"AI in Marketing: CMO Ashley Brucker Stepien on Hex"

There’s a misconception that AI replaces creativity. In reality, it amplifies it. The best marketing leaders aren’t delegating thinking to AI — they’re using it to remove friction, speed up insight, and push creative boundaries faster. At Homesty, integrating AI into campaign planning and content creation reduced production time by over 70%, freeing up space for better ideas and deeper audience insight. The value isn’t the automation — it’s what you do with the time you get back. 💬 I’m always happy to compare notes on how AI is changing creative and performance marketing — feel free to connect or drop me a message if this resonates.

AI is rewriting the rules of brand discovery ✍️ The way people find and engage with brands isn’t linear anymore — it’s fluid, fragmented, and powered by AI 🔎 As Julia Wold, VP of Digital Investment & Activation at True Media, shares in her latest MediaPost article, today’s discovery landscape is fragmented and AI is helping brands meet consumers where they are. 🤝 The most successful brands will be reinventing how they engage, influence, and lead in this new age of AI 💡 Ready to transform your discovery strategy? Let's connect: https://hubs.ly/Q03QRlpH0

88% of companies use AI. Only 6% see real value. That McKinsey stat hit me like a cold shower this morning. We're living through the biggest tech shift since the internet, yet most companies are treating AI like a fancy calculator. Here's what I'm seeing in the Nordic marketing scene: Everyone's rushing to add "AI-powered" to their stack. Jasper for content. HeyGen for videos. Drift for chat. But they're missing the point entirely. They're automating the same broken processes instead of reimagining how work actually gets done. The 6% who see real value? They're not just plugging AI into existing workflows. They're asking: "What if we could completely rethink this?" Take content creation. Most marketers use AI to pump out more blog posts faster. The smart ones use AI to understand their audience's pain points, then create content that actually resonates. Same with ad optimization. Everyone's using AdCreative.ai to generate more banner variations. But the winners are using AI to predict which creative concepts will connect emotionally before they even design them. The gap isn't about the tools. It's about the mindset. The rest are stuck in what McKinsey calls "pilot purgatory." Don't be the 82% who adopt without impact. Be the 6% who transform 👊

After years of working with Douglas Nicol and listening to him wax lyrical about chatbots, AI and everything in between, I never thought I’d have to pay to hear him talk about it now. But it was well worth it. The Australian Centre for AI in Marketing's latest whitepaper, ‘The Future of Marketing Teams’, offered a sharp look at how creativity is evolving in the age of AI. Three insights that stood out for me: • No single AI platform is king. The strongest creative results come when we pit tools against each other to challenge thinking and push originality. • Build frameworks first, then experiment within them. The days of slotting new tech into old structures are over. We need new systems that let creativity move faster and smarter. • Authenticity will define creative value. As new generative tools flood the market with content, what audiences will respond to most is human perspective, emotional truth and originality. There’s no doubt AI is changing the creative industry, but I see it as a new brief and a new challenge we get to solve.

You never outgrow Funnel. There’s always another level of sophistication to unlock. They’ve truly nailed data in and data out, the Lego of marketing data. Just listened to a brilliant episode of The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlstrom and Funnel’s CEO, Fredrik Skantze. It captured the reality many marketers are facing: data is everywhere, but reliable signals are getting harder to find. Worth a listen if you’re curious how AI, data modelling, and measurement are evolving in this era of signal loss. Signal loss doesn’t just affect targeting, it reshapes how we measure success, optimise spend, and justify outcomes. The solution isn’t to chase more data, but to triangulate it: combine attribution, MMM, and experimentation to see a fuller picture of what drives results. The role of the marketer in the age of AI is shifting. Even if AI takes over parts of execution, we’ll still need to attribute marketing spend to results, that won’t go away. It will keep evolving, and we’ll keep solving for it. Whether marketing is done by AI or through AI, one thing remains the same: we need to understand impact relative to cost. https://lnkd.in/dNiFjmEs

How we used AI-driven personalization to double a client’s lead quality A few months back, one of our clients came to us frustrated We’re getting leads, but they’re not converting. That hit home. Because we’ve all been there , running ads, getting numbers… but not quality. So, instead of pushing more spend, we changed the approach. We started using AI tools to understand audience behaviour , what they click, what they ignore, what truly grabs attention. We built personalized ad copies and landing pages based on their interests and intent. No generic messaging. No guessing. Just smart data and emotion combined. In 4 weeks, their lead quality improved by 2x , and conversions followed naturally. What I learned? > AI is not replacing creativity , it’s enhancing it. > Personalization isn’t a buzzword , it’s how you connect like a human in a digital space.

AI isn’t replacing marketers -----> it’s empowering them. At Brando AI, we’ve learned that the future of marketing isn’t about automation alone. It’s about using technology to understand people better — their needs, their timing, their emotions. Artificial Intelligence allows us to analyze patterns, predict behavioru, and personalize every interaction. But behind every innovative system, there must be a human touch — empathy, creativity, and vision. That balance between logic and emotion… That’s where the real magic happens. ✨ #BrandoAI #AIMarketing #Innovation #DigitalTransformation #HumanCreativity

**The Power of Generative AI: A Game-Changer for Marketers** Marketing teams often struggle to balance creativity with time constraints, but generative AI is reshaping how campaigns are built. Did you know teams using AI report saving up to five hours per week on content creation tasks without sacrificing quality? 🎯 This efficiency opens doors to personalized messaging and faster campaign execution—making customer engagement more impactful than ever. The key is finding the right tools that align with your goals—whether it's enhancing productivity, maintaining brand consistency, or ensuring data privacy. Are you already integrating AI into your workflows? If so, what’s been your biggest win?

🎙️ Season 2 of AI, I’ve Got Questions is here! This season, I’m talking with CMOs who are leading through one of the most exciting and uncertain times in marketing. AI is changing everything, and we know we should be using it to move faster and get smarter, but there’s no blueprint, no best practices, and no one right way to do it! That’s what makes my first guest, Ashley Brucker Stepien, CMO at Hex, so inspiring. Ashley has led marketing at some of the most respected brands in tech including Figma, Dropbox, and Asana. She believes this is the best time to be a marketer and she’s truly attacking the AI opportunity. In this episode, we talk about how her team is embracing AI in both practical and bold ways. She shares how her team identified where AI could make the biggest impact, and a dramatic shift in how her team is structured to move faster and think more broadly. Ashley’s energy and optimism are contagious, and her approach is a great reminder that the CMOs who lean in and experiment will be the ones who win. 🎧 Listen at the link in the comments And don't forget follow AI, I’ve Got Questions for more conversations with marketing leaders who are figuring out what great looks like in the age of AI. We've got more amazing guests coming up!

This was a good time- we talked covered A LOT of ground. I've recently seen some real AI skepticism from my fellow marketers on here. Don't listen to this episode if you want skepticism. I'm all in on AI and this chat will tell you why... Some of the things we cover... 1. Org Structures- At Hex we're really challenging everything from workflows to org structures so the team can work smarter, not harder. My takes in this discussion with Stacey may seem far out but I think marketers will be oriented in problem-solving versus functional specialization in the not too near future. Or if you're at Hex, now. 🙂 2. AI Strategies- There are two uses for AI: things that make your life easier and things that make you smarter. Most people have started to tap into the "make your life easier" camp. But the real fun stuff with AI is what makes you smarter. 3. Build vs buy - The build vs. buy convo is a VERY interesting one right now. The AI explosion has, in equal parts, given us the ability to build more than we could have imagined as well as a slew of remarkable AI solutions that are game changers. TLDR from me? If you've built a disruptive and problem-solving tool that has AI natively integrated throughout, I'm all ears. If you've built purely an AI tool or worse, a tool with AI bolted on, I'm skeptical all day. The line between the two may seem blurry but the real ones know. (Would love spicy takes on this one from y'all.) Thank you for having me Stacey Epstein! (Oh and the genius I mention in this chat is Bryanna Clancy- she's 10x smarter than me. That's the secret- hire people smarter than you.)