Speed may accelerate output, but the fuel that powers successful AI is data. Karen Wood, CMO of Treasure Data, highlighted the paradox—to be more human at scale, brands need better machines. “The challenge is, how do you authentically engage with each consumer?” Wood asked. “The irony is that the way to do that is through AI, so through artificial intelligence, we’re actually putting the power in the hands of marketers to scale up what that one-to-one personalization can look like.”
Rafa Flores, chief product officer at Treasure Data, added that this data-driven speed allows for a “fail fast” mentality. “I think storytelling is all about innovation. Storytelling is about meeting the moment. So a lot of the brands we work with, you have to innovate to meet the moment.” To do that, Flores explained, AI lets brands experiment quickly, making it easier—and less risky—to try new ideas and fail fast.
“Because of that, you are more willing to take a risk and say, ‘Well, if it fails, it fails. But it was five minutes of my day. I’m cool with that,’” Flores said.
Bryson Shellito, head of marketing operations at Lucid Motors, shared how his team uses AI to quickly refresh creative assets and surface real-time performance insights, allowing them to focus on big campaigns while continually improving content through a feedback loop.
“This creates a feedback loop where we can get insights in real time,” Shellito explained. Instead of hemming and hawing over subjective details in a specific asset, we’re trying to create a learning loop to make our assets better and evolve and progress over time.”
Human instinct remains essential
Despite the technology, the panel agreed that human instinct remains non-negotiable. Elizabeth O’Brien, senior executive of sports and entertainment sponsorship marketing at IBM, emphasized that AI should handle the data so humans can handle the heart.
“Using AI judiciously helps you to free up to do the things that only humans can do,” O’Brien said. She noted that while AI writes race recaps, “there’s another section of the app where people can message the drivers or the team, and the team messages them back, and there’s no AI there.”
Kristina Windham, executive brand advisor for Milk Makeup, stressed that human oversight is vital when selecting brand partners. “I consistently task our teams to think through utilizing AI as we’re talking about influencers and community,” she said. Windham added that while AI can help surface potential talent, brands are deeply sensitive by nature—so humans must make the final call to preserve authenticity and keep the brand narrative aligned with its true north star.
