand leveraged data-driven insights to prompt customers to upgrade or move to the next product in the lifecycle before even the customer knew they were ready.

The common thread here is that personalization that tracks a customer feels like surveillance. But personalization that remembers one feels like service. Better signals beat more data.

The takeaway:

AI is taking the production work out of retail marketing. What’s left is judgment, taste and relationships, and that’s where the best brands are putting their people.