AI: Machine-Made Marketing

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we sit down with Simon Levitt, Global Creative Technology Director at Imagination, to explore how AI is fundamentally transforming experiential marketing — not just behind the scenes, but at the front lines of customer engagement. Simon shares how generative and conversational AI are accelerating creative development, enabling rapid prototyping, and giving brands smarter, more contextual ways to interact with audiences. He explains why “depth, not scale” is the new frontier of personalization, and how natural-language interfaces are becoming powerful storytelling tools inside physical experiences. From Apple Vision Pro experiments to AI-assisted pre-visualization, to combining computer vision, agents, and generative models into entirely new customer journeys, Simon pulls back the curtain on the technologies reshaping experience design. He also unpacks the challenges — hallucinations, QA, feasibility checks, production realities — and why skilled humans remain essential in the creative loop. If you’re curious about where experiential marketing goes next, or how AI can elevate in-person brand moments in ways that were impossible just a few years ago, this conversation delivers the roadmap.

On this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we sit down with Dennis Kirschner, Co-Founder & CMO of ShowHeroes Group, for an unfiltered look at the escalating content crisis inside the walled gardens — and what it means for advertisers navigating an AI-accelerated media ecosystem. Dennis breaks down why AI-generated content is exploding at unprecedented scale across major platforms, creating volatile new risks around brand safety, misinformation, and transparency. Instead of suggesting brands pull out of the walled gardens, he explains how to invest smarter, ask harder questions, and reclaim clarity in environments that are becoming increasingly opaque. He also maps out what he sees as the antidote: A multiscreen strategy anchored in premium publishers The open web as a counterweight to fraud-ridden feeds And AI-powered tools that elevate targeting precision, content suitability, and performance across trusted environments Looking ahead, Dennis shares his perspective on how AI will re-balance power between the walled gardens and the open web — and what advertisers and publishers need to prepare for as machine-generated media continues to reshape attention, authenticity, and trust.

In this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we’re joined by Asha Shivaji, CEO and Co-Founder of SeeMe Index, to explore how responsible AI is changing the way brands understand and measure inclusivity. Asha shares how her team’s data-driven approach helps marketers uncover representation gaps across ads, products, and purpose—proving that inclusion isn’t just good ethics, it’s good business. From quantifying screen-time disparities to showing how inclusive brands are growing nearly 3x faster than their peers, this conversation dives deep into the intersection of AI, culture, and commerce. Tune in to learn how brands can use AI responsibly to build trust, drive growth, and make sure everyone sees themselves in the story.

Jason Downie, Global CRO at Making Science, reveals how applied AI is transforming marketing — from hyper-personalization and creative scale to building a culture of experimentation and preparing for the next wave of multimodal search.

On this episode of AI: Machine-Made Marketing, we explore how synthetic populations—statistical reconstructions of entire societies—are reshaping the marketing landscape. Our guest, Ray Kong, Chief Marketing Officer at Arima, breaks down how Arima’s all-in-one analytics platform leverages AI to create privacy-safe, hyper-granular insights that rival traditional data collection. Ray explains why synthetic populations are more powerful than point-in-time synthetic data, how they balance consumer privacy with advertiser performance, and why small agencies that fail to adopt AI tools risk obsolescence. From micro-targeted local marketing to predictive fraud modeling, this conversation reveals why Gartner predicts that by 2028, 80% of the Global 5000 will use synthetic data at scale.

Artificial Intelligence isn’t the future of marketing… it’s happening right now. From advanced algorithms to data-driven insights, AI is transforming the way brands connect, create, and grow. But what does that really mean for marketers today? Introducing AI: Machine-Made Marketing — a brand-new podcast from Advertising Week. Each episode, we’ll dive into the tools, the strategies, and the human stories behind AI-powered marketing. From personalization at scale, to creative automation, to the ethical questions every brand should be asking… we’re unpacking it all. Discover how AI can elevate your strategy and drive real growth in today’s digital landscape. Subscribe now to AI: Machine-Made Marketing, and join us as we explore the power of intelligence that’s not just artificial — but transformational.