A Jam Partnership long readPart 1 of Marketing after certainty: Leading when AI, data and trust collide The marketing technology industry closed 2025 with a curious paradox. Investment in generative AI tools reached record levels. Marketing departments reported unprecedented capacity to produce content, variants, and campaigns. And yet, a growing number of CMOs admitted, quietly […]
January
26
AI, automation and agentic systems turn customer experience into a governance problem
posted by Mike O'Brien
The first shift in customer experience thinking is to recognise that experience is a decision problem, not a design problem. The second shift is more uncomfortable. As AI, automation and agentic systems become embedded in organisations, those decisions are increasingly made by machines. That changes the nature of customer experience completely. From decision support to […]
January
26
Customer experience is a decision problem, not a design problem
posted by Mike O'Brien
Most organisations believe they have a customer experience problem. And, if like me, you believe CX is the unifying theory of everything for marketing, that is bad news. Journeys feel fragmented. Personalisation feels awkward. Automation feels efficient but oddly cold. Teams redesign touchpoints, refresh interfaces and rewrite tone of voice, yet the experience stubbornly fails […]
January
23
A manifesto for marketing in the age of AI, automation and agents
posted by Mike O'Brien
Marketing did not break. It outgrew the way it has been planned. AI, automation and agentic systems have not replaced marketers. They have quietly changed what marketing is. Decisions now travel faster than people. Execution scales without permission. Optimisation happens inside platforms before teams can intervene. Responsibility remains human, even when action is not. This […]
January
20
Pre-AI Architecture: What to Say When They Want AI by Q2
posted by Mike O'Brien
You’re being asked when AI will be deployed. Not whether. Not what for. When. The pressure is real. Competitors are announcing AI initiatives. Consultants are pitching agentic systems. Board members are asking why you’re not moving faster. You know something they don’t: AI doesn’t create capability from nothing. It accelerates whatever already exists. When the […]
January
20
Why leadership needs a reset in the age of AI, automation and agents
posted by Mike O'Brien
Every major shift in marketing has eventually demanded a shift in leadership. AI, automation and agents are forcing it again – only faster. This one is no different, but it is faster, less forgiving, and far more revealing. AI, automation and agentic systems do not just change how work gets done. They change who decides, […]
January
19
Why clarity is the real competitive advantage in AI marketing
posted by Mike O'Brien
There is a fundamental shift happening in marketing that most organisations have not yet recognised. For decades, competitive advantage in marketing came from access: better tools, better data, better technology, better talent. Organisations competed to acquire scarce resources faster than competitors. That era is ending. AI, automation, and agentic systems are becoming universally accessible. Within […]
January
19
A simple framework for deciding where AI fits in your marketing
posted by Mike O'Brien
Marketers do not need more inspiration about what AI can do. They need structure for deciding what AI should do in their specific context. Most AI marketing content focuses on possibilities: impressive demonstrations, ambitious use cases, transformational potential. This creates excitement but rarely creates clarity. What is missing is a practical, reusable framework that helps […]
January
19
When not using AI is the smarter marketing decision
posted by Mike O'Brien
There is a quiet form of pressure running through marketing teams right now. The pressure to adopt, implement, demonstrate progress with AI. This pressure creates a dangerous assumption: that using AI is always better than not using it. In reality, strategic maturity often shows in restraint. The most confident marketing leaders are not those who […]
January
19
How to introduce AI without frightening your team or your boss
posted by Mike O'Brien
Resistance to AI in marketing teams is rarely what it appears to be. When someone pushes back on AI adoption, questions pilot proposals, or expresses scepticism about agentic systems, the response is often dismissive: they do not understand the technology, they fear change, they are protecting their position. In reality, resistance is usually rational. It […]
January
19
The quiet skills marketers need more than new tools
posted by Mike O'Brien
There is a persistent misunderstanding about what separates high-performing marketers from struggling ones in AI-enabled environments. The assumption is technical capability: understanding how models work, mastering prompt engineering, keeping pace with platform updates, demonstrating tool proficiency. That assumption is wrong. The marketers who thrive as AI, automation and agentic systems become standard are not those […]
January
19
What agentic marketing actually means in day-to-day work
posted by Mike O'Brien
Agentic marketing is often described as autonomy. That framing creates both excitement and anxiety in equal measure. Excitement: Systems that pursue goals independently, make decisions in real-time, and coordinate activity across channels without constant human intervention. Anxiety: Loss of control, unpredictable behaviour, decisions made without adequate oversight, accountability gaps when outcomes go wrong. Both responses […]
January
19
The hidden cost of marketing automation no one budgets for
posted by Mike O'Brien
Automation is sold as time saved. In practice, it often changes where the work happens rather than removing it altogether. This matters because many marketing teams feel busier after automating, not lighter. The technology has worked. The promise has not. This blog is part of a practical guide to making sense of AI, automation and […]
January
19
Stop asking what AI can do. Start asking where it should help
posted by Mike O'Brien
One of the quiet reasons AI feels so disruptive to marketing is the question everyone starts with. What can AI do? It sounds sensible. It feels responsible. It is also the wrong place to begin, and it is a primary driver of the overwhelm explored in the previous post. This blog is part of a […]
January
19
Why AI feels overwhelming to perfectly capable marketers
posted by Mike O'Brien
Time to stop and smell the roses in the garden of AI Hype There is a quiet misunderstanding at the heart of today’s AI conversation. When marketers feel overwhelmed, it is often assumed they are behind, resistant, or under-skilled. In reality, the opposite is usually true. Most marketers are capable, curious, and motivated. What they […]
January
19
Making Sense of AI, Automation and Agentic Marketing
posted by Mike O'Brien
This is the introduction to a practical guide series for marketers navigating one connected change, not three separate problems Most marketers do not need more information about AI. They need less noise and more clarity. The current conversation about AI in marketing creates more confusion than confidence. It treats AI, automation, and agentic systems as […]
January
19
Why 40% of agentic AI projects will become operational zombies
posted by Mike O'Brien
Marketers are right to be excited about agentic AI. Properly designed agent-based systems can reduce manual effort, accelerate campaign execution, and coordinate decisions across complex customer journeys. Yet Gartner expects more than 40% of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by 2027.
December
05
Marx and the machine
posted by Mike O'Brien
This piece reframes the AI debate through a longer arc of economic history. Workers were once seen as the heart of society, but the liberal globalisation wave led by Reagan and Thatcher shifted that centre of gravity. Deregulation empowered corporations, weakened unions and elevated shareholder value as the dominant organising principle. Inequality widened as executive elites surged ahead. AI is not the beginning of that story. It is the acceleration point. The question now is whether leaders allow AI to deepen exclusion or use it to restore a more balanced, human-centred economy.
November
06
Socratic Prompt Engineering
posted by Mike O'Brien
It began in a classroom. We were discussing how artificial intelligence was transforming marketing – and I asked, “If AI can think faster, what can humans do better?” After a moment’s pause, a student replied, “We can ask better questions?” That tentative insight stayed with me. Because in an age of infinite automation, the question […]
October
31
Marketing’s Monster Paradox
posted by Mike O'Brien
Why Marketing’s brightest minds will repeat the mistakes of the past Every generation of marketers believes it is building the future. And in a way, it is. Yet somewhere between the spark of innovation and the scale of industrial success, something vital gets lost – integrity. It happened before, and it’s happening again. When vision […]
October
31
The Lift Test: Outthinking Consumerism
posted by Mike O'Brien
Every industry has its metaphors, but few fit marketing better than a lift. Sometimes it rises fast, full of confidence, metrics and momentum. Sometimes it stalls, suspended between floors, humming with noise but going nowhere. Inside this imagined lift are four familiar figures: Gary Vaynerchuk, Mark Ritson, Scott Galloway and Simon Sinek. Each believes they […]
October
22
The New Smog of content
posted by Mike O'Brien
How proposition-less content became the mental pollution of the AI Age There was a time when content had to mean something. When brands and writers had propositions, promises, and points of view. Now, as AI and attention economics collide, our feeds are being filled with something far more insidious: low-grade, proposition-less content – material that’s […]
October
16
The new priests of the machine
posted by Mike O'Brien
How marketers are selling the age of digital faith Neil Gaiman once imagined a world where the old gods were dying – their temples silent, their names fading from memory – while new deities of Media, Money and Technology rose in their place. They were fed not by prayer, but by attention. That world has […]
October
10
Rage against the machine learning
posted by Mike O'Brien
Outthink the competition you can’t outspend In marketing today, speed has become the ultimate virtue. Teams are told to move fast, post more, automate everything. Campaign cycles have compressed from quarters to days, and creative ideas are often judged by how quickly they can be executed rather than how deeply they’ve been thought through. Everyone […]
October
08
Briefophobia: How AI turns a Creative Brief into a living thing
posted by Mike O'Brien
In a world of 24/7 content and algorithmic acceleration, the humble creative brief is evolving. No longer a static instruction sheet, it’s becoming a living system of purpose, data, and dialogue – one that connects human imagination with artificial intelligence. The future of creativity lies not in faster outputs, but in deeper whys.
September
29
What if a CMO had been in the room? Greenwashing
posted by Mike O'Brien
In UK boardrooms, the Chief Marketing Officer still too often sits on the sidelines. According to recent surveys, fewer than 10% of FTSE 350 CMOs hold full voting rights at board level. Many attend meetings to “update the team” on campaigns and customer metrics – but not to shape the decisions that drive the company’s […]
September
25
AI + VARK Redefine the MBA Case Study Classroom
posted by Mike O'Brien
Not long ago, I was working with a group of lecturers in a case study training session. The debate in the room wasn’t about the case itself – it was about the tools. Several faculty members were adamant: no technology in the room. Their concern was that devices, apps, and AI assistants would distract from […]
September
23
Dark Patterns Part 5: AI, Regulation & the Future
posted by Mike O'Brien
Dark patterns are old tricks. What’s new is AI’s ability to weaponise them at scale. Why it matters The result? Manipulation at industrial scale. Regulation fights back The brighter alternative: Bright Patterns The opportunity for brands is clear: replace manipulation with clarity, consent, and confidence. In a future where AI can exploit every cognitive bias, […]
September
23
Dark Patterns Part 4: Confirmshaming & Manipulative Language
posted by Mike O'Brien
Ever clicked “No thanks, I don’t like saving money” when declining an offer? That’s confirmshaming – guilt-tripping language designed to make you feel foolish for opting out. I’ve had more than a few encounters with American investor spivs shouting, “So you don’t like making money?” as if I were a penny short of tuppence. My […]
September
23
Dark Patterns Part 3: Sneaky Defaults
posted by Mike O'Brien
Distraction is a marketer’s best trick – and a brand’s biggest risk. Ever been too distracted to notice the “subscribe me to marketing emails” box already ticked? Or that extra insurance slid silently into your cart? That’s the power of defaults – exploiting the fact that in the rush of shopping, most of us aren’t […]
September
23
Dark Patterns Part 2: Hidden Costs
posted by Mike O'Brien
You’ve chosen the product(s) – think Amazon’s upsell suggestions. You’ve entered your details. You’re seconds from hitting “buy.”Then – the sting: extra fees revealed only at checkout. This is drip pricing or hidden costs. Airlines perfected it. Hotels followed. Now, it’s everywhere from concert tickets to clothing. Why it works Behavioural economics calls this the […]
September
23
Dark Patterns Part 1: Urgency & Scarcity
posted by Mike O'Brien
We’ve all felt it: the ticking timer at checkout, the red text screaming “Only 1 left!”, the banner warning “Hurry – 37 people are looking at this right now.” These are urgency and scarcity tactics – designed to trigger a primal fear of missing out (FOMO). Why it works Behavioural science explains it. Scarcity is […]
September
23
When “Choice” Isn’t Really Choice
posted by Mike O'Brien
The Dark Pattern Problem in E-Commerce In 2022, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that over 60% of major e-commerce sites were using “dark patterns” – manipulative design tactics that steer consumers into decisions they might not otherwise make. These aren’t glitches. They’re deliberate choices by designers and marketers. Think: Each one leverages […]
September
23
Dashboards show metrics. Leaders make decisions.
posted by Mike O'Brien
Why We Must Stop Rewarding Description in Marketing Education Why does education matter? It’s not because students can memorise models or copy dashboards. It’s because we want them to make better decisions – the kind that drive businesses forward. But here’s the mistake we’ve been making for too long: We reward description. The comfort of […]
September
23
Teach Digital Marketing Like It’s 2030, Not 2010
posted by Mike O'Brien
If AI can draft essays, summarise case studies, analyse data, and even generate campaign plans – why are we still teaching digital marketing at all? Why not just hand students the tools and let the machine do the work? The answer is simple: teaching in the Age of AI is not about replacing the human […]
September
18
Preparing for anything in a VUCA world
posted by Mike O'Brien
Sir Ken Robinson reminded us: “The role of education is not to prepare students for something; it is to help them prepare themselves for anything.” That single word anything changes everything. It reframes education not as a conveyor belt to a predictable outcome, but as a process of developing autonomy – the ability to shape […]
September
18
Lifelong learning in the age of AI
posted by Mike O'Brien
Lifelong learning in the age of AI: the next 10–50 years We often think of learning as something front-loaded into the first two decades of life. School. University. Qualifications. And then we step into work, as if the main job is done. But AI is dismantling that model. Not just because the technology changes faster […]
September
18
Mankind’s last organic footnote
posted by Mike O'Brien
We like to think technology drives progress. It doesn’t. People do. Adoption, not invention, decides the future. The last organic footnote in our evolutionary journey is not the birth of artificial super-intelligence, but the human choice to weave it into everyday life. And at the centre of that choice sits marketing. We are the bridge […]
September
18
The Empath–Imagineer: Humanity’s edge in the age of ASI
posted by Mike O'Brien
Every age invents its own heroes. The industrial revolution had engineers. The digital age had coders. The AI era will have empath–imagineers. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: artificial superintelligence doesn’t need us to think faster, compute harder, or optimise better. It already does all that. What it lacks – and will always lack – is […]
September
18
When ASI becomes a new species
posted by Mike O'Brien
The ASI Messiahs meets the Network Effect in 2030. What then? By 2030, Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) won’t be a tool – it will be a partner species. These machines won’t just calculate faster; they’ll engage in recursive reasoning, stacking insights upon insights in ways that leave human cognition lagging. An ASI doesn’t just find patterns […]
September
10
Back to the Futile: Episode 5: the ICONIC compass
posted by Mike O'Brien
Every revolution in marketing has been driven by tools. The printing press gave us newspapers. Television gave us mass advertising. The internet gave us digital campaigns. Yet. somehow, the sausage dog lives on as cool status symbol. Improbable as it is, this gives me hope that keeping our cool in the face of AI, will […]
September
10
Back to the Futile: Episode 4: from marketing to stewardship
posted by Mike O'Brien
15 years (to 2040): Reality today: Ethical debates about deepfakes, data privacy, and AI bias are already here. The EU is advancing strict regulation. Is it me or are marketers getting younger every year as UK brands face growing scrutiny over sustainability and transparency. Projection: By 2040, AI may redefine what marketing even means. That’s […]
September
10
Back to the Futile: Episode 3: from slow campaigns to fast ecosystems
posted by Mike O'Brien
10 years (to 2035): Reality today: AI is like a bright kid. The one heading to Cambridge at the age of six. Meanwhile, we are adults are moving from dashboards to decision engines. Welcoem to the hype-cycle hurt locker. Predictive models already guide budget allocation. Real-time optimisation is possible at campaign level. Projection: By the […]
September
10
Back to the Futile: Episode 2: from efficiency to empathy
posted by Mike O'Brien
Can AI ever understand our unique take on life? Reality today: AI is already embedded in the everyday tools of marketing. Tesco is trialling predictive AI for supply chains and personalised Clubcard challenges. Unilever has built an in-house “Beauty AI Studio” producing creative assets at scale, cutting production costs by 27%. WPP has invested £250m […]
September
10
Back to the Futile: Episode 1: The faux capacitor
posted by Mike O'Brien
Marketers face an uncomfortable truth. AI can already write our copy, design our ads, and optimise our campaigns. But if we let the technology define the work, we risk losing the one thing that makes marketing matter: us. Because marketing was never just about data, channels, or algorithms. It was – and always will be […]
September
09
Your AI marketing playbook for the next 12 months
posted by Mike O'Brien
Your AI marketing playbook for the next 12 months A quarter-by-quarter plan to move from pilots to profit. Q1 — Foundation and alignment Q2 — Customer and content intelligence Q3 — Channel expansion and measurement Q4 — Optimisation and cultural integration ICONIC® as the spine Investigate (insights) → Customers (personalisation) → Opportunities (where AI wins) […]
September
09
The AI creativity paradox – why human originality matters more than ever
posted by Mike O'Brien
The AI creativity paradox – why human originality matters more than ever AI makes production fast and cheap – which increases the premium on distinctive human ideas. What AI nails – and where it slips Strengths: speed, scale, consistency.Gaps: original leaps, lived emotion, nuanced brand voice. Key takeaway: AI accelerates execution; humans drive differentiation. Case: […]
September
05
Beyond the Dashboard — How AI is Rewriting Marketing Metrics
posted by Mike O'Brien
Beyond the dashboard — how AI is rewriting marketing metrics AI changes not just what we measure, but how fast we learn and act. From reporting to prediction Key takeaway: AI compresses the loop between signal and decision. KPI transformation (Forever 21 examples) Leading indicators for AI-driven growth Risk of legacy metrics: Slower reactions, incomplete […]
September
04
The ICONIC AI Marketing Blueprint
posted by Mike O'Brien
The ICONIC® AI marketing blueprint A structured way to integrate AI from investigation to long-term value — so AI becomes a system, not a sideshow. ICONIC® = Investigate | Customers | Opportunities | Numbers | Implementation | Contribution Why a blueprint? AI’s value compounds across stages. Without a framework, efforts fragment, learning stalls, and business […]
September
02
Is there life after SEO?
posted by Mike O'Brien
Decoding LLMO — search optimisation for the age of AI LLMO (Large Language Model Optimisation) is structuring your brand’s information so AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity) can find it, trust it, and use it in answers. Difference in one line: Why LLMO matters AI assistants synthesise answers, not just lists. That means: Four quick […]
