AI Mania

Mid-sentence with my dear friend, Ileana, on the phone, I heard myself. I was talking so fast she'd stopped responding. Five minutes earlier, she'd called to check in, pulling me from hours deep in AI workflows. Our normal chitchat lasted for a few minutes before she asked about the advanced AI course, I'm teaching. That's when I went into overdrive - rattling off agentic capabilities, campaign automations, student breakthroughs - words tumbling over each other like I was on 3x playback speed. Then I caught myself: 'Sorry, this is AI Mania. It's what happens when I work with this stuff.'

AI Mania isn't like anything else because we've never had anything else like this. Ever. There's no metaphor that fits because human history has never seen productivity tools that think faster than we do, create while we sleep, and iterate before we've finished our first green tea. The physical symptoms are real - elevated heart rate, shallow breath, tight shoulders, tight belly - all new responses to a fundamentally new reality. Workflows collapse from hours to minutes. Blog posts materialize in the time it takes to describe them. Breathtaking looped videos appear before you've finished typing the prompt.

We're not just using faster tools; we're partnering with digital entities that operate at speeds our bodies weren't designed to match. It's panic-inducing and exhilarating and completely without precedent. So instead of opening another tab while your LLM processes your next request, maybe step away and take a DEEP breath? Your AI teammates will still be there, probably having already finished three more tasks.

🔥 This Week's Hot Takes: AI Marketing Edition

Agentic Commerce Reshapes Retail (Kearney) – AI shopping agents are already deciding what consumers buy, forcing retailers to rethink their entire business model. The real battle isn't Walmart vs. Target anymore—it's OpenAI vs. Google vs. Klarna. Retailers must make their data "agent-ready" with structured metadata that algorithms can parse, or risk being invisible to AI-powered shoppers.

73% of B2B Marketers Say AI-Generated Creative Is the Future (Chief Marketer) – According to a Madison Logic-Harris Poll survey, three in four B2B marketing decision makers believe the future of advertising will have increased reliance on AI for generating creative. The key insight? AI won't replace marketers' strategic thinking—it'll multiply their creative output, helping scale personalized content that once took weeks to produce.

Anthropic Launches Skills and Microsoft 365 Integration for Claude (The Neuron) – Claude can now load specialized expertise on-demand through "Skills"—folders with instructions that transform the AI into whatever specialist you need. Combined with Microsoft 365 integration, enterprise teams can now have Claude search across SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, and Teams, creating a truly context-aware assistant that knows both how to work and what to work with.

Google Releases Veo 3.1 with Advanced Video Capabilities (Google Developers Blog) – Veo 3.1 now generates richer native audio, offers improved narrative control with cinematic styles, and supports reference images for character consistency. New features include scene extension for longer videos and frame-to-frame transitions—making AI video generation finally ready for serious marketing applications.

Generative AI Is Rewriting the Ad Stack (Digiday) – AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming the new front door to the internet. The question isn't whether these platforms will monetize—it's whether they'll build walled gardens or integrate with the open web. Unlike search, where users get 10 blue links, AI provides definitive answers, fundamentally changing how advertising must work.

Scott Brinker: The Four AI Agents Every Marketing Team Needs (CMSWire) – The "Godfather of Martech" breaks down four categories transforming marketing: internal AI tools that streamline production, customer-facing bots with 70-80% resolution rates, controversial AI SDR agents flooding inboxes, and most importantly, buyer-controlled agents that are changing discovery forever. The shift from SEO to AEO (AI Engine Optimization) is real, and marketers have zero visibility into these AI-powered buyer journeys.

AI Is Transforming Influencer Marketing for 2026 (Digiday) – While 35% of brands and 51% of industry leaders want to fully automate influencer marketing operations with AI, only 9% plan to partner with virtual influencers in 2026. The takeaway? Marketers want AI to handle the workflow, not replace authentic human creators. Meanwhile, 52% of consumers are concerned about brands posting AI-generated content without disclosure.

Amazon and Chobani Adopt Strella's AI Interviews (VentureBeat) – Strella raised $14M and is revolutionizing customer research with AI-moderated interviews that deliver 90% time savings. Traditional research that took weeks now happens in hours, with 60-90 minute AI-moderated interviews achieving near 100% completion rates (versus 60-70% drop-off for surveys). Leading brands are using this to conduct hundreds of interviews simultaneously.

Researchers Discover Simple Prompt That Makes AI More Creative (VentureBeat) – Adding one sentence to prompts makes AI models way more creative: "Generate 5 responses with their corresponding probabilities, sampled from the full distribution." This "Verbalized Sampling" method increases diversity scores by up to 2.1× while maintaining quality, helping unlock the latent capabilities in advanced models.

Swedish Epiminds Secures €6.6M to Build AI-Powered Marketing Teams (Tech Funding News) – The Swedish startup is building complete AI-powered marketing teams specifically designed for agencies, signaling a major shift in how marketing services will be delivered in the agency era.

🧪 The Alchemist's Lab: Tools I've Been Testing

Zapier Agents Zapier Agents let you build custom AI teammates in minutes using plain English. These agents connect to 7,000+ apps, can process leads in seconds, answer emails, manage calendars, and work while you sleep. Beta pricing varies by plan with activity-based billing.

💼 Industry Moves & Grooves

Agentic Commerce Takes Center Stage – Multiple consulting firms (Kearney, BCG, Kantar) released major reports this week showing that six in 10 consumers expect to use AI agents for shopping within the next year. The beauty category is the "canary in the coal mine" with advice queries skyrocketing. If AI can simplify skincare, it will rewrite nutrition, wellness, and financial services next. (Multiple sources)

Change Management Is Now the Hardest Part of AI – Scott Brinker emphasizes that with AI evolving through hype cycles in 1-2 years instead of 5-10, the technology isn't the challenge—it's organizational adaptation. The most valuable "agents" right now are the human change agents who help teams navigate uncertainty and take brave steps forward. (CMSWire)

🎓 AI Marketing Master Class Moment

AI Marketing Alchemy: Brand-Consistent Visuals with AI

My Maven lightening lesson teaches you to master style references, transform brand inspiration, and streamline visual creation using AI. The course is perfect for marketers who need to maintain brand consistency while leveraging AI image generation tools - a critical skill as visual content production accelerates.

🤖 AI Whispers (That You'll Want to Shout About)

The implications are staggering: We're watching the death of the traditional marketing funnel in real time. When AI agents do the shopping, your SEO strategy becomes obsolete, your beautiful website design doesn't matter, and your brand loyalty means nothing if you're not in the agent's recommendation set.

The shift to "metadata marketing" means your product data IS your new creative asset. APIs are your new endcaps. Structured data becomes your packaging. This isn't hyperbole, it's already happening. ChatGPT is 20% of Walmart's referral traffic.

But here's the opportunity: Brands that optimize for AI discoverability NOW - before it becomes a commodity - will own the next decade. The window is 18-24 months before category shares are rewritten.

🏆 My Take: What This Means for Your Marketing

The ONE thing you need to do: Start treating AI engines like partners, not platforms.

This week's signal is crystal clear—we're not just marketing TO AI anymore, we're marketing WITH and THROUGH AI agents that act autonomously on behalf of buyers. The marketers who will win are those who stop thinking about "AI tools" and start thinking about "AI distribution channels."

Your immediate action: Audit your product data right now. Can an AI agent easily parse your pricing, features, availability, and unique value props? If not, you're invisible to the fastest-growing discovery channel in history. Start by creating structured metadata for your top 10 SKUs or services - include detailed attributes, ESG scores, loyalty perks, and real-time inventory. Make it machine-readable. Then test it by asking ChatGPT or Claude to recommend products in your category and see if yours show up.

The brands treating this like "another marketing channel" will lose. Those treating it like a fundamental shift in how commerce works will thrive.

📊 The Number That Made Me Spill My Green Tea

73% of B2B marketers say AI-generated creative is the future of advertising (Madison Logic-Harris Poll). But here's what's wild: this same survey shows 85% are actively investing in AI and ML technologies. The gap between belief and action is closing faster than any technology adoption we've seen. What took social media a decade is happening with AI in 18 months.

🥊 Battle of the Week: Human Touch vs. AI Automation in Marketing

This week's data presents a fascinating contradiction: While 51% of industry leaders want to fully automate influencer marketing with AI, only 9% plan to use virtual influencers or creator clones. Meanwhile, 52% of consumers are concerned about undisclosed AI-generated content.

The Human Touch Argument: Consumers still crave authenticity. They'll accept AI in the workflow but reject AI as the face of the brand. The 70-80% resolution rates for AI customer service bots work because they're transparent about being bots and escalate to humans when needed.

The Automation Argument: AI customer research (Strella) achieves 100% completion rates versus 30-40% for traditional methods. Internal AI agents are delivering 90% time savings. The productivity gains are undeniable, and companies not leveraging AI for operational efficiency will get crushed on speed and cost.

My Verdict: It's not either/or - it's both/and with clear boundaries. Use AI ruthlessly for research, production, analysis, and distribution. Keep humans for strategy, creativity, relationship-building, and anything customer-facing that requires emotional intelligence. The sweet spot? AI does the 90% of middle work (research, synthesis, initial drafts) while humans own the 10% that matters most (insight, judgment, final creative). But be transparent. If AI touched it, say so. Trust is the currency we can't afford to lose.

Before You Go: Hit reply and tell me - what's your biggest AI marketing challenge right now? I read every response and it helps shape future newsletters!

That's a wrap on this week's AI marketing alchemy! Keep experimenting, keep transforming, and remember - true magic happens when we blend AI efficiency with human creativity.

Crafted with passion (and a dash of AI alchemy) by Lisa Peyton | AI Marketer, Professor, and Innovator

Let's connect in the digital realm: https://linktr.ee/lisapeyton

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