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While the media keep flogging the spectre of AI replacing white-collar workers, a far more discreet factor is quietly undermining the employability of young graduates. The real culprit? Their smartphones. As agentic AI grows in power and the job market reshapes itself every six months, motivation and discipline are becoming more valuable assets than skills themselves. And those are precisely the two things that the major social platforms are working relentlessly to drain away. In this piece, Frederic Cavazza want to push back against the prevailing narrative and face up to something we keep choosing to ignore. Social media, and TikTok in particular, is doing real damage to young people’s motivation, and that has direct consequences for their chances of finding work.

This article was originally published in French by Fred Cavazza on fredcavazza.net. Visionary Marketing translated it and it’s now published on our website with the author’s permission. Throughout the article, “I” represents Frederic Cavazza.

Will AI or TikTok Threaten Young Grads’ Employability?Eric Schmidt was booed at the University of Arizona commencement ceremony for his remarks on AI, employability and job displacement.Key Takeaways from Cavazza’s piece on AI and employability The job market is mired in radical uncertainty. The pace of AI innovation makes any prediction beyond two years essentially meaningless, and institutions (government ministries, schools, businesses) are structurally incapable of keeping up. * Agentic AI will reshape work gradually, not overnight. Intelligent agents will progressively absorb the repetitive tasks previously handled by disengaged employees, leaving little room for middling performers (those who have stopped making an effort). * Head-on competition with AI must be avoided. Rather than trying to rival AI on raw processing power or rote memorisation, the priority is to develop the forms of intelligence that machines cannot master (interpersonal, intrapersonal, existential, and so on). * TikTok is the real killer of young people’s employability. Social media consumes their time and energy (the two fuels of motivation), degrades their attention, and produces an army of apathetic NPCs. * The solution is individual, not collective.* Neither legislators, nor educational institutions, nor businesses will be able to keep pace with Big Tech, so it falls to each of us to develop our own “agency” (autonomy, discipline, capacity to learn) in order to justify our employment and our salaries in a world of AI.

As it happens at the end of every quarter, US-listed companies publish their interim results. And as has been the case for several years now, the quarterly figures from the major tech firms confirm ever-increasing investment in infrastructure: Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon capex spending to hit $725 billion in 2026, up 77% from last year.

Do these hundreds of billions of dollars being poured into data centres reflect genuine demand? On the face of it, yes, though not entirely. The honest answer is that it depends very much on who you ask and how you frame the question.

Build It, and They Will Come (Eventually)According to the official statements from startups, AI publishers, and Big Tech, demand currently far outstrips supply. That is not necessarily cause for celebration, however, because it is worth remembering that this so-called AI demand (meaning what users actually consume) is heavily subsidised. At present, the business models simply do not stack up (subscriptions are sold at a loss: AI Is Too Expensive To Ever Pay Off Hyperscalers’ Capex Investments).

It comes as no surprise, then, that after a period of explosive growth driven by extremely aggressive customer acquisition, the maker of Claude has quietly revised its pricing in an attempt to limit the damage: Anthropic Just Quietly Raised Claude Pro Bill.

Assessing genuine demand is therefore extremely difficult, since it is being artificially propped up by startups burning through other people’s money with reckless abandon to acquire new users. What is certain, though, is that this phase of hypergrowth is generating a knock-on surge in demand for skilled workers.

We can already observe an explosion in demand for generative and agentic AI skills, as evidenced by the findings of the Malt Tech Trends 2026 report: From AI agent demand (×60) to the growth of n8n projects (+1,390%): welcome to the operationalisation era.

Fair enough, you didn’t need me to tell you that, but now that we have precise statistics to quantify demand, we may as well use them. Also worth reading: Agents, robots, and us: How AI reshapes work and skills in Europe.

From this, one might assume that all it would take is a shift in training to ensure that new graduates acquire the skills businesses actually need. That is the theory, at any rate. In practice, what is taught in higher education is dictated by the certification frameworks set by the relevant government ministries. Those ministries, however, move to a completely different rhythm from the business world. Updating a skills framework can take several years, yet the job market is being reshaped by AI innovation every six months.

To put it simply, students are trapped in a system that is setting them up to fail: “I feel I missed my moment by just one year”: how AI is holding back junior hiring. Given the helplessness of institutions and teaching staff alike, student anxiety is palpable: GenAI in Higher Education, Legitimacy and Laziness. Little wonder, then, that the figures coming out of various studies are provoking real anger:

• -14% in employment entry rates for 22-25 year-olds in AI-exposed roles (Anthropic study);
• -20% in jobs for young developers since the end of 2022 (Stanford study).

Which skills should young people be developing to protect their employability? That is genuinely difficult to say, given the current instability of the market (pace of innovation, geopolitical tensions, scarcity of raw materials). In this era of polycrisis, the only viable stance is one of caution, holding off on major decisions and delaying hiring.

The problem is that hundreds of thousands of young graduates flood the job market every year. And I haven’t even touched on the equally fraught situation for those looking for internships or work-study placements. All of which explains why AI is such a raw nerve for young people (Gen Z Is Using AI, but Doesn’t Feel Great About It), to the point of causing outright hostility:

• Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Fails to Read Room on AI, Gets Booed into Oblivion
• UCF commencement speaker met with boos over pro-AI remarks during ceremony
• Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta fires back at graduates booing ‘AI speech’ during Middle Tennessee State University ceremony

Confronted with the doom-laden scenarios served up by the media, a significant proportion of young people simply want nothing to do with AI. Worth noting, too, is that attitudes towards AI track closely with how well people understand it. Simply put, the more you know, the less you fear.

That said, understanding AI has been made considerably harder by a pace of innovation I have never encountered in thirty years. This relentless tempo is feeding a widespread sense of uncertainty that is paralysing businesses and disrupting recruitment. Whilst everyone agrees that major changes are on the way (AI: the coming upheaval in the labour market), nobody can agree on what those changes will actually look like, or when they will arrive.

Anyone who cares to look will find that the research remains as contradictory as ever:

• The “AI Job Apocalypse” Is a Complete Fantasy (= mass replacement simply isn’t happening);
• US Is Starting to See Heavy Job Losses in Roles Exposed to AI (= layoffs and hiring freezes are becoming increasingly significant).

This creates a great deal of confusion, and inevitably leads to sharply divergent views:

• AI agents aren’t replacing software engineering but expanding it far beyond code, researchers argue (= AI won’t replace developers);
• CEOs and Boards Are Aligned on AI in Theory, but Divided in Practice (= shareholders want to push ahead with AI while executives remain more cautious).

At this point, it seems clear that a truth nobody wants to say or hear is beginning to surface. We simply do not know.

We Don’t Know Where We’re Going, But We’re Going There AnywayAs I mentioned earlier, the pace of innovation is so high that it is practically impossible to predict more than two years ahead, let alone anticipate how the market will evolve over six months.

What is certain, though, is that as models and tools are making headway, AI systems are accumulating ever greater knowledge and capabilities, reaching into areas nobody would have thought possible six months ago (Anthropic expands legal AI offerings with new Claude Cowork plugins).

Faced with this relentless race, how should you prepare for the wave of generative and agentic AI? Quite simply by avoiding direct competition. It is fairly obvious that there is no point trying to match AI on its own terms, in areas like raw computation or rote.

Stating that white-collar workers genuinely need to differentiate themselves from AI, and that doing so means drawing on skills and forms of intelligence that machines cannot master is merely spelling the obvious.

As a reminder, there are many forms of intelligence, eleven types to be precise, as defined by the Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

AI and employability: the theory of multiple intelligence isn’t anything new for our Visionary Marketing readersWhilst AI excels across several forms of intelligence (linguistic, logico-mathematical, musical, spatial), humans retain the advantage in those more abstract forms that machines struggle to replicate, namely interpersonal, intrapersonal, and existential intelligence. Those are the forms worth cultivating. Memorisation and basic logic? The basics are quite sufficient.

AI, Non-player characters and EmployabilityWhich brings us to this. If you have no curiosity and no drive to develop new skills, you are an NPC (non-player character), one of those video game figures with whom basic interactions are possible but who, broadly speaking, serve no purpose beyond filling space.

You are most certainly familiar with The Sims, the Electronic Arts video game series presented as a life simulation.

A humorous, offbeat take on consumer society, in which there is no specific objective. The player simply manages the needs of their characters, known as “Sims”, and steers them towards the life they want them to lead.

The Sims and NPCsIn the game, the Sims are the non-player characters who go about their daily lives without ever questioning anything, in a state of total blissful indifference. If they are not living the life they want, they express their dissatisfaction with a little black cloud above their heads, but they will never rebel, because they have no real say in their own fate.

I know this will not win me many friends, but I sometimes feel as though I am living inside The Sims. Whether in the companies where I carry out consulting work, or in the Master’s seminars I have been teaching for years at various institutions, I am broadly confronted with an army of Sims, NPCs who ask very few questions, and who expect their employer, their school, or their government to look after them and find solutions to improve their daily lives (training, redeployment, subsidies, financial support, and so on).

Do not misunderstand me. All these passive employees, students, and citizens were not born that way. They became that way through spending their time on social media, watching other people live rather than living themselves, moaning about not owning this or that status symbol rather than working hard to afford it.

Social media nonsenseSocial networks were supposed to bring us closer together, but twenty years on, the inescapable conclusion is that social media has gradually eroded the motivation and ambitions of billions of users, keeping them in a state of passivity and dependency. It is the content feed that tells them what to buy, what to eat, what to watch or listen to, where to go on holiday, who to vote for.

The purest expression of this social-media lobotomy can be found in the trends and memes that flood our feeds and supply micro-doses of dopamine to billions of users now addicted to their phones (Forget the A.I. Apocalypse, Memes Have Already Nuked Our Culture).

Apathy vs A Critical Moment in Human HistoryI know, the assessment is harsh and the criticism blunt. But I believe it is both justified and necessary. The apathy produced by excessive social media use, and TikTok in particular, is incompatible with the critical moment humanity is now going through (permanent crisis, resource scarcity, geopolitical tensions). Simply put, daydreaming shouldn’t be on the agenda.

At a time when young people should be throwing themselves into the challenges of the 21st century and working twice as hard to protect their employability in the age of AI, they are instead being distracted by Clavicular hammering himself in the face to look more masculine (Handsome at Any Cost).

This new idol of youth has hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and tens of millions of views on Kick, the live streaming platform on which we witnessed the death of Jean Pormanove last summer (Can’t get a girlfriend? Smash your face with a hammer).

Since I am no sociologist, I will refrain from analysising looksmaxing or the manosphere. But I do have a front-row seat for the growing gap between those whose willpower and ambition are being sapped by influencer antics on TikTok and those who are fighting to take control of their futures. That gap is all the more worrying given that young people’s employability is plummeting as AI performance rises.

There is a growing gap between those whose willpower and ambition are being sapped by influencer antics on TikTok and those who are fighting to take control of their futures. It is all the more worrying given that young people’s employability is plummeting as AI performance rises.

This battle against brainrot isn’t lostContrary to what doomers would have you believe, this is not a lost cause. And despite what populists may promise, universal basic income or taxing the rich is not a viable response to the rise of AI.

Humanity will be saved when individuals have honed their ability to adapt and meet new challenges. But that requires a basic minimum of willpower and, above all, genuine engagement in an increasingly competitive professional environment.

Engagement Over SkillsSome argue that studying is no longer necessary, since AI will soon provide all the knowledge and skills anyone could need. I do not subscribe to this view, as it rests on a deeply reductive understanding of what education is for.

Education should not be seen merely as a phase of knowledge acquisition (that knowledge will be obsolete within a few years anyway), but rather as a transitional period that allows young people to better understand how society and the professional world actually work, with all their rituals, pretences, and dysfunctions.

Preparing for the future with EducationEducation offers a chance to prepare for the future by observing and understanding both the explicit and implicit rules of the game. It also fosters learning how to learn, developing autonomy and resilience. Admittedly, student life can be challenging, especially with the intensive workload and high expectations, particularly for those on work-study programmes. However, it remains the only true path to cultivating the discipline needed for employability, especially in today’s context of rising agentic AI.

AI agents will outperform average employees for repetitive tasksFor repetitive and predictable tasks, which dominate most office jobs, AI agents will consistently outperform the average employee. This is particularly true in Europe where labour costs are high. We’re gradually moving towards a future where disengaged employees – those who don’t ask questions, seek improvements or challenge the status quo – will be replaced by AI agents overseen by a small team of dedicated and motivated staff. For example, in two Amazon units “builder” has replaced traditional job titles.

This reading suggests no sudden wave of job destruction but rather a gradual shift in business operations. AI will reshape more jobs than it replaces. Unfortunately, this reconfiguration will leave little room for “average” employees like the NPCs described. In this context, what truly matters isn’t your current knowledge or skills (which are quickly devalued) but your motivation drive for improvement and commitment to learning new things. You needn’t worry too much about raw capability (task performance) as AI agents will handle that.

Ultimately, this all comes back to a motivation problem, one that affects young people above all. Meet “Idle Generation”, a generation corrupted by the distorting mirror of social media.

No Motivation Means No EngagementIf we accept that motivation depends on time and energy, it becomes immediately clear that social media is a motivation killer, draining both of these precious resources. That is why I am convinced that the main obstacle to young graduates finding work is not AI, but TikTok!

I am convinced that the main obstacle to young graduates finding work is not AI, but TikTok!

That said, I am not exactly going out on a limb here, since many have sounded the alarm before me, and the statistics consistently point in the same direction:

• Teens’ Experiences on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat
• Why teens with ADHD are so vulnerable to the perils of social media
• Online platform audience observatory (France’s Regulatory Body Arcom) [mostly in French]

In the UK, France and Germany, social media reaches over 79% of the total population on a monthly basis, with penetration rates of 81%, 79% and 79% respectively (source: DataReportal / We Are Social, April 2026). However, one factor complicates the picture. “Filling spare time” is the second most cited motivation for using social media, for nearly 40% of users globally, according to GWI data published by DataReportal. This is the antithesis of joyful browsing. It involves doomscrolling social media feeds and compulsively filling an attentional void with an endless stream of content.

Dominant platforms have prioritised entertainment over the other four key criteria: staying in touch, catching up on news, sharing passions and following friends. This shift is driven by the ease of monetisation, a cleaner product proposition and simpler optimisation. Essentially, social platforms have become overly focused on content and less on nurturing the weak ties that truly motivate people. Content comes before connection and entertainment before relationship.

Excessive social media use especially TikTok negatively impacts young people’s mental health, already vulnerable. Furthermore it severely hampers their employability by shortening attention spans and reducing concentration.

The steady decline of published content, particularly on social media, has further fuelled this phenomenon. The rise of short-form video and micro-clips has led to your feed being overrun with clips, all thanks to the cutthroat community of “clippers” behind them. The resurrection of Vine, backed by Jack Dorsey, is unlikely to improve matters.

You might think I am overdoing it, but sociologists and linguists are unequivocal. The rise of social media and the proliferation of visual content have led to a decline in interpersonal communication: We’re All Talking to Each Other Less Than We Did a Decade Ago. Believe it or not, the volume of words exchanged with other human beings has fallen by 28% in less than fifteen years.

Have we hit rock bottom? I would like to think so.

AI and Employability: Less Time on TikTok Is Still Too Much TimeYou might take comfort in pointing to the slowdown in social media growth: Have we passed peak social media?

AI and employability: Cavazza argues TikTok is a young graduate’s worst enemy. However, there’s hope on the horizon as time spent on social media decreases. A Decline in Meta’s Global AudienceAll the more so since, for the first time in its history, Meta is reporting a decline in its global audience: Meta stock drops on quarterly results as ‘internet disruptions’ in Iran drag down user numbers.

On top of that, some studies suggest that younger users are turning away from social media (Gen Z leads drive away from social media) and even from their smartphones altogether, with a resurgence of interest in dumb phones (Dumb phones are making a comeback). It’s certainly a heartening narrative, but it feels more like a passing fad than a genuine shift. The trend of reissuing the Nokia 3310 is fashionable, but it doesn’t indicate a widespread change. A simple walk outside or a glance at office, school and university environments confirms that young people are still as fixated on their phones as ever.

The problem is that the “young people” we’re talking about are legally adults and therefore fully entitled to squander their futures by wasting time on TikTok while blaming AI. It’s a perfect red herring.

AI and employability: an anti AI demonstration in San Francisco (March 2026)That’s precisely why solutions are so difficult to enforce; you can’t simply force them down people’s throats.

Defending Youth Employability, and Much More!In Europe, where most of us live in democracies, public opinion theoretically holds sway over legislators. This could result in pressure to ban social media for younger users or prevent companies from conducting layoffs, as is currently the case in China. For instance, a Chinese court has even banned companies from firing workers solely due to AI replacement.

Let me remind you, though, that social media age restrictions for minors have been stalled for months (European Parliament backs 16+ age rule for social media), whilst it took nearly five years to crack down on the nitrous oxide craze despite numerous deaths: French Senate bans the sale of nitrous oxide to the public [Fr]. How long do you think the European Parliament will need to meaningfully legislate on AI? Five or ten years? By then it’ll be too late as Big Tech will have developed superintelligence. Here’s why Google DeepMind’s CEO believes the singularity is closer than ever.

AI and employability: Things are moving fast in the AI world, even though scientists are still debating about the existence of AGI and ASI. AI Innovation: Beyond ControlThe rapid pace of AI innovation far exceeds the capacity of businesses and institutions such as educational establishments and governments to develop enforceable and sustainable solutions.

I firmly believe the solution to the declining employability of young graduates lies in personal responsibility rather than collective action. It’s up to each of us to seize control of our futures. To thrive in a world dominated by AI agents, we must cultivate our own “agency”. This involves developing our capacity for action (autonomy) and learning (as discussed in In Defence of Thinking). Furthermore, motivation and discipline are essential for justifying employment and salary, and these qualities cannot be found in mindless scrolling through TikTok.

The article’s main premise is employability and its underlying reasons are lack of motivation and discipline, disengagement, all stemming from smartphone and TikTok addiction. My sole ambition was to raise awareness about this. Despite numerous warnings, the problem persists because no one can halt or even slow AI’s progress. Its impact will transcend technology and economics becoming fundamentally social and potentially even civilisational.

Should we pray for improvements like reduced social media use and the control of AI? I’m sceptical but my opinion doesn’t matter much. Perhaps you should refer to Pope Leo XIV’s first AI encyclical with Anthropic’s co-founder as a guest speaker.

Q&A about AI and EmployabilityWhy consider TikTok a bigger obstacle to employment than AI itself?

Motivation hinges on two crucial resources: time and energy. Social media and especially TikTok consume these in enormous amounts. Consequently, smartphone and TikTok addiction shortens young people’s attention spans and concentration, directly impacting their employability in a job market undergoing a seismic shift due to AI.

Will AI cause a sudden and massive wave of job destruction?

I don’t believe that’s the case. More likely, businesses will undergo a gradual reconfiguration of their operations. Predictable and repetitive tasks will be delegated to AI agents, overseen by a small team of dedicated employees. Those with low engagement will be the first to face uncertainty.

Which skills should young people focus on to protect their employability?

Competing with AI in terms of processing power or memorisation is futile since those battles are already lost. Instead, the focus should be on developing forms of intelligence that are more difficult to automate like interpersonal, intrapersonal and existential intelligence. Additionally, qualities such as motivation curiosity and a commitment to learning and developing new skills are important.

What does the concept of an “NPC” mean in a workplace or educational context?

The term originates from video games and non-player characters. In this article, it describes passive employees or students who don’t ask questions and simply wait for their employer school or the state to provide solutions. These are the very profiles AI agents will first replace.

In this situation, can we expect a response from the public authorities?

I don’t think so. Institutions and legislators operate on a timescale incompatible with the rapid pace of AI innovation, which constantly reshapes the market every six months. Therefore, the solution lies primarily in personal development, cultivating your own “agency” – your capacity to act learn and think independently.

The post Will AI or TikTok Threaten Young Grads’ Employability? appeared first on Marketing and Innovation.

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After years spent on producing creative content the hard way, here comes the AI Creative Studio, to boost innovation and creativity. Some creatives and marketers are impressed, some not. So, what will it come to eventually? Visionary Marketing attended a conference on the subject at Vivatech 2026 in Paris and here is our analysis.

The AI Creative Studio Comes of Age at VivaTech 2026… With a Few ProvisosThe AI Creative Studio presentation and conference at Vivatech 2026: My camera wasn’t big enough to render the huge crowd populating the aisles of that venue VivaTech celebrated its tenth anniversary this June at the Porte de Versailles in Paris, and the contrast with the first edition is striking. What began in 2016 as a 45,000-person gathering has become Europe’s largest technology event, drawing more than 180,000 visitors from over 170 countries. I covered it for Orange Business years back; what it is today bears no resemblance to what it was then.

High Tech: not so toxic after allDespite the prevailing narrative in parts of the media that high tech has become toxic, a mixture of political backlash and cultural scepticism, the crowd at Porte de Versailles tells a different story. VivaTech is B2B, it is massive, and for those who still assume B2B is small and B2C is big, the sheer number of startups alone, 15,000 this year, is sufficient proof to the contrary. Among the sessions I attended, one in particular captured something I have been watching take shape for months: the emergence of a new kind of AI creative studio, no longer a side experiment but a structured industrial bet on the future of content.

TL;DR – Key takeaways from this article* VivaTech 2026 drew 180,000+ visitors: the anti-tech backlash narrative does not hold * Webedia-Elephant launched “Human After All”, a physical AI creative studio in Levallois, backed by Google, Luma AI and ElevenLabs * The demos were impressive; the production pipelines behind them were not shown * OpenAI Sora collapsed under $15M/day compute costs: the market has already weeded out the weakest players * AI accelerates in the direction you were already heading; it does not change direction * The digital divide is real: professional AI voice and video tools cost $22–$99/month per platform * Three questions remain open: ethics and rights, access equity, and the gap between demo and production A partnership, a studio and a name that says it allThe session was organised by Webedia-Elephant, a French media, technology and entertainment company reaching 380 million people monthly across social platforms, media brands and creator ecosystems, operating across 15 countries through more than 60 brands since its founding. At the end of May 2026, Webedia-Elephant announced a major expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud and YouTube, structured around three pillars: data modernisation via BigQuery, agentic AI deployment for employee productivity, and the launch of a physical AI creative studio called “Human After All.” The name is deliberate. As Pauline Butor, Director of Creative and Development at Webedia-Elephant, explained on stage, what audiences want most right now is authenticity, which is by nature human. The technology without a vision behind it is just noise. That is the founding conviction of the whole initiative, and it is hard to argue with.

Webedia’s Payan introduces the subject of the AI Creative StudioI find the name entirely coherent with the stated ambition. The real question I walked away with is a different one: is this a genuine creative proposition, or is Webedia placing itself as an intermediary between the technology and the people who need it, effectively re-intermediating something that was in the process of being disintermediated? The need for a bridging role is real. The knowledge gap is real. But so is the risk that, as marketers gain fluency with these tools, they will eventually bypass the agency layer altogether.

Three pillars and a select cohort of fifteenHuman After All is built on three elements. The first is a curated suite of generative AI and agentic tools selected for creative professionals. The second is a physical studio space in Levallois, north-west of Paris. The third is the Creator Program, a three-month acceleration and experimentation framework for a select cohort of fifteen participants, drawn from content creators, producers, brands and Webedia’s own internal teams. The programme mixes workshops with office hours, one-to-one conversations for creators working on specific projects, and is designed not just to teach a specific tool but to help participants master innovation in a way that is relevant to each individual.

The technology partners assembled for this initiative are not minor players. Matthieu Blanc, AI Specialist at Google Cloud, described how Google’s contribution extends beyond tooling: alongside the Gemini Enterprise deployment, Google Cloud will run a dedicated acculturation programme across all Webedia-Elephant functions. Jason Day, Head of EMEA at Luma AI, brought Dream Machine to the table. Launched in February 2026, the platform is built on Ray 3, Luma’s third-generation reasoning video model, which introduced native HDR generation, physically accurate rendering and video-to-video capability that places actors in entirely new environments without a green screen. Lenaig Guilleux, GTM Director France at ElevenLabs, completed the audio layer: ElevenLabs covers the full spectrum, from text-to-speech and speech-to-speech to voice dubbing that preserves vocal identity, custom music and sound effects generation, and full-stack agentic solutions capable of automating real-time voice interactions.

What the demos actually showedThe live demonstrations were genuinely striking. The Luma AI sequence showed two Webedia-Elephant colleagues, shot in a Parisian café two weeks earlier, transported into a completely different visual context: changed costumes, changed setting, changed props. The coffee cup on the table became a whiskey glass, all without a green screen, in a workflow assembled roughly thirty minutes before going on stage. The ElevenLabs demo showed Lenaig Guilleux’s own voice translated into another language while retaining her accent and intonation. Guillaume Payan, Head of AI Transformation at Webedia-Elephant, drew out what this means for a group operating in France, Brazil, Mexico, Germany and Spain: an entirely new production horizon for creators who do not work in English.

The full production pipeline conundrum That said, nobody showed the full production pipeline. Nobody explained how long the café sequence took to assemble from raw footage to final output, or how many iterations were needed. This is a recurring pattern in AI creative demonstrations, and it matters. The precedent that comes to mind is Joanna Stern and Jarrard Cole’s all-AI short film for the Wall Street Journal, which assembled roughly 1,000 AI-generated clips across multiple tools and a considerable amount of trial and error to produce a three-minute piece. The final product looked seamless. The process behind it was anything but. The gap between what an AI creative studio demo reveals and what the production reality requires is, for now, significant.

The panelists of the AI Creative Studio conference at Vivatech 2026 on June 17. It is also worth noting that the market itself has not been kind to every entrant. OpenAI’s Sora, the text-to-video model that dominated headlines through 2024 and 2025, was shut down in March 2026 after burning through an estimated $15 million per day in compute costs against $2.1 million in total lifetime revenue. A potential $1 billion partnership with Disney never reached a formal agreement. The survivors, Runway, Luma AI, Kling and Google Veo, are those that built sustainable unit economics around genuinely useful workflows, not spectacle. The category has matured fast and weeded out faster.

An enabler, yes. But of what, exactly?The panel’s consensus converged on a single position: AI is an enabler, not a replacement. Every speaker reinforced it. Pauline Butor described the technology as having changed the time to test and the time to market completely. This is allowing creatives to validate ideas immediately. Jason Day argued that anyone, a creative director, a film director, a student, now has access to tools that can take the seed of an idea somewhere real. Matthieu Blanc pointed to entirely new mediums and new forms of content as the horizon he finds most exciting.

Replay of the AI Creative Studio eventThe video capture of the conference on the topic of the AI Creative Studio at Vivatech 2026 on their Dailymotion ChannelI agree with this reading, and I have seen it bear out in practice. Creative people with AI become more creative. People with good taste produce more and better work. The corollary, which nobody on stage mentioned, is equally true: people with bad taste produce more and worse work, and those who are not curious will not become more curious through AI. The technology is an accelerator, but it accelerates in the direction you were already moving.

Where I am less convinced is on the question of value distribution. The analogy I keep returning to is digital photography. When affordable digital cameras arrived, they were genuinely democratising: more people could take photographs, and some were extraordinary. But the economics of photography were permanently altered. The street photographers, the mid-tier studio professionals, the specialists who were not the likes of Martin Parr exited the market. A handful of analogue practitioners still command significant prices for their prints, but they are few. The broad middle tier contracted severely. Something similar seems likely in content creation. There will always be room for exceptional creative talent. The question is what happens to everyone else.

The cost of access and the digital divideThis is not an abstract concern. The tools being discussed at VivaTech carry real price tags. ElevenLabs’ Creator plan, the first tier that unlocks professional voice cloning, costs $22 per month; the Pro plan, needed for serious production volume, runs to $99 per month. Luma Dream Machine is structured at $30 per month for the Plus tier and $90 per month for Pro. These are not prohibitive sums for a professional working in a funded agency. For an independent creator in a market without the same infrastructure, or for a student testing ideas, they add up quickly. Particularly when you need multiple tools running in parallel. The gap may narrow over the next few years. But right now it is real, and it cuts against the narrative of universal democratisation.

This points to a broader tension in Webedia’s proposition. The company positions itself as the entity that curates the tools, trains the cohort and manages the relationship between technology and creators. This is a coherent agency model. It is also, potentially, a transitional one. The more accessible and intuitive these tools become, the more practitioners will interact with them directly. Webedia’s answer, for now, is to accelerate adoption and position itself as the trusted partner for that transition. It is a reasonable bet. Whether it holds over the next five years is another matter entirely.

Three questions still openVivaTech runs for four days. This session lasted thirty minutes. It raised, for me, three questions that were not addressed on stage.

The first concerns the ethical and legal structure. Pauline Butor mentioned it explicitly: Webedia wants innovation that does not come at the expense of talent and artists. The details, however, remain unresolved. How will performers and creators be compensated when their voice, likeness or creative style is used in AI-generated content? The models being demonstrated have been trained on vast quantities of human creative output. The questions of attribution and remuneration are live and genuinely contested.

The second is the digital divide question sketched above. The Creator Program’s cohort of fifteen is, by design, select. Who is not in the room matters as much as who is.

The third is the one I keep returning to from my own experience covering this space. We are, to put it plainly, still in something like the Middle Ages of online content creation with AI. The tools are impressive, the underlying capabilities are advancing rapidly, and the demonstrations at VivaTech were genuinely interesting for anyone curious about new ways of combining traditional creative skills with new ones. But the workflows are still labour-intensive, the outputs require skilled editing and critical judgement, and the gap between a compelling demo and a production-ready pipeline is wider than it appears. This is not a reason for scepticism. It is a reason for precision.

About the speakersMatthieu Blanc | AI Specialist, Google Cloud

Matthieu Blanc works at the intersection of technology partnerships and creative industries at Google Cloud. At VivaTech 2026, he represented Google’s contribution to the Human After All initiative, covering the BigQuery data modernisation stack, the Gemini Enterprise agentic deployment, and Google’s multimodal models embedded in the studio programme.

Pauline Butor | Director of Creative and Development, Webedia-Elephant

Pauline Butor leads the Human After All AI Creative Studio and the associated Creator Program at Webedia-Elephant, overseeing the curation of generative AI tools and the design of the three-month acceleration framework for creators, producers and brands.

Jason Day | Head of EMEA, Luma AI

Jason Day leads EMEA at Luma AI, the research lab behind the Dream Machine platform and the Ray 3 video model family. Ray 3, released in late 2025 and updated in early 2026 with the Ray3.14 build, introduced reasoning-driven generation, a native HDR pipeline and the video-to-video capability demonstrated on stage. Luma AI raised a $900 million Series C in November 2025 at a $4 billion valuation.

Lenaig Guilleux | GTM Director France, ElevenLabs

Lenaig Guilleux leads go-to-market for ElevenLabs in France. ElevenLabs is a research company dedicated to AI audio, covering text-to-speech, speech-to-speech, voice dubbing with preserved vocal identity, music and sound effects generation, and full-stack agentic voice solutions. Its Eleven v3 model, released in late 2025, supports over 70 languages with advanced emotional nuance and intonation control.

Guillaume Payan | Head of AI Transformation, Webedia-Elephant

Guillaume Payan leads AI strategy across Webedia-Elephant’s 15-country, 60-brand footprint. He moderated the VivaTech 2026 roundtable and oversees the strategic partnership with Google Cloud and YouTube announced in May 2026.

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Agentic e-commerce is already reshaping how consumers discover and buy products online, yet it still accounts for barely 0.2% of total e-commerce traffic. BASE France is the French arm of Base.com, a Polish-born SaaS scale-up that has spent nearly two decades building operational infrastructure for online retailers. Its CEO, Ben Hamilton, brings a practitioner’s perspective to this emerging model: measured, practical, and refreshingly free of the hype that surrounds most conversations on the topic.

Agentic E-Commerce: Could AI Become the Shopfront?Imagine an agentic e-commerce world where e-commerce happens on smartphone screens and robots deliver your purchases. We might be on the brink of this future. This image was created using Midjourney. Commerce as conversation: the oldest model in the bookBefore there were shops, there was conversation. For thousands of years, trade was oral. A buyer expressed a need, a seller responded with what they had, and the two parties negotiated until a deal was struck. The self-service retail store, born roughly a century ago, was a radical departure from this model. It replaced dialogue with browsing. It handed the customer a trolley and pointed them at the shelves.

E-commerce then took that self-service model and, as Ben Hamilton puts it, “multiplied it by about 100,000.” The online shopper today faces a near-infinite array of products across dozens of marketplaces, with no guide, no-one to talk to, and no memory of what they looked at three tabs ago. It is efficient in theory. In practice, it is exhausting.

Back to future?The agentic model, Hamilton argues, represents something of a return to origins. Instead of browsing, the consumer talks. An agent listens, asks questions, proposes options, and eventually surfaces an answer to a need that the buyer may not even have been able to articulate clearly at the outset. “back to the future,” Hamilton explains, “that’s what I’m getting at. The agentic model takes us back to something closer to how human beings have traded over thousands of years compared to the last ten, twenty or even a hundred.”

My own experience bears this out. I recently found a diagnostician for a property I am selling. As a matter of fact, I didn’t find them through a Google search, but through a conversation with an LLM. I clicked through two or three irrelevant links before landing on exactly the right provider. I then completed the transaction on their website. The research was agentic; the checkout was not. That distinction, as it happens, sits at the heart of what Hamilton believes will define the next phase of e-commerce.

Ben Hamilton on agentic e-commerce: “I can totally imagine a portion of that market occurring directly on an LLM”.Agentic E-commerce: Where checkout will and won’t happenOne of the more grounded contributions Hamilton makes to this debate is his refusal to conflate two distinct phenomena: AI influence over purchasing decisions, and AI completing the transaction itself. Much of the media discourse collapses the two. Hamilton does not.

“I don’t think we’re heading to a world where 20, 50 or 80% of online transactions happen on an LLM,” he says. “I would draw the distinction between where the checkout occurs and how much an agent is involved in the buying process.” For the foreseeable future, he believes, most consumers will continue to research via LLMs and transact on familiar websites and marketplaces. The inertia in human purchasing behaviour is simply too great for the checkout itself to migrate rapidly to a chat interface.

This view is supported by the data available. According to research by commercetools, 73% of consumers already use AI somewhere in their shopping journey. Yet only 36% are open to AI agents making purchases on their behalf. In the US, the figure for autonomous AI purchasing drops to 14%. The gap between AI as advisor and AI as buyer is vast, and it will narrow slowly.

The risks associated with agentic e-commerce are highThe risks of handing uncapped authority to an AI agent are no longer hypothetical. In late May 2026, an AI consultant reported to Axios that one of their enterprise clients had accidentally accumulated a $500 million bill on Anthropic’s Claude in a single month, simply by giving employees unrestricted access to the platform with no usage controls in place. Agentic workflows, which loop through tasks repeatedly, consume tokens at a rate orders of magnitude higher than a standard chat query. The bill was not the result of malicious use or a system failure. It was the predictable outcome of deploying autonomous agents without guardrails. The case is far from isolated: Uber reportedly exhausted its entire 2026 AI budget by April, with per-engineer costs running between $500 and $2,000 monthly. “You’ve got to be bold to give them no upper limit on transactions,” Hamilton observed, and the arithmetic proved him right.

[Editor’s note: I misquoted a similar anecdote about the Davos Summit during the interview. I’d heard or read this story in traditional media but couldn’t verify it with facts. I suspect it might have been fabricated. I replaced it with the above, duly sourced information.]

The check out must remain on the merchant’s platformOpenAI itself learned this lesson when it launched Instant Checkout in September 2025, which allowed purchases to complete directly inside ChatGPT. By March 2026, the feature had been shut down. Brands rejected the model, citing the loss of traffic, customer data, and loyalty flows. Shopify’s own position makes the point clearly. At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in March 2026, Finkelstein noted that barely a dozen Shopify merchants were live on agentic commerce at the time. On the Q1 2026 earnings call, he was unambiguous: “LLMs do not bypass Shopify’s checkout.” The checkout, the payment flow, and the post-purchase relationship remain squarely on the merchant’s platform.

A natural segmentationHamilton sees a natural segmentation emerging by category. Low-value, frequently purchased household items lend themselves to fully autonomous agentic purchasing. “I can totally imagine a portion of that market occurring direct on an LLM,” he says. “Hey, I’ve run out of toothpaste, can you order me some?” High-involvement purchases, and anything with significant financial or emotional stakes, will retain human control over the final step for a long time yet.

The death of keyword search, greatly exaggeratedThe brands Hamilton speaks with regularly are, understandably, worried. Most have spent the past two decades learning the rules of a game built around keyword search and performance marketing. That game has not ended, but the goalposts have shifted, and nobody is quite sure where they have moved to.

Brands are understandably worried. Most have spent the past two decades learning the rules of a game built around keyword search and performance marketing and the goalposts have shifted, and nobody is quite sure where they have moved to. Gabriel Magalhães didn’t even need this to miss in the 2026 UEFA Cup Final penalty shootout. This image was tweaked with ChatGPT. The scale of the agentic e-commerce shiftKey figures: the scale of the shift

• AI-driven sessions still represent below 0.2% of total e-commerce traffic, though they are the fastest-growing channel (Digital Commerce 360, 2025)
• GenAI referrals to US retail sites grew 693% year-on-year during the 2025 holiday season (Adobe Analytics)
• Gartner forecast that traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026 as AI chatbots captured search share (Gartner, 2024)
• By early 2026, ChatGPT reached approximately 17% of global search queries against Google’s 78%
• Over 60% of Google searches now end without a click, across multiple industry studies
• Retailers with AI agent integration grew 32% faster during Cyber Week 2025 than those without (Salesforce) Hamilton’s view on the fate of keyword search is careful rather than apocalyptic. Google will not lose its advertising revenues overnight. But the direction of travel is clear. Search queries will progressively migrate towards conversational interfaces, for the simple reason that we rarely know precisely what we want when we start looking. “We don’t necessarily know what we want 90% of the time,” he observes. “It takes a bit of a conversation to elicit exactly what we’re looking for.” Keyword search was always a crude proxy for intent. LLMs are, at least in principle, better placed to decode it.

Agentic e-commerce by the numbersAgentic e-commerce by the numbers. Infographic made with GeminiThe question for brands is what to do about this. Hamilton’s prescription is structural rather than cosmetic. Brands need to become machine-readable, which means structured data connected to the right protocols, not just well-written product descriptions. Three open standards now define how AI agents interact with merchants: MCP (Model Context Protocol, originally developed by Anthropic and donated to the Linux Foundation in December 2025), ACP (OpenAI and Stripe, September 2025), and UCP (Google and Shopify, announced at NRF in January 2026). Shopify activated a default MCP endpoint for all its stores in Summer 2025. These are not optional extras. They are the new plumbing.

MCP, ACP or UCP and the agentic acronym soupI raised with Hamilton the practical reality for most merchants, who have no idea what MCP, ACP, or UCP even stand for. His response was reassuring on one level, and sobering on another. Platforms like BASE are absorbing this complexity on behalf of their clients. A small or mid-sized retailer does not need to recruit data scientists or build protocol integrations in-house. They can, if they choose; the new generation of coding tools makes that more feasible than ever. But they can equally rely on an operational platform that handles those connections for them.

The sobering part comes when Hamilton acknowledges a concern he is genuinely uncertain about. Even if the protocols function perfectly, will LLMs be able to surface smaller independent brands alongside the big players with their vast content libraries and tens of thousands of referring domains? Research from Airops suggests that brands are 6.5 times more likely to be cited in AI answers through third-party sources than through their own domains. According to SE Ranking’s analysis of 129,000 domains, sites with more than 32,000 referring domains are 3.5 times more likely to be cited by ChatGPT than lower-authority counterparts. Scale, in other words, confers an advantage in AI visibility just as it did in paid search. The field may level in some ways; in others, it may simply tilt differently.

Operational excellence as the new marketing in this agentic e-commerce worldWhat AI agents actually evaluate

• Unlike Google’s search algorithm, which can be influenced by ad spend, AI agents query real-time signals: live stock levels, shipping terms, return policies, and customer review aggregates.
• Structured data across these dimensions is now considered standard for AI visibility by the major platforms.
• Retailers with AI agent integration achieved roughly 7x better sales growth during Cyber Week 2025 than those without (Salesforce). Perhaps Hamilton’s most interesting claim, and the one most counterintuitive to marketers, is that operational excellence is becoming a direct marketing lever. An AI agent evaluating a recommendation does not care how much a brand has spent on Amazon retail media. It will scrape ten thousand reviews in half a second and draw its own conclusions about delivery reliability, return handling, and product quality. No media budget can substitute for that data trail.

“I think we’re heading to a world where operational excellence will count for more in the decision process,” Hamilton says, “and will be less easily brushed behind the curtains with a bit of ad spend.” This is, in theory, good news for consumers and for competent smaller operators who have always delivered well but lacked the budget to outrank wealthier rivals in paid search. Whether it will materialise in practice depends on whether LLMs can actually surface those operators when large brands flood the information environment with well-structured, high-quality content.

BASE France sits at exactly this intersection. The platform manages what it describes as the “spinal column” of an e-commerce operation: product catalogue management, order handling, marketplace feeds, stock synchronisation, and shipping. These are also, precisely, the data layers that AI agents query in real time when assembling recommendations. BASE connects to more than 1,700 integrations globally and serves some 30,000 merchants across more than 180 countries. In France, launched in early 2026 and operating from Bordeaux, the platform already counts 150 clients including Kiabi, Back Market, and Spartoo, with connections to around 250 marketplaces and partners.

The platform’s value proposition in an agentic world, as Hamilton frames it, is straightforward: merchants who want to be visible to AI agents need to expose the right data through the right protocols. BASE does that for them, whether or not a checkout ever happens inside an LLM.

The forecasts, the hype, and the rising tideMcKinsey estimates that agentic commerce could redirect between three and five trillion dollars in global retail spend by 2030, with up to one trillion of that in the US alone. Bain puts the US figure at 300 to 500 billion dollars, representing 15% to 25% of total US e-commerce sales. These numbers attract attention and, inevitably, scepticism.

Hamilton’s response is precise. He notes that global retail in 2030 will likely be somewhere around 50 trillion dollars. On that basis, the McKinsey and Bain figures imply that agentic commerce will account for somewhere between one and ten percent of total retail within four years. That is plausible, he suggests, if the definition of “agentic” is broad enough to include any transaction where an AI agent played a role somewhere in the funnel, from discovery to decision, not just cases where the checkout itself occurred on an LLM. Physical retail is not exempt either: a consumer standing in a supermarket aisle, consulting Gemini on their phone about which of two products is better, is already part of this story.

The honest summary is that we are watching a slow revolution rather than a tidal wave. “Maybe a year or two ago, some people made it sound imminent,” Hamilton reflects. “When it comes to retail, there’s still quite a lot of human behaviour inertia in the system. Things aren’t going to change drastically in the next twelve or twenty-four months. But over ten or fifteen years, it’s pretty difficult to imagine consumer behaviour and the retail experience looking anything like what it looks like today.”

Three prioritiesFor merchants wondering what to do right now, Hamilton’s three priorities are:

1. become machine-readable through structured data and protocol connections,
2. maintain high-quality content that reflects genuine expertise,
3. and resist the temptation to flood the market with AI-generated copy.

On that last point, he is candid. “Humans are starting to get pretty good at telling what is AI-generated and what isn’t. When you read things now, you almost have a sixth sense for ‘I think a machine wrote that.'” Good news, as I told him, for those of us who write for a living.

Three things merchants should do to score high in agentic e-commerce according to BASE.com’s Ben Hamilton.
Infographic made with Gemini and Adobe PhotoshopThe winners: a scenario Hamilton wants to believeI asked Hamilton, as a final question, who he thought would win in this new landscape. Big retailers with scale advantages? Platform giants? Or the long tail of independent merchants who have always competed on product and service rather than budget?

His answer was honest about the limits of his own conviction. He described the scenario he wants rather than the one he necessarily expects. In that scenario, agentic commerce levels the playing field by reducing the influence of performance marketing budgets and increasing the weight of genuine operational quality.

“I like to believe that those who have superior products and superior service will get more and more traffic,” he said. Whether the reality will be so equitable depends on whether AI recommendation systems can overcome their own structural biases towards scale and data volume.

I was reminded, hearing this, of an IBM advertisement from the 1990s that showed an Italian woman selling her homemade spaghetti sauce to the world via the internet. The vision was real. The timeline was not. It took twenty years for that kind of global reach to become genuinely accessible to small producers. The analogy is imperfect but instructive. Agentic commerce will likely democratise access to markets over time. That time will be measured in years, not months.

Ben Hamilton and Base.com

Ben Hamilton is CEO of BASE France, the French arm of Base.com, a Polish-born e-commerce SaaS scale-up founded in 2006. With nearly two decades of expertise and a presence in more than 20 countries, Base serves approximately 30,000 merchants worldwide and generated €50 million in revenue in 2024. BASE France was officially launched in early 2026, operating from Bordeaux with a team of 20. The platform covers order management, stock synchronisation, shipping, marketplace feeds, and AI-ready product enrichment. Ben Hamilton is a regular speaker on the strategic implications of AI for e-commerce visibility and discovery.

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Hervé Kabla, with whom I co-authored several books, has just published a book on cybersecurity for SMEs. The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook tackles a subject that many small business leaders still prefer to ignore. Not out of bad faith, but out of a stubborn conviction: that they are too small to be of interest to anyone. That conviction is precisely what makes them such attractive targets. I invited Hervé to talk about the book on camera at the Visionary Marketing studio.

SME Cybersecurity: The Ominous Threat They’d All Rather IgnoreThe SME: the Ideal Target for Cyber AttacksThe book opens with an observation that might seem blunt — were the reality not even harsher than the words.

“They have become, in just a few years, the preferred target of cybercriminals, precisely because they are fast, trusted, and often under protected.”

The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook, p. 9

The transcript of Hervé’s talk confirms the diagnosis with equal candour: SMEs invest neither the technical means nor the awareness efforts required, and cyber attackers “know this only too well.”

What has changed is the nature of the attack itself. For a long time, cybercrime relied on manual targeting and deliberate intent. Today, attackers run automated sweeps of the internet on a massive scale, scanning for open vulnerabilities.

“In the digital age, opportunity replaces intent.”

The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook, p. 19

Nobody is singling you out. You are simply exposed, and that is enough.

Three Budget Lines, a Few Tens of Thousands of EurosSME cybersecurity is not rocket science — and yet… infographic produced with the Brand Graph generator by Olivier SauvageOne of the questions SME leaders ask most often is also the simplest: what does it cost? Hervé’s answer is precise. A cybersecurity budget for an SME amounts to “around a few tens of thousands of euros” and breaks down into three areas: technical solutions (software and hardware), an appropriate cyber insurance policy, and staff training and awareness. This trio is consistent with what the book develops at length: the technical vulnerability and the human vulnerability are two sides of the same problem, and you cannot fix one without addressing the other.

The book also puts a figure on the cost of unpreparedness.

“The average cost of a data breach for an SMB in 2024 hovers around $150,000 to $250,000 — often more than a full year of IT budget.”

The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook, p. 30

The arithmetic is unforgiving.

Cybersecurity: Who Is Concerned at SME Leadership Level?Hervé Kabla’s answer to this question leaves little room for ambiguity: everyone. The IT security manager, obviously. The CEO, because it is he or she who “must answer for the company’s reputation” before employees, clients and shareholders when the crisis hits. And the staff, because a single human lapse is all it takes to open the door.

“For small and midsize businesses, where roles overlap and processes are more informal, the human factor is not just one risk among others: it is the foundation on which all others rest.”

The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook, p. 61

CEO fraud — messages that mimic the style or voice of a senior executive to trigger an urgent wire transfer — is the most common illustration of this. It is not technology that gives way in those cases; it is psychology, weaponised.

AI Is Changing the Game, and Not in the Victims’ FavourOne chapter of the book addresses head-on the impact of artificial intelligence on the threat landscape. Generative tools now make it possible to write phishing emails without a single spelling mistake, to clone an executive’s voice from a brief audio sample, and to build fake login pages that reproduce the fonts and logos of the targeted company right down to the last pixel. The telltale signs that once allowed people to spot a fraud attempt — approximate English, a pixellated logo — have all but disappeared.

Hervé sums up the fundamental asymmetry of the situation with a line that applies across every sector.

“Attackers need to succeed once, defenders every time.”

The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook, p. 19

For an SME with a lean team and less formalised processes than a large corporation, that asymmetry is particularly hard to absorb.

Resilience Rather Than InvulnerabilityWhat Hervé’s book ultimately seeks to convey is not a catalogue of technical solutions. It is a change of posture. SME cybersecurity cannot rest on the assumption that incidents will be avoided; it must rest on the capacity to survive them and get back to business. Hervé borrows an analogy from aviation to illustrate the point.

“Think of an airplane. Every critical system — hydraulics, avionics, fuel pumps — has a twin. Nobody calls that waste; it’s the reason why we can fly safely. Don’t you think your company’s data deserves the same respect?”

The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook, p. 75

This resilience logic applies to communication as well. The book draws on several real cases, including that of a regional accounting firm whose client renewal rate dropped by 30% after a data leak, despite a responsible handling of the incident. Transparency has a cost, Hervé acknowledges, but silence costs more.

A Book for the Technical and the Non-Technical AlikeThe CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook is deliberately aimed at two audiences. Technical readers will find arguments to defend the security budget internally, against leaders who believe the threat does not concern them. Non-technical readers will discover that the question is not whether their company will be attacked, but in what shape it will be when the attack comes.

“Every small business has already been tested by cybercrime — it just may not know it yet.”

The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook, Leadership Takeaway #3

That conviction, in fact, runs through the entire book, stated in the transcript of Hervé’s talk with a clarity that leaves no room for interpretation: “Every company has been, and will be, hit by a cyberattack.” For SME leaders who still think this kind of book is written for someone else, that may well be the most useful sentence in it.

Buy the book on AmazonAbout Hervé Kabla

Hervé Kabla is a major European digital player. He led Be Angels, the agency he co-founded, for many years before taking on responsibilities across several media and digital communications organisations. A prolific blogger, speaker and lecturer, he was my co-author on Mastering Digital Marketing Like a Boss (Kawa, 2014) and several other titles in the Like a boss collection we co-founded together. The CEO’s Cybersecurity Playbook continues that tradition of rigorous, accessible writing for business leaders.

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If you ever needed a reason to attend Vivatech 2026, here it is: hard evidence that marketing and communications departments are being transformed from top to bottom. Can a marketing or communications director get anything useful out of a tech show? The answer is a resounding yes, and perhaps more so this year than ever before, as AI is reshaping the marketing function in fundamental ways. The CMO Summit was built for them, and AI will take centre stage.

AI and the forced reinvention of marketing departmentsThe transformation of marketing departments driven by AI is well under way, and Vivatech 2026 is the proof.If you are following the rapid, AI-driven overhaul of marketing leadership, here are a few sessions you cannot afford to miss at the Vivatech 2026 CMO Summit:

1. 6 months to become an AI-native CMO, or become irrelevant
2. The CMO on a hot seat: aligning strategy, business and leadership for impact
3. How CMO lead in an AI-first world?

These session titles from this year’s Vivatech CMO Summit give a good sense of what is at stake, with a palpable sense of urgency thrown in for good measure.

As AI accelerates, the marketing role is changing fast and fundamentally. The technology’s use cases no longer stop at creative optimisation or large-scale data analysis. They now touch every dimension of traditional marketing.

Half of all marketing tasks automated by AI within three years?To grasp the scale of the shift under way, the 2026 “Trends of AI” study published by Les EnthousIAstes and KPMG France offers a useful snapshot. Conducted among more than 350 senior executives, it maps AI adoption across the eight core functions of a business. On marketing specifically, respondents estimate that at least half of all marketing activities will be automated by AI within three years. As Quentin Briard, Chief Marketing, Digital, Data and Technology Officer at Club Med, puts it in the study: “AI represents a break of unprecedented scale.”

AI automation of business activity… Les EnthousIAstes and KPMG take a bolder view of the disruption than Forrester. Time will tell who is right.François-Xavier Leroux, Partner and Head of Business Consulting at KPMG France, and Benoit Girard, Marketing and AI Director at KPMG France, highlight that « content-oriented and digital roles appear to be the most vulnerable. Nearly half of respondents believe between 20 and 60% of tasks in these roles will be automated while 10% think it could be over 60%. »

Among the examples cited in the study, L’Oréal (with its internal L’OréalGPT platform for chat and AI agents), the RATP (the Paris public transport authority, with Tootie, its first AI-powered conversational tourist guide) and Verisure (a personalised recommendation engine across all customer touchpoints) begin to sketch out what is now within reach.

Cracking the AI scaling problem in marketingThe “Trends of AI” study also makes clear that, right now, very few French companies have successfully moved beyond pilot projects to full-scale AI deployment. This is precisely one of the central questions at Vivatech this year. Under the banner “Impact, Not Illusion,” the show sets out to demonstrate how AI can move from exploration to industrialisation, with a clear and measurable return on investment.

Almost every company surveyed by Les EnthousIAstes and KPMG France has launched something in AI, yet adoption remains largely confined to experimentation. In 78% of cases, organisations simply make tools available for staff to use as they see fit. And 55% of respondents admit to operating in proof-of-concept mode, with no plans to scale up at this stage. Only 18% say they have a clear roadmap, backed by a structured and monitored action plan aimed at full deployment.

180,000 visitors expected, including 10,000 marketing decision-makersWith an extensive conference programme spanning more than 450 speakers, Vivatech promises to address the full range of questions marketing leaders grapple with every day, and in doing so help them build their data and AI roadmap. The CMO Summit, the centrepiece of the marketing conversation, takes place on Friday morning in Hall 7.2. It will be opened by Maurice Lévy and will feature contributions from Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer of the L’Oréal Group, Bonnie Pelosi, CMO EMEA at Microsoft, Julie Touyarot, VP Growth and Marketing at Doctolib, and Rachel Thornton, Chief Marketing Officer at Adobe.

Of the 180,000 visitors targeted for this tenth edition of the Paris show, no fewer than 10,000 CMOs, marketing decision-makers and experts are expected. A dedicated space, the CMO Lounge, has been set aside for them. But as is so often the case, the most valuable conversations will happen informally, in the aisles. With upwards of 4,000 exhibitors and 15,000 startups spread across 70,000 sq m (20,000 sq m more than last year), marketing leaders will also have ample opportunity to identify solutions for their specific challenges. Whether to go is, frankly, not really a question.

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Alain Goudey is Associate Dean for Digital Innovation at Neoma Business School and co-author of a peer-reviewed study on GenAI in Higher Education. The survey focused on how students, faculty, and deans perceive the legitimacy of generative AI in French management education. His findings are both reassuring and unsettling.

GenAI in Higher Education, Legitimacy and Laziness, and the Exam That No Longer Makes SenseThe picture that emerges from a study on GenAI in Higher Education is less a battlefield than a hall of mirrors, where every stakeholder sees a different problem and reaches for a different solution. All illustrations in text made with Midjourney
When Alain Goudey and his colleagues began surveying French higher education in early 2024, they were not trying to settle the question of whether generative AI was good or bad. They were trying to understand something more precise: why the same tool could be simultaneously valued, feared, accepted, and denounced, sometimes by the same person in the same breath.

Their study sits at the heart of what makes GenAI in higher education such a contested terrain. The resulting study, published in the Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS), drew on surveys of 668 students, 204 faculty members, and 29 deans, completed by 22 in-depth interviews with early-adopter professors. The picture that emerges is less a battlefield than a hall of mirrors, where every stakeholder sees a different problem and reaches for a different solution.

The starting point is a number that should have settled the debate. Between 80 and 92 per cent of students, depending on the institution surveyed, are already using GenAI tools in their academic work. ChatGPT’s public release produced that figure within roughly 18 months. The tool did not wait for institutional permission. It deployed itself. And higher education is still, in many places, writing the policy.

The productivity trapAlain identifies the central tension plainly. Students value GenAI for speed, idea generation, and study support. They also fear, and their institutions fear with them, what the research calls “metacognitive laziness”: the gradual erosion of the cognitive effort that produces real learning. He believes this is not a contradiction to resolve but a course architecture challenge.

“The resolution of this problem lies in course design, where we need to deliberately reintroduce cognitive effort and reflection into GenAI as a tool, not as a replacement for human cognition.”

The issue, as he puts it, is not the technology but the posture the user brings to it. Someone who submits what he calls a “naive prompt” receives a naive answer, smoothly formatted and perfectly mediocre. The tool is capable of something far more useful, if the user brings enough domain knowledge and critical intent to the conversation.

“You have to nurture your own thinking process instead of delegating the whole process to the machine.”

This is, as I noted during our conversation, less a matter of prompt engineering than of basic intellectual discipline: the capacity to question the question before asking it, something philosophy departments have been teaching for centuries under less fashionable names.

GenAI in Higher Education: faculty should train students in GenAI tools and their limitations. They also teach Homer’s Odyssey and Shelley’s Frankenstein as part of the management curriculum. Image made with MidjourneyThat observation prompted Alain to make a point about AI literacy that differs from what is generally proffered. The debate is not simply about knowing how the tools work technically. It is, equally, about knowing enough about the subject matter to judge whether the output is any good. The observation that AI is most powerful in the hands of people who already know the business resonates here. GenAI does not replace expertise. It amplifies whatever expertise the user already brings.

Which raises an uncomfortable question for institutions producing graduates who may never have had the chance to develop that expertise in the first place.

At Neoma, the response has been deliberately dual. Faculty train students in GenAI tools and their limitations. They also teach Homer’s Odyssey and Shelley’s Frankenstein as part of the management curriculum. The goal is not cultural enrichment for its own sake. It is to give students mental models for envisioning what leadership looks like, or what happens when creation escapes the intentions of its creator.

Alain describes this as “building cognitive infrastructure”:

“We need students to be able to envision the world through different models, different kinds of processes and theoretical frameworks, in order to develop genuine critical thinking about what AI generates.”

A degree in management that skips that foundation produces graduates who can operate the tool but cannot judge its output.

Exams that assessed the wrong thingThe structural challenge shows up most sharply when it comes to assessments. A professor who can produce a two-hour exam in three minutes is facing students who can answer that exam in equally little time. The diagnostic value of the exercise has vanished.

“If ChatGPT or any GenAI tool can pass an exam, you need to redesign the exam.”

Alain’s prescription is not a retreat to pen and paper, though he acknowledges that supervised handwritten assessment is the simplest available defence.

The structural challenge shows up most sharply when it comes to assessments. A professor in Higher Education who can produce a two-hour exam in three minutes with GenAI is facing students who can answer that exam in equally little time. The diagnostic value of the exercise has vanished. Image made with MidjourneyHis more substantive response is a structural shift. He believes one should refrain from just assessing content acquisition at the end of a course, favouring the assessment of competencies as the course progresses. This implies more frequent, lower-stakes evaluations embedded in the process itself.

Live problem-solving, process-based assessment, and in-person oral examinations all preserve some of what the traditional exam was supposed to measure. The caveat he adds is honest: no format is fully immune. AI models are evolving too quickly for any single solution to remain adequate for any length of time. The appropriate response is not to find a permanent answer but to treat redesign as an ongoing practice.

The deeper implication, which runs through the paper’s conclusion, is that what higher education is actually selling may need to change. If content can be retrieved, synthesised, and presented at negligible cost by a tool available to anyone with a browser, the degree that certifies mastery of content is certifying something of diminishing value. What retains value are the competencies that AI cannot yet credibly replicate: contextual judgement, ethical reasoning, the ability to construct and test frameworks against reality.

This, in essence, is also how I tend to approach AI teaching, be it with engineering or business school students, especially within the framework of my course at Omnes Education (now in its fourth consecutive year).

GenAI in Higher Education: The Fragmented InstitutionHigher education’s institutional response to GenAI in higher education has been, to put it gently, uneven. Sciences Po banned ChatGPT in January 2023, then changed its mind. Thirty-five French public universities have partnered with Mistral AI. Institutions are drafting a national charter. Neoma, where Alain is Associate Dean for Digital Innovation, was among the first French business schools to formalise its approach, launching a programme to train faculty, staff, and students with a shared initial curriculum before moving to dedicated workshops on curriculum design, assessment, and the redesign of learning experiences.

What the research reveals is that this institutional activity is not solving a single problem. There are three different stakeholder groups each attempting to solve their own version of the problem under the same label.

Students want rules and AI literacy training. Faculty are developing their own teaching approaches through peer-led workshops. Deans are setting policy and negotiating sovereign infrastructure. The concerns escalate in a predictable direction: individual academic performance for students, assessment integrity for faculty, institutional reputation for deans. They are not always in conversation with each other.

Alain’s framework for addressing this fragmentation involves working simultaneously at three levels: infrastructure, course design, and governance. What he advocates for, and what he argues Neoma attempted, is to bring all three audiences into contact with the technology under a shared framing, early enough that no single group can entrench itself in a position that makes later coordination impossible.

The equity questionThe question of equity cuts across all three levels. Access to premium AI models is not free. When I raised the issue about the gap between basic and professional subscription tiers, Alain’s response was characteristic: the infrastructure problem is real but secondary.

“The biggest inequity is not about accessing the tool, but being able to use it in the right way.”

At Neoma, the institutional partnership with Mistral provides all students with access to a professional-grade tool. What the data shows, even with equal access, is a large gap between students who use GenAI to get the fastest possible answer and those who use it to deepen their thinking, and that gap is not closed by equalising subscriptions.

Even if I tend to agree with most of what Alain is stating, I do think that the rise of prices for premium models is predictable. This is due to the gap between investments and business returns. This will almost inevitably lead to an economic divide between the haves and the have-nots. Looking at Anthropic’s Claude pricing structure is indeed revealing in that sense. Beyond the Pro model, which is very limited in token usage, especially if you use the more sophisticated Opus 4.6 model, prices already amount to €1,200 per annum. That is not a negligible sum, which is especially worrying at a time when Claude is rapidly becoming the norm for users who care about quality.

What will be the impact of towering prices of GenAI on Higher Education? God only knows…The “AI heroes” problemOne of the most striking formulations to emerge from Alain’s research is what he calls the “AI hero” phenomenon. Across French higher education institutions, there are faculty members doing excellent, innovative instructional work with GenAI, designing new assessment formats, running workshops, rethinking entire modules around AI-augmented learning. They produce results. And they do it largely alone, without institutional recognition, without career incentives, and without any mechanism for sharing what they have learned.

The incentives are wrong. In higher education, research output is rewarded. Course design is not, or at least not in the same way. An “AI hero” who redesigns an entire programme around GenAI competencies may receive less professional recognition than a colleague who publishes a single journal article.

“We need to help all these AI heroes to gain more consideration for educational innovation, which is not necessarily by design the case within higher education.”

The risk, if this is not addressed, is a two-tier system: a minority of digitally confident faculty pulling their students forward, while the majority are left behind, neither trained nor incentivised to engage. The grassroots innovation is real and valuable. Without institutional structures to recognise, reward, and replicate it, it remains an exception rather than a model.

GenAI in Higher Education, Where legitimacy breaks downThe theoretical backbone of the study is Suchman’s triadic model of legitimacy, which distinguishes between pragmatic legitimacy (does the tool serve my interests?), moral legitimacy (does it align with values I hold?), and cognitive legitimacy (is it taken for granted as part of how things work?). The model was built for technologies adopted gradually. GenAI tested it under conditions of near-instantaneous mass adoption, which Alain and his co-authors treat not as a reason to discard the framework but as an opportunity to extend it, introducing a legitimacy-illegitimacy continuum rather than treating it as a simple either/or.

What students revealThe finding he describes as the most noticeable asymmetry in the dataset concerns the moral dimension among students. Students who are among the heaviest users of GenAI express no moral legitimacy for those tools in academic contexts. They associate them, at high frequency, with cheating, plagiarism, degree devaluation, and unfairness. They are using a tool they consider ethically compromised. This is plainly not sustainable.

However, Alain’s opinion diverges greatly.

“Using GenAI is not necessarily cheating. It depends entirely on how it is used and for what purpose.”

The institutional failure, in his view, is that institutions have not done enough to reframe how the technology is perceived by students.

What faculty revealFaculty present a more complete picture. All six dimensions of legitimacy and illegitimacy are present in their responses. Faculty recognise these tools as useful yet question their reliability, consider them professionally necessary while finding their black box architecture suspicious at best, and invoke their inclusive potential even as they flag intellectual laziness and the erosion of critical thinking as their highest-coded concern, at 58 occurrences in the qualitative dataset.

What deans revealFor deans, the dominant theme is strategic. Competitive pressure, the fear of falling behind, and practical efficiency gains in administrative workflow all generate pragmatic and cognitive legitimacy. What introduces illegitimacy is governance risk: data protection, overconfidence in AI-generated results, and the threat to assessment integrity at institutional scale.

The paper’s most significant theoretical move is the treatment of illegitimacy as an analytic category in its own right, rather than simply the absence of legitimacy. The argument, borrowed from change management theory, is that illegitimacy signals should be read as early warnings requiring proactive response. An institution that treats student moral unease about GenAI as a communication failure misses the signal entirely. That unease is telling something about what its curriculum actually teaches, and what its assessment actually measures.

When students associate GenAI with cheating, unfairness, and degree devaluation, they are not being irrational. They are in the Denial and Resistance phases of the Scott and Jaffe change model. These are illegitimacy signals in Suchman’s sense: early warnings that the technology lacks moral legitimacy. Institutions must act on them, not suppress the signal, but address what it reveals.

Source: adapted from Scott & Jaffe, “Survive and Thrive in Times of Change”, plotted with Claude. See: expertprogrammanagement.com/2018/05/scott-and-jaffe-change-model/

France, sovereignty, and the global raceThe French context adds a layer of complexity that the research captures with statistical precision and qualitative nuance. Quantitatively, the analysis found no statistically significant differences in GenAI adoption patterns between public universities and business schools. Qualitatively, the dynamic differs. Business schools, operating in a highly competitive market, have moved faster. Public universities have engaged more systematically around governance, sovereignty, and collective infrastructure, reflected in the alliance of 35 institutions with Mistral AI and EdTech France.

Alain reads this not as a contradiction but as a division of labour that, if managed well, could represent a genuine asset.

“We need to play collectively, because the competition is worldwide.”

The sovereign AI infrastructure question, including the ILaaS federation and the French Ministry of Higher Education’s partnership with Mistral rolling out across 26 pilot universities from September 2025, is not merely symbolic. It is an attempt to ensure that French institutions can operate, govern, and adapt their AI tools without dependency on providers whose pricing, terms, and capabilities are subject to change.

This is only sustainable, however, as long as the peer pressure to use this or that tool, based on model performance, is not too strong. At the moment, it is hard to resist the urge to use Anthropic’s Claude when everybody else is praising the quality of its code and results.

The global comparison is difficult to ignore. Singapore, South Korea, and the UAE are embedding AI fluency as a core national competency from secondary education upward. Alain’s view is direct: French public decision-makers are not yet adequately prepared for the scale of what is coming.

“Having less AI-competent people than in other parts of the world is very dangerous for our economy and for all our organisations.”

The regulatory instinct, which runs deep in European policy culture, is not wrong. Taking time to regulate responsibly has value. But it cannot be a substitute for speed of adoption at the level of skills and curriculum.

The question that frames the researchThe interview ends, as it probably should, with the meta-question: what does it mean to study the legitimacy of GenAI using GenAI? Alain’s team used ChatGPT, Perplexity, NotebookLM, and OpenAI O3 in the research process, and said so explicitly in the paper’s disclosure statement. His answer to the bias question is careful. Every step of the analysis involved a human coder. Alain’s team checked the AI-assisted coding against a prior independent analysis of the same data, conducted for a French institutional report. The team compared the two rounds.

“You have to be transparent about your use of these tools, for what purpose, at each step.”

The disclosure was a deliberate choice, precisely because the paper’s subject made any other approach untenable.

The line between using AI to improve the quality of writing and using it to generate writing you then present as your own is, technically, a matter of degree. In practice, it is the difference between a craft and an abdication. Alain’s team navigated it carefully enough to publish. Most of the students in his dataset are still trying to locate that line, in an environment where nobody has explained it clearly and assessment instruments have not yet been rebuilt to make it matter.

Three recommendations: one for each stakeholderWhen pressed for a concrete policy recommendation per stakeholder group, Alain’s answers were unambiguous.

For students: combine technical AI literacy, understanding how the tools work and knowing their failure modes, with genuine critical and ethical thinking about the outputs they produce. Neither dimension alone is sufficient. A student who can prompt fluently but cannot evaluate the result has learned nothing useful.

For faculty: the “AI heroes” cannot be left to operate alone. Institutions need to create the conditions for sharing best practices across the teaching community, and to give educational innovation the professional recognition it currently lacks. A faculty member redesigning assessment from the ground up deserves at least as much institutional credit as a colleague submitting a conference paper.

For institutional leaders: a multi-level policy framework is not optional. Students, faculty, and administrative staff are not thinking about GenAI from the same vantage point, and a single top-down policy will satisfy none of them adequately. The task of leadership is to hold all three dimensions simultaneously, and to open genuine dialogue between groups before a crisis forces the issue.

“Deans have to think about all these dimensions at the same time, and that’s the hard part of the story around artificial intelligence.”

Of the three, Alain singles out the institutional level as the most urgent. Students and faculty are already adapting, imperfectly, in real time. The institutional frameworks that would give those adaptations coherence and direction are still, in most places, a work in progress.

The urgency is not overstated. Neither is the complexity. The challenge of integrating GenAI in higher education responsibly is one that no institution can afford to ignore, or to solve alone.

Alain Goudey is Professor and Associate Dean for Digital Innovation at Neoma Business School. He is co-author of “Legitimacy and Illegitimacy of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Perceptions from the French Management Context,” published in the Communications of the Association for Information Systems.

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Shall AI kill marketing? Sounds like a hackneyed question, yet it’s on any marketer’s lips these days. Thomas Husson, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, covers the intersection of marketing, technology, and consumer behaviour from his base in Paris. In a wide-ranging conversation, he cuts through the European Gen AI paradox, the persistent CMO-CIO divide, the gap between POC enthusiasm and production reality, and the thorny question of what AI actually means for the next generation of marketing professionals and CMOs. His answers are measured, occasionally blunt, and consistently grounded in Forrester Research data.

AI Will Not Threaten the Existence of Marketing But It Will Reshape It Beyond RecognitionThomas Husson believes that Marketing will be changed profoundly. But he doesn’t believe in the death of Marketing. Photo: Thomas Husson at Paris Retail Week, in late 2023My first question was the obvious one: are CMOs going to be made redundant by artificial intelligence? Thomas Husson’s response is categorical, and worth stating plainly at the outset. It’s a blatant ‘No’. The role will change. The how will change. But the existence of marketing as a discipline is not, according to him, in question.

“Marketing is still going to be about understanding your customer, defining a brand strategy, and delivering the brand promise through customer experience.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

Unclear prospects, obvious pressuresThat said, Husson is not naive about the pressures building on marketing organisations. Some tasks will be automated; that much is not in dispute. The real questions are which tasks, how quickly, and whether automation of a task necessarily kills the job around it. His answer to that last question is no, at least not in any simple mechanical sense. “Jobs will evolve for sure. New jobs will be created. Most jobs will change. The way we work will change. The way we work with agencies, with external partners, the processes, the workflow. It is the shape of work that is being reshaped, not work itself,” he added.

For those expecting a more dramatic verdict, Husson’s framing may feel anti-climactic. But it reflects what Forrester Research data actually shows, and it points to the most important practical challenge for AI and CMOs alike: managing a profound transformation without either catastrophising or sleepwalking through it.

AI Will Not Kill Marketing according to Forrester’s Thomas Husson, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
The European Paradox, Overhyped and Exciting at the Same TimeForrester Research produced a result that initially looks contradictory, Husson stressed in our interview. Fifty-five percent of European B2B marketers consider generative AI overhyped. Yet 81% of European frontline marketers describe themselves as enthusiastic about it. How can both be true simultaneously?

Husson explains the split without difficulty. At the decision-maker level, scepticism is entirely rational. AI is inescapable at conferences, in vendor pitches, and in media coverage. “There is AI fatigue. And more importantly, some of the vendors are indeed over-pitching, and the productivity gains they promise are not happening,” he stated. The gap between the pitch and what we actually experience in the field is wide enough to breed genuine frustration.

Saving Time and Working DifferentlyBut the people actually using these tools, often through shadow AI channels their organisations have not officially sanctioned, are discovering something different. They are saving time and are doing their jobs differently. They are finding capabilities they did not expect.

“In the short term, everything is overhyped, including the number of job losses. In the longer term, things are underestimated, because AI will be linked to other technologies, and yes, it will reinvent many things.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

This is a precise restatement of Amara’s Law. Roy Amara, former president of the Institute for the Future, observed that we tend to overestimate the short-term impact of new technology and underestimate its long-term impact. The quote is frequently misattributed to Bill Gates, but Husson is careful to restore proper credit. He applies it directly to the AI and CMOs conversation: the short-term noise is drowning out a more important long-term signal. When asked how long “long term” actually means in an era of accelerating AI development, Husson was specific: probably closer to five to seven years than to ten or fifteen, but still not tomorrow.

From POC to Production, Europe’s Real AI ProblemThe Forrester Research State of AI Survey 2025 contains a figure that deserves more attention than it typically receives. European organisations lag behind their non-European peers in production use of generative AI: 62% versus 72%. The gap is not in experimentation. It is in execution.

Regulation is the explanation most commonly offered, and Husson dismisses it with characteristic directness. The AI Act is a genuine consideration, but it is not the primary cause of Europe’s production deficit. It functions, he argues, as a double-edged excuse. Pioneers claim it prevents them from moving fast enough, while cautious organisations invoke it to justify not executing at all. Neither position holds up to scrutiny.

A Deep Cultural and Organisational DivideThe deeper issue is organisational and cultural. American and Chinese firms tend to think global from day one; European firms, particularly larger ones, still default to a market-by-market approach. France first, then the UK, then Germany. The ambition is calibrated differently. There is also a structural challenge around funding and the capacity to scale.

That said, France, the UK, and Germany lead adoption among European countries in the Forrester Research data. The problem for these leading markets is not whether they are using generative AI. Twenty-eight percent of European B2B marketing decision makers cannot clearly identify where to apply it. They have the tool. They lack the strategy.

“It’s not AI for the sake of AI. How do I use AI to serve my marketing objectives? That is the question. The only one.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

Husson advocates for small, targeted AI projects with transparent return on investment as a way to build momentum and demonstrate results. When pushed on whether that risks staying permanently incremental, he conceded the point readily.

“If you only do small targeted projects, it’s going to be incremental and it’s not going to be bold enough. You need to align it with a vision and a roadmap.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

Measuring Productivity HonestlyProductivity is the dominant driver of AI adoption in the Forrester Research State of AI Survey 2025. It is also, Husson suggests, the metric most subject to vendor inflation. In Forrester Research’s modelling, a 50% conversion factor is applied to vendor productivity claims. If a tool saves an hour, the realistic productivity benefit is approximately 30 minutes of additional output. This is not a marginal adjustment; it halves the headline figures that vendors routinely publish.

“You need to apply a discount to the pitch of vendors when they say you’re going to get 40, 50, 80, 100% productivity gains. There are productivity gains, but they are not as high as one would expect.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

There is also a motivational dimension that is rarely modelled. When work becomes easier to produce, it can also become less engaging to produce. The cognitive effort that used to drive focus and satisfaction is partly removed, with consequences for quality and commitment that no vendor presentation accounts for.

AI and CMOs, Who Is Actually in Charge?The CMO-CIO divide is a perennial theme in marketing technology discussions. Forrester Research data suggests the gap at the strategic leadership level has narrowed, partly as a result of post-COVID collaboration. But at team level, the tensions persist, and the data on AI governance is striking.

CMOs account for only 8 to 10% of AI strategy leadership in organisations. In the vast majority of cases, the deployment of AI is being driven by CIOs and CTOs. Husson understands the logic: data governance, security, scalability. These are real concerns. But he believes the outcome is a mistake.

“It is the exact same mistake that happened with digital transformation. AI has to be at the service of, first, the client, and consequently the business functions that serve them. There is too big a disconnect between a secure, scalable AI platform and marketers’ needs.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

The structural consequence of this dynamic is predictable. When CIOs control the tools and CMOs do not have what they need, shadow AI flourishes. The more tightly the CIO locks down the official platform, the more widely teams proliferate unofficial solutions. It is a cycle that widens governance risk while creating the illusion of control.

The MarTech landscape compounds this problem. According to data Husson cites, 2,500 new AI solutions were added to the market in a single year while 1,211 pre-AI-era tools were removed. Evaluating this landscape requires cross-functional expertise that neither CMOs nor CIOs possess in isolation. The case for genuine collaboration, rather than the polite coexistence that currently passes for it in most organisations, has never been stronger.

Jobs, Agencies, and the Students in the RoomThe survey data on jobs is sobering. Fifty-seven percent of European frontline marketing decision makers believe AI adoption will lead to job reductions in their teams. Sixty-eight percent say new roles will be created. The gap between those two numbers is the space where real anxiety lives. For a wider perspective on AI’s job impact, including Forrester Research’s US forecast, see our earlier piece: AI Job Impact in the US: the Apocalypse Can Wait. For a longer-range view of how generative AI is reshaping roles, see also: GenAI Impact on Jobs.

Contact centres and basic marketing task execution are already seeing measurable impact. Agencies are under visible pressure. But Husson returns consistently to the distinction between task automation and job elimination. Most job losses are not yet directly attributable to AI; the picture requires nuance rather than alarm.

On new roles, the honest answer is that specifics are difficult to name in advance. Twenty years ago, nobody was hiring community managers. The jobs that will emerge from the current transformation will be as hard to predict precisely as that one was. What Husson does say is that working with agents, managing their outputs, and understanding their limitations will become core competencies rather than specialist skills.

“Teach them the basics of marketing, those won’t change. Infuse a lot more of traditional social sciences: ethics, emotion, anthropology. These dimensions will gain importance. Curiosity. And they have to use these tools, to learn how to use them so they can develop their own critical thinking.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

There is irony embedded in this advice that Husson acknowledges implicitly. Digital roles are likely to bear the earliest impact of AI-driven automation precisely because they are already the most digitised. The analogue parts of marketing, which seemed most vulnerable to digital disruption, turn out to be more resistant than expected. AI is a continuation of digital transformation, not a departure from it.

There is also a structural problem this conversation surfaced that neither party resolved entirely. If organisations are reducing entry-level hiring to cut costs, and those entry-level roles were the traditional training ground for the next generation, then the iterative learning process that produces senior expertise is being severed. AI can teach many things, but the social dimension of learning alongside a colleague over time is not easily replicated.

B2B Marketing, Ahead of the CurveA widespread assumption holds that generative AI enthusiasm in marketing is largely a B2C phenomenon. Husson disputes this firmly. B2B marketers, in his assessment, are actually ahead of the curve in several areas, particularly content generation, personalisation, and sales support through complex multi-stakeholder buying processes.

What B2B is also discovering is that the sharp distinction between rational B2B decision-making and emotional B2C engagement is less solid than commonly assumed. When a buying group is making a decision with significant professional consequences, emotion is not absent; it is differently structured and, in some ways, higher-stakes.

“It’s not the ‘human plus AI blah blah blah’ we hear all the time. It needs a more nuanced approach. At the end of the day, AI is about replicating the human brain, but we don’t really know how the human brain works. We don’t know how consciousness works. So I would take a pinch of salt and take a step back before making any definitive judgment.”

Thomas Husson, Forrester Research

The Long ViewI ended by asking Husson how he uses AI in his own work. His answer was practical: summarising the relentless volume of content published daily on AI, filtering what is genuinely new from what merely repackages existing ideas. Behind him on the video call was a photograph taken in Thailand, of Buddhist monks. He smiled at the mention of it.

“It’s a good reminder that not everything is digital and not everything is about technology. It’s about real life.“

For AI and CMOs, that is perhaps the most useful frame of all. The technology is real, the disruption is real, and the urgency is real. But so is the inertia of organisations, the pace of culture change, and the irreducible complexity of how human beings actually make decisions, form relationships, and build trust. Amara’s Law is not a reason to wait. It is a reason to plan carefully, act deliberately, and resist the temptation to mistake announcements for outcomes.

Forrester Research reports cited in this article

• The AI CMO: Growth Accountability Gets Next-Level — Mike Proulx et al., April 2026
• The State Of CMO/CIO Collaboration For 2026 — Thomas Husson et al., January 2026
• Generative AI Adoption In European B2B Marketing Organizations — Christina Schmitt et al., December 2025

About Thomas HussonThomas Husson is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, based in Paris. He covers marketing strategy, brand management, mobile marketing, and the intersection of technology and consumer behaviour across European markets. His research addresses how CMOs and marketing organisations navigate digital transformation, AI adoption, and the evolving relationship between brands and customers.

Forrester Research analyst profile: forrester.com

About Forrester ResearchForrester Research is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world, founded in 1983 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It serves business and technology leaders across marketing, IT, and customer experience, providing data, analysis, and frameworks to guide strategic decision-making.

The data referenced in this article draws on two primary Forrester Research publications: the Forrester Marketing Survey 2025 and the State of AI Survey 2025, both covering Gen AI adoption and its organisational implications across European and global B2B markets.

Forrester Research website: forrester.com

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LinkedIn has completely shaken up the PR game. With 1.12 billion[1] wordlwide users (UK: 47.5 million[2] and 34 million in France[3], pretty much every tech journalist is on the platform. As a consequence, PR pros who ignore this network are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to major opportunities. What with all the industry shifts and new ways of creating content, PR folks need to completely rethink how they work and treat LinkedIn as their best mate in media strategy, rather than a threat.

PR and LinkedIn: friend or foe? … that’s missing the point!Asking whether PR and LinkedIn are enemies completely misses the point — image created with Midjourney and Adobe PhotoshopLet’s get down to the nitty gritty. LinkedIn has become a proper media outlet and this is old hat.

180,000 active newsletters!The platform started bringing journalists on board back in 2016, churns out newsletters and gets its users creating their own newsletters too. There are well over 180,000 active newsletters on LinkedIn.

• Meanwhile, the professional networking giant has rolled out features specifically for journalists. The LinkedIn for Journalists programme launched over 10 years ago helps journos sharpen their research and publishing skills through training and tools tailored to what they actually need. The platform works hand-in-glove with over 400 newsrooms globally to help them boost their presence on the network.
• On the user front, LinkedIn (source) is boasting over 1.12 billion members worldwide [Editor’s note: This number keeps climbing], which in some countries is more than 80% of the total working population. Half a million companies have set up shop with LinkedIn pages. A whopping 84.8% of B2B decision-makers in France use LinkedIn for professional purposes, and nearly half of them (45.6%) say they discovered purchase-driving content there — figures that stand up well against global benchmarks, where 87% of B2B marketers use the platform and 50% of buyers cite it as a source in purchasing decisions.

Ed. note: The French figures come from a 2020 Digimind social selling study tracking French B2B decision-makers specifically. No directly equivalent country-level study using the same methodology exists for the UK or US; the 87% global B2B marketer figure and the 50% purchasing decisions figure are drawn from different sources and timeframes and should not be read as strict like-for-like comparisons.

But here’s the hitch: how on earth can anyone afford to ignore LinkedIn these days? That’s a question that should be keeping PR professionals up at night.

Reaching out to tech journalists through PR on LinkedInAccording to research focusing on “tech journalists versus everyone else” from State of the Media 2024, a staggering 98% of tech journalists are active on social media:

• for keeping tabs on what’s happening: 62% compared to 54% of journalists across all beats,
• to publish and push their content: 76% vs 71%,
• to get in touch with experts or line up interviews: 52% vs 47%,
• more than half of tech journalists lean on LinkedIn more heavily than their colleagues (51% vs 39%).

Journalists are all over social media, especially LinkedIn, and that includes for PR purposes — image created with MidjourneyMore broadly, the 2024 Cision study on how journalists use social media shows that 71% use social platforms to publish content, 63% to engage with their audience, and 51% to fact-check information. Only 3% claim they don’t use social media for work purposes at all.

LinkedIn: where information meets opportunityFor press relations professionals, treating LinkedIn like the enemy or competition is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. You’re missing out on expanding your network of journalists, understanding what makes them tick, and spotting those golden calls for case studies and expert comment.

Turning your back on LinkedIn also means missing out on brilliant opportunities to up your game by joining groups where comms and media professionals hang out, keeping track of people’s career moves, and connecting with potential collaborators. LinkedIn is also an absolute goldmine for business development: by following what companies are up to, savvy professionals can spot new projects brewing and pitch their services, stay in the loop about new comms teams being set up, or find out who’ll be at which industry events.

Put simply, being “anti-LinkedIn” is a bit like being against the very soul of what we do: building networks, nurturing relationships, spotting brilliant ideas and learning from others’ experiences.

LinkedIn: the poster child for how PR is evolving

LinkedIn epitomises the shift from “Press Relations” to “Media Relations specialist”

LinkedIn is also a brilliant platform for showing off our networking chops and taking our client relationships to the next level, creating stronger bonds that go way beyond just firing off press releases electronically and following up with phone calls or emails to journos. It’s a chance to share our expertise, show them which discussion groups they absolutely need to be part of, and propose proper “omnichannel” communication strategies.

From PR strategy to content strategy – is that tomorrow’s real challenge?

When you really think about it, whilst digital is absolutely everywhere and technology seems to be pushing us to change how we work, it’s crucial to get back to what our profession is really about: building networks that last, staying alert to spot trends and opportunities whilst also catching the early warning signs of potential PR disasters, being strategic enough to advise clients on the how, where, when and what of communication – and making sure it all hangs together.

The real challenge might well be in the editorial skills department: knowing how to create compelling content and come up with fresh formats. This is actually one of journalists’ biggest headaches too: creating content that’s engaging, entertaining and works across multiple formats, stuff that fits with how people actually consume information nowadays. Particularly by embracing newer formats like podcasts and explainer videos on social media.

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Will the AI bubble burst or is GenAI here to stay? The artificial intelligence industry is experiencing unprecedented financial euphoria. Yet, the current situation is very confusing. AI investments are reaching dizzying heights. Let’s mention OpenAI’s $40 billion funding round at $300 billion valuation and Mistral AI’s €1.7 billion funding round. Yet, some commentators are very critical of the situation. For instance, Ed Zitron predicts that the AI bubble will burst in Q4 2025. All this is fueling intense, rather than rational, debate. I wanted to confront these concerns with the expertise of Bernhard Schaffrik, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. His analysis is insightful and nuanced. In his mind, there will be some sort of correction, but at the same time, GenAI is too popular to disappear.

When Will the AI Bubble Burst?Is the AI bubble about to burst or is GenAI here to stay? Forrester’s Schaffrik predicts corrections but says GenAI is too popular to go — photo by Forrester.comForrester’s Bernhard Schaffrik is recognized as one of the most insightful experts in artificial intelligence. He provides a nuanced analysis that transcends simple financial considerations. His perspective on the AI bubble burst scenario offers first-hand insights for understanding where this transformative technology is truly heading.

The AI Bubble: Financial Reality, Technological ContinuityThe question of a potential AI bubble burst cannot receive a univocal answer. As Bernhard Schaffrik rightfully points out, it all depends on one’s perspective. This duality of vision probably constitutes one of the keys to understanding the current situation and the likelihood of an AI bubble burst.

Like us, Schaffrik righfully points out that the main issue with AI is societal and philosophical — image generated with Adobe Firefly “It’s almost impossible to get a one-sentence response from an analyst. Allow me two sentences. Number one is, of course, it always depends on the role or the profile you’re asking. If we are talking about financial investors, then yes, there are strong signals of this being a bubble because there is so much money being pumped into it—more than $120 billion US dollars in capital expenditure on AI infrastructure alone, just by the Magnificent Seven tech providers. So that bubble could burst,” explains Forrester’s expert.

This assessment gains particular relevance when considering Google’s $9 billion AI data center investment in Oklahoma for advanced AI training infrastructure.

This financial perspective, however, tells only part of the story. Technological adoption follows a different logic from financial markets, as Schaffrik confirmed during our exchange about the AI bubble burst potential.

“But now, if you put yourself in the shoes of enterprise decision makers, tech decision makers, also AI users, there are many who would say, ‘I don’t care if that bubble bursts, the technology is there, and it won’t go away.’

“Regardless of the amounts all the financial transactions surrounding the AI industry, people are actually using this technology. And they like what they are seeing. It might not be the disruptive, transformative value some are surmising. It’s probably more incremental than that, but the adoption of that technology is undeniable.”

The Revenue Challenge: A $25 Billion Gap to BridgeFortune’s analysis reveals a concerning gap between current investments and generated revenues. To justify current investments, AI companies would need to generate $40 billion in annual revenue, while they currently produce only $15 to $20 billion.

Schaffrik doesn’t believe in an AI bubble burst right now — image made with Adobe FireflyI was wondering whether this $20-25 billion gap could represent a systemic risk that could trigger an AI bubble burst.

Schaffrik remains relatively optimistic on this point: “There is still enough money in that market to back these revenue gaps at least for a while. And what I’m also seeing is that especially when it comes to the largest enterpriseson the planet, they are convinced to continue using that software. And if it comes at a premium which is decent, arguably, maybe a couple percentage points higher than what they are paying today for the software, then this seems to be acceptable.”

This acceptance of additional costs by large enterprises stems from the incremental value they perceive, even if it hasn’t yet reached the promised transformation level that might prevent an AI bubble burst scenario.

LLM Regression: A Warning Signal?A particularly troubling element in the current ecosystem is the recent NewsGuard study revealing that major LLM systems are no longer progressing but regressing, generating more hallucinations and errors. This observation raises fundamental questions about current technology maturity and its impact on AI bubble burst predictions.

“I’m not saying that LLMs and generative AI are progressing in a linear fashion nor that this technology will be disruptive in any way, despite the promise. As we have seen with emerging technologies for decades and even centuries, it takes breakthrough technological revolutions rather than evolutions to fulfill such promises,” analyzes Schaffrik.

This vision of the current limitations of AI doesn’t diminish Bernhard’s long-term optimism: “But I’m also convinced that these breakthroughs will happen, not within the next seven, eight, nine, 12 months, but maybe in the long term. Something else will be coming up.”

Energy Efficiency: The Achilles’ Heel of AIOne of Schaffrik’s most compelling criticisms concerns the energy efficiency of current systems. His comparison between the human brain and data centers is striking and relevant to understanding whether we’re facing an AI bubble burst.

“If we look at the amount of energy our brains are requiring to create a certain inference, and how much an LLM would require to achieve the same result with electricity, this cannot be the way forward.”

This energy inefficiency constitutes a major barrier to scalability and will require significant technological breakthroughs to overcome, potentially influencing AI bubble burst timing.

Pilot Failures: Business as Usual or Red Flag?The 95% failure rate of corporate AI pilots revealed by MIT research might seem alarming and suggestive of an impending AI bubble burst. Yet Schaffrik places this figure in its historical context: “It’s quite normal. As an analyst covering innovation management, what I have been observing over time is that about 10% of all innovation-related minimum viable products, proof of concepts, pilots, will turn into a product.”

The problem would rather lie in unrealistic expectations: “Everybody rushed at it because one believed that since it’s accessible through natural language, it should be easier to deploy, to implement, and there are no drawbacks and negatives. That might explain that the failure rate is slightly higher than with technologies we saw in the past.”

This assessment aligns with Gartner’s prediction that 30% of GenAI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by 2025 due to poor ROI and unclear business value.

AGI: The Next Revolution in MotionDespite current limitations, Schaffrik maintains his bold prediction from his July 2025 analysis “Demystifying Artificial General Intelligence” that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) represents “the biggest change in tech we have ever seen and is starting right now.” This vision, which could influence AI bubble burst scenarios, is structured around three maturity stages.

1. “Competent artificial general intelligence is lurking around the corner. Our prediction is that between 2026 and 2030, we will see competent artificial general intelligence. You could think of it as your first trustworthy AI agent. You might not want to give it your car keys or your wallet, but it might do amazing things.”
2. The subsequent stages would unfold over more distant horizons: independent AGI within the next five to ten years,
3. And lastly, strategic AGI in a more distant future.

Current AI Limitations: Experience versus TrainingA crucial point raised in our discussion concerns the difference between training and experience. As I pointed out to Schaffrik, experience develops critical thinking that current LLMs don’t yet possess, which could impact AI bubble burst predictions.

“We might get to a point where most of us humans wouldn’t be able to tell if on the other side, a human or a machine is interacting with us. There will be areas where we will still be able to tell. But experience is something we could at least partially solve with more data and better data,” states Schaffrik.

The solution, according to him, lies in massive data collection: “So much of the billions of investment money flowing now into all these big companies is also to collect and curate data also from the physical environment. Bringing all this data together, will create something that mimics experience.”

The Human Factor: What’s Left for Us?The philosophical question of what humans will do when machines surpass us in thinking capabilities represents Schaffrik’s personal concern regarding potential societal implications of advanced AI, regardless of any AI bubble burst.

“That’s my personal doomsday scenario, I must say. It’s not good for us humans to just idle around. So it’s not so much a technical conversation, but more a political, societal, psychological and philosophical one. So I’m sure we are far away from this, but we are getting there.”

Leadership and Preparation: The Governance ChallengeRegarding leadership in this transformation, Schaffrik acknowledges the complexity: “Rulers are supposed to rule. The question is more like, are they intentionally gathering a diverse set of experts who would be able to consult them? Technically, this is possible. Are they willing to? It’s another question.”

His confidence in human adaptability remains intact: “I’m still confident that once we are realizing the true dangers of certain technologies, we will start to rethink. And we have always found a way to move forward, and we will find a way this time as well.”

Conclusion: Beyond the AI Bubble Burst DebateOur conversation with Bernhard Schaffrik reveals that the AI bubble burst question transcends simple financial considerations. While financial markets may indeed experience corrections, the underlying technology continues its unstoppable advancement.

The key insight is that we’re witnessing a fundamental shift that will persist regardless of market volatility. Schaffrik’s analysis suggests that rather than fearing an AI bubble burst, we should focus on preparing for the transformative changes ahead. The technology won’t disappear, but it will evolve in ways we can barely imagine today. As we stand at this inflection point, the question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst, but how we’ll navigate the profound societal and technological transformations that lie ahead.

The AI bubble burst debate, ultimately, is just the beginning of a much larger conversation about our future with increasingly capable technology.

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The world of artificial intelligence is evolving at breakneck speed, and nowhere is this more conspicuous than in the emergence of AI agents. As organizations grapple with separating genuine innovation from marketing hype, we sat down with Ed Keisling, Chief AI Officer at Progress Software, to cut through the noise and understand what AI agents really mean for businesses today. Ed brings a unique perspective, having taken on his new role in February 2025 at a time when the industry is proclaiming this as “the year of agents.” His insights reveal both the tremendous potential and the current limitations of this transformative technology. As always, time is of the essence.

AI Agents, Beyond the HypePreogress Software’s Ed Keisling did a great job debunking the myths surrounding AI Agents and showing what the future holds beyond the hype – photo Progress Software.The Rise of the Chief AI Officer: A Strategic ImperativeThe creation of Chief AI Officer roles across the technology industry signals more than just a trend—it represents a fundamental shift in how businesses view artificial intelligence. As Ed explains, “AI needs to be a strategic pillar of a business to drive innovation and growth. It really reflects the pace at which technology is evolving, and having somebody that is accountable to follow all these latest updates and really look at it through the lens of new risks and opportunities.”

This observation resonates with the broader digital transformation patterns we’ve witnessed over the past decade. Just as Chief Digital Officers emerged to guide organizations through the digital transformation revolution, Chief AI Officers are now stepping up to navigate the AI transformation. The role isn’t merely about implementing technology—it’s about strategic thinking, risk assessment, and identifying genuine business opportunities in a rapidly changing landscape.

AI agents: the promise with tools like Manus is that they would behave like your favourite dog. Go search, Rover…! — photo by antimuseum.comDefining AI Agents: Beyond the BuzzwordsOne of the most persistent challenges in the AI space is the confusion surrounding terminology. AI agents, in particular, have become an overloaded term that means different things to different people. Ed provides valuable clarity by positioning agents on a spectrum of AI capabilities.

“When generative AI came out, it was generally reactive,” Ed notes. “We would go to ChatGPT, provide a prompt, and it would generate a response based on its training patterns. Agents are moving along that spectrum in terms of capabilities—they have the ability to perceive their environment, access to audio, video, documents, and crucially, the ability to reason, plan, and learn from their actions.”

Unfortunately, Rover isn’t always willing to search in the right direction… — photo by antimuseum.comTraditional automation relies on strict rule-based systems—the digital equivalent of if-then-else logic. Chatbots, while more sophisticated, remain predominantly reactive. AI agents represent a step toward proactive, reasoning systems that can adapt to changing circumstances.

AI agents represent a step toward proactive, reasoning systems that can adapt to changing circumstances

The evolution doesn’t stop there. Ed introduces the concept of “agentic AI“—a broader paradigm where multiple agents collaborate, passing context between each other to accomplish complex tasks. This represents the holy grail of AI automation: systems that can dynamically adapt to real-time situations without constant human intervention.

Reality Check: Why Perfect Automation Remains ElusiveDespite the exciting potential, Ed provides a sobering reality check about current capabilities. His observation about the Pareto principle in AI is particularly insightful: “AI is the ultimate manifestation of the 80/20 rule. You can very rapidly get to value with 20% of the work achieving 80% of the results, but actually getting it to work 100% of the time is still very, very difficult.”

This phenomenon explains why AI demonstrations look so compelling while real-world implementations often fall short of expectations. The gap between proof-of-concept and production-ready systems remains significant, requiring careful planning, clean data, and well-defined business processes. As always, I should add, “the more it changes, the more it stays the same,”as the French poet would have it.

RAG Technology: Making AI Practical for BusinessWhile pure AI agents may still be evolving, Progress Software’s acquisition of Nuclia, an agentic RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) provider, demonstrates a more immediate and practical application of AI technology. Ed explains the fundamental problem RAG solves: “Large language models have been trained on the entirety of the Internet, giving them broad general knowledge, but they don’t have access to data stored behind firewalls or on personal computers.”

This limitation is critical for businesses. While public AI models are impressive, their real value emerges when they can access and reason about proprietary business data. RAG technology bridges this gap, allowing organizations to leverage AI’s reasoning capabilities while grounding responses in their specific knowledge base.

The practical implications are significant. As Ed points out, “Small to medium-sized businesses have lots of unstructured data—audio, video, log files, recordings, PDFs, charts—that represent proprietary business value, but they have no way of indexing or finding or correlating the data within it.” RAG technology makes this data accessible and actionable.

It’s high time to stop AI-Washing Ed Keisling advises — image created with MidjourneySeparating Innovation from AI WashingEd’s experience at the AI4 conference provides valuable insights into the current state of the AI industry. His observation about AI washing is particularly relevant: “There was a lot of AI washing—companies that weren’t sure they understood the problem to be solved, with very thin wrappers around language models to solve point problems. It felt like a hammer looking for a nail.”

The key differentiator, according to Ed, lies in problem-solving focus rather than technology-first thinking. “AI allows you to solve old problems in a new way and to make seemingly impossible problems possible. You’re thinking about how to drive outcomes—making developers more productive, automating tedious workflows, providing better insights that weren’t possible before.”

This perspective aligns with successful technology adoption patterns throughout history. The most successful implementations focus on specific business outcomes rather than showcasing technological capabilities.

Real-World Value: ShareFile’s Document IntelligenceProgress Software’s ShareFile platform provides concrete examples of AI delivering measurable business value. The platform serves client-facing teams in regulated industries—doctor’s offices, law firms, and tax accountants—where document management is critical but time-consuming.

The AI implementations are practical and measurable: “We can create curated lists of documents appropriate based on your situation, and as you upload documents, we can figure out which document relates to which checklist item. We’ve measured this at being three and a half times faster.”

More importantly, the system addresses security concerns that many organizations face: “We have capabilities that scan for social security numbers, personal information, and credit card information that you didn’t want to upload. This single capability flags around 35,000 documents a week.”

These examples demonstrate AI’s sweet spot: automating routine tasks while enhancing security and accuracy. The value isn’t just in speed—it’s in freeing professionals to focus on high-value work instead of admin tasks.

The Human Factor: Reskilling Rather Than ReplacingOne of the most contentious aspects of AI adoption concerns workforce impact. Ed’s perspective is refreshingly pragmatic: “This is a fundamental reshaping of how business is done—a new skill and opportunity for people to grow, learn, and reinvent themselves. There aren’t experts who have been doing this for five or ten years. If you have the headspace and desire, you can become that expert.”

This view positions AI as an enabler rather than a replacement. The technology’s real power lies in eliminating organizational silos and enabling individuals to accomplish more with the right tools and training. “One person is now going to be capable of doing multiple things with the right prompts, giving them opportunities to do more and drive more value for the organization.”

The message is clear: organisations with infinite backlogs of valuable work don’t need to fear AI displacement. Instead, they should focus on upskilling their workforce to leverage these new capabilities effectively.

Looking Forward: Practical Adoption StrategiesEd’s recommendations for AI adoption focus on practical, incremental approaches rather than transformative leaps. “There’s enormous green space for individuals to become fully enabled with AI. The majority of people using AI today are using it in a Google-like fashion, but they haven’t taken time to understand how to correctly prompt agents or use advanced capabilities.”

The most successful implementations start with individual productivity tools—document summarization, email assistance, and internal search capabilities—before advancing to more complex agentic systems. This approach allows organizations to build AI literacy while demonstrating concrete value.

In Conclusion, Embracing Reality While Preparing for the FutureOur conversation with Ed Keisling reveals that AI agents represent both enormous potential and significant current limitations. While the vision of fully autonomous AI systems remains largely aspirational, practical applications of AI technology are already delivering measurable business value.

The key insight for business leaders is the importance of realistic expectations coupled with strategic preparation. AI agents are not yet ready to replace human workers, but they are already transforming how work gets done. Organisations that focus on practical applications, invest in workforce development, and maintain healthy skepticism about vendor promises will be best positioned to benefit from this technological evolution.

As Ed concludes, “You have to put your personal opinions and biases aside and accept and lean into it. At least you can be part of the process and conversation and understand where the edges are.” This balanced approach—embracing the technology while maintaining critical oversight—represents the most reasonable path forward in the age of AI agents.

The future of AI agents is being written today, not in grand demonstrations of artificial general intelligence, but in the practical applications that solve real business problems, one automated workflow at a time.

About Ed KeislingEd Keisling is the newly appointed Chief AI Officer at Progress Software Corporation, bringing over three decades of technology leadership experience. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Engineering for Infrastructure Management at Progress, was an executive team member at Vecna Technologies overseeing Engineering, IT, DevOps, Support, Program Management and Analytics, and spent over 17 years in senior engineering roles at Pegasystems. Specializing in complex system architectures, cloud computing, and large-scale infrastructure management, Keisling also mentors through the UNH Pathways Program and MIT’s Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (UPOP). In his new CAIO role, he leads Progress’s AI strategy and product portfolio transformation, reporting directly to CEO Yogesh Gupta.

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In an era of overtourism, where mass travel increasingly strains destinations worldwide, Christopher Hill offers a compelling alternative with his voluntourism/volunteer travel business, Hands-Up Holidays. As a founder and managing director of this company, Hill has built a business model that demonstrates how travel companies can be forces for good rather than exploitation. His approach to volunteer travel challenges the conventional wisdom that luxury and social responsibility cannot coexist.

Voluntourism: When Volunteer Travel and Luxury Coexist For Mutual BenefitVoluntourism is a portmanteau expression combining “volunteer” and “tourism” — Photo from Hands Up blog post on Earth Day Eco-Luxury Inspiration (Mexico – conservation of turtles in Baja California by Christopher Hill)What makes Hands Up Holidays’ philosophy particularly noteworthy is its commitment to controlled growth, prioritising quality experiences over scale. Rather than pursuing rapid expansion that could compromise his mission, Christopher Hill maintains personal oversight of every client interaction, proving that sustainable business practices can create more meaningful outcomes for travellers and communities alike.

Operating across over 30 countries, Hands Up Holidays represents a fascinating case study in how the apparent contradiction between luxury accommodations and volunteer work can enhance both experiences.

Here is the account of our interview.

What kind of work are your clients doing during their volunteer travel?We offer a great variety of projects. Our most popular initiatives are building projects, which can range from small-scale but highly tangible endeavours like constructing or installing eco-friendly stoves in village homes to larger undertakings such as helping build houses or renovating school classrooms.

Beyond construction, we focus heavily on wildlife conservation projects, where families might care for elephants or participate in sea turtle protection programs. The third major area involves educational support, particularly serving as reading partners in local schools. Each project is carefully selected to ensure meaningful impact while being suitable for family participation.

Nayara Tented Camp – The tented camp was built on stilts and a lot of space was left between tents to plant trees and palms between them. Thousands of trees and indigenous bushes have been planted to reforest and repair damage done by cattle farmers. Energy and water conservation measures are in place. The majority of the team is from the local town, and free transport and health services are provided.What triggered your shift from London finance to voluntourism?It was quite a dramatic shift, and in true dramatic fashion, I experienced my own road to Damascus moment in South Africa. This happened about six years into my career in London’s financial sector. During a trip there, beyond the traditional safari experiences and stays at beautiful lodges throughout Cape Town and the Garden Route, I participated in building a house for a family in one of the townships. This experience was genuinely life-changing in two fundamental ways.

First, it enabled me to interact authentically with local people, gaining real insights into their lives and sharing stories with them – something that had been missing from my previous travels despite being quite fortunate to travel extensively. Second, the satisfaction of helping and making a tangible difference in their lives by providing this family with a proper home was profound. This experience made me realise that I had developed solid business skills but wanted to apply them to something more meaningful and fulfilling. That became the catalyst for establishing what would become Hands Up Holidays three years later.

How did you safely visit townships when tourists are typically advised to avoid them?I should emphasise that there are legitimate reasons for caution. I was fortunate to be in the capable hands of my former London flatmate, who had moved to South Africa and become a professional tour guide, developing his own network of trusted relationships there.

He was the one who took me into the townships, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend just showing up there independently. While chances are you’d be fine, you need to remain cautious. I should also mention that there’s a concerning trend of township tourism that can devolve into mere voyeurism, which we absolutely oppose. However, there are ethical township visits that focus on the positive developments happening in these communities and provide genuine opportunities for meaningful interaction.

How do you reconcile the apparent contradiction between luxury and volunteer work?Luxury and volunteering don’t immediately seem like natural partners. However, when you examine it more deeply, the luxury component serves as the means to facilitate participation from people who want to make a difference but aren’t willing to sacrifice comfort. This certainly isn’t for everyone, but our model is what I call ‘philanthropy volunteering’.

The primary benefit comes from the funds our clients bring to projects. If providing luxury accommodations and creature comforts enables those funds to be invested in meaningful projects, then we’re the right organisation for them. Conversely, if you don’t mind basic conditions, there are many other fantastic organisations that will help you make a difference in that way.

How do you avoid voluntourism becoming voyeurism?There are two main approaches we use. First, I personally visit every single project we offer, so I can genuinely attest that they’re beneficial and provide real value to recipients, whether communities or wildlife. Second, this connects to my earlier point about different ways to make a difference. People can contribute through time – spending weeks or months at a project – or through specialised skills, like doctors or physiotherapists applying their expertise. The third way is through funding, which is where we excel. We enable our guests to experience projects and gain that meaningful interaction, but their primary benefit comes from providing the funding to build houses, construct stoves, or create accessible facilities, whatever the specific need may be.

How do you convince families to choose volunteer travel?I’d argue it’s primarily the parents’ responsibility rather than mine. However, I think it’s important to understand that no one arrives on our trips surprised to discover they’ll be renovating a school. This volunteer component is our fundamental point of difference – it’s what we specialise in and what sets us apart. People only choose us because this is exactly what they want to do. I hope families have these discussions with their children well in advance of booking.

What motivates your clientele differently from typical travel agencies?Absolutely, they’re very different. When I first established Hands Up Holidays, I had people like me in mind – young professionals who were cash-rich but time-poor, wanting good vacations while making a difference. However, from the very beginning, we attracted family bookings, which hadn’t been on my radar at all when I was developing the concept. When I asked these families about their motivations, they’d say things like, ‘Our children come from privileged backgrounds, and we want them to appreciate how fortunate they are,’ or ‘We’re seeking a meaningful family bonding experience.’ Many also express that they want to inspire their children to become the next generation of changemakers. So yes, there’s definitely a strong mission-driven aspect in our family clients’ thinking when they make enquiries.

Are your clients younger or older than you expected?They’re older than I anticipated. When I wrote the first business plan and brochure, I was targeting young professionals aged roughly 25 to 35. While we do attract some clients in that demographic, I was genuinely surprised by the number of families booking with us. These family clients are typically in their 30s and 40s.

How does volunteer travel address overtourism, and what’s the demand?We take a holistic approach to all our trips, with sustainability integrated throughout. While our trips are luxury experiences, we prioritise properties that demonstrate sustainable luxury principles in their design and operations. We recommend restaurants offering organic dishes sourced locally whenever possible, maintain a policy of using only local guides, and choose eco-friendly transport options where available. This approach helps combat overtourism. We also encourage travel to safer but less mainstream destinations – places like Georgia in the Caucasus, Belize, or Roatan in Honduras, which we’re launching in the coming weeks. These destinations aren’t overcrowded with tourists. Additionally, incorporating volunteer components naturally slows down the pace of travel. Instead of rushing from site to site, you’re investing several days in one particular destination and community.

How do you ensure controlled growth while maintaining quality over scale?For me, the key is maintaining this as a passion project. I live and breathe this work, and I personally handle all customer enquiries. This isn’t just about passion – I genuinely delight in crafting unique itineraries for our clients – it’s also about quality control. I’m happy that it’s just me managing this aspect, and by virtue of that personal involvement, it naturally limits how much the business can scale. This constraint actually serves our mission perfectly.

Voluntourism: Small Is Beautiful and MeaningfulThe volunteer travel market in which Christopher Hill’s Hands Up Holidays operates represents less than 0.01% of the global tourism industry’s USD 11.7 trillion annual revenue (World Travel & Tourism Council, Future Market Insights). The numbers may look small, but the company is nonetheless showing the way for the reinvention of the travel industry, which sorely needs it.

Walk through any popular tourist destination nowadays, and you’ll see tourists seeking familiar food. This isn’t criticism – it’s human nature. But it highlights how we travel without truly connecting.

Tourism is bringing people to destinations people think were made for them
but would be better without them.

And this is sad. This isn’t what ‘travelling’ is about. It’s about connecting, rubbing shoulders with the locals, understanding or trying to grasp foreign mores, tasting local food, etc. Hill’s approach differs greatly in that.

The voluntourism/volunteer travel model won’t transform the entire industry overnight. But it proves alternatives exist. Travel can serve communities rather than exploit them. And you don’t need to rough it for that matter. Lastly, growing a business doesn’t require sacrificing one’s values.

Hill shows that meaningful travel is possible. Not revolutionary, just different and respectful.

Here are a few numbers collected about voluntarism/volunteer travel The following facts and figures were gathered with the help of Perplexity and checked against their sources. Errors may have occurred, readers are advised to double check the numbers before quoting. All sources are available at the end of this blog post

Volunteer tourism (voluntourism)* Market size in 2024: Between USD 873 million and USD 962 million [2] [9]. * Projected market size for 2025: About USD 962 million to USD 1 billion [2] [7]. * Projected market size by 2030: Between USD 1.2 billion and USD 1.55 billion, depending on the growth rate used by different sources [2] [1] [9]. * Annual growth rate (CAGR): Most sources agree on a growth rate between 4.8% and 6.21% yearly through 2030 [1] [6] [7] [9].

Key participant demographics and trends* An estimated 1.6 million people volunteer abroad each year [6]. * The youth market (ages 15–29) is a major driver, with this age group representing approximately 23% of all international tourism arrivals [6]. * Popular activities include community development, environmental conservation, teaching, healthcare, and cultural exchange [5]. * The main destinations are developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, but Europe and North America also see significant participation, especially for environmental and social projects [5] [7].

Regional insights* Europe accounts for a sizeable share due to its large youth traveller population and established gap year culture [6]. * North America (notably the US and Canada) and Asia-Pacific (notably Japan, South Korea, and China) are also significant regions for volunteer tourism growth and participation [7].

Caveats* The above numbers primarily refer to the economic value of the voluntourism industry and not the total number of trips or individual travellers. * COVID-19 disruptions affected international travel and temporarily slowed market growth, but current estimates show a strong rebound in recent years [7] [6].

Overall, volunteer tourism continues to grow as travellers seek more meaningful, responsible, and impactful travel experiences [3] [6].

Sources[1] Volunteer Tourism Market Size, Share & Growth Report, 2030 https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/volunteer-tourism-market-report

[2] Volunteer Tourism Market Size & Forecast [2033] https://www.globalgrowthinsights.com/market-reports/volunteer-tourism-market-118068

[3] Volunteer Tourism Global Business Report 2025 | Cultural https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/07/3076249/28124/en/Volunteer-Tourism-Global-Business-Report-2025-Cultural-Immersion-Experiences-Drive-Adoption-of-Long-Term-Volunteer-Tourism-Itineraries.html

[4] Volunteer Tourism Global Business Report 2025 https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/volunteer-tourism-global-business-report-133500797.html

[5] Volunteer Tourism Market Decade Long Trends, Analysis … https://www.archivemarketresearch.com/reports/volunteer-tourism-market-7751

[6] The European market potential for volunteer and … https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/tourism/volunteer-and-educational-tourism/market-potential

[7] Volunteer Tourism Market Size & Share Forecasts https://www.fundamentalbusinessinsights.com/industry-report/volunteer-tourism-market-13216

[8] Purposeful travel in 2025: The changing face of voluntourism https://fooddrinklife.com/volunteer-tourism/

[9] Volunteer Tourism https://www.marketresearch.com/Global-Industry-Analysts-v1039/Volunteer-Tourism-41409685/

[10] Voluntourism – Tourism and Travel: A Research Guide https://guides.loc.gov/tourism-and-travel/voluntourism

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AI is radically transforming the B2B sales landscape and accelerating the shift towards intelligent sales enablement. At a major B2B event which took place in Paris in July 2025, I met with Stephane Renger, co-founder and managing director of Salesapps. The leading European sales enablement vendor has placed AI at the heart of its innovation strategy. In this interview conducted at the event, Stephane explains how AI agents are revolutionising commercial efficiency whilst maximising security and privacy. A fascinating dive into the future of AI-powered sales enablement that’s redefining commercial performance standards.

AI Saves Time for Sales and Marketing TeamsAI-powered sales enablement : Stephane Renger is the co-founder and General Manager of European sales enablement company Salesapps.How is AI transforming sales enablement and sales in general?Stephane Renger: At Salesapps, we’re working on AI agents with the goal of bringing greater efficiency to sales teams, while maximising data privacy and security.

Specifically, what do these AI agents do?S.R. We developed three types of intelligent agents for our AI-powered sales enablement solution.

1. The ‘company profiler‘ AI agent analyses the targeted business regarding its strengths, weaknesses, products, competition, news…,
2. The ‘individual profiler’ agent describes the buyer’s profile: background, interests, pain points… Then we use content enrichment agents with metadata to generate sales presentations and pitches,
3. Finally, our ‘conversational agent’ restructures meeting minutes and reports.

Once again, this major B2B event took place in the prestigious premises of the Parc des Princes in Paris, with a focus on AI-powered sales enablement.What are the efficiency gains from the implementation of AI within sales enablement? S.R. They are quite blatant, mainly in terms of time savings. Thanks to AI, salespeople quickly access information that used to take hours to research.

For a complete sales team, there is at least 20% time saving, which equates to one working day every week. Marketing teams and content managers can save up to 50% of their time.

Is this an opportunity for getting rid of salespeople? S.R. No, it’s not. Salespeople only spend one third of their time actually selling. Two thirds are devoted to paperwork, CRM, preparation. Automation frees up their time from what isn’t their core business.

Are certain sales roles more threatened than others?S.R. It depends mainly on the products being sold. The buyer only spends 5% of their time with the salesperson, 80% of the purchasing process happens on the web. So the remaining 5% must involve a complex buying process to require human intervention. In other cases, self-service is way sufficient, even in B2B.

In a nutshell, Sales Enablement becomes AI-Powered Sales?S. R. For the past two years, we’ve been talking more about ‘AI-powered sales enablement’ than traditional Sales Enablement. This concept is more immediately understandable and evokes innovation in the commercial approach. Worthy of note, for English-speaking markets, we keep that term ‘sales enablement’, but for French-speaking markets, ‘Modern Selling’ is the term of choice. It is more meaningful, especially when discussing AI agent integration, for French-speaking audiences who do not always understand the word ‘enablement’.

What can you tell us about reliability and security concerns?S.R. Classic AI models, be it Gemini, ChatGPT, or others are used to research public information. If I want to know who you are or what your company does, there’s nothing better than such a tool that will browse the web, LinkedIn, and other sources to obtain this information. But if I want to process proprietary information, an internal document database, some meeting minutes, an internal conversation, etc., we must ensure data privacy and security at all cost. In this case, we’d rather work with on-premise language models that we can monitor end-to-end. We’ll feed them with this internal information and secure that information.

What are your views regarding the future of AI-powered Sales Enablement?S.R. It’s very difficult to predict the future even three to six months from now. Our focus revolves around artificial intelligence. Its performance is increasingly impressive and prices more affordable. Right now, I’m particularly focused on sales coaching and training, and commercial skills development. Simulation and capturing a real-life interview in audio is already possible, but video is still relatively expensive, almost €50 per hour. With the lightning-fast progress in synthetic voices and images, I’m convinced that within three to six months, we’ll be able to offer much more advanced technologies at prices that will allow widespread distribution of this type of agent to sales populations and businesses.

In Conclusion: The AI-Powered Sales RevolutionThese past ten years, Visionary Marketing has written quite a few pieces and white papers on the subject of Sales Enablement. Since then, technological progress and sales team transformation have been lightning fast. This interview with Stephane Renger perfectly illustrates this profound transformation of the sales domain.

AI-powered sales enablement is now fully operational, and this technology is redefining commercial efficiency. The productivity gains quoted by Salesapps — 20% for sales teams, 50% for marketing teams — are a sign that something serious is happening now.

What struck me at this major B2B event in Paris, was the profound transformation of the market offering in this domain. A few years ago, this side of the water, many Sales Enablement vendors were present, either international or local. In just a couple of years, Salesapps* established itself as the undisputed leader in this sales enablement market in French-speaking countries and is now conquering other markets.

The future looks exciting: between conversational AI agents, personalised coaching, and predictive analysis, tomorrow’s salesperson will have tools at her disposal of unmatched power. We haven’t yet seen the end of the evolution of the sales function, and digital technologies are playing a major role in this upheaval.

[*Disclosure: Visionary Marketing worked for Salesapps in 2022]

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Are AI and developers the world’s best friends or is artificial intelligence a threat to the future of programmers? As artificial intelligence models are becoming increasingly sophisticated, many questions are raised about the future of developers across the industry. Will AI replace programmers entirely, as Eric Schmidt and Dario Amodei are predicting? Will junior developers be facing extinction, as Steve Yegge surmised in a now-famous blog post? Or are we witnessing the dawn of a new era in which technology amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it? I interviewed Nathaniel Okenwa, Developer Evangelist at Twilio, to pick his brains about this question, and his conclusion is that, in the future, software development will undoubtedly remain human-driven even though many changes will occur. The video recording of that interview is available at the end of this blog post.

Developers and AI: the Path to the Future of CodingWith nearly a decade of hands-on programming experience and a unique perspective on developer community engagement, Nathaniel Okenwa brought both technical depth and strategic insight to this conversation about the evolving landscape of software development.

Spreading the Gospel of Developer Tools“My parents celebrated when I got that job title of developer evangelist,” Okenwa said. “I speak and meet with developers, online or in person, and I talk about the tools and the technologies they’re using. A part of this job is being with the community and then spreading the good news of Twilio as well.”

AI and programmers, a love-hate relationship? — image antimuseum.comFor those unfamiliar with the company, “Twilio is a customer engagement platform and one of the providers helping businesses with their customer support, communication tools, and APIs.”

The Junior Developer DilemmaThe elephant in the room for the Tech industry is the fate of junior developers. Steve Yegge’s provocative piece ‘The Death of the Junior Developer’ has sparked intense debate, suggesting that AI won’t make inexperienced developers smarter but will enable experienced programmers to eliminate the need for juniors altogether. A daunting perspective for young programmers.

Nathaniel offers a more nuanced perspective that challenges this binary thinking .

Often, a company doesn’t hire junior developers for their current capabilities. They recruit them because they’re investing in what they will become in the future. Junior developers need to exist if we are going to have mid-level senior developers, developer leaders, and architects at a later time.

Nathaniel is right. Programming isn’t just about syntax and algorithms; it’s about developing problem-solving instincts, understanding business contexts, and learning to translate human needs into technological solutions.

‘If you want to create the next generation of builders, then I don’t think junior developers are going to disappear in the long term. We may forget how important they are for a little bit, but they will definitely make a comeback later on.’

The Eric Schmidt Prophecy: Six Months to Obsolescence?The urgency of these questions intensified when Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Alphabet, made bold predictions about the timeline for developer displacement. His assertion that developers would be reduced to merely correcting AI output within six months and potentially eliminated entirely within a year sent shivers down the spines of the programming community.

Nathaniel acknowledges the partial truth in Schmidt’s predictions while advocating for a more sophisticated understanding of what developers do. “I think there are elements of truth in it, but I think the situation is a bit more nuanced. AI is, in my mind, another Industrial Revolution. In this context, it means we’ll be looking for repeatable tasks that are extremely simple and how to replace them with technology.”

AI and developers: programming isn’t just about writing code, it’s about solving business issues — image of a banker in a large banking institution antimuseum.comThe industrial revolution analogy is particularly apt here. Just as mechanisation didn’t eliminate human work but transformed it, AI appears poised to reshape rather than replace programming roles. “I think AI is going to take some aspects of programming and make them so cheap from an effort perspective that it’s not necessarily going to be the best use of people’s time. However, I think developers aren’t just folks that are repeatedly solving minor syntax sentences. They are creative builders coming up with different ways of taking a real-world problem and abstracting it into technology pieces.”

AI and Developers: The Abstraction LadderOne of the most compelling aspects of Nathaniel’s perspective is his emphasis on abstraction as the key to understanding how AI will transform development work. Rather than replacing developers, AI represents another rung on the abstraction ladder that programmers have been climbing for decades.

Right now, I can use my programming skills to build a website and serve it to millions of people on the Internet. Thirty or forty years ago, I would have needed a whole set of different skills to make that happen. I would have needed so many more hardware skills and so many more specific high-level networking skills. And all of those things have been abstracted away for me to really focus on making this website really fast and performant.

This historical perspective illuminates a pattern that AI-anxious people are missing. Each generation of developers has built upon increasingly sophisticated foundations, allowing them to tackle more complex problems without getting bogged down in lower-level implementation details.

AI, the printing press and developers. A brilliant analogy by Twilio’s Nathaniel Okenwa — image produced with MidjourneyThe printing press analogy further clarifies this progression: “If we think about the printing press, at first you needed to have lots of people who would sit down and handwrite a book in order for you to make 100 copies. The printing press came around, and the amount of effort and skills to achieve that shrunk considerably. But you still needed someone who could run that printing press.”

The Inconvenient Truth: Not Everyone AscendsHowever, this progression toward higher abstraction levels raises uncomfortable questions about inclusivity and capability. Not every developer possesses the intellectual agility to continuously climb the abstraction ladder, and there’s value in acknowledging this reality.

Nathaniel addresses this concern with characteristic optimism while maintaining realism. “I suppose there will always be people who remain comfortable doing what they are doing in the ways they are doing it. But with technology making so many more different things available, what’s going to happen is users, customers, and the general public are all going to expect more from our technologies and from us.”

The market forces driving this evolution are relentless. As AI enables higher-quality experiences at scale, customer expectations rise accordingly, creating pressure on all technology providers to evolve or risk irrelevance.

“The folks who aren’t meeting these higher standards of experiences will not be able to deliver the value that their customers and employers are expecting from them. If they don’t continue to meet that bar of expectation that is growing higher and higher, especially as AI helps people to develop new ways of doing this, they will be left behind.”

The Digital Transformation ParadoxThis raises an interesting paradox about digital transformation that I’ve observed throughout my career in technology consulting. Thirty years ago, we predicted that traditional industries like banking would be disrupted by digital-native competitors. Yet established banks have largely survived, adapting gradually while maintaining their market positions.

Nathaniel offers an insightful perspective on this seeming contradiction: “It didn’t kill banks, but I would argue that even if maybe they took a while to get there, the way we interact with our banks is completely different from the way we interacted with banks when we were younger. There are 18-year-olds who have no idea what a chequebook is.”

The transformation happened, but more gradually and less dramatically than predicted. This pattern suggests that AI’s impact on development may follow a similar trajectory—profound but evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

The GitHub Co-pilot Paradigm: Integration Over ReplacementPerhaps the most practical insight from our conversation concerns how AI tools are being adopted by developers. The success of GitHub Copilot and similar tools demonstrates that integration beats replacement as an adoption strategy.

“Sometimes there are engineers who are reluctant to use AI or don’t want to go out of their way to bring AI into their workflows. But when Copilot came out, when other tools that have that technology built into the applications, the interfaces they are already using, the adoption increases significantly.”

This observation reveals a crucial truth about technology adoption: the most successful innovations enhance existing workflows rather than demanding entirely new ones. The future of development tools lies not in replacing programmers but in making them more effective within familiar environments.

The Copy-Paste ContinuumOne of the most honest moments in our conversation addressed the reality of code reuse – something every developer practises but few discuss openly. The fear that AI will turn programmers into mindless copy-paste operators misses the historical context of how developers have always worked.

“Copying and pasting has been an integral part of the engineer’s journey for decades, and it’s not going anywhere soon. Even if we are copying and pasting from a different place, and even if we are no longer using Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, we have always been learning from the code that others write.”

The key distinction lies not in the source of solutions but in the developer’s understanding of what they’re implementing. “The real issue is that of developers who go and find a solution online and copy and paste it without understanding what is going on. Now, if people do that with AI, they may create a black box, and that’s going to be great when it works. But when it doesn’t, when you receive a phone call in the middle of the night, and that production’s gone down, that’s a different kettle of fish. Having a black box is not going to be something that a huge company, a huge enterprise, is going to want to rely on.”

The COBOL Conundrum: Legacy Systems and Human ResistanceOur conversation touched on one of the most persistent challenges in enterprise software: the prevalence of legacy systems built in languages like COBOL that have resisted modernisation for decades. This serves as a fascinating case study in the relationship between technological possibility and human decision-making.

I think we underestimate the power of people. People are sometimes afraid of change. They sometimes want to rely on what has worked for years. And so, even if AI presents a great solution, it’s going to be people who decide whether to take it on board or not.

This observation cuts to the heart of why technological predictions often prove overly optimistic. Technical feasibility doesn’t guarantee adoption, and institutional inertia remains a powerful force in shaping the pace of change.

Advice for the Next Generation of developersFor students and emerging developers wondering how to navigate this uncertain landscape, Nathaniel offers pragmatic guidance that emphasises exploration.

“The first thing is to explore and experiment. Experiment with the new technologies. Find out what those new job titles are going to be and chart the path to become an expert. Either a specialist in using AI as a tool, or an expert in creating AI, or an expert in maximising its performance, or an expert in building the tools that AI will use.”

Nathaniel’s emphasis on APIs is particularly noteworthy: “APIs are nothing new. The better your API, the better the AI agents that will resort to it.” This suggests that developers who understand how to build AI-friendly interfaces will find themselves increasingly valuable.

Most importantly, he advocates for focusing on uniquely human contributions: “Don’t just focus on the typical tasks a junior developer is asked to do because AI can do them really well. Instead, focus on the ways that you can bring a unique twist to your solution.”

AI and Developers: Embracing Change While Staying HumanAs our conversation with Nathaniel Okenwa demonstrates, the future of developers isn’t about choosing between human programmers and AI systems—it’s about understanding how these technologies can work together to solve increasingly complex problems. The most successful developers will be those who embrace AI as a powerful tool while focusing on the uniquely human aspects of software development: creativity, problem-solving, and the ability to translate human needs into technological solutions.

In a sense Nathaniel’s advice isn’t that different from Steve Yegge’s. You’ll have to become an expert to make good use of AI; it’s not artificial intelligence that will turn you into an expert.

Rather than fearing obsolescence, developers should view this moment as an opportunity to evolve, much as previous generations adapted to new programming languages, frameworks, and paradigms. The future belongs to those who can harness AI’s capabilities while providing the human insight, creativity, and understanding that no algorithm can replicate.

The future of developers isn’t about replacement—it’s about enhancement, evolution, and the continued pursuit of building technology that serves human needs. In that mission, developers remain not just relevant but essential.

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How is GenAI being used in communications today? GenAI has quickly become a key tool in public relations and communications. Helping professionals write faster, brainstorm easier and stay on top of tight deadlines. This article looks at how GenAI is being used in PR today, the power, pitfalls and potential, and why it’s important to adopt it thoughtfully—with clear guidelines, training, and a strong understanding that human judgment and creativity still lead the way.

The Power and Potential of GenAI in the PR ToolkitGenAI can be a useful tool for communication professionals—Image generated with ChatGPTThe power and potential of GenAI in the PR toolkit. In the quick changing world of GenAI adoption, different professions are undergoing shifts and progress in different ways. Today, I will be examining how these changes are manifesting in public relations. GenAI is no longer an idea of the future—it’s making its way into everyday work. Campaigns, press releases and brand voice guidelines. While the pace of adoption varies across the industry, the question is no longer if PR teams will use GenAI, but how well they’ll manage to utilize this new tool.

This piece explores how GenAI is being used in PR, what it offers, and—maybe more importantly—what important steps must be taken with adoption. As with any new technology, it’s not just about what GenAI can do, but about what it might cause us to stop doing.

GenAI’s Power in CommunicationsIt’s easy to grasp why GenAI tools have found a foothold in PR. The work is built around deadlines, deliverables and the often unseen labor of researching media contacts and building communication strategies on tight timelines. Cutting hours off the writing process by automating tedious tasks is tempting.

Not surprisingly, the use of GenAI within PR has jumped tremendously. According to Muck Rack’s 2025 report, “The State of AI in PR,” 75% of PR professionals reported using generative AI in their workflows in 2024, a substantial rise from previous years. However, 50% of respondents shared that their companies do not have AI use case policies.

The use of GenAI by PR professionals is happening across tasks. Drafting press releases, putting together pitches, and generating social media content, all are eased with the help of GenAI. It has become a critical tool for assistance in overcoming writer’s block and enhancing productivity. There’s no denying GenAI’s effectiveness, but there is something to be said for taking a carful and cautious approach.

How is GenAI being used in communications today?—Image generated with ChatGPTLearning to Maximize GenAI How much do we really know about GenAI? Have we been given the information to maximize utilization? Learning to apply this tool in an effective and ethical way is paramount for developing as professionals and creatives in the GenAI age.

Director of the Immersive Media Communication Master’s Program at the University of Oregon, Donna Davis, spoke on this, saying, “It’s really important that we’re teaching our students how to responsibly, ethically, effectively and efficiently use AI. And it’s really important that students understand their responsibility as editor, proofreader, fact checker, because AI is known to make errors, or even ‘hallucinate’.”

“It’s really important that we’re teaching our students how to responsibly, ethically, effectively and efficiently use AI.”

Learning to properly use this tool will become critical for the PR profession—and likely for others, too. Reluctance to adapt has the potential to lead to the irrelevance many fear. However, education on efficient and ethical use of GenAI does not share the same adoption trend. Muck Rack’s survey found that 35% of PR professionals say their companies offer AI training—up from 21% in 2024. While these numbers cannot compare with the adoption rate, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

Don’t Forget You’re in ChargeThe power of having GenAI in your toolkit is unquestionable, but it can’t solve everything. The human touch in PR remains an irreplaceable foundation. Building relationships, understanding nuanced contexts, and exercising ethical judgment are aspects where human professionals excel and machines don’t.

The integration of GenAI into PR practices offers a variety of benefits, but it also requires a strategic approach to ensure that the technology enhances rather than undermines the profession’s core values. Organizations should feel the pressure to develop clear policies and provide training to guide the ethical and effective adoption of AI tools.

GenAI in PR is a Tool—Not a ReplacementUndoubtedly, GenAI is a powerful asset in the PR toolkit, offering efficiency and support in content creation. However, the essence of public relations—building trust, fostering relationships, and conveying authentic narratives—remains a distinctly human endeavor. So don’t forget you’re the one in charge, GenAI is just a tool.

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How does GenAI compare to human-created content? In this article, I explore the strengths and weaknesses of GenAI content by comparing my own article to a rewritten version provided to me by ChatGPT. While GenAI is a powerful tool for organizing and presenting information, it is not yet suitable for fostering deep engagement and critical reflection. The production of concise, quick content lacks the human thought process and examination of information that invites readers into critically engaging with material. As AI continues to evolve, it is important we evaluate the merit of speed and simplicity over the nuanced process of human experience and thought.

Who Wrote This? Can ChatGPT Rewrite A Better Article?How does GenAI compare to human-created content?—Image generated with ChatGPTIs GenAI a formidable challenge for journalists? Can you spot the difference in an article written by a human vs. a computer? It’s a troubling thought to consider. But in the face of GenAI becoming a mainstream tool, those questions have become increasingly more valid. As someone learning and navigating this new age of AI content, I decided to test GenAI in an experimental comparison.

On this blog, we provide 100% human-written content, the use of ChatGPT in this article is for experimental purposes, to evaluate GenAI’s ability to rewrite an original text it has been given.

The Experiment—GenAI RewriteI asked ChatGPT to rewrite one of my own pieces. I wanted to see just how well an AI language model could interpret, mimic and recreate the human voice. My original piece explored the adoption of AI search engines over traditional ones through the consideration of various opinions.

I tasked ChatGPT with rewriting the article under these guidelines: No text from the original piece can be present. The article must be structured in the tone of voice of a blog post and must be written as ChatGPT thinks it should have been originally. Additionally, I gave ChatGPT the context of its own position and skill level within the requested task. I set these guidelines with the intention of directing ChatGPT to the result I was looking for, its best attempt at rewriting my article as passable human content.

I’ll admit the result was impressive, so much so, it was slightly off-putting. But additionally, it felt as if something was missing. In this post, I will compare the result given to me by ChatGPT and my original article: what worked, what didn’t and what AI’s interpretation says about the evolving nature of GenAI content.

Human-Created Content My reflection on the adoption of AI search engines over traditional ones expanded on the opinions and perspectives of tech journalists Kevin Roose, Matteo Wong and Joanna Stern. Each brought different levels of adoption and a variety of pros and cons.

Human writing shares personal experience and thought—Image generated with ChatGPTI aimed to deepen the conversation surrounding their thoughts, pointing out contradictions, raising new questions and reflecting on my own use and thoughts of AI search engines. I quoted poignant aspects I felt captured both sides of the argument, leaving the reader open to form their own opinion on whether the state of adoption was something of concern or curiosity. In an effort to open the conversation, I did my best to find a balance of benefits and drawbacks, as well as discussing how these points interacted, keeping a casual and thoughtful tone.

If you’re interested in reading the original article, it is linked here.

ChatGPT Results So, what did ChatGPT give me? In 15 seconds or less, ChatGPT presented me with a polished, structured blog post examining Kevin Roose, Matteo Wong and Joanna Stern’s thoughts on the adoption of AI search engines. It opened with a hook, declaring, “AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others are beginning to challenge the status quo.” After, it moved quickly along to the summary of each journalist’s perspective.

Following the summaries, there was a “My Take” portion where it rewrote my personal experience with the AI tools. Afterward, ending with an eerily similar but condensed version of my conclusion, including some figures of adoption from the original article.

What Was There and What Was Missing How does GenAI compare to human-created content? The writing was clear, concise and easily digestible—ideal for a blog post. But as I read through this generated version, immediately it was noticeably abbreviated in terms of information and thought. The rewrite was too neat. Yes, it covered the overall points made in each article, but it lacked the deeper engagement with the text. There were no moments of reflection, quotations of the source material or further exploration. Each line was presented as a simple fact.

GenAI doesn’t like to admit it does not know— Image generated by ChatGPTOne of the key aspects ChatGPT could not seem to grasp was the ambiguity of the situation. In every way I tried to push critical examination of the situation, ChatGPT went the opposite direction, seemingly providing the answer in an almost complete way. This avoidance of uncertainty left no space for the reader to wonder—not a second to consider a question or contemplate the situation.

Comparison of Matteo WongBelow, I have included two excerpts, both coming from the introduction of the reflection on Matteo Wong’s opinion. The first is pulled from my original article, followed by the rewrite provided to me by ChatGPT.

“Roose is far from the only one to have concerns about the growing popularity of AI. The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong placed a heavy critique on AI in his article “The Death of Search.” Wong’s piece focused less on the way in which a person uses AI and more on the way that AI changes our relationship with information. In his view, the concern is not AI’s credibility or factuality—those issues could be fixed as systems evolve—but the loss of an exploratory model of search. When people stop engaging critically with information, they lose the ability to evaluate and explore their own curiosity.” —Clover Meyer

“In a more critical tone, The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong explored what AI search might cost us beyond convenience. Wong’s concern? That AI could erode our natural curiosity. Traditional search encourages exploration. We open tabs, compare viewpoints, and sometimes get pleasantly lost in the process. AI, on the other hand, delivers a single “answer” that can feel too definitive, too polished.”—ChatGPT

How to Tell the DifferenceIt’s impressive, right? I would say the key points are there, but the space to consider what you have just read is missing. So, how does GenAI compare to human-created content? The difference between human writing and GenAI content is the undeniable aspect of personal experience and thought. The element of curiosity and self-doubt cannot be manufactured by a machine. ChatGPT’s rewrite was certainly something; I’d even say it was competent, well-structured and informative. But it failed to include the depth of reflection and consideration. It didn’t invite the reader into the larger conversation that was happening, it simply delivered the facts, neatly packaged.

What I Took Away To me, this is the key takeaway. While GenAI is an excellent tool for organizing and presenting information, it still lacks the capacity for true engagement. It can’t think through material the way a human can.

While GenAI is an excellent tool for organizing and presenting information, it still lacks the capacity for true engagement. It can’t think through material the way a human can.

As GenAI continues to evolve, we’ll need to assess the value we place on the examination and scrutiny of information. What do we want from the content we consume? Do we prefer fast, simplified answers that condense a line of thought into a sentence, or do we still value the messy, unpredictable, and human process of exploration?

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While many claim that GenAI is a legal no man’s land, Aurore Sauviat, a lawyer dedicated to working with creatives and advertising agencies, brings clarity to the issues of IP rights and GenAI use. While there are many questions about IP and the use of GenAI, Aurore Sauviat, a partner at Lawderis Avocats, explained to Visionary Marketing, there is no such thing as a legal loophole and answers are out there. Does creating with AI necessarily lead to forgery? Do we have the right to commercially exploit GenAI results? Can I claim copyright over what I have created using generative artificial intelligence tools, not to mention questions of image rights for individuals, living or dead? And finally, who is responsible if an AI chatbot makes mistakes? Aurore addressed the topic of copyright, image rights and liability issues in the use of AI, providing clear answers. Reassuring professionals who shudder at the thought of pressing the return key after entering their prompts. Aurore’s answer: GenAI is definitely not the legal no man’s land that laymen think it is.

IP Rights and GenAI: There is No Legal No Man’s LandGenAI is not a legal no man’s land! Aurore Sauviat explained to us – image produced with Midjourney and our personalised creative mode (I didn’t record myself on video while generating it, but rest assured, I always keep track of all the iterations)IP rights, copyright and GenAIAurore Sauviat warned us: “One reads a lot of misconceptions in the media and on social platforms. There is such a lack of understanding of copyright issues that people are mixing up subjects that have nothing to do with one another.” On the one hand, it’s about the liberties taken by publishers of AI solutions to train their algorithms, and on the other hand, how these tools are used to produce content and images in particular.

AI training by publishers“There are already 50 lawsuits in progress in the United States on this subject and a couple in the UK. These disputes are beginning to surface around Europe, with a few in Germany and a new one in France.”

Aurore Sauviat has shed light on the role of Copyright in AI creations by mentioning 3 of the most frequently asked questions on the subject.While most users and authors might think that the scraping of content and works of art by GenAI platforms equates to pure and simple intellectual property theft, the underlying question of IP rights is far less straightforward, the lawyer explained to Visionary Marketing.

Artificial intelligence platforms are indeed resorting to “certain exceptions in copyright law that allow you not to ask permission from the creator in specific cases.” This is known as “fair use” in the USA.

Definition of fair use in the USA

Fair use permits a party to use a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.

Copyright Alliance, “What is Fair Use“

Discussions of this topic have led to multiple emerging lawsuits, but, “they are extremely fragmented because they relate to very specific disputes,” explains Aurore. Be that as it may, Aurore states, “the position adopted by AI publishers is not to pay for what they have ‘scraped’ and to use another exception in Europe. This is the “text and data mining” (TDM) exception, which was introduced by Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright in the digital single market (DSM).

This exception was “unfortunately created in a 2019 copyright directive,” explains Aurore.

At that time, LLMs had not yet been widely adopted. Negotiations initiated by the major content producers, the “majors” SACEM and its German counterpart (GEMA) did not result in an agreement on remuneration for creators whose works had been used without authorization. The reason why these negotiations were unsuccessful, explains the legal expert, is that the “aim of AI publishers is not to pay or to pay as late as possible.”

Does using a tool that infringes copyright make you a thief?Just because you have used a tool that has infringed copyright does not mean that you have “automatically infringed copyright,” explains Aurore. “Because the notion of infringement is not assessed in a general way,” and this explains why authors find it very difficult to assert their rights.

As long as you use an artificial intelligence tool to create, using a genuine creative process and produce a result that does not resemble existing physical works of art that can be named, denominated, or specifically identified, then you are not infringing copyright.

You can imagine how difficult it is for artists and content creators to assert rights that are ultimately quite fragile and which, moreover, are not protected at the same speed as that which governs technological innovation. Incidentally, this also applies to us, professional content creators, who have been feeding the Internet for 30 years.

Copyright and commercial use of “works” produced with AI?There’s the upstream copyright issue, but there’s also the downstream issue: “When I integrate artificial intelligence tools into my workflows, can I, firstly, make commercial use of them, and secondly, can I claim copyright?”

These are still “issues that are wrongly mixed up,” insists Aurore.

General conditions: read the small printYou can potentially claim commercial exploitation without being protected by copyright. So the answer to the above question is an enigmatic “it depends.”

It depends on the terms and conditions of use for the tools that you used. Many of these tools have been made available in freemium mode. Aurore therefore urges us to “read the general terms and conditions of use carefully, because free use does not freely, if at all, allow the results produced to be used commercially.” In some cases, a watermark should be affixed. This was the method chosen by Adobe at the time of the launch of Adobe Firefly in 2023. But as far as I know, these watermarks have since been abandoned.

Law and AI: an image produced with Adobe Firefly in July 2023. The watermark has since disappearedLaw and AI: Claiming copyright for AI?Second question, separate from the first, “Can I claim copyright on what I’ve created using an artificial intelligence tool?” Here again, the answer is “It depends on the originality of your creation,” explains Aurore.

“Legally, this means that your creation bears witness to the imprint of an author’s personality.” The case law legal language can be explained like so. It means that you are able to demonstrate all of your creative choices. Aurore, who works exclusively with creatives, explains that “when creatives use AI to generate something, it’s not with a simple sentence, a prompt, a quick result exploited directly. On the contrary, they work upstream, making sketches, creating moodboards, reflecting on their work and proceeding iteratively. Finally, they also work on post-production, correcting the raw results produced by the AI. What’s more, they don’t give any brand elements to the AI; they integrate them in post-production. “It is this whole creative process that demonstrates copyright and qualifies the imprint of a creator’s personality.”

Below are some examples of brands integrating GenAI into their ad campaigns. Though the public reaction is less than enthusiastic, the companies seem to stand by their decision.

The Chamonix in 2025 ad does mention the use of AI. The practice is pretty good from a legal and AI point of view, but that hasn’t stopped the bad buzzDespite the major differences between copyright and authors’ rights, the situation between France and the United States is not very different, explains Aurore.

The only difference with the United States is that on the other side of the Atlantic, copyright is registered. When you create a work, you submit it to the US Copyright Office and they tell you straight away whether it’s ‘copyrightable’ or not.

Here, the situation is reversed. Legally, in France, you hold copyright as soon as you materialize your work. And it’s only when there’s a legal dispute over plagiarism that you’re going to have to prove that, on the one hand, you own the copyright and, on the other hand, that the work is original and not plagiarized.

To conclude, if you are a creative, it is your responsibility to “document your creative process and keep evidence of that process. Proof of the creative process can then be used to claim copyright on what you have created using artificial intelligence.”

Always document the creative process, this evidence can be used to claim copyright.

AI and image rightsSimilar to claiming copyright, is the topic of AI and image rights. What happens when I decide to exploit the image rights of natural persons, when using AI?

This can occur in voice cloning, the re-use of someone’s image, or personality attributes, whether they are alive or dead. The question from Aurore’s clients is “do I have the right to do this?” For once, the answer is much simpler, the legal expert tells us. “It’s not a grey area at all.”

“As long as you are alive and your permission has not been sought, you can object to the use of your image, your voice, your attitude, the way you walk, your name and surname.”

This is what happened with Scarlett Johansson and the voice of OpenAI. Sam Altman, a big fan of the film Her, asked Johansson to use her voice for the voice of OpenAI. She refused. Altman therefore recreated her voice using AI, however, as the actress was still alive, “she objected to the immensely similar replication of her voice.”

Under the pressure of the bad buzz, OpenAI backed down. But legally, they could have had an argument to use the generated voice because it was in fact the synthesized voice of another human being, even though it replicated Scarlett Johansson’s.

Open-bar for the deceased!For deceased celebrities, it’s a completely different story. “As soon as you die, you no longer have any personality rights and your heirs don’t get those rights back either.”

If a celebrity dies, anyone can reuse their image for advertising and promotion. That’s why over the years we’ve seen Gandhi selling Microsoft, cars, or Einstein and Marilyn Monroe selling us pizzas. Even if the usage of artificial intelligence in this way offends the public, it’s not breaking the law.

The case of deepfakesThen there’s the subject of deepfakes. Everyone thinks it’s forbidden. But it’s not as simple as that.

“Deepfake itself is not banned at all, as it is subject to the principle of freedom of expression.”

A deepfake can therefore be used to create a satirical political cartoon. This type of usage has been going on for a long time, the legal expert confirms. Canteloup fans know it.

“The first constraint is that you have to mention that you are doing deepfake,” explains Aurore, and that “you have reused an AI tool to regenerate someone’s image or voice.” The second constraint is “not to undermine public order.” In fact, over 90% of deepfakes are generated in cases of “revenge porn” or for pornographic purposes.

Beyond these limits, deepfakes are allowed.

AI and liabilityHaving plenty of experience with companies in the events sector, Aurore covers AI and liability in the final use case. This is particularly important if you are implementing chatbots as part of your business.

Am I responsible for what AI says?Put simply, the answer is yes, explains the lawyer.

The responsibility can not fall on AI, because it’s neither a natural nor a legal person. Aurore explains, “they’re just providing you with a tool, and you’re responsible for how you use it.” Just as you wouldn’t sue Nikon if you took an illegal photo with a Nikon camera, you can’t sue the publisher of your AI chatbot either.

In conclusion, AI is not a No Man’s Land!To conclude, Aurore reassured us: “AI is by no means the Wild West.” Legal experts have plenty of answers for you.

“There is a significant body of texts in copyright law, consumer law, on the Influencer Act and the famous AI Act, which allows us to provide answers.” Moving forward, Aurore urges us to “adopt AI tools for [our] businesses, if [we] [want to].”

But this conversation also warns us about the need for legal certainty in order to enable these technologies and implement them in a way that is healthy for our businesses.

AI and the law: it’s not a legal Wild West – Aurore’s presentation at Com’ en Or DayWe also invite you to watch our presentation at this event on March 20, 2025

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How has sports officiating evolved over the past century, and what is the next step in the evolution of sports? Officials, or referees, are a crucial component of many sports, but are they really all that trustworthy? Can AI do a better job than humans, or are they prone to glitches and miscalculations? The history of AI in sports may date back further than you think. In this article we will be discussing the flaws of human refereeing and how AI can massively impact the world of sports for the better.

AI and the Future of Sports Officiating: Smarter, Faster, FairerThis photo shows what the future of AI in the NBA may look like. This photo was made using ChatGPT.AI in SportsAs a sports fan, there is nothing more infuriating than watching your favorite sports team lose because of a controversial call that an official has made. Now imagine a world where referees are able to make exactly the right call every single time.

AI has the power to do this and to completely change sports officiating. While technological advancements are being made and AI becomes increasingly powerful, the world of sports is changing for the better. Although AI has a long way to come, it is already making changes to how different sports are being officiated.

Why Sports Officiating Needs a Tech UpgradeTraditional officiating depends solely on human judgement; this in turn leads to mistakes, fatigue, and subconscious bias. An AI officiating system could hyper-analyze games, maximize correct calls, and make completely objective decisions.

Many sports we know are extremely fast-paced and critical moments happen down to the millisecond. With an upgraded AI system, extensive amounts of data would be processed almost instantly, giving our referees every detail they need to make the correct decisions.

With data-backed rulings, fans can trust that our new and improved officials do not have any bias and that verdicts are solely objective. This will help with controversy issues as well as promote fair competition.

Being a sports official is not an easy job whatsoever. In England, 22% of football match officials have reported experiencing verbal abuse on a weekly basis. What’s even more shocking is that 19% of officials reported being physically assaulted.

The human eye can only see so much, and when athletes and balls are moving everywhere, it can be hard to keep up. Apparatus with multiple camera and video systems can use predictive modeling to make challenging, precise calls, such as offsides in soccer or close line judgements in American football.

Real World ExampleHuman referees at the end of the day are humans, and they have feelings. If someone or something upsets them, this can cause them to make calls that are not fair to the game.

Imagine flying across the country to your first ever NBA game to watch your favorite player get ejected from the game because of something as insignificant as laughing. Yup, in 2007, NBA player Tim Duncan was ejected from a basketball game because he was laughing.

This is an example of a sports official letting emotions get the best of him.

This image is made to look like the Hawk-Eye used in professional tennis matches. Made using ChatGPT.History of AI in Sports OfficiatingArtificial intelligence’s tie to sports started in the early 1990s with American football teams using computer simulations to create game strategies and analyze player performance.

One of the first ever major uses of AI in sports, the Hawk-Eye (Hawk-Eye Innovations), made its debut in 2001 in a cricket match, using computer technology to track and predict the flight of the ball. Tennis later adapted a similar system to make close line calls in 2006.

In 2016 the first-ever VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system was employed in a professional football game and used to verify goals, penalties, and red cards. From InsideFIFA, “While full VAR systems are geared towards processing a larger number of camera feeds, VAR Light systems are centered around smaller broadcast set-ups, with a maximum of eight cameras and a reduced technical arrangement as well as fewer operational requirements in the video operation room (VOR).”

Recent yearsSemi-Automated offside technology launches in 2022 using 12 cameras to track players, their limbs, and ball movement. According to FIFA, “By combining the limb- and ball-tracking data and applying artificial intelligence, the new technology provides an automated offside alert to the video match officials inside the video operation room whenever the ball is received by an attacker who was in an offside position at the moment the ball was played by a team-mate.”

AI integration has come a long way, and many sports are taking advantage of these advancements. More recently, in 2023, the NBA partnered with Hawk-Eye technology to track in-game player movements and statistics such as speed and jump height.

Most world-recognized sports today use AI in some way or another, whether it be to make judgement calls or to analyze another team’s play style. AI is crucial to the evolution of sports.

This infographic shows the evolution of AI in sports officiating from the 1990s to 2023. Made using Napkin.AI’s Limitations and ControversiesAt the end of the day, every sports fan has their own sets of values and opinions; not everyone wants the same thing. Some people may be all for the rise of AI in sports, while others may feel like it’s taking away from the “human element” of the game.

Human referees provide an emotional and instinctual side to sports that AI may not be able to replicate just yet. Referees are able to use real-time judgement, as well as control the environment and speed of the game; this adds a bit of individuality to each and every game based on different referees.

AI might be less prone to errors than humans are, but is it really that reliable? Technical glitches and inaccuracies still can and do occur. Not too long ago, in a Premier League match, VAR lines were incorrectly drawn, causing the referee to call an incorrect offside call. This cost the kicking team a pivotal goal in the match.

With AI officiating, accountability becomes confusing, if the AI makes an error, who is to blame? When a human referee makes a bad call, they are responded to by boos from the crowd and players yelling at them. If an artificially intelligent system makes a mistake, where will the blame go—to, the programmers, the league, or the data? This can leave fans aggravated without somewhere to unleash their anger.

The Future: Will AI replace human refs?The idea of fully AI referees does not seem as crazy as it once may have. AI technology is growing at a very fast pace, but are we ready to fully replace referee?. A better question might be, should we fully replace referees?

The problem with fully replacing sports officials with AI is that there is more to being an official than calling fouls and making line judgements. A sports official’s job is to manage the game, something AI is not ready to do.

Sports officials communicate with the players, coaches, and stat keepers; they manage emotions, break up fights, and control the pace of the game.

What we can see in the future is a more mixed approach taking the pros of both human referees and AI-powered call-making. We have already seen this start to take place with implementations like the VAR or Hawk-Eye.

This mixed approach will allow AI to make clear-cut factual calls such as out-of-bounds, fouls, and offsides. The humans will make more judgement based calls, such as intentional fouls, and unsportsmanlike behavior, as well as manage the flow of the game.

This photo was made to represent a soccer referee looking at the VAR screen. This photo was made using PicLumen.ConclusionAs the future unfolds, AI will continue to grow and to become more powerful. There is a clear problem that needs solving, and that is that human referees need some help. Although an AI solution might cause problems or controversies, it has a lot of benefits as well.

While AI continues to help out different sports and different teams, it has a long way to come to replace our referees. The true objective is to make these sports more fair and safe, and AI might just be the answer. Sports officials and AI can and will be great teammates and change the future of sports for the better.

Check out our Business in Sports section for more articles.

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One learns change management lessons in the field rather than in books. Some time ago, I delivered a keynote at Like minds in Exeter. It was entitled “confessions of an intrapreneur.” It was made of these anecdotes and tips, which were all used to describe my preferred approach to change management. Here is the script of my presentation.

Change management Lessons: 9 tips for implementing changeChange management lessons: 9 tips for implementing change – Image created with MidjourneyChange management lessons synopsis: no slidesI have to apologise for having no slides for this presentation.

I tried to figure out a reason why I should add some but couldn’t go beyond the need to show a few nice pictures, I don’t believe that what I have to say – mostly derived from my day-to-day experience in these few years that I have worked – is worth being plonked into PowerPoint slides, it doesn’t add any value and besides, by refusing to show slides and pictures, I’m certain that I’ll get all your attention.

So here’s my presentation on change management lessons, without any slides.

The problem with the French“The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur” George W. Bush is reported to have said to Prime Minister Tony Blair during a discussion about the French economy. Although this is mostly hearsay and it is not proven that George W Bush actually said that, this Bushism has being recycled a great deal of times on the Internet and beyond.

But I am here to guarantee that this isn’t true; the word exists and we even have another word, intrapreneur, derived from the first, which describes those people who attempt new things in large organisations, implement change, move things forward; relentlessly …

I am such an intrapreneur and I like it. Maybe this is because I dreamed of being an entrepreneur and haven’t had the opportunity as yet. Regardless, change is part of my business life, I love to change things, I have always done, I will always do.

I believe it must be like my second nature. I can’t help it even though sometimes I think it would be a lot safer and more straightforward for me if I chose to let things be.

Intrapreneurs love to bridge the gap between thinkers, researchers, developers and those who run everyday business operations. Intrapreneurs are doers, they like getting things done, they like it when the rubber meets the road… I am like that too.

Scott Gould [one of the organisers and the co-founder of Like Minds] decided that I should make confessions about this need to launch new projects, push new boundaries, and implement new things for the large companies which I have worked for or with.

Yet, the word “confessions” – if I believe the Cambridge dictionary – means that one has done certain things wrong, committed a crime or a sin, and I’m not quite sure about that choice of words.

Granted, many a time, being an intrapreneur means that one fights against established rules, battle against resistance, overcome obstacles.

But intrapreneurs aren’t troublemakers, because true intrapreneurs always act for the common good.

I believe that the reason why I’m talking to you about this today is coming from an initial discussion at the Like Minds Summit at Bovey Castle in March 2010 with a few alumni, including our much-regretted friend Trey Pennington, to whom I would like to dedicate this presentation.

Our subject was “how to implement social media in enterprises” and I soon realised that my experience was shedding a different light on that topic because I am an insider, I did this for years on end, and whether it be with social media or any other thing doesn’t make a difference at all.

It’s more difficult to change things if you are in a big organisation. Setting up a blog for a small organisation is a no-brainer. You just go to wordpress.com and set up your space in a matter of minutes … you cannot do it exactly like that if you are the legal representative of a large company, mostly when it has gone public.

It’s more complex, there are rules to comply with and obstacles to overcome. It’s easier to stay from the outside and just issue recommendations. I know, because I too worked as a consultant for many years. And yet, it is also very frustrating because a consultant who issues recommendations is seldom the one who is commissioned to implement the change.

Lessons learned in change managementSo here is my confession, that is to say, a few lessons which I learned while implementing change and are my guiding rules for intrapreneurship. For each of these lessons, I will give you an example, if time allows.

Change Management Lessons – no. 1: change management begins with a prayerThe serenity prayer to be precise; which I first spotted in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five novel, when Billy Pilgrim has this sign posted above his desk in his office stating:

“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I believe it’s been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous too …

Anecdote: implementing the Sale Force Automation system at Unisys at the beginning of 1992 with my new boss who told me “OK for you to get the job, but don’t change anything about the method!”. So I didn’t, let the project fail, then proposed a new method, and succeeded in less than 4 months in implementing a new system throughout Europe. I didn’t choose to change what I couldn’t change, I just proposed the right solution at the right time, i.e. when and only when my boss realised that the old method wasn’t the right one. Besides, I didn’t have to criticise it, all I had to do was to put things right.

Change Management Lessons – no. 2: think big and start smallOne of the commonest mistakes is to try and change the whole world in one go… too fast, too big, too early.

Most people hate change, despite all the talk about innovation, letting sleeping dogs lie is reassuring, and change creates – in most people – anxiety, the fear that things may longer be as they were, the risk for them to become out of touch, to be left on the side, to be taken out of their own comfort zone and into the red zone (the zone in which people think that they are no longer in control, that they are losing touch, becoming incompetent and eventually … will be made redundant, even with no good reason).

Hence change has to be implemented step by step, starting little and getting bigger, in order for people to reassure themselves that they can be part of that change and not be threatened by it.

Anecdote: I am in the process of overhauling the orange.com website but our ambition goes way beyond that. What we aim at is the establishment of group-wide governance which will give more leeway to all our entities/countries while ensuring better consistency and maximising our Web IT spend. Although it’s a no-brainer, it would be stupid to start with the biggest websites, so we are slowly but surely adding small websites to our platform, therefore showing that our new Website factory is not a threat but a tool for all to benefit from.

Change Management Lesson no. 3: choose the path of least resistanceResistance to change is a staple of change management, so rather than confronting your detractors, it’s best to ignore them and circumvent the issue by working exclusively with the positive change agents that you can find. Therefore, there will be more than one person to advocate the change, and eventually, your detractors will follow in your footsteps when they realise you have succeeded and they can’t do otherwise.

If fights arise, I have found time and time again that refusing to confront people was the best way of getting rid of such issues. When the fight gets nasty and personal I go off on a tangent and do something else until the person tires and usually, they do.

The most aggressive ones usually make so many enemies for themselves that they either fall victim to their own aggressiveness or, eventually, they go somewhere else and make other people suffer, in search for other fights,
It’s best to concentrate on one’s work, one’s results, to be a professional, not to confront people and move ahead.

I must also emphasise that one must remain courteous and friendly, even with one’s worst enemies. Always shake hands, never attack them, remain positive: “(Matthew 5:39) But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Anecdote: when I worked for a large British Bank in the mid-1990s on the Internet strategy for the Bank and was interviewing people, I met some people who were initiating their own project. I proposed that they become part of the team and that we promote their project and use their idea as a driving force for our strategic change. They instead became aggressive and secretive, refused to share their ideas and findings, refrained from sharing their project, and eventually died with it. The Internet project – ours I mean – went on without them, they didn’t benefit from their advance, didn’t make any friends and didn’t help their company either. We didn’t have to confront them, they just shot themselves in the foot.

Change Management Lesson no. 4: set up an example for change managementIf you tell people that something’s good for them, they might well believe you if your power of persuasion is good, but if they actually see you do these things yourself, it’s even better.

Likewise, if you ask your boss to show the way, it will be even more powerful and will have – at least – two positive consequences. Your boss will end up being convinced and will support you even more in your endeavours. She will in her turn become an advocate of the change you wish to implement and will help you spread the word around.

Anecdote: when I started the Orange Business Services blogs in early 2008, not everyone was convinced. I started with a couple of change agents who helped me move forward, but it’s only when I asked my boss to help us with the blogging activity that I reached a higher level of success. Indeed, from the moment I asked him to blog on his favourite topic, he stopped asking about the return on investment of expert blogging because he actually understood this for himself, and besides, he became a lot more positive about what we were doing and encouraged other people to do so. Four years later, he is one of the strongest advocates of expert blogging at Orange Business Services.

Change Management Lessons : don’t expect every decision will come from the top! – Image generated with MidjourneyChange Management Lesson no. 5: don’t think top-downTo those who don’t understand change management very well, it would seem a good idea to ask the top man to issue a top-down statement and to assume that this is sufficient for everyone to change their ways.

Although this method sometimes works, most of the time it is not efficient and there are better ways of using top executives to implement change.

The best way for you to use top executive management to implement change is to first obtain results and field level, highlight these results, and then seek a mandate from the top manager who will use these initial results to reinforce the need for change and send his instructions, reinstating the support that he’s giving you.

In case you are an intrapreneur and are showing the way even though nobody asked you anything in the first place, then there is no other option.

Anecdote: when I was in charge of implementing a new salesforce automation system throughout Europe at the beginning of the 1990s the Unisys, I realised that my predecessor had started her process by asking the executive director of the Europe Africa division to send a letter/mail to all country managers in Europe. The result was not the one everybody expected. Nobody ever paid attention to the letter/mail because there were more important issues at hand. The proper method was to initiate change at the field level, establish a few results, then come and negotiate face-to-face with each country manager, proving the case, and demonstrating that change was needed, resources needed to be appointed, and once a few countries had been convinced (avoiding carefully the most antagonistic ones) then we went to the executive director of the Europe Africa division who confirmed our decisions and course of action. The system was deployed throughout Europe with a proper organisation and resources in less than 4 months when the previous process had led to almost a year of procrastination.

Lesson no. 6: always respect peopleE-mail should always be used as a last resort. The right method is to favour human discussions over everything else.

If people are in disagreements, then they should talk and express themselves openly over these disagreements rather than bicker and send each other useless e-mails which waste everybody’s time!

Anecdote: Recently, I had to work on a very important subject related to the governance of our domain names at Orange worldwide. This particular issue was a thorny one because people had debated the subject for the past 2 years. We were in a situation whereby people were negotiating on positions, not on facts, and regardless of the common good. I spent a couple of months talking to all these people individually, making them realise that we had to converge towards a solution, and whenever we were disagreeing, exposing the case of our disagreements clearly and debating them in a human and positive fashion, face-to-face or on the telephone. Eventually, after a couple of months, we were in a position to call on a new meeting in which a decision could be reached. Detractors exposed their views in front of the entire group, decisions were put to vote, and eventually, those same detractors came to me at the end of the meeting, saying: “This decision was exactly what we wanted”. It has to be stated that the decision which was reached, was exactly the opposite of what the detractors themselves were proposing in the beginning. What we had reached is a consensus and we have built a long-lasting relationship based on trust and camaraderie.

Lessons in change management no. 7: Murphy’s law should be your guiding principleThis point is a thorny one because it is often misinterpreted,
Good project managers and change managers are able to foresee not the future, but most of the alternatives in-store.

This is what is described often as managing a project by Murphy’s Law: “if anything can go wrong it will!”.

Good project managers, therefore, can predict the ways in which projects might actually screw up, in order to take all the precautions which will help them avoid these issues.

Bad project managers are 100% positive that the project will work beautifully, pay no attention to the things that could go wrong and therefore are ill-prepared for issues when they arise.

It is therefore often misinterpreted that good project managers working with Murphy’s Law are negative or pessimistic, whereas in fact, they are merely cautious and professional.

Anecdote: it is difficult for me to quote a particular example because I do this all the time. I have a sixth sense for predicting issues arising on the path of a project and knowing the issues which could cause a project to fail, enable me to take precautionary measures whenever needed. This is also why I always tend to put a lot of pressure on a new project at the beginning of its launch rather than towards the end of the delivery period when it’s too late. And then I press my project managers with questions about the things that could go wrong and how they have protected themselves against them, which enables me to deliver projects either in advance or at least in a very cool manner. I have never seen one of my projects generate tension towards the end of the delivery period.

Lesson no. 8: act swiftlyMost organisations tend to reinvent themselves every 6 months. I have seen very few people actually like the idea, but this is nothing you can resist, and you rather have to put up with this and make the most of the opportunities it offers.

This means that if you want to implement change, you had better do it within this six-month period. 3 months is even a better period, as it allows you to show positive and effective changes to management, complete with results and proof of concepts, for them to prepare the forthcoming reshuffle described above.

Preparing your projects and teams to move forward like this, will ensure that you are part of the new organisation; rather than having to submit to the change decided by others; it is better for you to drive that change instead.

Anecdote: when I implemented the new IT security blogs at Orange business services in 2008, my first instructions were that I was not supposed to be touching the blogs. Yet, I managed to find some change agents in the course of three of four weeks who made it possible for me to implement my new vision very quickly. I sold the idea of expert blogging a couple of weeks later (elevator pitch) and then went on to implement them very quickly, laying the stress on the deliverables and the content, rather than spending years on end on IT delivery. In order to speed up the process, I went on straight to a software as a service solution (Typepad), even though that was not the optimum technical solution (i migrated it a little later), but it was a good enough solution to land a result very quickly, prove my point, show some positive and immediate results, issue a press announcement, establish the change within the organisation, and build brand content for the long-term.

One of my favourite Change Management Lessons : in times of trouble, speed up the process!Lesson no. 9: in times of trouble, speed up the process!Most people stop implementing change when chaos arises. There is a very common mistake because chaos is the mother of creation.

The use of chaos in the derived sense of “complete disorder or confusion” first appears in Elizabethan Early Modern English but the original sense, taken from the Greek mythology and later religious writings, describes the original state of the world before it took shape.

Chaos is therefore not synonymous with havoc, but rather describes the state of things before the change is being implemented before things start to make sense. Visionaries, always try to implement change in periods of chaos, because these are the times when everything is possible and creativity is often given free rein.

Almost all my change management endeavours have been carried out at the worst possible moment, moments of which I had trouble finding my place within the hierarchy, and this is exactly when I decided to launch new initiatives.

Launching new initiatives are times when organisations are being in re reinvented is in fact the right way forward because this is the period at which top executives are searching for solutions to solve their problems, and are therefore more open to innovators, an intrapreneur is, who are going to bring solutions to their problems.

Anecdote: one of the most stressful periods of my working life took place when I came back from England to Unisys France to join the consulting practice in the middle of the 1990s. That period was a period of turmoil, a period of crisis too, and the consulting outfit I had just joined didn’t last for long. But right at that moment, the World Wide Web had just started to become more popular, and I seized this opportunity to apply my marketing skills to the web and to become one of the pioneers of web marketing. At a moment when I had trouble to find who I was reporting to, I multiplied visits to various clients, departments and sites in order to promote these Internet skills and I ended up bumping into Steve. I had built a little website as a proof of concept (visionarymarketing.com, which still exists and is still my personal website) and when Steve spotted visionarymarketing.com he immediately asked me to come back to London to implement something similar for him (it ended up being http://internet-banking.com, for his new Internet banking practice. The next thing I knew, the French part of Unisys didn’t want to let me go any more, and I had ceased to be a consultant without a hierarchy, I had found myself a new job, a new purpose and that eventually led me to even leave Unisys a couple of years later and join Gemini and then Orange. Had I decided not to do anything because of the chaos which was surrounding me, I would have been laid off like so many others at Unisys, which unfortunately went from a 120,000 employee company in the 1980s to a 30,000 company in 1997!

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How do luxury brands maximize experiences in sports events? I attended the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters, which showed a strong presence of elite brands fighting for high-end customer engagement. Brands such as Rolex, Sergio Tacchini, and Replay can be found advertised almost everywhere at the famous tennis tournament. These brands use the values of this tennis tournament’s identity, which are class, prestige, excellence, and exclusivity, to reinforce their brand image. In this article we will be looking into the strategy behind premium companies and their connection to the Monte-Carlo Masters Tennis Tournament.

Luxury Brands Maximize Experiences in Sports EventsThis photo was made using Midjourney and Adobe Photoshop.Sports Sponsorship in Luxury BrandingLuxury brands have had a history of gravitating towards sports such as tennis, golf and equestrian sports because these sports emphasized precision, elegance, and tradition. Brands saw that it seemed like a good fit for their deluxe identity due to the traditional affluent audiences that these sports offered.

Only the best of the best athletes competing at these events align with the values of the most luxurious brands that they are the best of what they do. These brands are able to prolong their exclusivity while opening up visibility to sports viewership.

As brands become bigger and sports viewership grows, stylish brands are opening up to collaborations with bigger sports that may not have as much class or prestige, such as football and basketball.

Strategic Brand Positioning at the Monte-Carlo MastersWhat once was known as the Monte-Carlo Masters is now known as the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. Rolex has positioned themselves front and center at a prestige tournament. Not only are they in the title of the tournament, they are on the logo and can be found everywhere at the tournament itself.

Another brand that has strategically positioned itself is Sergio Tacchini. Being at the tournament itself, it is impossible to miss; every ball kid and many employees working for the tournament wear a piece of clothing from Sergio Tacchini. Just being at the tournament, you are constantly being advertised to, whether you realize it or not; everywhere you look, you are reading another brand name.

Other brands, such as Maserati and Emirates, help back the elitist and prestigious image of the tournament.

Monaco, home of the tournament, is known for its wealth as well as its opulent residents, one more reason to advertise an elegant brand, as the target market is mainly wealthy individuals. “According to the World Population Review, Monaco is the richest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita and is regarded as the “billionaires’ playground.”

Celebrities and top-level athletes being at the tournament make being at the event feel like it’s only for those of wealth, class, and elegance.

This photo was made using Midjourney and Adobe Photoshop.Brand and Customer Experiences Some of the most exclusive experiences at the Monte-Carlo Masters are sponsored by posh brands. VIP lounges and luxury suites are curated for high-end customers and guests.

Additionally, behind-the-scenes access, meet-and-greets with athletes, and fancy gifting moments allow brands to showcase their exclusivity even more to only those that can afford them. Hospitality packages include gifts, discounts, special access, and events made to feel extraordinarily classy.

The Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), which is responsible for venues at the event, creates gourmet dining opportunities as well as private lounges mimicking luxury brands.

Customers at the Monte-Carlo Masters are rewarded just by being at the event itself. These rewards include access to limited edition merchandise, entries to giveaways or raffles, and the opportunity to use the VR Tennis simulator.

To further show status of class and order, boutiques at the event are limited to a certain amount of people at a time to prevent cluttering.

When a customer buys a ticket for the tennis match, they are not just coming to watch one game, they are spending practically the whole day there. Even in between matches there are activities to be done around the venue.

These activities include, finding something to eat (there are a lot of choices), VR tennis simulator, walking around and exploring the area, shopping in the countless boutiques and tennis stores.

Scarcity and “Limited Edition”The value of going to a sports event comes from the electric anticipation of not knowing what will happen. Fans come to witness firsthand the action and to purchase limited edition products showing they were there. Rolex and other brands offer merchandise exclusive to the event itself, signifying someone was at the event.

A piece of limited edition merchandise to show you were at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters is also an advertisement every time you wear it in public.

Short-term promotions and exclusive collaborations build a sense of urgency used to encourage customers to buy their product. Brands use this to drive up their exclusivity, giving only people that were at the event a chance to purchase something that will remind them of how special that moment was.

This photo was made using Midjourney.Content and Social/Digital MediaSocial media has completely changed this world as we know it, and that is not only limited to the social aspect, but it has changed the business world drastically. Content creation is a great way to gain publicity, and what better place than a sports event to promote your upscale brand? Brands such as Replay and Malongo took advantage of this event sponsorship and made social media promotions showing their collaboration with the renowned event.

Rolex and TennisRolex has been partnering with tennis for 46 years, since 1978.

Made with Napkin AI.Key Statistics about Luxury Brands in Sports EventsThese statistics show that the tournament continues to improve their technology and assets. Furthermore increasing their brand identity relating to top class.

Maximizing luxury brands customer engagement in sports events: facts and figures about the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters – infographic done with CanvaConclusionClassy, lavish brands strive to take advantage of events such as the Monte-Carlo Masters tournament to build brand identity and to increase publicity. The Monte-Carlo Masters serves as a sort of “playground” for luxurious brands to strategize, promote, and attach themselves to the values that the event portrays.

Brands that strive to align with excellence, class, prestige, and elitism promote themselves using the Monte-Carlo Masters to represent these traits. These companies take advantage of the tournament knowing that the audience is generally wealthier.

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If you are dying to understand the various GenAI prompting methods, how AI interacts with your prompt, and why this is key to optimising your results, this free prompting guide was made for you. This manual describes GenAI chatbots and the different methods of prompting. It was put forward by Frederic Cavazza, a digital transformation expert, consultant and speaker with over 25 years of experience.

A Free Prompting Guide for Aspiring GenAI ExpertsThis free GenAI prompting guide written by Frederic Cavazza was translated and adapted by yours truly.I’ve known Frederic Cavazza for years and I’ve even had the pleasure of working on a few engagements with him. As we were on our way to a GenAI client workshop a few months ago, he showed me this guide and I thought to myself: “This is exactly what I’d like to share with my readers and students”.

Hence this translation and adaption of Frederic’s prompting guide, with his kind permission. I tried his tricks myself and I can guarantee that the mega prompt he describes at the end of the guide is really something you should test, copy, paste, adapt and keep in your own prompt library.

A GenAI Guide about the Art of PromptingArtificial intelligence is booming, and chatbots like ChatGPT are radically transforming the way we interact with digital tools, changing the way we work. This guide aims to introduce you to the art of ‘prompting’, a key skill for engaging effectively with these artificial intelligence platforms and making the most of their potential.

If you’re researching a topic on the Web and you type in a simple key phrase, the result may not be very compelling. On the other hand, if you structure your search well, you’ll get more relevant answers. And so it goes with artificial intelligence tools like chatbots or digital assistants.

Frederic Cavazza is the author of this great prompting guide entitled the ABC of prompting – photo portrait by antimuseum.com

The more structured the prompt, the more relevant the outcome

GenAI Prompting?The way you ask AI chatbots questions or give them instructions is conducive to more or less convincing results. This is what is called ‘prompting’, i.e., the art of formulating clear and precise instructions to guide the work of artificial intelligence models.

In essence, a well-structured prompt is like a well-formulated search query. When done properly, it shall provide relevant results.

There is no one-size-fits-all prompt methodology, as use cases differ from one user to another. However, we recommend you use one of these three methods based on your needs.

Three Recommended GenAI Prompting MethodsThese three methods are entitled RTF (Role, task, format), CRAFT (Context, role, action, format, tone of voice) and COAT-SITES (context objective, acumen, task, specimen, impediments, tone of voice, encoding, scrutiny). Each technique works best depending on expected results. RTF was made for quick results, CRAFT, for simple questions with more accurate results and COAT-SITES, for clear cut questions and extensive results.

So, what are these methods about? Here they are in more detail.

1. RTF MethodWith RTF, the prompts specify the role, task and format that AI should adhere to. It consists in a simple, “you are…, you must…, your answer must…” Role indicates who the AI bot should impersonate, providing a contextual framework. Task, gives AI the precise action or problem to be solved, guiding AI towards the expected objective. And Format specifies the type and structure of the outcome.

2. CRAFT MethodShould you be looking for more accurate results, it might then be a good idea to expand your prompt to incorporate more context. The CRAFT method is therefore what you would have to resort to. CRAFT implies providing specifics to the AI chatbot in your prompt such as, “I’m in charge of…, you are… you have to…, your answer should include…, choose the following tone of voice.”

With the CRAFT method, Context describes the overall situation or requirement. Role, tells AI the character it should enact. Action, specifies what AI must do, directing the LLM. Format, provides examples or details clarifying final expectations. Tone of voice, defines the expected style or category AI must follow, aligning your response with your objective and audience. Expanding your prompt to formulate a better structured and accurate result.

1. COAT-SITES MethodIn the case of COAT-SITES technique, your prompt is not only expanding the context of the situation but giving AI strict guidelines to narrow the margin of misunderstanding. Allowing for your results to be more accurate and extensive. This includes Context, Task, Tone of voice, as in the previous methods but also includes Objective, Acumen, Specimen, Impediments, Encoding and Scrutiny.

Objective and Acumen, give AI the tools to reach your expected result with the correct level of expertise. Specimen and Impediments, provide clear examples and guidelines of what is wanted and what should be avoided. By providing models or illustrations, you clarify the expectations, just like defining what cannot be done narrows down your result. Lastly, COAT-SITES encompasses Encoding and Scrutiny. Encoding defines the output format syncing the results to your objective and scrutiny offers a final sanity check to ensure the results comply with your stated guidelines.

Test Drive the Prompting MethodsOnce you have familiarized yourself with these three prompting methodologies, give them a go. Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind when navigating GenAI chatbots. Frederic details them all in the guide for you.

After you have signed in to a chatbot, enter a few questions into the prompt window to get a feel for how it replies. After you’ve done that, try testing out the suggested prompting methods, saving a specific topic or tricky task for COAT-SITES.

Tips and TricksWhen interacting with your favourite chatbot, remember to select relevant keywords, stick to one question at a time, test and tweak your prompts and follow up. Don’t settle for half-baked answers and consider asking a different chatbot to critique your results.

Lastly, remember at all times that the better formulated your prompt, the better AI can provide accurate and relevant results. So give these methods a test and see how your interaction with GenAI chatbots evolves.

Download for Free the ABC of Prompting for Aspiring GenAI Experts by Frédéric CavazzaThe post GenAI Prompting Guide for Aspiring Experts appeared first on Marketing and Innovation.

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How does hosting the Olympics reshape a country’s economy? The truth is, it’s hard to put numbers on the true economic effect of the Olympic Games but there are measurable statistics that we can use. Hosting the games requires a ton of strategy, planning, and coordination; to make a profit out of it is even harder. We will be looking at the economic effect of the Paris 2024 Olympics and comparing other countries that have hosted the Olympics.

Behind the Torch: How the Olympics Reshape EconomiesBehind the Torch, the Olympics reshape the economy – Image generated with Midjourney and our personalised modeWhat Does it Mean For a Country to “Host” the Olympics?Countries that have put in a bid are awarded the opportunity to host the Olympics between 7-11 years before the event itself. The IOC or International Olympic Committee will vote on who they think will be the best fit for the Olympic games of their respective year. When a country hosts the games, they are expected to provide accommodations for athletes and to have places that meet the guidelines to run all games and events.

The Details About the Paris 2024 OlympicsThe Paris 2024 Olympics took place from Fri, Jul 26, 2024 – Sun, Aug 11, 2024 – Image generated with Midjourney and our personalised modeExceeding many expectations, economists’ beliefs, and inflationary pressures, the Paris 2024 Olympic organizing committee closed their financial account with a surplus of at least €26.8 million.

The Paris 2024 Olympics were truly an impressive feat, not only making a profit but also doing so while also cutting their carbon footprint by 54.6% (compared to averages of the London 2012 and Rio 2016 games).

This was the third time Paris has hosted the Olympics, tying it with London for the two cities that have hosted the games the most times. Although hosting the Olympic Games sounds like all fun and glory, there are many costs and factors that come into play.

Unveiling the Costs of Hosting the OlympicsDiagram produced with NapkinThe Olympics are one of the most expensive and biggest events to host and take place over several days. Every country has their own approach when it comes to hosting the Olympics; some spend their money more wisely than others. Total expenditures for hosting the games ended up being around €4,453.9 million.

Two new stadiums that were created for the Olympic Games: Olympics Aquatic Center and the Adidas Arena. The construction and creation of the Adidas arena cost around €150 million. The Olympics Aquatic Center cost around $204 million to build.

The colorful opening ceremony along the Seine River, would end up costing over €100 million, and even more if you factor in security costs. The Olympic Village was spread throughout 3 different cities, costing upwards of $1.5 billion. Other things such as the Seine River cleanup, staffing, security, broadcasting, renovations, and other logistics are hard to measure.

Revenue from hosting the Paris 2024 OlympicsTotal revenue made from hosting the Olympics ended up being around €4,480.7 million.

The majority of this revenue came from ticket sales, approximately €1.333 billion. Over 12 million tickets were sold during these games, and ticket sales exceeded estimates by over €348 million. Another €1.238 billion came from sponsorships and partnerships.

The IOC (International Olympic Committee) also allocated around €1.228 billion to help fund it. Public subsidies totaled €204.1 million, which was used entirely to fund the Paralympic Games. These financial results also meant that the organizers would not have to spend the €43 million reserve package, which was available if necessary. The overall cost increase from the estimated cost was only 17%, which is the smallest in Olympic Games history.

Revenue sources for the Paris 2024 Olympics, made using Napkin AI.Intangible Economic BenefitsHosting the Olympics not only creates a physical money surplus but also brings a lot of intangible benefits. Some of those benefits include global recognition, publicity, and urban development.

Hosting the Olympics gives the country a reason to improve many things in preparation for such a big event. Additionally, investors are more likely to invest in and support a country that has successfully hosted the games.

Intangible Economic DetrimentsNot everyone in the world is a huge fan of the Olympic Games. Many locals living in cities that host the Olympics actually believe that it is detrimental to either them or their community. Inflation spikes due to the increase of tourists, forces locals to pay a higher price. Additionally, many local businesses lose customers due to road blockages and construction for the games.

Regular customers choose to stay home during these times because of how busy and hectic things can get. “The situation is catastrophic. Since July 18, in the gray zone where access is limited, the drop in attendance in bars and restaurants has been between 40% and 80%,” protests Frank Delvau, president of the Union of Trades and Industries of the Paris-Ile-de-France Hotel Industry.

Where Does the Money Go?The money from the Paris Games went to 6 individual categories. International Olympics Committee, Paris Organizing Committee, French Government, Local Authorities, Businesses, and Regional Economy.

Financial Facts and Figures of the Paris 2024 Olympics, made using Napkin AI.Examples (Successes and Failures)Impact of the Olympics on the economy: there are successes and failures – Image generated with Midjourney and our own personalised modeParis 2024The Paris 2024 Olympics is a great example of how hosting the games can actually be profitable and beneficial for a country’s economy. Not only did they make a profit, but they were also able to benefit from many other factors. The cleaning process for the Seine River which is known to be not very clean, wasn’t really taken too seriously until the preparation for the 2024 Olympics, where the plan was for the athletes to swim in the Seine. Also, what once served as the Olympic village for the athletes is being turned into a Parisian neighborhood.

Athens 2004The 2004 Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, and to this day they still have debt to be paid because of the games. They created venues for the games, which were left underused and even disused after, and have been paying to maintain them. This event was grossly miscalculated, and although the event itself was a success and Greece enjoyed the spotlight during the Olympics, the financial burden was deeply regrettable.

Reforms and Future ConsiderationsTo save on costs, host countries should use existing infrastructure instead of creating temporary or custom venues for specific events. Countries should start to prepare for the Olympic Games for years to come, even if very subtly. Support local businesses by creating pop-ups or features instead of having big brands steal the show. Get the local community involved when making big decisions that will also affect locals.

ConclusionTaking all of this into account, you can see that even with many intangible effects, the Olympics have a huge effect on a country’s economy. Paris was able to create a profitable event and gained mass publicity as well as general attraction because of the Olympic Games and therefore it was economically beneficial to the country.

Not only was a profit made (which will be put into sports in France), they did so while reducing carbon footprint emissions by over 50%, cleaned up the city, and made many renovations in the city of Paris, ultimately making it a wealthier and more pleasant place to be in. However, although this benefited the country itself, it has had harsh effects on local restaurants in Paris.

Not every country, and especially with Greece in 2004, was able to be as successful as Paris was in 2024.

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How is AI Search changing the Internet and what role are we playing in this transformation? In this article, I discuss the current state of adoption of AI-powered search engines. By reflecting on the perspectives of Kevin Roose, Matteo Wong and Joanna Stern, this piece explores what we gain—faster, more organized access to information—and what we risk losing—the diversity of sources, depth of content and our curiosity to go beyond a single answer.

Breaking Up With Your Traditional Search EngineHow is AI Search changing the Internet and what role are we playing in it? — image generated with Canva and ChatGPTIs it time to ditch Google and your other favorite search engines? In the past few years, AI has disrupted numerous industries in the digital sector, but arguably one of the most noteworthy shifts has been in the online search market. Think of the last time you searched the internet for information—did you sift through pages of websites, or did AI place the answer at your feet?

The decades-long reign of Google might just be challenged by this new age of conversational and contextually aware search power.

Three Voices on AI Search: Roose, Wong and SternTo examine this idea more deeply, this piece will consider three different articles written by Kevin Roose, Matteo Wong and Joanna Stern. As the conversation surrounding AI evolves, their observations offer unique points, from skepticism to adoption, reflecting the considerable development of AI capabilities and increasing adoption by users.

By breaking down their findings and looking at the numbers of adoption, I will explore the current and future landscape of AI-powered search. So whether you’ve already hitched your ride to the AI bandwagon or are still clinging to your Google tabs, here’s a glance at where our process of search, the internet, and information is headed.

AI-Search at the speed of light — Photography by antimuseum.comKevin Roose: Continuing with CautionIn February 2024, Kevin Roose wrote an article for The New York Times titled “Can This A.I.-Powered Search Engine Replace Google? It Has for Me.” As you might have guessed from the title, Roose’s experience was a positive one, but not without some hesitation.

To test his theory, Roose gave up Google, instead opting for Perplexity, an AI search engine founded by former OpenAI and Meta researchers. Roose’s several-week adoption of Perplexity left him sufficiently convinced AI search engines were a valid competitor against traditional web browsers, but adjustments were needed if they are going to win the race.

The information retrieval and contextual understanding offered by AI proved more useful for the majority of his work. However, due to AI’s limitations, Google was not obsolete. Acknowledging the absence of credible sources, real-time updates, and the occasional lack of truth AI provided, Roose found his usage of AI had certainly become more prominent, but most successful when used alongside Google.

The article suggests the adoption of AI will not be a bold movement, but a gradual and natural shift in user behavior. Still indecisive on the effects AI will have on journalists, publishers and others who create the internet landscape, Roose stated, “I’ll have to weigh the convenience of using Perplexity against the worry that, by using it, I’m contributing to my own doom.”

Matteo Wong: Exploratory SearchRoose is far from the only one to have concerns about the growing popularity of AI. The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong placed a heavy critique on AI in his article “The Death of Search.” Wong’s piece focused less on the way in which a person uses AI and more on the way that AI changes our relationship with information.

Should you cross traditional Internet Search off the list? Stern’s answer is a resounding YES ! – image generated with ChatGPTIn his view, the concern is not AI’s credibility or factuality—those issues could be fixed as systems evolve—but the loss of an exploratory model of search. When people stop engaging critically with information, they lose the ability to evaluate and explore their own curiosity.

He states, “It could completely reorient our relationship to knowledge, prioritizing rapid, detailed, abridged answers over a deep understanding and the consideration of varied sources and viewpoints.” The indication of Wong’s argument is that by extinguishing that exploratory model of search and making information “too” accessible, it dismantles the fundamental idea of the web.

Joanna Stern: Embracing Convenience In opposition to Wong’s take on the adoption of AI-powered search engines is Joanna Stern, who shared her full support in her New York Times article, “I Quit Google for ChatGPT—and I’m Not Going Back.” Stern’s piece rings similarly to Roose’s in that once she made the switch, the probability of going back was unlikely.

Trying a variety of AI platforms, Stern found the ease and refinement of AI a refreshing break from sponsored links and promoted products offered by Google. Only in searching for a known product, website or article did Google still prove useful.

While she noted AI is consistent with the limitations of poor sourcing and inaccurate information, Stern’s main concern was the loss of visibility and traffic for the information’s original source.

What’s to keep AI from making these websites and publications obsolete, and who do you credit for the information you got? Stern wraps her argument into a neat bow by saying, “So, yes, I’ll encourage you to try AI for search, as long as you promise to click a link when you can.”

My Experience with AI SearchWhile I have familiarized myself with the platforms ChatGPT and Perplexity, my experience with AI-powered search engines is still limited. However, from what I have seen, I am impressed. The concise, summarized answers leave me satisfied and often without lingering questions. Still, despite the efficiency, I have found I do not stray far from Google. I am not sure if it is a habit or precaution.

Looking to the Future So where do you stand? Are you ready to commit to AI, or is apprehension holding you back? As each article shows us, the level of adoption is varying, and chances are you’re somewhere in the middle.

But there’s no doubt the way we access and receive information is changing. The worldwide market size of AI jumped from approximately $50 billion to $184 billion in just one year.

Additionally, a survey by Activate tells us the number of adults in the United States using AI first for their online search was around 13 million just two years ago and is projected to reach 90 million by 2027.

The growth is telling, and it’s not limited to one platform. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude—even Google is trying to reinvent itself with Gemini.

So whether you’re a curious newcomer, cautious observer or full-on convert, it’s clear we are stepping into a new age of internet.

Moving forward we will have to decide if the gains outweigh the losses and with continual adoption, new questions arise. Will AI search enhance or limit access to diverse perspectives? How much of a role will it play in our daily lives? I guess we will have to wait and see.

AI search is taking Internet search a level higher — photo by antimuseum.comThe post AI Search : Breaking Up With Your Traditional Search Engine appeared first on Marketing and Innovation.

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Let AI handle the chores, and humans do the thinking: such should be the future of content marketing. In this piece, I try and debunk a few myths. Firstly, generative AI can be creative — and often is. Secondly, AI doesn’t necessarily make us stupid; we don’t need it for that. And thirdly, becoming a prompting Guru isn’t necessarily the key to producing great content. The question of AI’s role in content marketing is actually more strategic than technical: it’s about why and for whom we create content. This is the major issue at stake for today’s and tomorrow’s marketers. In this presentation, I urge readers not to outsource their thinking to AI, and rather offload the chores of low-value tasks to machines. Unfortunately, it should be noted that they aren’t always doing a good job with that.

Chores to AI, Ideas to HumansSince the machines started thinking, we’ve had more time to do the dishes, wrote Joanna Maciejewska. Like her, I’d rather it were the other way round.TL; DR

• Ms Bernard is an SEO agency avatar who adds links to Visionary Marketing on “her” website. Her “work” raises some fundamental questions.
• Criticisms aimed at AI often miss the mark and overlook fundamental issues: why we write, for whom, for what purpose…
• We also dismiss a few myths such as ‘AI can’t be creative’, ‘AI makes us stupid’, and ‘mastering prompting is a silver bullet’.
• Hence, the question of AI’s role in content marketing is more about strategy than it is about tech.
• In this presentation, I urge content creators (and readers alike) not to outsource their reasoning and to leave the chores to AI.

This piece owes a lot to Ms Joanna MaciejewskaAI and Marie Bernard, the e-commerce QueenMs Benard is adding links to Visionary Marketing. She is very nice but unfortunately she isn’t a real person.Let me introduce you to Ms Marie Bernard. This pretty young woman, somewhat artificial in appearance, exists only in Midjourney’s archives and on the website of “her” SEO agency. This supposed e-commerce expert found herself embroiled in a semantic mix-up that was both amusing and revealing.

Taking inspiration from one of my articles, this visionary author mixed up ‘snow globe’, an expression used by one of my expert interviewees as a metaphor, and ‘snowball effect’. Thank God, she inserted a link to Visionary Marketing so that I could correct that fatal mistake. Far from being trivial, this anecdote raises a few fundamental questions. Who is writing? For whom? How? And for what purpose? In fact, it even poses bigger questions such as “what is humans’ place in society, and what sort of society do we want for our children and children’s children?”

AI Information Overload Content about generative AI is so ubiquitous that we have gone past information overload. AI content analysts are skirmishing via X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn posts, mainly on the technical front (this AI is better than that one), creativity (AI produces interesting ideas or rather, is dull and inferior to humans), and usage (“download my ultimate prompting guide!”). Yet all these debates (and sadly others that are less prevalent, like the poorly documented issue of energy consumption) fail to address other key questions: who are we creating for, why, and for whom do we work — or more broadly, what kind of society do we want in the future?

Generative AI at the Heart of the World’s Issues AI, and in particular generative AI, have generated most of the noise on social media, blogs, newsletters, and chat around the pub. Traditional economy seems to be ignoring the phenomenon or treating it as incidental — a recurring habit when it comes to digital innovations, but online debates live on unabated.

Whether and how we should use generative artificial intelligence is now a central question in our modern societies, and that’s understandable. Machines have been able to play around with text since the 1950s, but computing power and large-scale training on such a vast and decent dataset — despite criticisms — have never been so strong. In recent weeks, engineers in London have even shown how two AI bots can talk to one another. Even if it’s only a demo, we’ve known since the early 2000s that machines can buy and sell stock (algorithmic trading roughly amounts to 60-75% of total trading in the most developed markets, and this was already true back in 2006 when I worked in that field). So, why shouldn’t an AI known as “agentic” buy train tickets?

Hence these legitimate questions.

A machine capable of writing “like” humans?The fact that a programme — literally a “machine” in the sense of a computer — is capable of writing like humans, or nearly, is disconcerting.

*[Machine] A mechanically, electrically, or electronically operated device for performing a task

first entry from Merriam-Webster

What’s even more unsettling is that humans often write more poorly than machines. This is what Loubna Ben Allal, a researcher at Huggingface and an expert in training generative AIs, describes in a video on the underscore channel, which is worth watching.

She explains how content is filtered during training sequences and, surprise, surprise, she says that good Ai-generated content is often better than bad human content. Sadly, poor human content is everywhere.

Note that there are also texts, 100% AI-generated, aimed at proving that Loubna is right.

A text designed to show that separating the wheat from the chaff in content creation is a non-issue. Unfortunately, it was written by an LLM.Language, an operating system?! If these mock texts are so disconcerting, it’s because language and the written word are indeed some of the fundamental characteristics of the human species.

In the beginning was the word. Language is the operating system of human culture.

Yuval Harari — NYT March 2023

Yuval Harari, with a kind of reverse anthropomorphic twist, even calls it the “operating system of human culture”. Despite this idiosyncrasy, Harari is zeroing in on the real issue.

The real core problem isn’t technical, but deeply philosophical, especially when the most famous generative AI tools are led by a maverick who’s trying all he can to put us in a Spike Jonze film. Ultimately, philosophy could or should redefine how AI is trained, explain Michael Schrage and David Kiron of MIT Sloan Management Review.

The Real Problem With So-called Generative ToolsThe real problem with these generative tools isn’t technical, nor is it about creativity or even how well one uses the tool. It’s more fundamental, relating to the very essence of work and, more broadly, of human societies. Whatever human shortcomings and flaws there may be, and they are indeed numerous.

This is all the more important, given discussions about new tools such as Manus, which promise even more autonomous intelligence capable of “agenticity”, a direction that appears to be a goal for many of the creators of these programmes.

Generative AI is going to vanish? Really…There’s no point in playing down generative AI, as I saw here and there, by predicting their demise (you don’t just eliminate tools that the whole world has made their own, no matter how imperfect), nor in overestimating their potential (there are simply too many tools and possible uses).

Denying how astonishing these tools are is pointless.

Likewise, describing LLMs as “stochastic parrots”, is no longer relevant. It used to be apt, barely two years ago. Yet, that’s no longer the case. Safety nets exist, the biggest pitfalls (such as asking ChatGPT to prove that the Earth is flat) as former Apple Siri cofounder Luc Julia claimed recently in a Swiss daily are old hat. The right way forward is hybrid systems combining the power of LLMs with more conventional computing. It’s a matter of time before this merger is done and it might not even take too long. Whoever has witnessed the development of IT and the Web over the past 40 years knows it takes time to innovate. Time is of the essence.

Hence, even though the results we get today are still often disappointing, patchy, or downright wrong, GenAI models of 2025 hallucinate far less than they used to, provided you pay and pick your model carefully.

You may check for yourself with Perplexity.ai, which will answer your question on this subject while delivering links (sometimes off-target, so you’ll still have to cross-check that information).

In short, four breakthroughs occurred from 2024 to 2025 in this field:

1. Reduced error rates from 1 to 3% thanks to techniques like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), drawing on existing documents.
2. Model improvements including the inevitable OpenAI, with its GPT-4.5 model, and others (I particularly recommend Claude.ai).
3. Innovative methods like “deep research” or “chain of thought”, often flawed and slow, but give them time and they will improve dramatically.
4. Checks and adjustments: Tools like “Automated Reasoning Checks” introduced by AWS have been designed to detect and correct hallucinations before production use.

Still, hallucinations remain common and won’t vanish soon. Again, it will take time before all control mechanisms are in place. Chain-of-thought is one example: it’s still a bit awkward, but it gives a flavour of future possibilities.

That said, even if I’m not a big fan of AGI (see the following article), generative AI challenges human skills and abilities and as a consequence of that, our very place within society.

Three directions for deeper explorationEssentially, there are three areas that need to be investigated. First, our capacity to be truly creative. Second, AI’s impact on our cognitive and intellectual abilities and finally, there’s the question of usage.

1. Let’s start with creativityObviously, one could wonder whether GenAI is creative or not. But above all, this very question challenges us, humans. Thus, the real question should read: are humans any more creative than GenAI?

The answer isn’t straightforward, even if that may come as a surprise. One could argue that GenAI texts are good or bad, depending on one’s point of view. Yet, one shouldn’t discount that texts produced by humans aren’t always better. And that’s what’s disturbing. As we mentioned above, Loubna Ben Allal calls into question the notion that “human = good, synthetic = bad”.

The same applies to creativity. Alan Turing, in his 1950 piece Computing Machinery and Intelligence, had already invalidated a number of objections to the idea that a machine could be innovative. One of these objections claimed: “A machine can’t create.”

Creativity is also, and above all, about combinations, de-combinations and recombination. A bit like a puzzle if you wish. One cherry picks from others’, or even one’s work, sometimes unconsciously, and recombine from this to build a new story, a new blog, a new project. Even artists aren’t necessarily all that ‘creative’ in the sense of making something new entirely from scratch. They often rely on self-references. Tinguely with his zanyish machines aka antimuseums, Monet and his views of Rouen and his infinite variations on water lilies, Soulages with his black paintings, Rothko with his ubiquitous RED. Series are an integral part of Art, and one of the main creative mechanisms.

Jonathan Gibbs in Randall even states that Young British Artists, as all artists, can at best come up with four genuinely original ideas in their entire career, the ones we’ll remember them for.

‘The way it works is that you’re only going to be remembered for four things.’

Gibbs, Jonathan. Randall or The Painted Grape

And Gibbs is right. If artists give in to reproducing their own ideas, that’s also because it’s what people are asking for. That’s why, for instance, minimal music these days — once dubbed repetitive and lately rebranded ‘neoclassical’ (Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Nicklas Paschburg, GrandBrothers…) — is so successful. It’s principally because it’s based on a never-ending repetition of fairly similar musical patterns. And I won’t even mention popular — as in ‘pop’ inclusive of jazz — music, which is even more standardised (check rhythm changes if you don’t believe me).

Thus, the question of whether machines are more or less creative than humans is anything but trivial.

1. Is AI making us stupid?The next question is whether we end up being stupid from the misuse of these thinking machines (as one of my friends put it to me, “These tools are extremely addictive”). This question echoes what Nicholas Carr wrote a few years ago in The Atlantic: “Is Google Making Us Stupid”?

In that piece**, he argued that even though he wasn’t raised in the digital age and learned to read “normally” in books, he ended up using search engines and found that they made him lazy, encouraging minimal effort rather than combing through documents for hours before forming an opinion.

** yet another AI-written piece, by the way. I only inserted the link out of mischief. Our dear readers will find the Atlantic link by themselves using old-fashioned search engines or Perplexity.ai.

With generative AI, all that Carr described is blown out of proportion. Perplexity.ai is the epitome of this issue. Instead of using search engines, one enters a prompt, and hey presto! Perplexity will gather the answers, summarise them and provide a list of links. The latter are not always relevant, but on average, they’re not that bad either. This process isn’t really less effective than wading through a so-called SERP (Search Engine Results Page) of questionable relevance or provenance, many of which results were written by ‘SEO experts’ to trick the very same search engine (i.e. Google, see this post for details).

Some years ago, those SEO experts had such low quality texts made by hand, often in low-wage countries, and now they create them almost entirely with LLMs (it’s estimated that about 19% of Google’s top 20 results are AI-generated). By the way, those people in low-wage countries must have been made redundant but who cares about poor people struggling to make a living. This is a dog-eat-dog kind of world, is it not?

As to the question of whether generative AI is making us stupid, it’s a bit disingenuous, just as it was for Google. But what’s certain is it could be making us lazy (again, just like Google, especially since they introduced position zero).

Getting direct answers to our questions means we lose the habit of digging for them ourselves, and above all, we lose your critical thinking abilities. But it’s not that simple.

Concluding that AI alone is responsible for dumbing down the world — assuming that’s even happening — would be going a bit far. Intellectual laziness and lack of critical thinking aren’t new, and if you want to see evidence of that, I recommend you browse the site of the Reboot Foundation.

1. Prompting wizardsOur third angle is usage quality of AI tools. Is it a real problem?

There’s indeed a misconception about the usage of these tools by the population. Their usage is certainly widespread and it happened in a flash. That’s for certain. Now, whether most users are wielding these tools properly is another kettle of fish. Believing we’ve all become prompt experts overnight is spurious. I’m not seeing that happening in the field.

For starters, we have a massive digital skills deficit. How can people who struggle to remember a password or sign a PDF form could instantly be able to use generative AI effectively?

I see far too much straightforward copy-pasting in class and elsewhere. Also, few people, as I noticed in the course of my training sessions (thousands of people and students), are able to take the necessary step back to refine the content produced by these algorithms — even when encouraged to do so.

However much I regret this isn’t relevant. That’s why Steve Yegge is right: generative AI won’t help beginners nor average employees become brilliant, but it will help experts get rid of them altogether. Getting started in business won’t be easy in the coming years.

Moreover, the generative AI scene is so hectic and unstable that even experts are losing track of which model is most effective. Almost every day, there’s some headline-grabbing announcement overshadowing yesterday’s.

And the ‘experts’ keep dishing out their analyses and forecasts. Some foresee the demise of generative AI (but that’s total nonsense), while others predict that GenAI will on the contrary be an all-out revolution (which is equally silly).

The technology digestion curve is our own special way of highlighting the hype surrounding innovations.The truth is, as we can see in the field, that we are in a learning curve, which isn’t too different from what we’ve been through with other digital innovations in the past.

Caption: Kathy Sierra once put forward the notion of “feature-itis”, which was spot on.As a system grows more complex, Kathy Sierra showed, you end up losing your grip, and a user who once felt in full control of the tool finds he or she loses that control and is going backward dramatically.

More recently, Maurizio Bisogni described the fluctuation of knowledge in ChatGPT over time in relation to what he calls the Dunning-Kruger effect, a psychological phenomenon identified by David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999 in their paper: “We lack competence and we don’t know it: how difficulties in recognising our own incompetence can lead us to overestimate our abilities.”

This shows we have a tendency to overrate our abilities when we have too little information. A warning we might well direct at many of the analysts clogging up our social timelines with their views on the subject.

Conversely, the most expert people tend to underestimate their competence. This is something we also know as the ‘impostor syndrome’. Perhaps I suffer from the latter myself, because I hate the term ‘expert’. Even though I’ve been working in digital marketing for over 30 years, started my career in AI nearly 40 years ago, and have been documenting these topics for decades, I still feel I don’t know much. It seems only natural and necessary, given how volatile and complex this environment is.

Yet I see too many experts, some of whom are even behind some of these discoveries, such as Jeffrey Hinton, one of the discoverers of neural networks and winner of a Nobel Prize, who understand nothing about generative artificial intelligence, despite the fact that it is based on these very neural networks. In a BBC video, Hinton looks at ChatGPT and concludes that these machines can reprogramme themselves. In the long term, this is undoubtedly true. But it is not yet the case. I’ll come back to that later. So we need to have a certain humility when it comes to these subjects.

With all due respect for Hinton’s outstanding achievements in machine learning, he shows a nearly childlike ignorance when he claims neural networks can feel emotions. […] Emotions are so complex, a bridge between thought and will, a gateway to shared understanding between people and the world. By saying the machine can experience feelings, Hinton shows that he doesn’t understand what he’s built.

Robert M. Burnside – Robo Robert on Substack (2024)

I’m not writing this to diminish the great talents of the renowned British-Canadian scientist, Jeffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize winner in the field of neural networks, but to illustrate how siloed these areas can be and how no one can honestly claim complete understanding of the field of AI, if there is any such thing. As for LinkedIn influencers’ rush opinions…

Truth be told, regarding usage, I don’t believe that a science of prompting — which I see more as a practice of common sense, trial and error — is essential. What I find vital, rather, is taking a step back, thinking carefully, applying reason, and sharpening one’s critical thinking skills.

Besides, returning to prompts, I had already guessed we’d see prompt generators appear. And here they are, because that kind of interface is cumbersome and awkward. Prompting is powerful, but lengthy and tedious, requiring voice dictation abilities (which most people don’t have) or quick and accurate touch-typing, which is basically only for those who learned on an uncompromising typewriter, and/or how to touch-type without looking at the keys, like yours truly.

To be honest, I create all my Midjourney prompts on Claude or ChatGPT because I find the exercise quite tedious and slow, and LLMs are best placed to tailor a prompt for another generative AI in the required style.

Some folks even bet that chatbots will chat to each other in a language only they can understand (see this video. Careful! It’s not a product but a demo made during a hackathon).

In short, usage doesn’t strike me as a major problem, even if most users’ results are far from great — even when guided.

So, what’s the problem with generative AI?Let’s rule out a couple of areas at once. Ecological issues to start with. Apart from a few ritualistic mentions and greenwashing initiatives, not much appears to be on the menu in that area. As someone who’s been strongly committed to environmental concerns for ages, I’m deeply saddened about that. I will have to bite the bullet, nobody cares about that. And the current T**mpmania isn’t going to help.

Bubble threats are real too, as Ed Zitron keeps hammering. Yet, the history of innovation has always shown that when some tech stuff is needed and the whole world is using it, money will always be found and invested. When there’s a will…

The Web’s “enshittification”Web rot is probably a good avenue for our quest. I predicted it as soon as generative AI first emerged and GPT-3 was launched in 2020. Back then, I forecasted during a Pushengage webinar that the Web would be flooded with SEO content no longer created by humans but by machines. The latter deliver both quantitatively and qualitatively better (according to the standards of these ‘SEO experts’) than the armies of content creators from low-wage countries paid to boost webpage rankings through back-linking.

Five years later — a lifetime in Internet terms — what do we see?As it happened link-building requests died out instantly in 2023 and were replaced by proposals for AI-generated content creation. I saw them crop up on Visionary Marketing immediately, and the change was savage. SEO content became more professionalised and multiplied at a frantic pace, as The Verge showed in its 2023 investigation of synthetic content farms.

The result today is conspicuous.

What was foreseeable has indeed happened. It took five years. So much for those who talk about an overnight revolution. Even for something as simple as replacing human content writers in low-wage countries with LLMs that churn out copy at high speed with a few basic instructions, it still took five years. As for the rest, we may have to wait a bit. By the way, we’ve laid off hundreds of impoverished people unless they’ve retrained for AI-based content, which is likely but not proven.

That’s the genuine underlying problem. And it’s why I created humansubstance.com with some friends.

A group of stubborn bloggers who decided to write with their hands and their brains, not with machines. Like this 4,000-plus-word article that I could very well have churned out in three seconds using ChatGPT — assuming ChatGPT can count words and by Jove it can’t.

Because there’s the hitch: we do need artificial intelligence to take out the rubbish and count words, fix our grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.

But we don’t need it to think in our place. And if the Web is rotting, or ‘enshittifying’, to borrow Cory Doctorow’s term, that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of real content marketing (genuine content, not SEO fodder).

It may not happen on the Web and this is sad news for Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Quality content will always find a way to be shared. If not on the Web, then somewhere else. Perhaps my vision is somewhat naïve, but I’ll own that. I’m inclined to believe good things can still and always happen. Let’s assume I’m wrong; at least I will die happy.

What’s the point of generative AI if it doesn’t relieve us of chores?If Gemini can’t deduplicate data, what’s it for? Examples posted by a LinkedIn userI also see plenty of players, analysts, and professionals around me who think, search, dig deep, and document beyond the surface. They don’t buy into the big headlines from generative AI evangelists, who increasingly come across like transhumanists, to quote Jean-Gabriel Ganascia.

Chores to AI

Make no mistake, I have nothing against generative AI. I just want it to take out the bins instead of trying to think in my place. And when I see some of the results from these tools, I’m not convinced the game is over yet.

If ChatGPT can’t read an Apple Pages file and orders me around to switch to Word format, what’s the point?I use them a lot for preparing my lectures (most of which aimed at training students to keep enough distance to interpret these tools’ results rationally rather than emotionally), to summarise my articles for my students’ presentations.

But I’m always the one doing the thinking, and all I want from these tools is to take out the bins and turn my most relevant punchlines into PowerPoint.

Why? Because copying out your own words into PowerPoint is basically a chore. And that’s why, for my keynotes I refrain from using slides. Those addicted to PowerPoint can still download the slides from my blog if they wish.

Finally, at the heart of this debate about AI’s role in content marketing lies a big confusion about the automation of creative processes, which aren’t continuous. It’s an illusion to think you can simply press a button to get a result. Sure, you get some sort of result, but which one and what value does it have? For an SEO content producer (I can’t get down to call them ‘authors’, sorry) it’s probably a thousand times better and faster than what a human being could write. But automating such tasks for true authors, those who write with their brains and for their readers, not a Google bot, gives you the impression you’re saving time, whereas reality is often radically different. Randall Munroe illustrates this brilliantly in his schematic about coding. And it’s even more apt for content marketing.

And all that AI SEO copy for what outcome? More efficiency? Neil Patel shows otherwise in the following chart.

So, to wrap up this article, I urge you never to relinquish your capacity to ponder nor your critical thinking skills. Certainly, humans are prone to error. Sometimes they’re even worse than LLMs, as Kevin Roose demonstrated in the New York Times. And that’s the real tragedy.

Even if general artificial intelligence is probably an overstatement (we can’t define it anyway), insisting the opposite — that all humans are brilliant — is an even bigger mistake.

But despite these flaws, it was us, humans, who built these machines. It’s our job to use them for the better, not for the worse. It’s up to you to do the thinking and let AI do the chores. That’s what ought to be.

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Isn’t the notion of “disruption “, aka disruptive innovation, used and abused by analysts and technology experts? And by dint of abuse, aren’t we in the process of deluding ourselves? At a time when some are fretting about the volatility of the business generated by ‘unicorns’ or even centaurs, it is perhaps worth asking whether we have not entered an innovation bubble, yet accentuated by that of generative AI, marked by the correction of technology values and a return to more traditional values. Yet it may be too early to find out about the reality of such disruptive innovations. Here are my thoughts about the subject with a few references to sources and books I found interesting.

Disruption: Is Disruptive Innovation Overhyped?I find reviews of supposed disruptive innovations in the media, and especially social media, somewhat lacking consistency. One minute everyone is vowing that a revolution has happened. The next that a bubble is about to burst, yet no one is able to predict the future properly. Thus, is disruptive innovation real or a pie in the sky, or does it emerge over time? Is, by and large, IT causing disruption in our lives, or are there more important thing on earth? In short, how can we ensure that our vision for innovation is accurate? – image produced with MidjourneyThe so-called GenAI revolutionWhile some have been claiming that we are living in a bubble of innovation (here, here and here for instance and here and here with AI), it has to be said that not everyone always agrees. Especially with the advent of the so-called GenAI revolution.

I’ve been asked whether electric cars were a disruptive innovation. For those of you who don’t know the history of innovation, let me introduce you to the “Jamais Contente (“Forever unsatisfied” literally), which broke the 100kph speed record near the Fulmen factories in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France in … 1899 [photo in public domain]As I felt like tackling the topic of disruptive innovation, I thought it would be interesting to revisit an article by Joanne Jacobs from a few years ago about this subject: ‘Are we in a disruptive bubble?‘.In this piece, she explains what role disruptive innovation is playing in contemporary markets. She argues that disruption is not just a fad, but something more profound.

Forget all about unicorns, here come the centaurs! Bessemer Venture Partners – State of the Cloud 2022The hype surrounding disruptive innovation is overwhelming. Here is what I found here and there:

• Disruptive innovation is deemed to impact businesses and employment . with all-out automation a major source of job destruction;
• Integration of productive innovation is supposed to have enabled some companies to reinvent themselves ;
• Organisations are said to be reshaped through the introduction of collaborative networked business approaches ;
• Profound changes in traditional markets (as for banks for example).

A spanner in the worksDespite this, and the spectacular performance of some companies that have established themselves in just a few years to the point of throwing a spanner in the works of well established markets and provoking defensive reactions, some observers maintain that we are facing an innovation bubble.

Disruption: bubble or not bubble? – image MidjourneyAnd these same observers point out that the expectations they have of these disruptive innovations are not in proportion to what they could deliver.

And when expectations exceed what innovation can deliver, disappointment occurs. As described by Gartner in its “Hype Cycle” with what the US analyst group calls “The trough of disillusionment“.

Here the Gartner Hype Cycle of 2008 technologiesAnd the 2021 update. In the meantime many of the key groundbreaking technological innovations of the 2000s have fallen by the wayside, to be replaced by other, more trendy ones. With AI at the height of the current craze and without Web 3 (even Gartner have given up on it even though they wrote a favourable report on it).Disruption strategy: not just a buzzword“The reality is that business disruption is not a fad. It is not a set of buzzwords you need to use in planning meetings, and it is not a way of positioning a brand in the marketplace. ,” explains Joanne Jacobs.

In her view, the only real break is the one that results from the convergence of three elements:

1. Emerging technologies;
2. Changing customer needs;
3. The availability of resources.

It is the combination of these three ingredients that she believes makes disruption a reality or a fiction.

Disruption is the result of risk-taking. Often, it means that you should be making the most of a legal loophole.We could, however, add a few important ingredients to this recipe:

• Significant market share to the point where it weighs on the incumbent players (in mass market, for a market share to be stable, the bar is set at 20%, with dominant products often achieving 70 or 80% in mature markets);
• A valuation that is not based solely on market cap (by its very nature volatile and speculative, with recent unicorns being punished for being valued at up to 50 times their sales, which is unreasonable);
• The ability to make a lasting mark on a market by changing practices, evolving buying patterns – even society and lifestyles.
• And lastly, the ability to survive market re-regulation, as was the case for ecommerce with Amazon. The Seattle firm, for example, sold VAT-free until 1996 in the UK (a little later in Europe). Re-regulation did not kill Amazon, it continued to thrive for many years. A second tier re-regulation is happening now with the implementation of VAT for all vendors on marketplaces.

Let’s challenge the challenge In recent years, we have seen the emergence of new entrants in markets that were thought to be stable and saturated:

“AirBnB entered the top ranks in terms of hotel market capitalisation and Uber represented the world’s fastest-growing car rental with driver service,” Joanne wrote in 2015. These businesses were seen as a real challenge to such established markets.

But what is the situation today? There was a clear wake up call in the high-tech industry. No more valuations without sound business results underpinning. Well, maybe.

Here’s to disruption – the 1880s according to Vaclav Smil – Numbers don’t lie – p 98.So the question arises, is disruptive innovation overhyped? Vaclav Smil, the famous author of “Numbers Don’t Lie” answers bluntly that we are mistaken. According to him, the most innovative period in human history was the… 1880s ![/caption]

According to the worshippers of the e-world, the late 20th century and the two opening decades of the 21st century brought us an unprecedented number of profound inventions. But that is a categorical misunderstanding, as most recent advances have been variations on two older fundamental discoveries: microprocessors […] and exploiting radio waves, part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Smil, Vaclav. Numbers Don’t Lie (p. 97)

A growing bubble of innovation?According to Smil, and others, we may be living in a context that reflects a flowering of innovations, an accumulation of gadgets that are more or less important or distracting, but in which we are unaware of the importance of the underlying innovations.

The mobile: cause for wonder or plain incremental innovation?To mimic smil’s deliberately cursory demonstration, we marvel at our little computer phones, but fail to take into account the importance of the work of Nikola Tesla to whom we owe the industrialisation of alternating current. Tesla died in debt and lonely, but without him, none of these gadgets would exist!

Amazing innovations, real breakthroughs?Many of the innovations we use are undoubtedly incredible – and I never cease to marvel at those communication tools we wield. Yet, does that mean that all these contraptions are truly disruptive?

Reading this article from 2015 today as the clouds gather over tech stocks and others are towering up is interesting. Where do we stand on “disruption” at a time when, as Smil has it, there are many more important things than that in the economy.

A disruption bubble or a hyperbole of disruptive innovation?In 2015, “[…]A whole range of disruptor companies from DropBox and SurveyMonkey, to the secretive Palantir Technologies and audacious SpaceX”, were redefining the way organisations were communicating, researching and developing products, Joanne explained.

Even then (2015 seems a long time ago) she was rejecting the idea that we were living in an “innovation bubble”. At the very least, she recognised “a bubble of disruption hyperbole”.

30 years after the development of the commercial Web, we have the necessary hindsight to see what has really changed under the impetus of these ‘disruptive’ companies.

And I have miwed feeling about the result. Both naysayers and proponents of disruptive innovation mays disagree with me, though. Regardless, I have looked at both sides of the equation, and the pros and cons of that so-called disruption.

Signs of evidence of disruptionAccording to Eric Van Susteren (Momentive’s head of Brand Content strategy), there are 5 pieces of evidence that this disruption exists:

1. 1. The Great Resignation could be the proof of a real and profound change, even if it is not solely driven by technology;
   2. This very big resignation have brought to the forefront employees’ expectations in the areas of diversity, equal opportunities and inclusion;
   3. A majority of new IT purchases were sourced from new suppliers;
   4. Nearly half, of (US) consumers say they are buying more online today, even though the ecommerce boom appears to be over including payment innovations that have fizzled out;
   5. The boom in the use of digital continues unabated with consumers ever more inclined to use online services.

Better still, McKinsey proved to us back in 2019 that the pace of disruption was accelerating in its report “navigating in a world of disruption“:

Disruption is accelerating according to McKinsey – Navigating a world of disruption – a 2019 reportBut what will be left of all this in a few years’ time? Now that Covid has been forgotten, what has become of the ‘great resignation’? Will the wave of wealthy urbanites fleeing to the country last? We saw flock to the Pyrenees a few years ago and now they are all returning home to make a living. Nonetheless, only time will tell.

WFH policiesAnd how will the exiles in the far-flung suburbs survive such long commutes? Already, businesses are massively scaling down WFH policies. I’ve be a fan of remote working for 35 years, but I’m not sure it is made for everyone in the same way.

And what about the AI boom, noted by McKinsey in its report. In short, how can we tell the difference between disruption and non-disruption? How can we avoid, to use Joanne’s expression, this “hyperbole of disruption”?

NFT, Web3 and other pipe dreamsSome readers may think that “all this doesn’t matter, it’s all theory, what matters is what happens in the field”. There is truth in that. It doesn’t matter that disruptive innovation is all the rage, the proof will be in the bacon and even in eating the bacon.

Let’s mention Web 3, for instance. Pundits are telling us that the blockchain is nothing but a lie and, ultimately, nothing more than a glorified spreadsheet.

It’s […] not surprising that whenever “blockchain” has been experimented with in a traditional setting, it has either been thrown in the bin or turned into a private permissioned database that is nothing more than an Excel spreadsheet or a misleadingly named database
Nouriel Roubini, the big lie of blockchain – 2018

Others, no less knowledgeable, tell us that this is a major change and a fundamental breakthrough.

Web2 vs Web3 Thealien.design tutorial

Web3 is not vapourware, it’s a vision that encompasses different principles based on practices and technologies that enable new applications.
Frédéric Cavazza – Sysk – 2022 – white paper

Gartner, as far as they are concerned, issued a midlle-of-the-road statement about Web3.

Admittedly, blockchain is only one of the components of Web3, but not the least. So who should we believe? How can a layman navigate this world of “disruption”, to paraphrase MacKinsey?

What if we were living in a workd which has become too complicated for us to understand?

Even experts are losing touchI’ve wondered a few times lately whether the world has really become complicated or whether it’s engineers and marketers that are messing things about so much that noone can understand anything anymore? Unless it’s Google — and AI soon — which made us stupid?

It reminded me of a lecture by the late Bernard Stiegler, who sadly passed away in 2020. His in-depth thoughts on the proletarianisation of our hyper connected society [see his presentation in French] hit the nail on the head (his diagnosis was more impressive than the solution he suggested).

The proletarisation of the world according to Bernard Stiegler (visual taken from one of his presentations)

We have lost the ability to understand the world around us

And once again, it’s Vaclav Smil who sets the record straight. The Manitoba hermit joins the French philosopher in a slightly different way.

Experts and facemasksHe begins by pointing out the extent to which ‘experts’, during the outbreak of Covid, by dint of hyperspecialisation, had been unable to help us deal with the pandemic. According to the Canadian thinker, there is an underlying explanation for the fact that it has taken so long for so clever experts to agree on something as simple as wearing a facemask.

[…] explanations of this comprehension deficit go beyond the fact that the sweep of our knowledge encourages specialization, whose obverse is an increasingly shallow understanding—even ignorance—of the basics.
[…]
and unlike in the industrializing cities of the 19th and early 20th centuries, jobs in modern urban areas are largely in services. Most modern urbanites are thus disconnected not only from the ways we produce our food but also from the ways we build our machines and devices.
Smil, Vaclav. How the World Really Works (p. 3). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition

Smil’s sentence rings true, but not only to describe our ignorance of the world in its main components. Proletarianisation also strikes experts in innovation, the Web, digital and the economy, and in the analysis of so-called ‘disruptive’ technologies.

I don’t know whether Roubini is right or whether, on the contrary, the aficionados of Web3 or AI (or of the next high-tech fad) will win the battle. They probably don’t even have a clue themselves. And innovation takes such a long time that it’s possible that we’ll have to wait a decade or two before we know the whole story.

Internet-banking.com, 30 years onAnd so it is with ‘disruptive innovation’, and I used inverted commas quite intentionally. If someone had asked me – back when I created internet-banking.com – whether the Internet would ‘disrupt’ the banking sector, I would probably have said yes. And there’s a good reason for this: this selfulfilling prophecy was giving me job. Truth be told, I sincerely thought so.

Nearly 30 years on, my feelings are rather mixed. Almost all the neo-banks have been taken over by big financial institutions, and even if new ones have been created, we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for feare they crash before we’ve had time to withdraw our money (it’s already happend twice with me, once with ING and once with banque directe. Now my business is with Shine but after a year, Socgen got rid of them and this is a bad omen) .

Disruption or continuous improvement? Not so easyDespite the above, Chris Skinner was predicting bank closures in droves nearly 10 years ago. And reality has finally caught up with many of today’s banking institutions, even in more traditional and stable markets like France.

‘Disruption’ did happen, but not in the way we expected originally.

If there has been disruption in the banking sector, and this is only the beginning, it is because of the impact of automation, a universal movement that affects all professions and that is linked to a natural trend in our societies since the miraculous 1880s, to put it in Smil’s words. Wherever a machine can do the job, it will. After all, human beings cost money, and they always complain that working is hard.

The answer to the question – is this technology disruptive or not – is not trivial, and is above all a matter of judgement and time.

The only thing that is certain is that the proletarianisation (in the meaning that we are losing the ability to understand how things work) that we are experiencing is not going to help us decode the technological innovations of the years to come. And that includes Generative AI in the first place.

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Growth hacking can often be perceived as toxic, but you can sit back and relax, it is possible to practise ethical growth hacking but it requires time and energy, growth hacking expert Frederic Canevet explained to Visionary Marketing. In a nutshell, it may be a little harder than you think, but it is well worth the effort. Fred, who ate his own dogfood to sell his bestseller on the subject, tells us everything we should know about whte hat growth hacking.

Ethical Growth Hacking Is Not an OxymoronWhite hat, back hat? Growth hacking often suffers a dire reputation fuelled by unscrupulous individuals, some of whom have built real fortunes on questionable approaches. But ethical growth hacking is possible, explains Fred Canevet – image created with Midjourney on our personalised mode.Could you mention historical examples of growth hacking?Frédéric Canevet: There are two tale-telling cases that illustrate the controversial practices of growth hacking perfectly:

1. In America, Airbnb got its start by exploiting data from Craigslist. The company developed an automated system to extract property listings and contact owners, offering them the chance to earn $500 a week by listing their accommodation on Airbnb.
2. In France, the founder of Telecom operator Free Mobile Xavier Niel, back in the days of the Minitel, created a tool to send automated mass messages to Minitel users. Lonely hearts messaging services on the Minitel being most profitable at that time, he launched a competitor to a leading dating service and diverted their traffic through targeted messages. Although this practice earned him legal action and a lost court case, the profits generated helped him build his initial fortune, notably through a network of sex shops linked to this Minitel business.

Can Growth Hacking Be ethical and responsible, though?FC: Yes, it’s feasible but it requires time and effort.

Ethical growth hacking: white hat ends up paying better than black hat – image made with Midjourney on our custom mode.How should our vision of growth hacking evolve overtime?FC: Our approach has to evolve considerably in the face of today’s economic challenges. In a tense economic climate, we can no longer afford traditional marketing with its long-term plans. This is precisely what inspired growth hacking in Silicon Valley, where startups had to, as the time-honoured slogan went, “live or die“. In a world tending towards the end of consumerism, at least in Europe, the challenge is to do more with less.

There are three levels of growth hacking.

1. “White hat” represents legal and ethical practices, similar to the “Fosbury flop” in athletics – a revolutionary innovation, but one that abides to the rules. This approach is based on business cycle analysis using the AARRR method: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Recommendation and Revenue.
2. “Grey hat” is sitting in the middle. For example, automation on LinkedIn, although prohibited by the platform, is still widely practised. I have personally experienced the risks of resorting to this approach when I was suspended for managing two separate profiles.
3. Finally, “Black hat” encompasses strictly prohibited practices: i.e. creating fake accounts, identity theft, or unauthorised recovery of personal data. These methods may seem tempting in the short term, but prove disastrous for a company’s reputation and long-term survival.

How can we guarantee efficiency while remaining ethical?FC: Sending mass unsolicited messages in LinkedIn serves no purpose. Instead, effectiveness lies in forging true connections. The strategy I adopt lies in the daily publication of high added value content, demonstrating real expertise. It’s not an aggressive sales approach, but rather inbound marketing based on trust.

In fact, email spam is a no no. You send 10,000 emails and what you get is a 0.5% open rate and a slightly lower click rate. All in all, as you sent tens of thousands of messages, you may get some sort of result. But very soon, all this is bound to dwindle. Not to mention how damaging all this could be to your reputation.

As for ‘black hat’, I absolutely forbid it. In particular, fake accounts attached to the name of a company, solely for the purpose of recovering data from lists of people and companies that follow the page of the target company. This is illegal, because it’s identity theft. The same applies to those individuals who seek to recover the email addresses or telephone numbers of people with whom they have no relationship. I refuse to do that, especially as it often involves personal data.

Facts and Figures About Ethical Growth HackingFC. To illustrate the effectiveness of the approach I recommend, let’s quote some figures from the company I work for, Eloquant: over 20% of the 1,200 people who signed up for our interviews with customer relationship experts this year came from LinkedIn, out of an industry of around 15,000 professionals. Our aim is to unite this community, establish our legitimacy, and then convert the members of this community into visitors of our various events such as webinars or our “All for Customers” trade show in Paris.

The omnichannel approach is becoming essential as traditional channels become saturated. The numbers are not adding up: the rate of participation in webinars has fallen from 35% 3-4 years ago to around 25% today, 30% at the most. The rate of viewing replays has also fallen, from 15% to 12%. These figures show that it is no longer viable to rely on a single channel. Omnichannel is of the essence, and face-to-face meetings especially, that are more effective than ever.

How important is personalisation in your approach?FC. Personalisation is vital. For birthday wishes, we take a two-step approach: an initial message automated by my assistant, followed by personal interaction on my part.

And I send the messages one by one.

AI won’t replace humans, but professionals who master AI will outperform those who don’t. Our experience with Smart Tribune illustrates this principle: during a joint event, we decided to pull together and appeal to our respective networks and approach each potential participant individually. Success depended on pre-existing relationships and established personal links.

This then led to a white paper written jointly with Apizee and Smart Tribune [note: in French only], based on an OpinionWay survey of 1,000 interviewees. Our partners used AI to kickstart the writing of this project. While AI was impressive at the start, it was quite obvious after a while that all this was more artificial than intelligent: the formatting was bland, transitions were artificial. All that was typical ChatGPT gibberish. We had to substantially correct all these initial sections.

AI remains a valuable tool, particularly for copywriting. I use a custom GPT to generate drafts of posts about my events. The result, while not exceptional, provides us with a straw man, which can then be adapted and personalised.

How is the digital landscape changing with these new AI practices?FC. There has been a significant drop in SEO traffic on Google these past few months. Well-established blogs have been massively hit by the arrival of AI and the automatic generation of content. As Google is struggling to distinguish authentic content, it then started to favour more specialised and industry-specific sites.

I’ve noticed that many content creators and bloggers I know have given up or scaled down their online writing. Personally, while blogging used to be my number one priority, it has now slipped into second place. I now prefer to concentrate on LinkedIn.

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AI is redefining retail for good, bringing in the kind of automation and professionalism once implemented in the manufacturing industry. In this case, it’s mostly revolving around data-driven marketing decisions and in-store retail media capabilities. As shown by Axians, a VINCI group company, AI isn’t a mere toy for undergraduate students who are failing their tests and need better inspiration. It’s a robust, state of the art high-tech engine for growth and better in-store management. Yet, as often with technology, there are two sides of the same coin. The other one is more ominous, though, depicting a future of retail where layoffs will continue to rise, mostly for those retailers who missed that boat of AI-driven customisation. Here is the account of our discussion with Hugo Rocha Gonçalves, Axians’ head of Smart RetAIl, at Tech for Retail 2024.

AI in retail: shrinking queuing times today, headcount tomorrowZooming in on AI in retail with Axians’s Hugo Gonçalves at Tech for Retail 2024You’re in charge of the smart retail solution at Axians. What is it?Hugo Gonçalves. We developed the Smart retAIl concept to address the main challenges that the retail industry is facing today. There is a strong need to better understand in-store consumer behaviour, profile and shopping habits. We provide this knowledge to improve store efficiency, and to enable data-driven decision-making.

Can you describe the process of Smart RetAIl?H.G. We are using AI and computer vision to accomplish this.

1. The first step is to understand how the stores are organised, what the shop floor looks like, and also how we can capture this data anonymously — for obvious GDPR compliance reasons — to fuel a data-driven decision process.
2. After capturing this anonymised data through computer vision, there are a couple of things we need to understand. Such as footfall, who are the buyers, when they are buying, and their paths through the store. We need to map, with the help of AI, the hot and cold zones within the store. Within these zones, we can understand if people are proper shoppers or if they are merely passers-by, and how much time they spend doing their purchases.

In a sense, this is some sort of heat map within the storeH.G. This is precisely what it is. And with this heat map, we can also understand what products people are looking at, how much time they spend. With AI we are taking this to a new level. This new level includes product tasting and testing. Two good examples are chocolate tasting, where we need to understand through computer vision when a customer is tasting something, which is very important in chocolate stores, and perfume stores. With this technology we can detect if the customer is testing the perfume and then understand if he or she will buy it or not afterwards.

AI in retail : Axians had set up a heat map showing how their system was monitoring footfall in front of their Tech for Retail boothThis means you are automating the work of market researchers who used to observe in-store consumer behaviourH.G. Indeed. It used to be very tedious work to have someone watching hours and hours of video, trying to understand customer behaviour, customisation, and buying habits. Now we have AI that can process 24 hours of video, covering all the opening hours of a given store. We can process all this data and obtain valuable insights as well as data enriched by AI and computer vision.

So you are capturing a flow of images through in-store cameras, how is it working?H.G. This entire process demonstrates the beauty of machine learning and AI. No need to resort to supplementary intrusive devices in the stores. We are using existing in-store CCTV cameras. We subsequently apply AI image processing, frame by frame, on the existing footage. The data is recognised and categorised by the AI automatically. The resulting data provides a lot of KPIs like passerby/buyer qualification, hot and cold zones identification, as I said already. We’re also interfacing with other information systems such as CRM, ERP, or point of sale systems. Doing so we are able to match our data with the sales data.

How do you adjust your setup for sales optimisation vs shoplifting prevention?H.G. Indeed, the technology is also helping us in that direction. All the innovation and sophistication lie in the AI processing the image. With the evolution we’ve experienced in computer vision, we no longer need specific hardware to do this. We simply need AI to help us with good machine learning and AI models to process it.

What kind of AI are we talking about here, certainly it’s not ChatGPT!H.G. This system has demanded a great deal of knowledge and experience. We have a large group of data scientists at Axians. It’s also important to mention that this solution originated from an AI program launched by VINCI Group called the Leonard program (editor’s note: named after Leonardo da Vinci). This program focuses on solving real challenges we face as citizens in our daily interactions. It’s aimed at using AI to solve real challenges. One of these challenges involves using human expertise and knowledge in conjunction with AI. Her me we are talking of a different kind of AI (coupled with computer vision), not generative AI.

Hence it’s either machine learning or deep learning. What does the training process involve?H.G. Typically, we have a learning curve for these types of systems. We train the model using what we call manual labelling. Manual labelling helps the model understand what a person is. There are already modules that assist us. We don’t need to start from scratch. We have existing models, open models that identify a human in a shop and their interactions. On top of this, we use not only our retail clients for assistance (they help us with the training of the model), but also to understand and label the data correctly. It’s important to note that ours is not an unsupervised process. Here we are talking of supervised AI image processing. Supervised learning ensures the correct labelling of data and effective leverage of AI capabilities.

What’s sort of work was involved prior to launch? H.G. Beforehand a lot of preparatory work was required. We have extensive experience developing AI solutions, especially in computer vision, data processing, AI processing, and data quality. This represents at least two or three years of intensive work, collaborating, testing and trying to understand how to move forward. Whenever the packaged solution doesn’t suffice, we propose POCs to our clients. Such POCs help us reduce overhead related to testing. For example, we are currently testing queue times AI management. From experience, we’ve found that normally when customers are buying something, they won’t wait more than 10 minutes. If the wait exceeds 10 minutes, they’ll leave the queue and give up on their purchase. We’re addressing issues such as these by providing data driven insights.

Can you share a real-life business case with our reader?H.G. We have launched a POC in Italy. We’re assisting a large retail client over there. This retailer had realised it was losing sales and that their conversion rate was decreasing because their staff wasn’t supporting their customers, even though that was part of their onboarding training.

The end gain was significant. They’ve reduced queue time by 50% and increased sales in some stores by 12 to 15% due to this implementation.

It was sufficient to break even and they are now challenging us with new use cases, including some very complex AI problems.

How long does it take to break even with that kind of solution?H.G. It depends greatly on the size of the stores. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but we can say that recovering the cost of the investment in the platform typically takes between 6 to 12 months.

Any examples from Portugal?H.G. Regarding queuing times, we have another example in Portugal involving high-tech retail solutions. The main issue was the identification of the most profitable areas within the store. When selling technology hardware like smartphones, etc., hot zones are of the utmost importance. They are areas where consumers spend extra time, allowing retailers to sell media space to vendors. This what is known as in-store retail media. In this particular case in Portugal, we achieved great results with a retailer who started to monetise the hot zones in its stores. This wouldn’t have been possible with our platform. Now they know which areas provide more return on investment and can charge more for product placement in these zones. We’re still in the early stages with this client, a major retailer in Portugal. Already, the return in euros is between four and five figures per store.

Can your solution help struggling retailers in the current economic environment?H.G. Absolutely. We’re living in a data-driven world. Decisions should all be made based on data. This platform provides extensive in-store data and enables many well-informed data-driven decisions. In the near future, retailers failing to consider data-driven marketing and AI will have to layoff staff and make other last minute haphazard decisions. Our solution helps uncover KPIs and metrics that were previously hidden. Through data-driven approaches, we’re confident we can help reduce redundancies and facilitate better data-informed decisions.

What will retail look like in five or ten years from now? With all these AI solutions, will it still be a labour-intensive business?H.G. It won’t be. There will be a major reconfiguration of stores. Luxury stores will continue to have staff assisting us with purchases. For everyday retail purchases, there will be a significant reduction in staff.

In the future, retail will no longer be a labour-intensive industry

The future of retail will also be about extensive customisation. We’re already experiencing this level of customisation in streaming services that trace our personal and behavioural data very well. This means that each consumer will have its own bespoke catalogue tailored to his or her needs. To stay in business, retailers must possess in-depth knowledge of their customers. Moving forward, beyond this extensive level of customisation, a personalised care experience for each customer.

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Data-Driven AI is the future of customer experience, François Ajenstat told us at a recent interview. François is Chief Product Officer at Amplitude, the company behind a digital analytics platform aimed at helping B2B and B2C businesses build better products, websites and ecommerce experiences through behavioural data. François stressed the significance of data-driven AI within analytics but also delivered a clear warning: Don’t fall in love with what you have built! Focus on delivering second-to-none customer experiences instead. He emphasised that implementing chatbots without purpose isn’t beneficial, noting that too often, in this new world, businesses rush to add chatbots but it doesn’t make “anybody happier. No. People are still frustrated.”

Data-Driven AI Is the Future of Customer ExperienceData-Driven AI Is the Future of Customer Experience — Image generated with Midjourney and our special personalised modeAI Integration and Implementation in analytics, what does it mean?François Ajenstat. While AI capabilities have existed for years through statistics and machine learning, generative AI has opened new possibilities. We’ve integrated this through “Ask Amplitude,” allowing natural language queries with visual responses. Thus, users can simply ask questions about their most engaged users and receive actionable insights.

I could ask the system, “Who are my favourite readers, for instance?”Absolutely. And you’d get the answer in a flash and the system would suggest what actions you should take and how you should engage them. Alternatively, it could help you visualise the journey of those users.

This is what you call the 3 key aspects of Data-driven AI ImplementationF.A. Indeed, we focus on three different areas with a massive potential impact.

1. Simplification first: removing complexity through natural language interfaces. We’ve had speech-to-text capabilities for years, but users often found this feature intimidating. There used to be a learning curve before you could use it properly. Now it’s a lot easier. You just ask a question in natural language and it brings the result for you automatically.
2. Augmentation is the second area: it’s about enhancing human capabilities rather than replacing them. A great example of that might be if you’re analysing some data and you want to understand the outliers* or what the key drivers are. Help me understand the root cause of this problem. This is where you can unleash AI to really drill into the data on your behalf and come up with insights. So we’ve added those capabilities in our product. We’ve also added what we call a data assistant, which will tell you automatically where there are data quality issues or improvements.
3. Last comes Automation: this is where you find workflows and you ask AI to execute tasks on your behalf. It could be about automatically engaging users. It could be around guiding those users by delivering the right content, images, text, based on given use cases. Enabling 24/7 execution of routine tasks while allowing marketers to focus on strategy. The key thing is to engage the user at every single touch point and use AI to make every interaction a little better so you can drive a better outcome.

*Outliers (statistics): a data point on a graph or in a set of results that is very much bigger or smaller than the next nearest data point.

The 3 key aspects of data-driven AI are simplification, augmentation and automation — visual produced with MidjourneyDo you think that AI is made for beginners or super experts like Steve Yegge?F.A. Every time new technologies emerge, it causes fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the jobs that are going to be eliminated.

Think of word processing. In the 50s and 60s, the only people who would type were office secretaries. That was a specialised job. When WordPerfect and Word came out to the market, that job got removed. But at the same time, it empowered millions and millions of other people to be able to perform new tasks by themselves. And that was extremely liberating.

It doesn’t eliminate the fact that some people are good writers and some people are not. You still need the core skills to know how to write properly.

And I think that in our jobs, whether you’re in marketing, engineering or product management, you still need to grasp the fundamentals to understand what is happening. But you can eliminate some of the more basic work and spend more time on the higher level.

Yet, Focusing on the Higher Level Requires SkillsF.A. Indeed, it does. Think of these new programming languages where you don’t have to learn all the basic hard-coded engineering. You are therefore facing a higher level of abstraction. The same goes with AI. It is merely providing a higher level of abstraction. It makes it possible for you to focus on building greater software versus knowing all the mechanics below it.

Data-driven AI means you should be obsessed with user experience, not with AI — image generated with Midjourney.Will AI become a staple of user experience?F.A. AI will become a core capability in all software, driving faster innovation and creativity. The focus on user experience becomes even more critical as expectations rise. Success depends on delivering value to users, regardless of the interface or platform.

User expectations are going to grow. And we will all have to compete more effectively or more aggressively on winning the rights to be able to serve those users.

I think that changes the equation a lot. We now have a higher responsibility to deliver better quality experiences.

But the core of all these experiences is data. We have to be able to collect more and more data to understand what’s working and what’s not working.

Just delivering a chat experience on a website doesn’t mean it’s a good experience.

Too often, in this new world, businesses rushed to add chatbots. Is anybody happier? No. People are still frustrated. But the real question now is “how do you continuously use that data to deliver better experiences?” To better understand your funnels and user journeys and drive customer retention.

Where is user experience headed in the future?That’s the $300-million question. If your website experience is clearly positioned but you are delivering your chat capability through a third-party interface, how do you actually differentiate?

All that matters is how much value you are delivering to your users.

Don’t fall in love with what you have built. Fall in love with your customers and this should guide you every single day.

Could we imagine, in a not-so-distant future, self-programming software?F.A. Users want software that’s adaptable, continuously monitoring itself to drive the right outcomes. I think one of the keys to achieving that is the ability to express the metrics, the goals that you have. Because the software will never know what ‘improvement’ means.

Thus, if you were to say, ‘My goal is to increase signup conversions,’ then the software could look at the data and improve itself, change terms, add new buttons and new capabilities that will drive that outcome for you.

I think the world actually is shifting from websites to metrics and outcomes.

And that’s how AI can come through. There’s a lot of gibberish that comes out of AI because it doesn’t know your intent. It doesn’t know your domain. But if you’re able to start with the intent, then everything else makes a lot more sense.

We have a project in development right now where we analyse all the sessions on a given website. We’ll create screen recordings of everything. And from that, we will be able to infer which industry you’re in, where users are frustrated, how users are navigating your site. From that you can start ask AI to suggest changes for you.

The whole online world is going to change, is it not?F.A. We’re at an exciting inflection point, like the PC revolution or mobile transformation. AI is going to be a whole new world, but we’re in the very early days. And now’s the time to start dreaming, trying, experimenting.

My advice to everybody is to lean in. Don’t be afraid of it. Be the first ones to try and fail and test and really dream of what’s possible because there are incredible opportunities ahead of us.

Those who don’t adapt risk being disrupted by those who do.

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Visionary Marketing was created in 1995 and will therefore celebrate its 30-year anniversary in 2025. One fine day in 1995, in the middle of summer, the Marketing & Innovation website was created. Archive.org platform won’t be able to go back any further than 1998, so you’ll have to take my word for it. This milestone gives me a unique opportunity to take a step back and ponder over three decades of content creation dedicated to Marketing and Innovation.

Visionary Marketing: 30-year anniversary in 202530 years of Marketing and innovation on Visionary Marketing – here the homepage from 2001The site initially served as a base for evangelising about the new medium that was the World Wide Web, invented a few years earlier (1989) by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Contrary to what some would argue, the Web was not empty back then. Websites abounded, visitors were undoubtedly a little less numerous but more curious, as they were discovering this new mode of communication.

A Period of Intense CreativityIt was a period of intense creativity and innovation. I’ve lost count of the number of friends I made in those years. You’d make a comment and a Welshman living in the United States would come and visit you in London to say hello and chit-chat with you. Truly amazing days.

For Visionary Marketing’s 30th anniversary, we composed this pretty neo-cubist visual with Midjourney and our personalised mode.Most of the content was made of longform pieces. PowerPoint presentations were numerous on the site too and attracted a large number of visitors. The name of the website comes from a document I wrote that year. It was modelled on the so-called visionary method of Henri Egea, our head of consultancy at Unisys. Henri sadly passed away in mid-2010. He was a rather whimsical but fascinating character. He shaped the thinking of many consultants by putting us in the footsteps of Henri Atlan, Bernard Cova and Olivier Badot and above all Edgar Morin and his “introduction to complex thinking“.

Visionary Marketing Way Back in 1995Visionary Marketing was a name that sounded rather good, it’s still there and I even named my company after it. There was no point in finding another name.

2025 will be dedicated to celebrating these 30 years, but that’s not all. Many projects will be launched, starting with the Man from Mars demos, which you’ll be seeing soon crop up on the site. Produced with Olivier Saint-Léger, who is also the author of the pretty visual below, together we’ll be continuing a more than ten-year collaboration on marketing, strategy, creativity and photography.

The Mars from the Mars demos (MarTech and SalesTech), our upcoming project with Olivier Saint Léger.More will be unveiled later but, in the meantime, let’s give our followers a bit of a read. Here is the initial Visionary Marketing document, highly visionary for its time.

Visionary Marketing: the founding document of our siteAt the time, I was talking about “Marketing-Orientated Information Systems“. This was a way of bridging the gap between marketing and Information Systems, my job at the time. I was indeed designing applications for sales and marketing people (and financial controllers who supervised margins and sales).

Since then, the vocab has changed a lot. MarTech and SalesTech are all the rage. And that’s precisely the basis for our forthcoming Man from Mars demos.

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Today I (re)discovered the C2PA standard, launched in 2022, while posting my daily article on LinkedIn. It’s a new feature for detecting AI-generated images. How does it work and how effective is this? Let’s delve into this topic as ChatGPT would have it.

C2PA Standard: LinkedIn (Almost) Detects AI-Created ImagesAI-created image detection: LinkedIn has implemented the C2PA standard… which didn’t detect that my Photoshop-edited image was created with MidjourneyThe C2PA SystemC2PA stands for “The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity”, described by LinkedIn as: “a project that aims to develop technical standards for establishing content provenance and authenticity. The goal is to enable consumers to trace the source and authenticity of media content, including when generative AI use is detected.”

The standard used by C2PA is open and is heading in the right direction.

I created this visual with Midjourney. By editing it with Photoshop, I inadvertently bypassed the C2PA standard. LinkedIn’s new feature didn’t detect the true origin of the image.The specifications for the open C2PA standard are available here. The FAQ available on the site indicates the tool’s ability to detect the provenance of an image manipulated through multiple sources.

When one asset is created from a series of other assets, those sources are referred to as the ingredients. Each ingredient that is used in the (composed) asset is recorded in that asset’s provenance, including the addition of the provenance of each individual ingredient. This process creates a chain of provenance that can stretch all the way back to each ingredient’s creation.

One can sense that the C2PA standard is a good move on the part of its sponsors. However, the complexity of the subject doesn’t guarantee complete traceability, as demonstrated in the rather commonplace case described above. Nevertheless, we can hope it will evolve in the right direction. This would ensure increased transparency regarding content and its provenance, particularly on social media.

AI Transparency at Visionary MarketingAs far as Visionary Marketing is concerned, barring unintentional errors or oversights, we always specify in writing the transparency statement regarding image creation. And in our case, an image produced with Midjourney, even if recomposed, is an AI-produced image. Full stop. Follow this link to discover the 100% human-generated content manifesto.

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At the XYZ Paris that took place at Station F on September 27, 2024, George Tsirtsis from Qualcomm stressed the issue with GenAI, i.e. scalability, and sketched a new course for the future of that technology: on-device GenAI. To the chips manufacturer, the future isn’t the cloud but your good old handheld device (preferably equipped with their chips).

What if on-device GenAI were the future?On-device GenAI is already here, Tsirtsis said at XYZ Paris on September 27, 2024 and it’s the solution, or at least one of the solutions, for solving the GenAI scalability issue.GenAI has a scalability problem Let me go “straight to the point,” Tsirtsis said, “Generative AI has a scaling problem. The problem stems from the simple fact that computation to serve generative AI queries, and to respond to them, is much higher than a traditional web search, about 10 times as much, and that’s a conservative estimate”.

Tsirtsis on stage at XYZ Paris 2024Towering problems

It’s even worse than that according to the Senior Director of Technolgy of Qualcomm Europe.

“When you go to ChatGPT or any other AI assistant, the computation and electricity used is much higher than for traditional websites. You have to take that 10x number and multiply it by the deluge of applications and features that are powered by generative AI and multiply that again by the billions of users of that technology.”

GenAI has a scalability issueDevelopers can work differently The good news is, though, that when you understand that there is a problem, it’s easier to work out a few solutions. Qualcomm thinks the answer to that towering problem is… your device.

“The solution to this is to distribute computation to the edge. The future is clearly hybrid,” Tsirtsis went on, “we’re going to be dealing with very large models in the cloud and the smaller large models at the edge (SLMs).”

“SLMs aren’t that small,” Tsirtsis told us. “They are anything up to 10 to 15 billion parameters with tens of thousands of token context windows. A couple of days ago, Meta announced the latest generation of LAMA 3.2, a 1-billion parameter model, 3-billion parameters, and also a multimodal 11-billion parameter model.”

But all of these SLMs can run on device, and “they can run very efficiently”.

The data too, stays on your deviceThere’s more to it than just efficiency. Data privacy is also part of the equation. “The other big advantage for you as a developer or entrepreneur is that you can make sure that your customer’s sensitive data stays on device” he added.

A hub to make developers’ lives easierQualcomm is adamant that their new architecture for GenAI isn’t a pie in the sky. It’s here and it’s working. “On-device AI is here” the Qualcomm speaker stated.

“There are more than 100 models that have already been optimised around our different hardware platforms and you can even bring your own model and optimise it there. Developers can test their applications on any one of the many devices we make available in the device farm that you can access online. They don’t have to buy all the different smartphones that are out there to test their applications.”

To this end. Qualcomm launched an online platform dedicated to developers at aihub.qualcomm.com.

The Qualcomm Aihub home pageTime will tell if this solves the GenAI scalability conundrum, but at least there is light at the end of the AI tunnel.

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CustPlace, a European e-reputation and customer experience software vendor, conducted a study at the end of 2023 on brand talk (i.e. the systematic approach to communicating brand values, commitments and identity) that caught our attention. I interviewed Nicolas Marette, the company’s founder, who explained the results of this study, which shows that marketers should talk more to their customers than about themselves. Without, however, denying the importance of brand communication.

Brand Talk Engages Only a Third of ConsumersBrand talk is not the major concern of the majority of consumers, so brands should focus on the painpoints of their customers instead. All this seems like common sense for a marketer. Photography antimuseum.com
For as long as we’ve been telling companies that they must stop talking about themselves and that it’s imperative to focus on their customers’ painpoints, no matter how obvious it may seem, a recent study by CustPlace rightly demonstrates that the lack of empathy is still the major problem weighing on brands and their images.

While brand talk dwells, sometimes heavily, on values, commitments and identities, customers grumble about service, products or delivery. Of course, there are counter-examples. Brands for which the label is more important than the product itself, as in the fashion industry for instance.

But on the whole, this rule applies to all. And not just for SEO purposes. Here’s the transcript of my interview with Nicolas Marette following the publication of this very interesting study.

What methodology did you use for this study?Nicolas Marette. Our customers have been asking us about the impact of brand talk for quite some time. Our study analysed one million Google queries, looking at the keywords most searched for in relation to brands. We also segmented this research by industry and realised that from one sector to another, the queries vary greatly. We looked at all the major brands, the leaders in each of the ten sectors we studied, to understand search trends over the years. To do this, we used our own ‘bots’ and also online tools such as SEMrush.

What did you measure exactly?NM. We measure a brand’s image through all the queries performed by users. Let’s take a manufacturer in the FMCG sector, an optician or a home improvement company. In this case, we’re going to look for all the queries about the brand, to find out what interests Internet users. Typically, this is ‘brand name + review’, ‘consumer review’ or ‘customer review’. And within these searches, we are interested in two major trends. On the one hand, queries related to products, services or points of sale. And on the other hand, those relating to employee opinions and employer branding. The latter are the ones that have emerged the most in recent years. In particular, we are seeing an increase in popularity of all the major job ad platforms.

Brand image depends less on brand discourse, Nicolas Marette tells us, than on reviews published by customers and employees – illustration produced with Midjourney V 6.1 in custom modeOnly 36% of consumers are interested in Brand TalkNM. Any marketing manager for a major consumer brand would expect to find her or his brand’s messages at around 50–60%. This means that behind the other two thirds are queries about products and services. That’s the first major lesson.

The second lesson is that behaviours vary greatly from one industry to another. In the hospitality and FMCG sectors too, consumer interest in brand talk is even more limited, at 18% instead of 36%. In the hotel industry, in the broad sense of the term, including campsites, consumers will look for a particular location, and read the opinions of other customers. In such cases, much more emphasis will be placed on reviews of the hotel, rental property or campsite.

On the other hand, when it comes to mass consumption, people are more interested in the product. If you’re buying ham, for example, you’ll be looking to see if it contains nitrite, as it is a growing concern for UK consumers.

Don’t companies tend to talk about themselves too much?NM. Exactly. When it comes to managing e-reputation, a lot of attention is paid to the brand and the network, whereas consumers and customers are much more interested in the details of products, services and locations.

Of course, a brand must invest in a coherent and consistent brand message, but it should focus more on the issues that interest its customers, to in-store opinions and, in this is a new trend, to employee reviews and comments. In particular, in the case of temp work or services, employees’ opinions matter most. Brand identity or brand talk are less critical for consumers.

Higher education and ready-to-wear is a different kettle of fish, thoughNM. That’s quite understandable. In ready-to-wear, we talk less about products and more about the label. We choose a brand for shoes, jumpers or clothing. In these sectors, we remain attached to the brand beyond the specificity of the product. As far as teaching is concerned, future applicants or parents accompanying their children after the baccalaureate will focus more on the reputation of the school than on the characteristics of the campus, which will no doubt be less salient.

Employee Reviews vs Brand TalkNM. Customer opinions are all the rage, employee opinions much less. Our vision at Custplace is very different, though. We’ve even launched an international platform dedicated to such reviews, Review.jobs.

The Review.jobs platform launched by CustplaceOur study has highlighted the growing importance of requests based on employee reviews. Even a customer who makes a query about a brand will see customer reviews crop up. But they will also see employee reviews into that lot. This has an impact on the brand’s image. However, the vast majority of brands in 2024 still pay too little attention to the opinions of their employees. They don’t realise how important employer branding is. Over and above the importance of this fact for new hires, employee reviews have an impact on the brand’s image.Employees first, customers second, Vineet Nayar’s famous book is analysed here on CharterworksIn the real estate industry, the impact of employee reviews is also significant. Behind a large network, an outlet or an agency in this sector, the people who advise consumers matter, and consumers value their opinions.In conclusion, what is your advice to companies?NM. We don’t recommend you to stop talking about your brand, but you should take a step back from it and ask yourself the right questions. If you’re a marketing or digital executive, simply look at these queries. Google does a great job of listing them with its Google Suggest feature. You start typing a few letters and the search engine will suggest the rest. This suggestion is the statistical result of queries typed by all Internet users as of now. Take a look at these results and you’ll already have a lot of food for thought and your brand strategy for the years to come.

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What is the likely impact of AI and GenAI in particular on jobs, especially in Europe? Two recent reports on the topic, one in the UK and another one in France shed light on this question. According to the French report, such impact could amount to 5%. Yet another case for precision vs accuracy. That figure seems counter-intuitive when so many self-proclaimed AI gurus, especially on LinkedIn, are hailing the GenAI “revolution“. Besides, the authors of the UK report don’t agree at all with that. As ChatGPT would have it, let’s “delve” into those reports and find out more.

GenAI impact on jobs: boon or doom?What impact will GenAI have on jobs in Europe? The answer to that question unmistakeably depends on which job and which associated tasks you are talking about. The French Commission on AI reassures us on this point – photo: a tailor’s workshop in the 10th arrondissement of Paris – photo Yann Gourvennec antimuseum.com.

Our own empirical analysis suggests a positive effect of AI on employment in companies that adopt AI, because AI replaces tasks, not jobs. In 19 out of 20 jobs, there are tasks that AI cannot perform. Jobs that can be directly replaced by AI would therefore represent only 5% of jobs in a country like France. What’s more, the generalisation of AI will spur job creations, in new occupations as in old ones. To sum it all up, some industries or geographies could experience net job losses, therefore requiring Government support, but this does not mean that AI will have an overarching negative effect on national employment in France.

French Commission on Artificial Intelligence report, March 2024 – p. 41

Anxiety in the eyes of some of my younger studentsI often talk to young students from all areas about the impact of GenAI on jobs and careers. I often sense a bit of reticence and even anxiety in them at a time when young adults are still asking themselves many questions about the future and aren’t necessarily clearly determined about what they want to do in the future. Beyond that, the current state of hype around GenAI further blurs these students’ vision by making them feel the weight of an uncertainty that is already difficult for some to stomach.

The impact of generative AI on employment is not easy to assess. And we’ve had to struggle with our image-generating AI tools to get them to avoid a doomsday view of the future of work with robots everywhere… What if, in the end, the future of work was a mere evolution of today’s work practices? Image generated with MidJourneyRecent reports have added fuel to the fire, such as this one from the IMF.

Almost 40 percent of global employment is exposed to AI, with advanced economies at greater risk but also better poised to exploit AI benefits than emerging market and developing economies. In advanced economies, about 60 percent of jobs are exposed to AI, due to prevalence of cognitive-task-oriented jobs. A new measure of potential AI complementarity suggests that, of these, about half may be negatively affected by AI, while the rest could benefit from enhanced productivity through AI integration.

IMF 2024 report on AI and the impact on employment and the future of work

The British government has also published a report on this subject. Its more task-oriented approach is a little more nuanced, but still fairly unappealing.

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are likely to have a profound and widespread effect on the UK economy and society, though the precise nature and speed of this effect is uncertain. It has been estimated that 10-30% of jobs are automatable with AI having the potential to increase productivity and create new high-value jobs in the UK.

Gov.uk report on the impact of AI on jobs, Nov 2023

It’s worthy of note, however, that the authors are resorting a great deal to the conditional tense. This undoubtedly urges us to interpret these results with caution.

A more nuanced report on the impact of AI on jobsThe French report is much more nuanced and refers to a large number of interesting studies, starting with the one by Antonin Bergeaud (an economist and professor at the Paris H. E. C. School of Management), from which I extracted an important schematic.

The approach of the French report makes a clear distinction between GenAI and AI, and even automation in the broad sense (i.e. aimed at the manufacturing industry). It’s a distinction that seems crucial to me, given the many misconceptions linked to the measuring of the impact of AI. Which AI? Generative AI? Machine Learning, deep learning, neural networks? Or even just plain good old IT, unless we are mentioning robotisation, automated supply chains…

In short, AI is everything and everything is AI. That seems to me a silver bullet for generating panic among the general public and especially young students who are trying to find their way in the future.

A More Thorough and Subtle ReportThe French report is therefore more precise than the others I’ve read, in that it makes a clear distinction between GenAI and the others. It is also focusing on tasks rather than jobs. This approach has also been that of the British government.

Impact of AI on jobs: Antonin Bergeaud’s projections are extremely smart and way above my mathematical abilities. In the top left-hand corner one can see the jobs of accountants and telemarketers, professions of which I’ve been reading about the disappearance since the 1980s (accountants) and 1990s (telemarketers). It’s bound to happen one day, but is ChatGPT to blame? It’s doubtful, and you don’t need a PhD in Quantum physics for this – diagram taken and adapted from Antonin Bergeaud’s report.The report is in disagreement with previous approaches, pitting them against each other and pointing out that, in the end, there may be no need to panic:

This approach using the exposure of tasks, vs jobs, to GenAI makes it possible to estimate aggregate effects at the level of the economy as a whole, and to allow comparisons between countries. However, it has several limitations. Here are the two main ones. On the one hand, it is a static approach: the studies are based on existing tasks and therefore do not take account those tasks that could be created as a result of the development of AI […] On the other hand, it is based on an estimate of the probability of different tasks being replaced by AI (see above diagram).

In short, even if you think it’s a better approach, thinking of the impact of AI in terms of tasks isn’t really possible. It’s like painting a picture of a landscape from the window of your intercity train at 100 miles per hour. On top of that the painter has left his glasses at home and is therefore making assumptions about whether he should add cows, or sheep, in the meadow in his painting.

[…] overall, the deployment of AI in the economy should have a positive effect on the number of jobs. Catastrophic predictions about the end of work are no more credible than similar predictions made in the past. Especially as even the task-based approach represents the upper limit for the impact of AI. Indeed, it makes the assumption that it is profitable to automate all the tasks that can be automated. But this assumption is far from being true today. The diminishing cost of AI systems and the possibility of distributing the same AI system to a very large number of users will be key factors in determining the impact of GenAI on tasks and jobs.

Antonin Bergeaud

In conclusion, if the result is not negative, it must be positive, even if it is undoubtedly just as difficult to prove as the opposite.

Five percent impact of GenAI on jobs… why not 5.2%?As for the 5% figure announced in the French report (see the quote above), I suppose it should be taken as an order of magnitude. There is a nuance added to the report in that respect. The authors mention that these 5% may vary from one occupation to another. What I take from this is that for the vast majority of occupations, this figure of 5%, is probably not to be taken at face value. Some occupations will not be affected by artificial intelligence at all, especially generative artificial intelligence. This doesn’t come as a shock to us. It takes us back to our work on jobs in 2030, where we already showed the prevalence of non-automatable occupations (surface technicians and others) in the most sought-after professions.

Automation Is neither Easy Nor Happens OvernightOccupations that are apparently easy to automate, such as bookkeeping, for example (if we fail to take its more consultancy-like aspects into account) have been on the chopping block for years. But despite the doomsday predictions, including our own, it has to be said today that the jobs of chartered accountants remain among the most in demand.

Yet all the technology is available to automate both bean counters’ tasks and data transmission. Nowadays, almost all invoices are dematerialised even though they are only unstructured PDF files. And yet most of the work of accountants remains manual whether we like it or not. Whether it’s ticking boxes between reconciliation systems or copying figures into a general ledger. The change lies mainly in the declining technical nature of the job.

Ditto for banking. Experts have been naming banks dinosaurs for years. Here again, we have to make amends. And yet there have been many restructurings, and they didn’t wait for OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its clones. But here’s the thing: changes don’t happen overnight. Besides innovation in organisations isn’t governed by wizardry but resistance to change.

Finally, let’s return to an occupation that was in the top left-hand corner of Antonin Bergeaud’s schematic. I mean that of secretaries. An occupation that has already been largely transformed since the 1990s. It has also been steadily declining to the point of disappearance at least in the United States (they only amount to a fraction of European employees now, i.e. a small proportion of 19% of all jobs). And yet, the impact of artificial intelligence between the 1980s and the year 2000 was bound to be close to zero. I should know, I was in charge of an AI project in those days. In that same period, though, I witnessed and even played an active role in the boom of the deployment of IT in businesses.

GenAI and jobs: looking at the big pictureWe therefore need to get back to these forecasts with a critical look. Starting with those of the IMF. And this report by the French Committee on Artificial Intelligence deserves credit for playing down the most hairy-fairy statistics on this subject.

In conclusion, after reading all these reports, the future isn’t any more predictable than it was before that. We might even venture to say that we are even more confused. Admittedly, as the authors of the French report point out, we are already seeing, and will continue to see, employees that are made redundant in professions where business models are already being jeopardised by ICTs, such as journalism.

But is this sufficient for us to reckon that what we are going through today is a “revolution” in terms of employment? There are no indications on this. All we could surmise is that a minority of jobs will be hit — be it 5%, less or more.

Time will tell whether this figure or that of the International Monetary Fund was the right one, but I’m inclined to believe that the ballpark figure quoted by the French Artificial Intelligence Commission is closer to reality.

Predictions lie but figures don’tFinally, to end on an intellectual note, let’s quote Vaclav Smil in his book Numbers don’t lie.

Being realistic about innovation

Modern societies are obsessed with innovation.

We are to believe that innovation will open every conceivable door: to life expectancies far beyond 100 years, to the merging of human and machine consciousness, to essentially free solar energy.

This uncritical genuflection before the altar of innovation is wrong on two counts: It ignores those big, fundamental quests that have failed after spending huge sums on research.

And it has little to say about why we so often stick to an inferior practice even when we know there’s a superior course of action.

Vaclav Smil, Numbers don’t lie

It’s this last sentence that I think is important. All forecasting exercises start from an assumption: that which state that when a technology improves our lives, it’s bound to be implemented.

It may seem like a no-brainer at first glance. What I have learned in the field throughout my career, however, is that when a solution is better, especially when it is better, resistance to change is all the greater. And it’s rarely the most obvious and cost-effective solutions that win. Especially because human decisions are seldom rational.

Thus, assuming that generative AI is without contest a boon to productivity gains, a theory I’m not at all sure I buy into, it would be wrong to believe that the mere fact that it exists guarantees its rapid and universal implementation.

Here again, time will be of the essence.

• download the 2024 IMF report on the impact of AI on jobs
• download the UK report Nov 2023 on the impact of AI on UK jobs
• download Antonin Bergeaud’s report [in French] from 2024 on the impact of AI on tasks and jobs
• download the 2024 artificial intelligence commission UK report
• donwload the 2024 report by the French commission on AI

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Whether it’s music and AI, or AI and what have you, or even technology altogether, at Visionary Marketing we like to look back in time. A few days ago, while doing the housekeeping of some of our 3,000 articles, we rediscovered this post by Mia Tawile written in July 2016. Eight years is the equivalent of 8 dog years on the Internet, to use that hackneyed motto from the early days of the Internet. That is to say, 64 years and 3 months. And at a time when Suno is sending shivers down the spines of every musician on the planet wondering what will become of them, there are two lessons to be learned from this post that demonstrate that we don’t understand the history of innovation as Scott Berkin would have it.

Music and AI: Back to the FutureWhat better than an image, reminiscent of the 1970s for this evocation of the first attempts to compose music with computers – music and AI nonetheless take us down a much more tortuous path. A real philosophical, artistic and economic challenge for creators – image produced with Midjourney and retouched and enhanced with Photoshop and Firefly Beta.“Hello dear human friends” is the introduction to this striking video by Laurent Couson, a French composer who analysed the capabilities of Suno, a popular application that lets you compose music of almost any style in 30 seconds. “Before, you had to learn music theory, orchestration and instrumentation – at the very least, ten years of practice – to become an accomplished composer,” he continues. He could have added, “Provided you’re gifted.”

900,000 Pieces of Music per DayThis piece of software,” he went on, “generates 900,000 pieces of music a day, while no well-known composer, not even the most prolific, has 1,000 in his catalogue”. And it’s true that the results are amazing.

900 000 pieces of music being produced every day. Imagine that! Midjourney dit it for you (with our help)We went there too, and as rumours of the death of cyberspace grow louder, we decided to launch Suno on this theme with a song entitled: The Dying Cyberspace.

[Verse]
In a world of bytes and tangled wires
The cyberspace that once glowed with fire (with fire)
Now fades away, its brilliance lost
As darkness falls, at such a cost

[Verse 2]
Once a realm of endless possibility
Now echoes silence and fragility
The Internet, a dying art
Fading now, tearing us apart

[Chorus]
Oh, the dying cyberspace (cyberspace)
Once so full of life and grace (life and grace)
Now it withers, slowly dies (slowly dies)
Leaving us with empty skies (empty skies)

https://visionarymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/the-dying-cyberspace.mp3A very basic promptAdmittedly, the lyrics are a bit cheesy, but considering the time spent (less than a minute), the result is more than satisfactory. All the more so as the prompt used was really minimal.

A song on the death of the cyberspace, neoclassical

The possibilities are endless with this tool, you can even invent Russian songs in Post-Punk mode. And if you ask Deepl to translate the lyrics, you’ll realise that they’re pretty creative. Maybe not on par with Pushkin, but certainly well above the average of what you hear on Spotify (well I can only surmise because I subscribe to Qobuz).

An enamelled vessel
A window, a bedside table, a bed
It is difficult and uncomfortable to live
But it’s more comfortable to die

Эмалированное судно
Окошко, тумбочка, кровать, –
Жить тяжело и неуютно
Зато уютно умирать

(I can’t guarantee the translation from Russian into English, so I’ll take deepl’s word for it).

According to popular belief, music is linked to mathematics, even if this interconnection is not completely proven. As a result, it’s not totally astounding that a computer manages to do this. In fact, computers have been making music since PopCorn (1969). Note that the dancers are slightly out of sync, no doubt baffled by the technological prowess of the end of that decade.

The First Computer-Generated songI remember well, when I was 7, the announcement of this song on the radio: the first song produced by a computer. It was extraordinary, and way ahead of its time.

But AI in music also raises a whole range of questions:

1. First of all, the machine has virtually every style at its disposal. You can ask it to imitate one without having to master it and especially not by working for 10 years. This raises the question of the value of creation. How much could we pay Mr Couson to produce a song like this? We could even go further, and get Suno – or its clones – to compose a symphony or an opera. It might have to go through a few steps, but it’s a lot less tiring than inventing Einstein on the Beach or Die Zauberflöte from scratch.
2. And the associated question: if there is no longer any value in creating music, how many musicians will still have a go at it?
3. There also arises, and this is the third point, the question of creation itself. If it’s so easy to create music that isn’t all that bad, aren’t we in danger of going round in circles? Also, can we innovate, in content and form, if the basis is a collection of existing music data? Won’t the novelty wear off? Some would say that this is already the case to some extent, I suppose, but this will just finish the job.
4. The training data for these programmes is based on the work of hundreds of thousands of musicians over hundreds of years. It is – as with Midjourney – the plunder of our cultural heritage that raises the question of the protection of intellectual property. Or rather, it might make such IP redundant, unless legal proceedings are successful (but justice is slow, and AIs are fast).
5. It also raises the bar for tomorrow’s content creators who will want to show their creativity and beat the machines. This will really demand a lot of imagination.

Democratisation or the end of creation?When everyone becomes a creator, does that mean that creation no longer exists or, on the contrary, that everyone has become a true creator, even without talent? And is pressing a button and waiting for a program to produce a result a creative act? Is “prompting” sufficient? Tomorrow, will humans become the blue collars of artistic creation whereas machines produce all the thinking?

There are many questions raised. And the undeniable fun that one can have when dealing with this type of programme should not allow us to forget about them. What’s more, it’s a guilty pleasure. If we are endowed with a conscience, it’s hard not to feel, as with tools like Midjourney, one feels as if one were faking artistry.

IA and music: a long-standing innovationFrom Gershon Kingsley to Wally Badarou (who was composing on the Mac in the early 90s) to Klaus Schultze (and his fabulous Ludwig Zwei von Bayern with his fully synthesised string orchestra in 1978) or Zoe Keating, who records and plays her sound loops thanks to a pedal connected to a MacBook Pro, artists’ experiments with computer music have been numerous.

But producing music with AI goes a step further. However, here too, these attempts are not recent. Digging around on this site, we found an old article by Mia Tawile written in 2016 about a Google project named Magenta and of which there are still a few scattered traces on the Internet.

Interesting ExamplesThere’s also some pretty interesting music here, provided by artificial intelligence, the fruit of Google’s early work in this area. The results are promising but without a future, like so many aborted attempts by this Internet giant, which seems so focused on its business model. So much so that it may be suffering from the innovator’s dilemma.

https://visionarymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/mix.wavExample of chamber music produced by Magenta. Not quite Haydn, but it sounds a bit like it (Midi style).

My optimism leads me to believe that we will still need Mr Couson and his colleagues. If only to host concerts. Of course, in these artistic performances, it would not be surprising to find a few computers and loops invented by AI. In this respect, these artists will no doubt be the worthy heirs of the pioneers I mentioned earlier. After all, didn’t musicians like Wim Mertens and Philip Glass imitate repetitive computer music with real instruments? And more recently, haven’t Nils Frahm, Nicklas Paschburg or Grandbrothers included these technologies in their music to the point we end up forgetting about them?

Creators always find a way of circumventing issues like these.

The 2016 original post on AI and MusicBelow is Mia’s post from 2016. My two cents about this with nearly 10 years of hindsight.

1. Innovation tales time. And no, it won’t happen overnight (lesson number one);
2. Google missed the boat (again I daresay), even though the transformer researches were working for Alphabet at the time.

Enjoy the AI Time Machine.

We have all heard of Mozart, Chopin, and Beethoven, but not all of us know Google’s artificial intelligence and its ability to generate music with AI. Yes, a robot has joined the club. And yes, it plays music. (If the song We are the robots by Kraftwerk is playing in your head right now, it is completely normal, don’t worry.) This new robot/artist that creates a lot of debate is called Magenta. You might have seen in my previous article about Facebook’s artificial intelligence how machine learning works on images and videos. This article will describe a concept that is similar yet different. The main question here is: Can you use machine learning to create a music piece? That’s exactly what I will touch on in this article.

Google’s Magenta and its music bandAI music is on Google’s agendaMagenta is Google’s Brain Team project that answers the question mentioned above: Can we use artificial intelligence and machine learning to play music?

Two goalsGoogle developed this project with two goals. The first is to explore machine learning even deeper and take this concept further. Indeed, this type of artificial intelligence has been used to recognise pictures, speech, and translate content. Facebook too has a similar algorithm that has been used to help blind people hear their newsfeed. This feature is called Facebook Read.

No plans yet for Facebook on the AI music front but they are using AI so that blindAI music according to Mia TawileFor Artificial Intelligence researchers, the sky is the limit. They always look for new features to develop, and new ways of developing machines.

So why not create algorithms and teach machines how to play the piano, for example? Robots are good students. Indeed, blind tests have shown that people have been fooled by machines: Peter Russel, who is a musicologist, listened to a music piece played by Iamus, a classical music robot.

Surprisingly enough, he did not know it was created by a machine.

The second objective of this Magenta project is to build a community with people interested in music and technology such as artists, coders and researchers.

Google is inviting people who are interested in this project to join the community, follow the progress. Actually, a part of the project is accessible to the general public, and is waiting for people’s input.

AI Music: Beyond LimitsA lot of people are scared of such technological growth. Well, they might be right. When machines start recognising pictures, and videos, and describe them to us, it means that technology is taking these robots beyond their limits.
The good news is that there is a use to this technology. It is not only developed to win a challenge, or defy the limits of research and technology. As I mentioned earlier, Facebook uses artificial intelligence it to expand its community, without excluding anyone.

When it comes to artificial music, some applications identified this new trend and working around it. There’s a mobile app called @life that plays music according to your state of mind and your mood. You might ask yourself, how does a machine know what one is feeling in real time? The machine gathers information about the person’s behaviour or their location and analyses their mood. Some data analysts use Instagram filters for example, to identify the user’s mood: dark colours reflect sadness, whereas bright colours represent happiness. This music mobile application is said to help people in pain by distracting them and using the popular benefits and virtues of music.

Maybe machines will help us create new music genres, by combining different algorithms. Or maybe this new invention will help people manage their stress or heal their pain, music being the cure to everything! We can see the bud of that technology today with Spotify that can detect your running speed and adapt the music type and tempo.

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Thomas Deneux is the founder of Learning Robots whose aim is to help pupils, students and businesses to learn AI, with the help of home-made self-driving gizmos. These little machines on two wheels are more serious than you’d think. They are all about the teaching of advanced computing. Thomas described his philosophy to me during this interview conducted at the heart of the Neuroscience Institute of the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research). In essence, a no-nonsense approach to teaching and learning AI.

When AI and robots join forces to teach artificial intelligenceBehind Learning robots’ self-driving gizmos – seen on their training track here in Saclay – there is a teaching philosophy and a full-fledged training corpus.Who are these friendly colourful robots?We’re overwhelmed with social media posts and news about AI. Often, pundits will tell you that you need to know how to use ChatGPT and make prompts. That’s all very well, but we must free ourselves from the tech giants who build these models.

At Learning robots, we want to spark vocations among people who are interested in finding out how it works and want to use AI better.

What is artificial intelligence anyway? AI gave birth to these fantastic tools and programs. Yet, at the same time many people are scared. Our aim, with these user-trained robots, is to make AI accessible and friendly.

What’s behind these robots?In our introductory activities, the user drives a robot as if it were a remote-controlled car. But behind this robot is an AI that will record all the necessary data. Next, the robot takes over from the user in autopilot mode and drives around the circuit.

Then we organise a race between the robots that have become autonomous in this way, and users may therefore observe that not all of them will perform equally well. It’s natural because performance depends on the quality of the training.

The aim is to make people understand that AI machines do not become “intelligent” out of the blue.

Behind AI, there are humans who have gathered data. And AI will only be as good as its data.

We’ve been training our Midjourney AI to produce an infographic based on Thomas’s interview and here’s how it came up with these AI self-driving car races…. This one isn’t as nicely organised as those by Learning Robots.Today’s AI is still at the stage where it reproduces patterns. It’s a mere “stochastic parrot“.

The stochastic parrot as seen by Midjourney, who is definitely very creative.In the early days of AI, there were expert systems, which worked with ever more sophisticated knowledge bases. Then we realised that rather than predicting all the potential situations, we could simply feed the AI with samples based on existing data sets and implement self-learning algorithms.

With large language models (LLMs), humongous quantities of text have become available. So much so that AI has become capable of generating text by itself. But the principle is the same: the basis is those samples provided by humans.

With AlphaAI, everything is very simple. A sensor will tell the machine what to do, for example turn left when there is light on the left. Or turn right when there is light on the right-hand side. This helps users understand the basics. After that, it’s just a matter of scaling up to more advanced AI.

What prospects can we expect from this kind of robot?When you interact with a Large Language Model (LLM), you are essentially producing text, even though you could also generate images, music, videos, etc.

Robotics is the future of AI

But what I see emerging is that the future of AI is about robotics. The Figure start-up has just raised $675 million and has signed agreements with OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia to develop humanoid robots. It’s flavour of the month. Our role is not to enter this competition, however.

Small but powerful. The AI robots by Learning robots – source Leaning Robots

Our vocation is educational. We want everyone to be able to get to grips with these technologies.

Our aim is to enable people to train their own AI, so that they can easily develop their own ideas, such as home automation projects for instance. And also make AI accessible to SMEs. Our development plans could evolve in the future to move away from teaching and training, towards a plug and play solution for introducing AI and automation into the business world.

What is your philosophy behind all this?I’m a technophile, yet I’m not at all a techno enthusiast. I think there are some really pertinent questions being asked. And that’s why I think we need to focus on training and education.

We need to keep as many people as possible informed, to debunk all the myths about AI.

• • On the one hand, AIs have their limits;
  • Secondly, users feel immediately more comfortable with a tool after getting to grips with it.

AI can be funLet me tell you about an anecdote.

We work with a well-known luxury goods company in Paris, France, for whom we run autonomous robot races. Their employees train their robots for the race. The first feedback from learners on these training courses is: “I’ve realised how much AI is fun!”

It’s true that digital tools also have their downsides, such as creating addictions. But if you get to grips with them, you can achieve great results.

We need to evangelise about AI adoption, there are so many exciting potential applications for it.

I’m involved in a number of AI think tanks and I’ve realised that what the general public expects from researchers is to be told what the future will be. In fact, it’s very hard to predict the future. Innovation is about trial and error. Sometimes its adoption is faster than we think, at other times it’s not.

Always the unexpected happens.

Can we imagine a world, where chores are all carried out by machines?I think so. We’re already seeing it in the home construction business. Tomorrow, it’s very likely that AIs will be performing a certain number of tasks. However, I hope there will still be room for humans’ creative skills.

For instance, manmade products are highly valued by consumers these days. Mass-producing widgets is easy. But creating something unique is more rewarding.

There will always be room for human creativity.

Finally, there is hope for human beingsI think so. Some people are depressed because they think they are going to be dominated by AI. But look at self-driving cars: they were supposed to be ubiquitous by 2010, and it didn’t happen.

But we shouldn’t be wearing our rose-coloured spectacles either.

Both citizens and politicians need to get to grips with the issues related to AI. As far as I am concerned, I remain optimistic about what can be achieved with these tools.

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In recent years, Shopify has been leading the e-commerce game with a market share of 10.32% as of 2024. Consequently, they have embraced the ever-evolving technological landscape. From automated product descriptions to chatbot customer support, Shopify has undergone an AI integration. As AI begins to merge itself into all aspects of our shopping, one can’t help but wonder… who really is in charge?

Shopify and AI: Who’s Really in Control of Your Cart?Shopify and AI: who is in control of your cart?Shopify, the Ecommerce World Leader Goes All in on AIE-commerce is on the rise and it is no wonder that Shopify constantly lands at the forefront of the industry. As one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world, Shopify has grown a loyal customer base of nearly 4.8 million live sites and has websites in over 175 different countries. Additionally, as of 2024, 26% of all e-commerce stores are Shopify sites. Shopify makes it incredibly easy to run an e-commerce business. Its customizable themes, built-in and third-party payment systems, and its support of individual store SEO are a few of the reasons customers continually stick with the company.

AI in ShopifyNot only is Shopify leading in the world of e-commerce, but with the integration of AI, Shopify has an unstoppable and unique competitive advantage. As most people know, Shopify’s platform has everything a merchant would need to start a store. However, the company did not develop everything themselves. Instead, it has created a large developer marketplace within the site. This is great news for AI software developers who want to get their skin in the game on one of the worlds largest platforms. In the summer of 2023, Shopify introduced over 100 new AI powered features into its site, including Shopify Magic and Sidekick. Shopify Magic writes product descriptions, chats with customers, optimizes product images, and generates emails that turn into FAQ pages. With Sidekick, merchants can better understand their sales, as AI explains any trends and extracts insights and data from sales and website traffic.

The Implication of AI IntegrationAI is integrating itself into every aspect of our lives. At this point, I don’t know up from down and most of us can’t decipher between the real or the fake. It’s frankly exhausting. In fact, most of the sites I used to research this topic were generated by AI! It’s not surprising to me that one of largest e-commerce platform in the world is using AI in any way it can. What’s hard to grasp is the lack of authenticity that is taking place.

Think about it; Merchants are using Shopify to sell their goods, then generative AI is writing the product descriptions and enhancing the product photos. Then with AI programs like Shopify Magic, you are being fed advertisements based on data and sales trends. We are being sold something from an AI generated program. Let’s assume you have an issue with the product you were sold. Chances are you will be greeted by an AI chatbot, to solve all of your problems. Not only could this jeopardise customer service quality, but this could also entail a severe lack of empathy or human understanding.

On a totally different level, Generative AI is also being used to create fraudulent e-commerce websites. This is something I will discuss in a future blog post.

Are We Really In Control?So that begs the question, are we really in control of our cart? I venture to say that we aren’t anymore. The AI programs within Shopify are generating the content and targeting us based on data. This is not a revolutionary idea, but where does it stop? All sense of control is essentially gone when it comes to the online shopping experience.

I do acknowledge that AI is a great tool. Tool being the key word. But here, we are entering the fourth dimension. The entire online shopping process is being taken over by AI. And with e-commerce growing at the current pace, there is no escape.

Yet, the relevant role for AI would be to assist and enhance human efforts, not replace them entirely.

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B2B vs B2C Marketing. One often opposes the two main kinds of marketing but aren’t they more or less six of one and half a dozen of the other? Some time ago, Capgemini consulting, that used to be my employer at the turn of the 21st century, organised a meeting in Paris, France on the subject of B2B marketing as part of the release of their latest “Journal of Marketing Revolution”. During that conference, I took part in a round table discussion that brought together a panel of experts and filed practitioners. There I described the differences between B2B and B2C, based on my article for the consultancy firm, only available in French at the time. At a time when B2B marketing has such an important place in our digital and e-commerce economy, it was high time I translated it.

B2B vs B2C Marketing: Two Sides of the Same Coin?B2B and B2C marketing are two sides of the same coin. Please note that the coin in question is purely and voluntarily fictitious and was produced with Midjourney.B2B vs B2C marketing?What is B2B marketing, how similar and how different is it from B2C marketing? I took this opportunity to debunk a few inexorable myths about B2B marketing. But never before has B2B marketing been so radically transformed in terms of its practices, its evolution and the way in which relationships with customers and prospects are managed. In fact, there have never been so many demands in the field. Marketers are looking for solutions to their problems at a time when Business to Business marketing is in the process of emancipating itself from its big brother. This has not wavered since 2017, quite the contrary.

B2B marketing by the man who invented almost everything. If there’s one article worth reading, it’s this Fast Company post describing how McKenna came to Jobs’s aid and how he helped create Apple with some of the elements that are still present today in the perceptions of the public and in particular the brand’s users.The Pioneer of Business-to-business Marketing: Regis McKennaFor many years, B2B marketing was the poor cousin of marketing. It was almost a case of practising B2B by default, and yet there was a demand for it. One could feel this right from the beginning, when I first started to be in business in the late 80s.

We first tried to apply B2C methods to these professional markets, but to no avail, such was the gap between the two. During one of my first B2B marketing projects in the manufacturing industry, I launched a complete study (desk + field research) with a semi-directive and a directive survey of a reasonable and varied sample of architects.

Anecdote from the Early Days of B2B MarketingThe product was a colour version of the now-infamous Eternit roofing product (side note: unfortunately, many of our friends died from working with asbestos for this firm, but we didn’t know that at the time). For this engagement, I had decided to customise a methodology borrowed from quantitative multi-criterion consumer analysis and to transpose it for Multiplan on a personal computer. It happened in 1983, needless to say, this was quite revolutionary at the time. This survey and my recommendations were instrumental in delivering a very rewarding ROI in the following years.

B2B marketing vs B2C marketing in a nutshellOf course, this methodology hadn’t been designed for that purpose. But it worked. With a bit of common sense and hindsight, I quickly came up with the right recommendations that helped us find the right set of colours to implement (and which, of course, contradicted all our initial assumptions).

Marketing Techniques in B2C vs B2BMarketing methodology wasn’t really the real problem with B2B marketing in those days. Most of the issue originated from a low acceptance factor of methods that had essentially been pioneered for fast-moving consumer goods. “We aren’t selling hot cakes, you know!” and all that sort of things.

Approximately at the same time, a marketing genius, one I admire, Regis McKenna, who invented everything in B2B marketing and particularly high-tech marketing, was helping to launch one of the most iconic products of the past 50 years. I mean the Macintosh, in 1984.

A real genius he was. As he was instrumental in the take-off of Apple in the 1970s. Steve Jobs was not yet the marketing pro he later became. He also designed Intel’s Marketing strategy, and this at a time when it was believed that personal computers would never be a serious market, and especially that they would never be used by professionals.

He not only believed in it, but even made a fortune by taking a percentage of sales as payment for the advertising he created. Indeed, Apple did not have enough revenue to cover these expenses at the time. Some of his business partners were a little concerned. He wasn’t and decided to work pro bono and wait for the harvest he’s sown. He wasn’t disappointed.

Who is into B2B vs B2C marketing? 3 raised their handsA few years later, 15 years ago, I was presenting my B2B marketing methods for web services developed for an Orange Business Services subsidiary at a marketing conference in Istanbul. I went for a trick that I thought was clever and proved otherwise.

As I was beginning my pitch, I asked the audience: “Who here works in B2B marketing? ” That was probably the worst decision that I ever made, and a good lesson it taught me.

Barely 3 people in the crowd raised their hands even though there were nearly 1000 delegates in the room. B2B marketing was not (yet) on the agenda.

Things Have Changed a Lot in the B2B WorldBut things have changed since then. In a spectacular turn of events, B2B marketing, and particularly high-tech marketing, is once again flavour of the month. Back in 2017, Amazon was finally announcing record consumer profits after 22 years in business. It should be noted that its B2B business of cloud server sales (AWS) has been much quicker to turn a profit. Enough to boost the results of this new distribution giant. All the big players had been sniggering in the background for quite a long time.

Amazon Web Services, B2B Marketing With a Credit CardIn 2024, as I’m writing these lines, Amazon is thriving and guess what: AI is the new force behind these humongous profits. And behind AI one finds cloud computing and especially its market leader, AWS. B2B marketing is delivering big bucks. This is because B2B is a significant part of the economy (approximately two thirds).

B2B marketing approaches are varied. There is no such thing as a unique form of B2B marketing. There are as many B2B marketing techniques as there are products, services and industries. That’s what makes B2B marketing so exciting. I often bump into B2B marketers nowadays, even amongst my students, and I think they were right to choose B2B vs B2C marketing. That’s where the future is, not in selling washing powder. The market there is quite crowded and above all, all the marketing techniques are known and proven and somewhat repetitive.

Similarities and Differences Between the Two Forms of MarketingIn the following piece, at the request of Arnaud Bouchard of Capgemini consulting, I took a fairly in-depth look at B2B vs B2C marketing. I also tried to debunk a few B2B marketing myths along the way. For instance, I often hear that B2B buyer processes are rational, while B2C’s are all about emotions. If I were into gambling, I’d almost be ready to bet a million dollars on the opposite.

B2B Marketing Is No Longer the Poor Relation of B2C MarketingAs I pointed out above, B2B marketing is no longer the poor cousin of B2C marketing. On the contrary, I can see that in many areas that it has become more sophisticated and responsible for introducing new approaches and practices. This is particularly true of marketing automation and ABM.

A comparison between B2B and B2C marketing.

B2B vs B2C marketing: six of one and half a dozen of the other?Towards the end of the 80s, I began selling B2B marketing consultancy services. At the time, the very notion of B2B marketing didn’t yield very interesting prospects. Customers were reluctant, the market was rather sluggish, and my experiments came to nothing. Above all, the premise on which B2B marketing was designed in those prehistoric days were entirely wrong. We lacked the tools, the perspective and the experience, and we were simply trying to apply consumer marketing methodologies and approaches to business-to-business. Let’s make it clear, it wasn’t working.

B2B vs B2C Marketing: Similarities, Differences and MythsThis seemed both exotic and inappropriate to our prospects. A steel manufacturer located in the wilderness in the east of France was my first prospective customer. This respectable gentleman couldn’t imagine himself talking to a marketer who’d designed strategies for Procter & Gamble, Unilever or Henkel. He needed someone who would talk his language. Nearly 30 years later, as B2B marketing, mostly in the high-tech sector, is gaining ground, the tide is turning. In some sectors like marketing automation, and many other areas of Martech and Salestech, for example, B2B marketing is even leading the bunch.

B2B vs B2C or B2B Plus B2C MarketingAnd here comes a paradox. B2B and B2C marketing are both very dissimilar and very close to one another. Why is it? Let’s focus on the middle and top of the B2B market only and let’s forget about small and very small businesses.

First of all, there isn’t one kind of B2B marketing, there are many and especially for each industry. Besides, the tools we use for the segmentation of our B2B markets are still flawed. Ultimately, no two B2B businesses are the same.

No two B2B businesses are the same.

B2B vs B2C marketing: debunking a few mythsIt’s amazing how many myths there are regarding B2B marketing.

It is supposed to be a minor and boring subject. It is supposed aimed at catering for fully rational buyers who make their decisions over long periods of time in a completely organised way, under the aegis of a seamless, cross-functional organisation… and so on, and so forth.

The reality is quite different. Buyer behaviour in B2B has changed so much in the past few years that this kind of clichéd view bears no relevance to the reality of B2B marketing at all.

Where B2B and B2C marketing resemble each otherThe elements of convergence between B2B and B2C marketing are significant: they are even evolving at a rapid pace and under the impetus, in particular, of digital.

On the one hand, the growing importance taken on by what could be called inbound marketing as opposed to outbound digital marketing. Sales are no longer dependent on the presence of a salesperson in front of a customer. That seems obvious of B2C and is now true of B2B too. The pandemic also introduced many changes in the way that B2B is sold. Nowadays, face to face is no longer mandatory, one doesn’t need to leave the office every so often. In the past ten years, most of our sales and engagements were carried out remotely with the help of web conferencing.

The Evolution of the B2B Sales FunnelAlmost 60% of buyers have already made their decision before seeing a salesperson, whose presence they do not really think it is useful. But the change is much more profound. One witnesses how much — in B2B — the marketing and sales functions are now intertwined. Patrizi described this extensively (below and on his blog).

Steve Patrizi, the man behind the LinkedIn business model, designed this new B2B sales funnel showing the new roles of sellers and marketers — source Patrizi.comAs a result, brand reputation and even brand awareness are no longer insignificant in B2B marketing. Digital plays a major role within this new landscape. Especially at a time when buyers prefer to research information independently online.

Such digital initiatives often focus on in-depth content related to the company’s pet topics. They do this through blogs, white papers, how-to guides, videos and so on… That being said, there has been examples where major B2B brands have demonstrated (Volvo trucks and Caterpillar in particular) that brand awareness in B2B can also be achieved through branded content.

B2B E-commerce Is on the RiseAnother consequence of the above is that the share taken by B2B e-commerce is growing. In a 2015 report, Forrester even estimated that this would account for the bulk of the e-commerce market over the next five years. In 2019, 75% of UK e-commerce (EDI+Web) was indeed B2B according to German stats firm Statista. Half of it through EDI.

Source StatistaEDI + WEB e-commerce in the UK 2014-2019. Forrester was right – Source StatistaThis didn’t come as a shock, given that B2B accounts for around two thirds of the economy (See here Google Translate will translate the text and numbers for you).

Massive DataNext is the availability of data, data analytics and BI. All that makes B2B and B2C marketing ever closer to one another. On the one hand, B2C is moving away from mass marketing by opening up the prospect of mass customisation at scale (the old Peppers and Rodgers pipe dream is now within reach). On the other hand, customisation is B2B’s middle name. Nearly all complex deals, barring a few exceptions, are co-designed with clients. Better control and use of customer data blurs the boundary between B2B and B2C.

It should also be noted that, under the impetus of Big Data, B2B is moving away from the traditional sales model and investing heavily in marketing automation, lead nurturing, sales intelligence and predictive lead scoring. This phenomenon, initially confined to high-tech, is now expanding into other sectors.

Finally, service design is increasingly similar between B2B and B2C even though the names of the methodologies used differ slightly. “Solution Selling” is a staple of B2B marketing and sales. In B2C, one uses “Design Thinking”. Both methodologies focus on “customers’ painpoints” to Michael Bosworth’s vocabulary. Both involve that marketers step into their buyers’ shoes and address their main issues, while finding out what is “keeping them awake at night”.

Same Same, but differentB2B and B2C are getting closer to one another yet they are still different from each other.First of all, a B2B sales cycle is often a long life cycle, most of the time tied to a contract. This sales cycle is complex and there are usually many people that need to be convinced along the way. Identifying the decision makers with whom you need to interact during that sales process is key. This decision process often takes several months, years and even possibly decades depending on how big and involved the deal is.

All Is Not Rational in B2B LandHowever, it would be wrong to believe that all B2B purchases, even within key accounts, are performed rationally and according to rules edicted by procurement. Even in the IT field, many purchases are made directly by the business departments, and often via the Internet. In the highly rational and controlled field of IT, Amazon Web Services recently demonstrated, by opening its 2015 accounts, that it was possible to take a majority of the market in a B2B field (the sale of online server space). It did it with credit cards and sales processes borrowed from B2C e-commerce websites. Right from the start, it was indeed possible to open an account immediately with one’s B2C Amazon account on AWS with a standard credit card.

This is precisely what my coworkers deemed impossible when I was in charge of that business for a large telco. Next thing you knew, they were reselling AWS, QED.

Advertising Is Out of Bounds for Most B2B BusinessesSecondly, advertising dollars are scarce in B2B. If one excludes a few major American B2B players (Intel, IBM, Cisco and Microsoft), the vast majority of B2B vendors don’t do advertising. What’s more, they don’t always see the point in expanding brand awareness beyond their target audience, which is often very niche. Even though it is precisely by reaching out to users outside their target market that firms like Intel managed to emerge from nothingness. This is what made the American chip maker a long-term market leader, following Regis McKenna’s famous mantra: “Talk to your customers’ customers!”

Most of the time, however, budgets for advertising are in short supply. Most B2B players can’t spend 500 million euros in advertising, as I have seen it done in consumer marketing (in this particular example, such budget only amounted to 1.1% of the yearly revenue).

Accurately Targeted and Thrifty StrategiesAs a result, B2B vendors need to devise thoroughly targeted and thrifty strategies, often based on word-of-mouth marketing. This is another reason why digital is playing such a big role in B2B. For years, I declared that the future of digital would be in B2B. I must have been right in that respect.

Pricing and Market SizesThirdly, pricing and market sizes. B2C is about targeting segments within masses of consumers buying masses of — most of the time — low-price products.

High-end SolutionsB2B is completely different from that. Business to Business targeting is aimed at very niche populations and limited numbers of sales for — most of the time if one looks a complex selling — hefty revenues. At the same time, the purchasing process related to such deals is very complex and involves many stakeholders. I have, for example, worked on €150 million deals over 5 years. Deals like that are few and far between. They also require a lot of preliminary research and negotiations. Typically, a €150 million deal will take around two years to land.

In the firm (a large European Telco) that I was working with, all in all, the B2B arm wasn’t weighing more than 10% of the overall revenue of the business (hence, B2C sales amounted to 90%).

B2C was massive and based on a large number of very small sales. B2B, and on the other hand, was the result of a small number of very large sales.

The Cost of SellingThe cost of selling is also quite different with B2B. Firstly, because potential customers are not so numerous in B2B. But also because salespeople are infinitely more expensive in high-end B2B. You can’t just hire anyone to do complex selling, it requires skills and field expertise.

Acquisition costs are therefore much higher, and this is true not only offline, it is also verifiable online. While at the lower end of the B2B market, you can get leads for around €20, the average for the top end of the market is more likely to be between €100 to €1,000, or even more. Besides, all B2B markets are different and there is no such thing as a one-size-fit-all strategy for B2B.

Debunking a Few B2B MythsNow you understand why things are a little more complex than most people think.

B2C and B2B are converging and diverging at the same time. Besides, there are many myths surrounding B2B marketing that need to be exposed and challenged.

On the one hand, as stated above, B2B isn’t always rational even if it appears so. Buyer’s personal agendas often must be taken into account. Any good B2B salesperson knows this. They know how to flatter their buyers and reassure them — when needed. Buying this product or service rather than its competitors may have a positive or negative impact on their career. This is in no way rational or linked to the quality of the product or service. And this isn’t particularly new either. It merely highlights the importance of branding in B2B sales.

Content Marketing and B2BAnother point, I’ve read here and there that content marketing isn’t meant for B2B that it’s a mostly a B2C thing. I think it’s the other way round. Content marketing is crucial in B2B while it’s only a nice to have in B2C. B2C is often carried out without content strategies, which are often nice-to-haves. In B2B, there is no alternative. Advertising, as pointed out above, is out of reach. It’s way too expensive and often very ineffectual too because of the fact that most high-end B2B markets are niche. Besides, in B2B, there is no dearth of content producers. Any B2B firm is jam-packed with experts, engineers, marketers, partners and visionaries. And there are also B2B content marketing agencies to support these content initiatives. In fact, this is our business.

Last but not least, B2B marketing is said to be boring, whereas B2C marketing is deemed extremely entertaining.

Nothing could be further from the truth in my honest opinion. It all depends on the topic and the type of content you’re generating. Writing a blog about yoghurt seems to me more difficult to me and certainly a lot less exciting to me than one about big data. The latter may be perused by fewer readers, but it will attract a lot of enthusiastic feedback within a genuine community of interest. Engagement in B2B, is undeniably stronger, even though it may not always happen online.

B2B vs B2C Marketing in a NutshellIn conclusion, it is wrong to state that B2B marketing is identical to B2C marketing (that was the mistake from 40 years ago and one that we must not reproduce). It would be equally wrong to believe that the two are completely disconnected, though.

There are similarities and differences and the B2B and B2C marketing are also converging to an extent. B2C marketing may have been created a little earlier (respectively the 1960s and 1980s), but it is nonetheless undergoing considerable change. B2B marketing is no longer the poor cousin of B2C marketing.

It is even sometimes a source of inspiration for new marketing practices.

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It’s customary to turn to the US for management lessons, yet Haier, a Chinese company, has probably a lot to teach us too with its Rendanheyi management model. Jérôme Delacroix, a seasoned expert in Chinese management suggests that one could — ironically and provocatively — start copying Chinese companies’ management style. Whatever the case may be, to judge by their success, there are perhaps — all ideological considerations aside — good ideas to take from these oriental companies and Haier in particular. In this interview, Jerome describes the Haier model and its organisational principles for the 21st century.

Rendanheyi, the Haier Management ModelHaier, thanks to its Rendanheyi management model is now the world leader in household products – Image composed with MidjourneyWhat kind of company is Haier?Jérôme Delacroix. Haier makes and sell household appliances, yet it isn’t necessarily a household name in Europe. And yet, it has been the world’s number one vendor in that space for the past 14 years. Why did the company choose that name? Because it sounds German. In the 80s and 90s, when it began to modernise, the company chose a model, that of the famous “Deutsche Qualität”, German excellence. And the company’s CEO went to Germany on various study trips. This is what led him to choose a German-sounding name.

A German name and a management model inspired by the US?JD. What’s fascinating is this Chinese company’s ability to constantly reinvent itself over the last 40 years. And this is probably the key to its success. Indeed, the story begins in 1984 in Qingdao (aka Tsingtao) which is a harbour town in eastern China. It’s where they make beer, in the factory that was set up to cater for the Germans back when the city was bequeathed to them by the Manchus.

Haier’s management model Rendanheyi must have been particularly effective. The company has indeed been number one household vendor worldwide for the past 14 years – picture produced with Midjourney.Former German Colony and Inspiration From the USJD. Mr Zhang, like many Chinese managers at the time, had taken over a completely dilapidated factory, the Qingdao Refrigerator Company. This was the period when China was opening up under Deng Xiaoping, a period of reform. So this young boss set about turning the company around.

The building of the Chinese company Haier when it was taken over in the 1980s. Rendanheyi management came later, and Haier has come a long way… – image by Jérôme Delacroix (slightly touched up and artificially completed with Photoshop, which reconstructed the left and right parts of the photo to fit the correct format. The centre of the photo is the original).In fact, Zhang was initially inspired by American theories and in particular by Peter Drucker’s and the emphasis placed on quality. And above all the fact that a company must serve its customers. Which at the time, in China, was anything but obvious.

First Replicate Proven RecipesJD. For 10 or 15 years, he began applying total quality methods that had proved successful elsewhere, setting up processes and dashboards. These are fairly classic management gimmicks, the aim of which were to get the company back on track.

And it worked rather well, as Haier became the leader in its domestic market. Then, in 1999, with China’s accession to the WTO, the World Trade Organisation, the country really opened up to international competition.

WTO membership meant two things: Western companies could come to China, and Chinese companies were allowed to export outside of China.

Then invent your own Rendanheyi modelJD. That’s when Mr Zhang realised that his model wasn’t going to allow him to scale up. His processes had been fixed and it did the job to an extent. Yet he was convinced at that time that foreign competitors would retaliate and that this model would not allow him to conquer market share outside of China.

As a result, at the turn of the 21st century, he was convinced that he had to reinvent his management system. And that’s how, little by little, he was about to invent his own Rendanheyi model through a Sinicisation process, i.e. by bringing in it all the contributions of Chinese culture.

One of the Chinese company’s headquarters today, clearly Haier’s Rendanheyi management model has paid off. There are a few questions about its implementation, though, but certainly not about how effective it is.Is Mr Zhang still here today?JD. He isn’t for he handed over the management of Haier 2-3 years ago. Now, he’s a management guru in China, and delivers inspirational keynotes.

What interests me most, though are the idiosyncrasies of this Rendanheyi management model.

What’s new about it is the desire to give employees a great deal of autonomy. This may seem like deja vu. But that’s not the case.

At Haier, Mr Zhang applied empowerment in a radical way.

Firstly, by breaking it down into what he called micro-units. In other words, each microenterprise could choose its own management method. They had to do that within a given framework, though, a hierarchical framework.

But he did even more than that a little later.

One may debate as to whether Rendanheyi is suitable for Europe, but not about what it did to the worldwide household market.Fully autonomous microenterprisesJD. But from 2005 onwards, and even more so in 2012, he went much further, dividing his company into completely autonomous microenterprises.

And when we talk about autonomy, that means they have their own profit and loss accounts, their own management, the ability to hire and pay employees, and decide which market they’re going to go into.

In this way, he has transformed a company of 50,000 people into a pool of around 4,000 microenterpises with an average of 20 completely autonomous employees.

A video presentation of the Haier Rendanheyi management model by Corporate Rebels

All complete with internal marketplaces, formal contracts and competition between microenterprises. And it worked remarkably well because, as I said, it enabled the company to become the world leader in household appliances.

What’s Ironic Is That Zhang Organised Haier Around SilosJD. They’re not really silos if what you mean by silo would be separate businesses, next o each other. They do communicate with one another. There is some sort of common understanding between such microenterprises.

Besides, Zhang developed what he called “platforms”. He was a pioneer of platform business models. These are internal marketplaces where each microenterprise offers its services to other microenterprises within the Haier group and to the outside world.

So by everything accessible, the pricing, the offer, and its terms and conditions, the process is entirely transparent.

This organisation is more comparable to a “jungle” than a set of silos.

Hardly any better, a “jungle”, is it?JD. This is the image Zhang chose. He describes his business as an “old-growth forest”.

The platforms I mentioned earlier are used in lieu of support functions or middle management. The logistics department was replaced with a platform called RRS Logistics, which is in fact a marketplace.

Similarly, with procurement, for which he launched a platform called COSMOplat (an acronym for Cloud of Smart Manufacturing Operation Platform).

It’s the law of supply and demand that governs all these exchanges, with the help of IT that allows you to choose from catalogues, to issue invitations to tender. Exactly as you would with Ali Baba, for example.

What about results and performance?JD. It’s all about that, precisely. Salaries are linked to performance, that of the microenterprise and also individual performance, according to criteria that are known to all. This culture of excellence is part of the model.

This is what Haier has called the “catfish management“.

Every microbusiness is managed by a leader. The leader is the one who has succeeded in implementing a project and convincing the top management. Please note that the top management is still part of the model. The leader has demonstrated that he is capable of addressing a market, of gathering a team as a leader, etc.

An employee who manages to do this gets a budget, can set up a microenterprise, and then recruit their small team from a talent pool.

Opposite the leader is the catfish. He’s another person, a number 2 you might say. He is known to everyone, and all are aware in advance that he will take the leader’s place if the latter doesn’t achieve his objectives.

It’s false to say that, as far as management techniques are concerned, China never invented anything and just copied others. This doesn’t mean that implementing that model in our businesses would be easily accepted, though.

We Europeans made the same mistake with Taiwan. And the Japanese a few years earlier.

These methods and their results are challenging our own management approaches. There might be a few things we could borrow from this model, even though we wouldn’t be able to implement it as is over here.

So, how can the Haier management style be introduced in Europe?JD. It’s not necessarily a piece of cake. But this model isn’t necessarily as far removed from our own as you might think at first glance.

Let’s take catfish management as an example. Everyone knows that in large Western organisations, catfish are everywhere. They are deep into politics and aim at eliminating their enemies. Yet, there is no mention of them here, they are working and plotting behind the scenes.

The difference with Haier is that, in their case, internal competition is transparent. And yet it doesn’t mean that there isn’t some form of cooperation.

Cosmoplat, the internal procurement marketplace which is par of Rendanhei – image by HaierA management model hard to implement in EuropeJD. Coming back to your point, it’s obviously hard to adapt Rendanheyi as is in European businesses. Besides, labour laws as they stand today probably wouldn’t allow it.

However, some Western businesses are already beginning to experiment in this direction, without going quite so far. They are allowing virtual profit and loss accounts to be managed autonomously, or they add performance-based commissions to their coworkers’ salaries.

Do you know of any examples of Haier’s management model being adopted?JD. Fujitsu Siemens did. They are not a Europan company, but operates in Southern Europe, particularly in France.

This company has taken inspiration from the Haier Rendanheyi model for its Internet of Things and cloud business. For this venture, it has chosen to implement this highly entrepreneurial model. This is perhaps easier for a spin-off, a new line of business, which aims to address a new market, than for a well-established brand.

“Literally, Rendanheyi is about the close coupling between the value created for users and the value received by employees.

” Ren” means people. Haier uses this term to refer to employees within an organisation. “Dan” here means orders, and represents user needs or demand. “Heyi” means integration. So we’re talking about each employee creating value for the firm’s users. In this model, every employee in every department, including research and development, is responsible for selling – or not selling – the product they help to develop.

Youssouf Chotia & Jérôme Delacroix. “What if we copied Chinese companies?” (French only) Amazon

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How do you achieve multicloud synchronisation, i.e. the synchronisation between multiple clouds such as Onedrive, Google Drive and the other platforms that keep your precious files in the cloud? When these are spread across several incompatible services, this can quickly become mind-boggling. I discovered, somewhat by chance, a service (and even several) which allows you to synchronise your data across different cloud platforms (Google cloud, Onedrive, Dropbox, etc., and even iCloud) and that can help you save time. Not to mention the fact that it preserves your data, while avoiding spreading it across too many different spaces. This is the tool of the Friday that I suggest you try: Multcloud.**

With this multicloud synchronisation tool, syncing in the cloud is no longer a pain with Multcloud and SynologyYou back up to the cloud, but what are your coworkers doing?Who hasn’t complained about a client or colleague forcing you to use a different cloud storage space to the one you had chosen? Like it or lump it, customers are King: if they want to use Google Drive and you’re on Dropbox, you’ll have to use Google Drive and that’s that. If your files are on Onedrive and your client wants you to use Dropbox, you’ll have to change too.

And if your files are on Dropbox and your customers — or some of your client’s coworkers — can’t access them because of their firewall, you’ll have to use Microsoft’s system. You’ll have no choice.

Not only is this frustrating, these changes of storage location can also lead to mistakes and mishaps in back-up and archiving.

Multicloud Synchronisation between Onedrive and Google drive: thanks to Multcloud, I was able to revive all my old photos from Google Drive and transfer them back into Flickr. OK, I know, caterpillars don’t live in the clouds, but it’s impressive all the same – photo by Yann Gourvennec antimuseum.com.All consultants know that backing up and archiving one’s files is crucial. You absolutely have to find a way. There is synchronisation via a Raid server such as Synology, for example. They’re very powerful, but also very complex to set up. I have found a more user-friendly solution: Multcloud (for ‘Multicloud’ or ‘multiple clouds’).

When Multicloud Synchronisation is a headacheAt Visionary Marketing, for a long time we used Dropbox, and we were fully satisfied, apart from the fact that Dropbox is not capable of letting users work collaboratively on the same file.

This minor inconvenience at the outset quickly became a major obstacle as collaborative working became more popular, firstly under the impetus of Google Drive, and then with the widespread use of Microsoft 365, the new name for Office 365. Now, working with several people in real time on the same file has become commonplace and mandatory. Change was inevitable, we had no choice.

For years, we have been combining Onedrive, Google Drive, iCloud, Synology and Dropbox without realising that we could finally combine the quality of storage and synchronisation of Dropbox, for example, with the quality and robustness of the Microsoft 365 service.

Multicloud Synchronisation: customers ruleThat’s not all, though. Many customers can’t stand the idea of using a storage tool other than the one chosen by their IT department. The problem is that you end up with files all over the place, with less capacity to keep track of your work properly.

I am personally obsessed with double and triple back-ups. I’m keen on archiving our work properly. Just imagine how mad you would be without a back-up in the very likely event of a hard drive failure.

Synchronising and ArchivingIt’s not just a figment of my imagination. Most of Web content writers’ worst nightmare isn’t that their data could be stolen — notwithstanding those who work on classified data, of course. Most of what we do is public (we write content that is published online, so it can be stolen from us, it is by nature available to everyone).

Hence, our main problem is never to lose our files. To achieve this, we use a system called Crashplan, which is installed on all our hard drives so that, whatever the consultant, the files we’ve been working on are automatically backed up with minute-by-minute archiving. This has saved our lives more than once when certain files have disappeared for unknown reasons.

Thanks to Multcloud, multicloud synchronisation between different cloud services becomes completely transparent, though.

Customers’ rule, OK!So you can easily satisfy a customer who absolutely wants to keep his files on Google Drive and continue to work in peace on Onedrive if that’s what you want. Or comply with your customer’s wishes and work on the service of their choice while keeping a synchronised copy on your own cloud space.

The service is very easy to use, and is even free with limitations. There is a paid version that lifts such restrictions. But you can easily test the service, even without opening an account. The onboarding system itself is absolutely fantastic, as it allows you to try out Multcloud without committing yourself or even giving your e-mail address.

Here are just a few steps to create your account and get it up and running.

Multicloud synchronisation between Onedrive and Google drive? Yes, you can!Step 1: Create your account. I advise you to try the service with the “experience without signing up” option.

Step 2: Select the cloud services for multicolour synchronisation or transfer

Step 3: Create a sync task. This allows you to synchronise only part of one cloud drive with another. You can also decide to synchronise manually or at regular intervals, or both.

Step 4: monitor your transfer. Here, I’ve transferred my photos from Google Photos, which I no longer use, to Flickr. A task long put off and now made possible thanks to Multcloud at the click of a button.

Multicloud Synchronisation: iCloud Joins the ClubSince I discovered this service two years ago, many new clouds have been added. Now, you can back up iCloud to another cloud. Beyond that, you’ll be able to archive your iCloud data, which iCloud doesn’t allow.

Decent rates and even free up to 5 GBMulticloud synchronisation between Google drive and Onedrive doesn’t have to be a rip-off and will even be free below 5 GB per monthOther solutions exist. One day we’ll come back to our rather sophisticated system for protecting our data from being lost and for archiving it so that we can find the different versions of the files in use.

NAS Network drives (Network Access Storage)We particularly recommend Synology, which lets you synchronise your files from your Mac or PC, but that’s not all. Synology also allows you to synchronise between different NAS (network drives), which are themselves redundant (RAID). A few weeks ago, one of the 2 disks in one of our Synology NAS units popped off after 10 years of loyal service. Something like 50,000 hours of uninterrupted operation! And unluckily, our 2 TO external drive, probably just as old, pegged out on the very same day!

Multiclous Synchronisation between Google Drive, iCloud and others with Synology and much more.But we didn’t freak out. We merely bought a new disk, put it back in the unit, and all ended well with our data. It all showed in the same place, as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, our office Synology unit, several miles away, had taken over and included a back-up copy of our 25,000 photographs in RAW format (at least 500 GB of data).

Synology also has a free cloud-to-cloud back-up application called Hyperbackup and a cloud back-up service for NAS data called C2.

We’ll soon be describing our back-up and archiving system, a fairly economical and very effective system that has enabled us to recover our data several times without loss. We’ll also include a description of Synology’s features.

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The Perceptron is the ancestor of Neural Networks and Generative AI, but it arrived 60 years too early and, above all, its promise was a tad overstated, to say the least. One started to imagine impossible things. Besides, artificial intelligence as no match for natural human resentment. Especially that of Marvin Minsky. The result was the first winter of AI. Joe Bloggs might think that ChatGPT is a “revolution“. But for scientists, computer scientists, philosophers and others who like to read them, it is above all an evolution. The evolution of a way of thinking that goes back a very long way. Which comes as no surprise to readers of Kurt Vonnegut (Player Piano, 1957).

A History of Neural Networks: the PerceptronFrank Rosenblatt ’50, Ph.D. ’56, works on the “electronic profile analysis computer”, precursor to the perceptron – see Cornell article.In a fascinating radio programme on French State Radio Station France Culture, Antoine Beauchamp described the invention of the ‘Perceptron’. A deliciously ’50s sounding name, as the France Culture host pointed out. In the course of this fascinating interview, I discovered that the New York Times had gone wild over the invention of the Perceptron. I went looking for traces of a Times piece on the subject, and I found this 1958 article.

It mentions the IBM “704”, an IBM 704 “a 5-ton computer the size of a room – powered by a series of punched cards.” After 50 attempts, explains Melanie Lefkowitz from Cornell University, “The computer learned to distinguish between cards marked on the left and those marked on the right.”

Here’s the story told by the Times in July 1958.

A Device that Learned by DoingBack in 1958, the Navy had introduced the early stages of an electronic computer to a bunch of representatives from the News Media. The US Navy believed it possessed capabilities far beyond our imagination. A reporter from API, Associated Press International reported on that visit in a 1958 New York Times Perceptron piece, still visible today on the Times’s timemachine.

This computer was deemed “the embryo of a computer” and was expected to “walk, talk, see, write, and even reproduce itself”. More astonishingly, it was “anticipated to be aware of its own existence”.

This technological marvel, the Weather Bureau’s $2,000,000 “704” computer, had demonstrated its learning capabilities by successfully distinguishing between right and left after just fifty attempts. This demonstration was conducted by the Navy for the press, showcasing the potential of this embryonic (literally since they compared the computer to an embryo) technology. The reporter was truly fascinated to witness such advancements in the field of computing back then.

Neural Networks and AnthropomorphismIt’s interesting to see the anthropomorphism one bestowed on AI. And it’s still going on today when we call ChatGPT “He” or “She”. And let’s admit, we all do that. Here the reporter was describing the Perceptron as an “embryo” as if computers were a new form of earthlings.

Back then, the Navy had announced its plans use this research to build the first of its “Perceptron thinking machines” (more anthropomorphism). The completion of this ambitious project was expected in about a year, with an estimated cost of $100,000.

The obsession of reading and writing dates back a long way in AI history. It’s strange that Yuval Harari has overlooked that. Just so you know, the first poems to be generated by computers date back 1957!

Franck Rosenblatt From Cornell UniversityThe Perceptron was designed by Dr. Frank Rosenblatt, who conducted the demonstration by himself. He declared that “the machine would be the first device to think as the human brain. As do human beings, Perceptron will make mistakes at first, but will grow wiser as it gains experience,” the Times reported.

Dr. Rosenblatt, who was a research psychologist at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, Buffalo, declared “Perceptrons might be fired to the planets as mechanical space explorers” according to the Times journalist.

More interestingly, the machine was said to have been able to tell the difference between the right and the left by looking at “squares” on the cards it was provided. All this happened with no human controls and the computer showed stunning abilities to “learning by doing”.

In the first fifty trials, the machine made no distinction between them. It then started registering a “Q” for the left squares and “O” for the right squares. Dr. Rosenblatt said he could explain why the machine learned only in highly technical terms. But he said the computer had undergone a “self-induced change in the wiring diagram”.

Self-Learning, Back in 1958When Geoffrey Hinton declared he couldn’t understand what GenAI was doing nor why, this in fact isn’t new either. Even though this form of self-learning was arguably very limited.

You can have a look at the full New York Times Perceptron article at this address, should you wish to buy a reprint. I will quote from the article and give my comments hereafter.

The incredible prowess of the Perceptron is remarkable, but so is the overconfidence of its inventor. And it was precisely this smugness that led to the AI winter of 1974. Doesn’t this Mr Rosenblatt remind you of another more contemporary AI character?

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Are Gen AI and content compatible? Adobe organised a round table discussion on that subject during their Experience Makers conference in Paris in early November. The debate brought together a few digital experts. During this discussion, I mentioned that there were limitations to Gen AI images and that they weren’t technical. Others contended that it was just a matter of prompt engineering. Writing a good prompt may be recommended, but the limitations of Gen AI image generation tools extend far beyond that. Such is my point, which I substantiate in this piece with insights derived from a one-year practice of such software within the administration of this very website.

Gen AI and Content Marketing Lessons From ExperienceThis debate on generative AI and content marketing was an opportunity to take hindsight about images and their power to illustrate and differentiate our brands. Here we look at how generative AI was used to illustrate the Visionary Marketing news website.This debate was organised by Adobe at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris was about generative AI and content marketing. It was an opportunity for me to take stock of a year’s experience of using generative AI to produce images for Visionary Marketing.

Gen AI and Content: Excitement and Second ThoughtsAt first, we were all very excited. And we did have fun producing images for all intents and purposes. Then came a moment when hindsight was required. Taking a step back from it all to ponder over the use of Gen AI. As I explained during the debate, it reminded me of the HDR filters when I started using Adobe Lightroom 12 years ago. At first, one used them every day. Five years later, in hindsight, one removed them all.

Our round table on Gen AI and content: From left to right: Caroline Mignaux, Yann Gourvennec, Frédéric Cavazza, Adobe’s Lionel Lemoine and Fabrice Frossard.Here are a few thoughts on the use of these tools which, in my view, are more than ever worth investigating. Yet, one should look at them in the context of the widespread use of Gen AI tools by both Web users and the Media.

1. On the one hand, what was initially pleasurable, at a time we felt like trailblazers, ends up being repetitive and bland. We come across too many of these pictures in the Media and on the Internet. Some of my readers pointed this out to me. My co-author even says he can’t understand why I don’t make more use of my own photos, whereas I am a photographer. He’s both right and wrong, and I’ll come back to that later. In the meantime, I insist that the featured image of this post is an original (and deliberately cryptic) photo by yours truly.
2. On the other hand, these images, often produced in haste, end up looking the same. They are also often rather garish, with saturated colours that are very characteristic of virtual images. They’re also rather banal and sometimes vulgar. I realise that this is a personal and biased statement. After all, though, when it comes to images, there are no such thing as objectivity.
3. There’s also a general trend towards ‘heroic fantasy’ type images, a genre I have nothing against, even though it’s not to my liking. But this does seem to add fuel to the fire about the trivialisation of images. We can add to this sci-fi-like illustrations, which are sometimes quite successful, but also confer a déjà vu aspect to your content.
4. Lastly, a feeling of unease about images that are very realistic but at the same time are not. It’s a phenomenon known in the digital world as the Uncanny Valley. We’ll deal with this topic on this site in more detail at a later date.

Using Gen AI: Three Main StagesIn fact, at Visionary Marketing, we went through several stages. In the beginning, we only used images from my personal stock. All the Visionary Marketing content writers had to go through this limited stock of images. These photos are personal, and therefore unique. Yet a feeling of déjà vu soon set in. And above all, we were often unable to describe certain concepts using those images. It makes sense since this stock doesn’t include all the possible metaphors one would require.

Fishing for the right picture amongst 12,000 of them isn’t always a piece of cake. Not to mention the crafting of the right captions, a real challenge that was!A second step was to add stock photos to these images. This made it possible for us to get away from the limitation syndrome. However, it also made our illustrations look more commonplace. This could have been damaging in some cases. Fortunately, we use Jumpstory and this image data bank is rather unusual. Thus, we avoided this pitfall to some extent.

Jump story images are sometimes quite good. But you have to look hard to find the right one.Over the Past Year, Generative AIAnd since last year, this is the third stage, we’ve been making more intensive use of generative AI to produce illustrations for our articles. In all cases, whether it be the first, second or third stage, we’ve come to the same conclusion: using the image source all the time leads to a feeling of repetition, fatigue and trivialisation.

So you have to mix the different types of images and above all, as I explained during the Adobe debate, you have to be able to master the prompt so as to produce illustrations that are different from what we usually see on the Net.

The more abstract the prompt, the more eye-catching and different the image produced. That’s what makes you stand out from the crowd. This is rather counter-intuitive. Indeed, most self-proclaimed AI pundits on LinkedIn and elsewhere will be adamant that such prompts should be banned. What life has taught me, though, is that when the crowd produces A, producing non-A will make your work — and yourself — more distinctive.

Besides, advanced mastery of all the tools, generative AI, Photoshop, Illustrator, or all of them combined, means that you can retain total control over your images. Thus, you should be able to produce less commonplace pictures or illustrations for your content.

Last but not least, don’t hesitate to revisit the content to change illustrations that, with hindsight, seem too trivial, too stereotyped or too garish. Unless, of course, you like it that way.

More than ever, marketing is not about getting things done. It’s about getting things done differently. Whether you resort to Gen AI or not, you should always bear that in mind. The post GEN AI and Content Marketing: Learning from experience appeared first on Marketing and Innovation.

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Could Generative AI be a game-changer for photography and photographers? Photography has been around for over a century and relies on the creativity and expertise of photographers. But what will … Read on

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‘Breaking down silos’ is certainly digital transformation’s most common phrase and myth. If you haven’t heard this phrase repeated over and over again, chances are your government hasn’t let you … Read on

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So, what are the emerging employment trends in Europe? This week we got to talk back and forth with Jooble’s Talent Enablement Director, Anastasiia Khyzhniak. We were able to gain … Read on

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The learning curve that governs qualitative marketing research is very important if you want to avoid ending up with mountains of data. What’s more, the data is soft, difficult to … Read on

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Let’s look at a major marketing misconception today: the more market data you have, the easier it is to do your marketer’s job. And thus to sell. Paul Millier, one … Read on

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Ever heard of Prompt Engineering? That’s what was at the heart of a keynote by Lee Odden at the B2B Summit 2023 that took place in Paris last June. As … Read on

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With our recent piece on Roblox, I thought it would be a good idea to take a step back and discuss marketing and the video game industry. With technology constantly … Read on

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Phishing is a common practice, and businesses are not the last victims. It’s common to receive fraudulent messages in our mailboxes. These invite you to settle a non-existent unpaid bill, … Read on

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LinkedIn Live has established itself in recent years as a must for online business-to-business events. In fact, we’ve organized many of them, in particular in partnership with Loic Simon of … Read on

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Will marketing jobs be killed by AI? We met with Jamie Brighton, Adobe’s Product Marketing Director at the Adobe Summit 2023*, and his answer is a blatant No! Jamie sees AI … Read on

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With the release of Apple’s new Vision Pro AR-VR headset on the horizon, many companies are starting to take note. Roblox, The online gaming platform and game creation system, stands … Read on

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Marketing is going through a major evolution, our jobs are changing, and marketing professionals will have to seriously ramp up their skills. After a 4-year hiatus, we had the pleasure … Read on

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The IT crisis is having serious consequences, and not just in Silicon Valley. But is it an IT crisis or a lack of innovation? For Alain Lefebvre, author of “La … Read on

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Photoshop Beta now includes Adobe Firefly AI art functions. These enable image manipulation by using artificial intelligence. Image-generating AIs have been at the center of discussions for quite some time, … Read on

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Ever heard of cookie pop-ups? It’s true that it’s hard to escape them. Following the 2011 Cookie Directive, all European sites have finally complied. But rather than deleting cookies, they … Read on

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It’s this time of year, Adobe summit 2023 is taking place on June, 8–9 in London and Visionary Marketing will be there as #adobepartner (disclosure*). After a few years where … Read on

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How to make Web3 your own? For some years now, people have been calling for a reinvention of the good old Web. That was the ambition of Web 2.0. But in reality, the fairy tale has turned into a nightmare. The social Web has been hijacked, scandal after scandal, and data battles too. Social platforms themselves are trying to reinvent themselves, like Meta. Hubert Kratiroff, a seasoned professional in Web3 and digital strategy, gives you his keys to diving into Web3 and taking your first steps. An optimistic and logical presentation, that avoids glossing over the risks that this new Web will have to face.

3 steps to Web3The Web3 and blockchain as seen by Midjourney will accompany this practical post explaining how to take your first steps on this new Web.

Tim Berners Lee launched Solid and Contract for the Web. Then came Web3, a concept that is not always easy to understand. Here’s the interview we did with Hubert a few weeks ago. It’ll give you an idea of a concept that’s still a little vague, and help you come to grips with it in a concrete way. As a result of Web3, we may well be witnessing a certain revival of the Web, called for by many Web players and users.

“Web3 is the true expression of the Web”

The Web3 of 2023 is a return to the Web’s roots, as envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee, its inventor in ’89. Tim Berners-Lee’s Web in ’89 was a Web for users

Midjouney’s vision of Web 3 is as enigmatic as it is disquieting. Fortunately, Hubert has reassured usBut, Web 2.0 came to hijack the Web, with platforms like Twitter or Meta and even more recently TikTok. Tech giants with huge budgets have been able to bring great technologies to market, then hijack them for their own benefit.

Another Midjourney vision of Web3. NETTL? Net totally lucid, I suppose…Today, “Web3 reflects Tim Berners-Lee’s initial vision of a semantic Web”, Hubert tells us.

Midjourney “imagined” a Tim Berners Lee angry at Web3 and tweaked the features a bit in the process.And yet, at the Web Summit, that was held in Lisbon, from the 1st to the 4th of November in 2022, Tim Berners-Lee reportedly asked that this new version of the Web be “ignored”.

“I think he’s mainly driven by the desire to develop his startup Inrupt, which advocates a technology that’s not far from Solid, the Smart Contracts language of blockchain. I think he’s more upset that he didn’t declare this Web3 development himself,” Hubert points out.

He wanted to call it the Semantic Web. It was a Web where all data was structured in a certain way across all sites.

A Midjourney Web3 in the form of a psychedelic spider webWith this concept, anyone could recover all their data. Users could reappropriate it. This was Berners Lee’s idea of the Semantic Web, the idea of disassociating data from platforms. As a result, giving users ownership over their own data.

This semantic Web unfortunately didn’t catch on because it was caught up by the big platforms

The term Web3, meanwhile, was coined by Gavin Hood, who along with Vitalik Buterin, is the co-inventor of Ethereum.

Ethereum is a blockchain“A blockchain is a database, like hundreds of thousands of others, with the distinctive feature that it’s impossible to modify or delete any information. Everything that is recorded is recorded for life, and you can’t go back on it,” Hubert explains.

Gavin Hood and Vitalik Buterin invented the Ethereum blockchain, which is a shared database on which they nestled 3 things:

1. 1. From Smart Contracts
   2. One currency, the ETH, today is worth around €1,700 or $1,800. With an all time cap of €4,500 or $4,900
   3. And the NFT

We can do Web3 without relying on today’s complex technologies

Wikipedia and Twitter are going to become hybrid Web2/Web3 companies,” Hubert continues. They may have been founded on the basis of Web 2.0, with good intentions, but they’re going to have to reinvent themselves.

Web3 is more complex than Web 2.0, that’s the price of our freedom

We, the users, have been responsible for the hegemony of the big platforms

These major platforms have played the user interface (UI) card to the hilt, allowing us to publish photos with a single click. Likewise, you setting up your mailbox with SMTP, IMAP, POP, etc, is rather quite complex. On the other hand, with Gmail or Yahoo, everything is encapsulated, easy, and fluid.

For ease, we used Gmail and Instagram because we didn’t want to get our hands into the code

“Web3 is going to make us actors again, with the need for a little technical expertise and tools to manipulate,” adds Hubert.

Tackling Web3 in 3 stepsThe first step in getting a foothold in Web3 is to use the open-source browser Brave. Surfing in Brave lets you earn BAT (Basic Attention Token), a kind of cryptocurrency that pays a creator.

A second step into Web3 is as simple as looking at the videos in Odysee, rather than YouTube. It’s essentially the same thing, except that viewing a video pays 1/10th of a cent or 1/1000th of a cent to the creator.

For music, rather than paying €15 a month to a streaming platform, using Pianity allows authors to be paid directly.

The threat of venture capitalistsWeb3 does, however, have a few obstacles in its path.

“Web 2.0 was owned by large platforms. We mustn’t let Web3 become the domain of investors,” Hubert warns us. Starting with AECI, which is investing heavily in Web3.

There’s always the old opposition between the Web, heir to the American hippies of the 60s and 70s, and today’s capitalist Web. The more things change…

We don’t want to go from Web 2.0 functional ownership to Web 3 capital ownership

No right to be forgotten in Web3“Everything said in Web3 is traceable. It will be possible to go back decades. A bit like what http://archive.org does today, which has recorded sites since 1993.” Everything is registered there, Hubert points out.

We’ll have to be careful with this right to forget and make users more responsible

There’s a lot of learning to be done on Web3 to guide users. They won’t be able to say just anything. After all, in 5, 10, or 15 years’ time, anything that’s said on the site could be taken up again and would be absolutely unenforceable.

A final predictionLedger: future French “decacorn” according to Hubert.

I predict that Ledger by the first quarter of 2023 will be the first French decacorne

So let’s keep an open mind and observe Tech, as we’re still discovering new things.

Read also, Web3: what will the Internet of the future look like?

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Are digital experiences getting in the way of customers’ experiences? We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Joseph Pine, author of the article titled ‘Are Your Digital Tools Wasting Your Customers’ Time?” Having previously interviewed him, we knew he had an interesting perspective on the matter. He takes a close look at the way in which the economy is working with technology in order to change the way people interact with businesses. In his mind, digital experiences go way beyond the interaction of humans and screens. He also debunks myths regarding customer experience and how it is not always better to go digital. In fact, companies often try to eradicate human interaction thinking it will be beneficial when it actually does the opposite.

Is digital wasting your customer’s time?

Joe Pine is the author of ‘Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want’ as well as multiple other books and he talked to us here at Visionary Marketing about digital experiences.

No one wants digital tools that waste their time. What everyone wants are digital experiences that offer time well spent

One of the key things to understanding the nature of life is that the most precious resource on the planet is the time of individual human beings.

As a consequence, the worst thing companies can do is waste their customers’ time. Yet, that’s what companies do all the time by asking for things that they already know. Businesses make customers go through procedures that they have defined as important, but that aren’t really to the end user.

‘We increasingly want our time to be saved around any type of service, digital or not, so that we can spend that time on experiences that we value,’ Joe said.

Digital experiences don’t always equate to good experiences: people are frustrated when their digital experience is not up to their standards. Image generated by MidjourneyDigital Experiences Don’t Always Mean Good ExperiencesPeople usually assume that going digital is going to improve customer experience. However, that is not always the case. A lot of great experiences come from interactions with other people. Indeed, many companies try to eliminate such exchanges by going fully digital without realising that people want to interact and connect with companies and vice versa. Some of these reasons are valid, but more often than not, it’s wasted time because when we try to artificially create these moments they get in the way of daily communication.

Why are companies doing this? What are they doing wrong?A key impetus for it is that it’s going to save companies a lot of money so that we don’t need customer-facing people. Instead of recognising again, that’s where much of the value comes in. When consumers go digital, it doesn’t mean they want less human interaction. In fact, it is the other way around, they want faster and better human interactions.

Moreover, such businesses are very product-centric instead of customer-centric. Instead of understanding the customer and what it is that they’re trying to accomplish right now, they want the customer to follow the journey that they’ve laid out in advance. Then again, that’s not the journey that the customer wants to follow. ‘Perhaps this is happening because businesses have too few people who care about gaining customer insight,’ Joe assumed.

Myth: Building frictionless digital experiences will increase engagement

People engage when smart tools understand them, but what is a smart tool?A smart tool is one that is using data. The data that it learns from you individually to be able to address your needs. So it’s a matter of sensing and responding. Then such a smart tool can understand what it is that customers want at this moment and it can act accordingly. For instance, think of smart thermostats that learn when you get up, or what kind of temperature the home owner likes in the winter.

Myth: Creating more ‘moments’ for customers will lead to more value. In fact, ‘moments’ are fairly product-centric. They’re what we want our customers to do and how we want them to engage with us. Whereas ‘modes’, are what the individual customer wants to accomplish.

What is digital context?
Digital context is just a great term that my co-author of the HBR article, Dave Naughton, came up with. The digital context is really about understanding, ‘What it is that I’m trying to accomplish right now, and it requires access to all of the digital data that is out there that will explain what mode a business can use to enhance its experience in banking or e-shopping, for instance’. The problem with most businesses is that they have no data. And they can’t provide any experience without digital context.

A good example is my client Carnival Corporation. They make good use of digital contexts. The cruise company created a digital tool called the Ocean Medallion. A device that allows them to understand the digital context that you are in while on the cruise ship. They can recognise every individual. Every employee has a tablet with them that when you get close, your device pops your picture and information up so they can greet you by name. It also has past interactions, your itinerary, what you’re trying to do, where you’re going and so forth.

Smart Digital Experiences vs Genius Digital ExperiencesGenius experiences are the ones that understand everything that’s going on. They understand the ecosystem and grab all that digital context to anticipate what mode you’re in and then vastly multiply the number of jobs that it can do for you. That means they customise and individualise to you as well as being responsive.

For example, Alexa or Google Home. They have access to all your information. The genius level is, for instance, when you say ‘Alexa play some music’ they will play music based on what mood you’re in, who you’re with, what time of day it is, what you’re doing and trying to accomplish because it understands all of that.

‘Alexa or Google Home can reach genius level because they have access to all our information’ [Image Google Chrome dinosaur by Jumpstory]Although, when we reach these genius experiences, there is always the possibility that people will start to find it as too much and even a little ‘creepy’. For this reason, it is important to resort to genius experiences only when the person wants and how the person wants it done. As opposed to bringing in things that maybe it should not know about the customer until you opt in. At one point it will be necessary to stop and ask yourself whether you still want to continue or make changes. Machines are taking over and it is evident more and more each day, which is why is important to work with them and craft better digital experiences for ourselves as well as our customers.More on Joe Pine with Visionary Marketing: Experience Economy: Great Experiences Begin with Great Service

Amazon’s Author Joe Pine’s Page here

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Could one reduce the carbon footprint of digital advertising? When it comes to carbon emissions, digital is often criticised, and programmatic advertising in particular. How big is that footprint? And how could one minimise it? How are advertisers reacting? A recent Scope3 study sheds light on this subject. It shows that the digital marketing industry can also contribute to the common effort. This is what Fabien Omont, a representative of Adform, a Danish provider of solutions for digital advertising, told me when I interviewed him.

Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Digital Advertising Isn’t Mission ImpossibleScope3 has just released a 2023 brief that makes the case for a more responsible digital advertising industry. The link to the study is at the end of the post.

Disclosure: This podcast was produced in partnership with Ecran mobile on behalf of Adform, an Adtech provider. We have written this post with our usual objective of independence and authenticity.

Fabien Omont is Product Marketing Director at Adform. The Adtech company works with Scope3. The latter has just published its report on the State of Sustainable Advertising. By their own admission, Scope3 is ‘the only company to measure end-to-end emissions from across the media and advertising supply chain’.

The Carbon Footprint of Digital AdvertisingScope3 has estimated the CO2 emissions from programmatic advertising at 215,000 metric tonnes of CO2 per month in 5 countries alone. These are Australia, France, Great Britain, Germany and the USA.

The US Alone Accounts for Nearly Half of These Emissions

Scope3’s measurement of the carbon footprint of digital advertising shows that it emits 215,000 tonnes of CO2 every month in 5 countries (Australia, France, the UK, Germany and the US). This would correspond to the consumption of nearly 24 million gallons of gasoline (91 million litres of petrol) each month. Click the picture to enlarge

In the UK only, each month programmatic advertising emits 30.6k metric tonnes of CO2

‘Digital advertising has become widespread,’ explains Fabien. The Internet amounts to 65.15% of the overall advertising expenditure for a worldwide total of over US$550 billion. This is indeed considerable.

Click to view slideshow.‘But beyond these figures, it is important to understand the main factors behind the carbon footprint of digital advertising,’ Fabien went on.

4 top drivers of digital advertising’s carbon footprint1. Driver number one is the consumption of the terminals that Internet users are resorting to. 2. The second driver is how publishers will distribute content around the world. When a person reads an article, questions arise: where and how was it loaded? How was it distributed through the networks up to the user’s terminal? 3. The third driver is the creative distribution. Has it been optimised and what is its impact on bandwidth usage? Over the years, as bandwidth has improved, the visuals have become bulkier. This has an undeniable ecological knock-on effect. 4. The fourth and final driver is ad selection. This is the process that is put in place for the Internet user to receive an ad.

Advertising Selection Is Singled OutThe ad selection criterion is the number one driver in the carbon footprint of digital ads. This is what the Scope3 report says. Click to enlarge the picture.‘Ad selection definitely is the main driver behind carbon emissions of digital advertising. It weighs a lot more than terminal usage of even media distribution,’ Fabien explained.

60% of the carbon footprint of programmatic advertising is due to ad selection

Programmatic advertising is not only complex, it is also resource intensive. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce this carbon footprint.‘The reality of digital advertising,’ explains Fabien, ‘is that the practice of header bidding has become almost universal amongst publishers.

Header-bidding infographic by SortableMultiplying advertising calls“This is a practice which, to put it simply, consists in increasing the amount of advertising calls to optimise monetisation, i.e. generating double or triple bids, which will inflate the price of the winning bid and therefore make more money in the end.”

This approach is quite commendable from the point of view of monetisation and optimisation of the publisher’s income, Fabien explained, but its impact on carbon footprint is huge.

Advertisers are paying attentionHowever, advertisers are aware of the problem. This is a good sign Fabien Omont said.

Advertisers’ attitudes are changing and that’s good news

“Advertisers are very curious about what’s going on and the initiatives taken by start-ups like Scope3 and other tech players like Adform,” explains Fabien.

“Above all, advertising associations and media agencies have done a fantastic job of raising awareness amongst advertisers.”

In addition, legislation shall be enforced in the near future. The publication of carbon footprint numbers for digital advertising is indeed likely to become a regulatory requirement.

Getting Results Isn’t That Hard“We have developed a solution for optimising the reduction of the carbon footprint of digital advertising,” Fabien Omont went on. “And the good news is that getting some good results is quite easy.”

Carbon emissions from digital advertising can very easily be cut in half

“The range of the impact of advertisers’ carbon footprint is very broad. The most virtuous advertisers will emit 55 grams of CO2 per thousand impressions,” explains Fabien, “the highest threshold, goes up to 4,782 grams.

However, Adform has noticed that the vast majority of publishers are well below these extremes, Fabien said.

Decarbonising programmatic advertising‘If we tackle the top 10% of CO2 emitters, we will soon see a total reduction of 40–50% of carbon emissions due to digital advertising.’

In conclusion, the problem isn’t hopeless. Just by improving practices on the ground, one could achieve satisfactory results.

Important Notice on the Weight of Digital within the World’s Carbon EmissionsIt’s worthy of note that, according to the World Economic Forum, “Studies estimate that digital technologies already contribute between 1.4% to 5.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions”.

Digital technology isn’t therefore responsible for the majority of our carbon footprint, far from that.

It is far less to blame than the usual suspects, namely transportation, the manufacturing industry and agriculture, as well as central heating.

It should also be noted that carbon emissions are the most significant cause of the pollution we are witnessing but its far from being the only one.

In any case, every effort counts. And those made by the digital industry are to be welcomed and encouraged.

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Platform business models facilitate the exchange of goods and services between two or more interdependent groups, often producers and consumers. They are responsible for totally new ways of doing business. In our interview with Benoît Reillier from Launchworks.co, we discuss his book entitled Platform Strategy, from which he derived a cartoon version. In this book he delivers his predictions on the future of platform business. To him, platform business models will not replace all kinds of traditional business. They should inspire rather than scare, as they offer boundless opportunities for mixed business models in the future.

Platform Business Models Today and in the FuturePlatform Business Models, beautifully illustrated by Louise Plantin is also available as a full-fledged book.Understanding Platform Business ModelsAccording to Benoît, some examples of companies that follow the Platform Business model are Airbnb, Uber, Google, and online marketplaces such as eBay, and Amazon. However, as the age of social media progresses, content from companies such as YouTube, TikTok, and other social platforms is now making up a sizeable part of the platform business.

Uber is the epitome of platform business models but there are many more of that ilk.Looking at consumer behaviour, there are different ways platform businesses can be deemed successful. Depending on how they fulfil the different needs and wants of a customer. This includes travel websites like Expedia which make it easier to book an entire trip on one website or others like Tinder when one is looking for a romantic partner.

Benoît explained that platform business might not be seen as a straightforward concept, as it may have multiple definitions.

What makes that kind of business different from other types of businesses is that their organisations are entirely built around a business model that attracts participants, matches them, connects them, and enables them to transact.

Benoît Reillier added, ‘Marketplaces create value by allowing people to be connected.’

Now thanks to Benoît we have a much clearer definition of what Platform business is.

Platform business model means no Value ChainAs depicted in Benoît’s Platform Strategy cartoon opus, platform businesses do not derive their competitive advantage from the quality of their value chain like traditional business ventures.

The business model of platforms is definitely different from that of value chainsThis is because traditional firm dynamics starts with buying material things and adding value to them. An example he gave, is that of a car manufacturer that builds and creates a car out of raw materials or semi-finished goods.

Traditional business models are based on linear processes that are resulting from their internal abilities to turn these manufacturing processes into value for the benefit of their customers.

Platform businesses are entirely different, Benoît Reillier stressed, since they, ‘are merely orchestrating their ecosystems’.

We’ve asked Midjourney to/imagine the difference between traditional and Plaftorm-based shopping and it came up with that…Platform businesses do not have to worry about inventories. They aren’t buying anything from anyone. All they do is connecting people who own something with people who want to buy it.

Platform Business models are underpinned by principles that are not applicable to traditional businesses, Benoît Reillier found out.

There are two main rules, the network effect and price elasticity.

The Network Effect‘Networks are characterised by positive externalities. All the members of the network benefit from it. The more there are new members joining that network, the bigger its value for all its members.’

That’s what Benoît calls the network effect. A major underlying principle that confers value on the platform.

‘At the outset, it’s very hard to convince new people to join a new network,’ he added. If there is a network with just the two of us, it won’t fare very well. We’ll then have to recruit new members, relentlessly.

‘Yet, once you’ve reached a certain critical mass, maybe thousands of members, what happens is that people will start to spot that network and its value, and it will then start to grow organically.’

Price ElasticityIt may appear to some that setting prices may be easier for platforms than traditional businesses. This is because they are masters of their own ecosystem, or so it seems.

However, Benoît warns us that appearances may be deceptive.

‘Even though they seem to have full control over their pricing structures,’ Benoît added, ‘platforms are walking on eggs when they decide to change them. Because these network ecosystems are complex systems, changing the way you charge one of your members may have a serious impact on all the others.’

In other words, if a platform business is a tad too inconsiderate when changing its pricing structure, it can start losing members.

‘If your platform business creates too much friction, it might become less attractive to newcomers,’ Benoît emphasised. ‘Traditional firms do not give too much thought to price elasticity. But platforms need to be more circumspect in that regard.’

The Future of Platform BusinessAs platforms gain ever more popularity, there have been concerns about platform business models taking over traditional business models and disrupting the economy.

Thus, Airbnb has attracted much criticism about its disturbance of the hospitality business in many places. It happened in New York, London or Paris for instance.

There are many other examples such as Amazon. The Seattle Internet company has raised fears of disruption of retail business by ecommerce. And more recently, the foray of the retail behemoth (now employing over 1.2 million staffers worldwide) into food retailing has triggered even more concerns.

However, Benoît doesn’t believe that platforms will be the terminators of traditional shopping.

Platform strategy by Laure Claire and Benoît Reillier – Routledge – 2017‘In the future, many organisations will mix different types of business models. Value chains will still be around in 30 years’ time, and platform business models too. Businesses will undoubtedly combine several business models. Depending on the industry and the product, platforms will be the preferred business model, and for other industries or products, value chains will still be instrumental in organising the business.’

Maybe some companies will conduct part of their business in the Metaverse, but other more traditional business models will persist

‘Considering all the technologies that are cropping up now,’ Benoît concluded, ‘including Web3 and the immersive Web, this mix of different business models will enable us to manage distributed organisations in a much better way, through the combination of all these business models.’

Fears that Uber and other platforms will do away with any other types of businesses, as we thought barely 10 years ago, were probably exaggerated. Platform business models could on the contrary be one more string to the bows of traditional businesses who had better think how they could reinvent themselves. Major platform business best practices should inspire rather than scare you.

You may download the illustrated version of the book from the Launchworks.co website.

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Social media requires proper and effective visuals for your posts to be more impactful. Any first-grade student knows that. Seasoned marketers do too. That said, a recent study by Vistacreate and the Content Marketing Institute showed that there is room for improvement in that area. In this report, CMI’s Robert Rose, founder and chief strategy officer of The Content Advisory, the education and consulting group for Content Marketing, urged marketers to better test their assumptions. The report also provides in-depth insights regarding social media visuals and how to use them effectively.

How to Use Social Media Visuals More EffectivelySocial Media Visuals are important CMI and Vista create conclude in a 2023 study. Nonetheless, marketers should be spending a little more time testing rather than creating visuals for themselves  –  This is a Midjourney-generated image of a painter crafting a social media visual for Twitter.The Current State of Social Media VisualsWe all know, at least intuitively that social media visuals are important. A recent survey by CMI and Vista Create is bringing evidence that our gut feeling is true. It also points out that marketers should test their visuals more carefully.

A 2023 Social Media Visuals study by CMI and Vistacreate.The survey results in a nutshellCMI selected a sample of marketers for this survey. 167 respondents were qualified for analysis and they answered the institute’s questions in June 2022. Here is a visual representation of the sample with a slide taken from the report.

Worthy of note is the fact that B2B and B2B+B2C add up to 69% of the total sample. The survey is mostly geared towards business-to-business. B2C, other and not-for-profit make up the remaining 31% of the survey respondents. The survey was essentially carried out in the US (68% of respondents).

The survey results in a nutshellCMI have derived five major insights from their surveyInsight number one: test your assumptionsThe authors of the report insist that too many marketers are behaving according to their own tastes rather than testing how effective their visuals are. This is the main finding of the report. Whereas marketing is about measuring customer response and the effectiveness of one’s messages and campaigns, it seems that most marketers are instead relying on their own tastes.

Social media visuals designed by Leonardo da Vinci? Anything is possible with Midjourney, but not sure it’s a good thing, though.It might be a good idea if your brand is a trendsetter like Apple or Gucci. When Android released its new flat design look and feel with its 4.0 Icecream sandwich version, it set a new trend for all to follow. Apple followed in their footsteps in 2013. At the time, most of us found flat design awful and too minimalistic. After a little while our tastes changed and we became used to it.

Marketers have this tendency to craft beautiful images that they like rather than pictures that are either effective or appeal to their audiences. Whereas this might be a good idea if you are Apple or Gucci, it may not if your brand is not a luxury or a beloved brand. The above picture is a Midjourney-generated image. A painter is creating a huge social media visual for Twitter with a paintbrush.This happened because every one of us had an Android or Apple iPhone in our pockets. In fact, we didn’t have a choice. For visual social ads, audiences do have a choice to click or not to click.

The perspective is very different. Hence the testing.

Insight number 2: look at visual social media as a platformThe authors are claiming that visual content creation for social media is moving in-house.

Nearly 50% of brands don’t have a separate budget for social media visual content. Yet, creating social media-friendly visuals is a job in its own right and a budget should be allocated to this.

60% of marketers said they create visual content themselves, 56% have in-house professional designers, and only 28% use freelance designers (the overlap is because some respondents indicated all three options)

What is strange though is that the authors of the report found out that ‘counter-intuitively, small businesses are more likely to have a separate budget for visual social content, as compared to larger companies (47% vs. 22%)’.

The authors claim that this is a good thing, but that brands need to have a least a small budget for content creation. After all, content creation is a job, not a hobby.

Insight number 3: build repeatable processesWhen looking at what kinds of visuals are more successful than others, CMI’s survey consistently highlighted 3 main content types:

1. Video content
2. Custom photos (as opposed to stock images)
3. Infographics

Instagram’s top three are a bit different with ‘stories’ coming third. Reels on Facebook didn’t seem to catch up, though.

Videos are often quoted as being the top performers. That said, very few marketers manage to make their videos viral without paid social media ads. We definitely recommend brands to work on their word-of-mouth strategies before moving to ad-driven social activation.

Insight number 4: match those processes with a documented and formal budgetAs to effectiveness, LinkedIn is definitely most brands’ pet social platform.

LinkedIn scored the highest at 56% (rating it as extremely or very effective), followed by Facebook (38%), and Instagram (31%)

These results are most probably due to the strong B2B bias in the survey sample.

Insight number 5: empower visual content creators to tell storiesThe fifth insight is probably the most interesting one. CMI tested 5 different social media visuals with marketers and non-marketers. The results were completely different according to the audience.

Social media visuals should be tested with your audiences. CMI showed that the green visual was ranked highest by marketers and one of the least effective by non-marketers. QED.Content creators know that by heart. As the name goes, they bet on creativity and inventiveness and come up with great concepts. But here comes the Corporate Marketing Officer who starts shouting at you by stating you’re ‘not on brand’.

Next thing you know, the content creator in question is so crestfallen that she or he – reluctantly – opens the boring brand guidelines once more and produces a clone of all other social media visuals. So much so that all the brand’s social media posts and ads look the same.

Marketers are too self-obsessed and they value their brand guidelines too much. Whereas brand guidelines are, in general, a good thing, they also tend to make all your content uniform and bland.

Try and work with third-party content creators and external media partners to generate more diverse and more social media-friendly visuals that appeal to your audiences. This is a trick we have often implemented while working as a social media director as well as with our customers.

About the authors of the reportThe authors of the social media visuals study report

Important notice: our most observant readers will have noticed that we like to produce our own creative visuals without testing them. This is because we have been trendsetters for nearly thirty years 😉

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Forget about phishing, enter LinkedIn hackers! cybercriminals are upping their game and are now using LinkedIn to plant viruses on your machines. As they are sending their messages through LinkedIn navigator, they are catching professional users unawares. Indeed, the latter are less prone to expect cyber attacks to originate from that channel. This is a strong reminder that multi-factor authentication is now a must-have for all platforms, amongst other protective measures like strong passwords, which must be changed regularly.

LinkedIn Hackers are targeting pro usersMidjourney’s interpretation of hackers using LinkedIn to install viruses on their personal computers. Quite scary but LinkedIn hackers’ attacks are even more worrying.Hackers are getting smarter every day. They are now using Sales Navigator to send you targeted messages in plain Italian or French and possibly in English.

We aren’t sure about this but generative AI may have played a role in correcting the cybercriminals’ grammar.

Readers should be on their toesVisionary Marketing received one of these messages this very morning, hence this breaking news post, as we are keen on warning our readers who should be on their toes while they are using Microsoft’s professional social network.

Despite what Midjourney believes, hackers don’t look like pirates. They may even be wearing three-piece suits and they are using LinkedIn.Here is the exchange which took place as we were lecturing and our attention span was not what it should have been.

TUESDAY

Contact name – 11:26 a.m.
Hi, I have a project on advertising on social networks but I am too busy to receive it, would you like to receive this project? I will share it with you

Visionary Marketing (He/Him) – 1:33 PM
Hello, how can I help you? I’m busy until 6p.m., we can have a call after that if you want.

Contact name -1:39 PM
I will send you their project to see, if you accept the project, I will hand them your contact details.

Visionary Marketing (He/Him) – 3:22 PM
OK

Contact name -4:13 PM
https://drive.google.com/XXXX
password:2023

WEDNESDAY

Visionary Marketing (He/Him) – 12:06 PM
Thanks

I should point out that this is a known contact. The person in question teaches in the same school as we do, in the same class, we had seen each other a few weeks before and a lunch date was on its way. Obviously, the LinkedIn hackers didn’t know that because it had happened IRL.

Clicking on the Google Drive link (one could have thought it must have been secure because of the password…) takes you to a .zip file that contains a.exe.

.EXE is a fishy file extensionThe .exe file extension was a warning that something fishy was happening. Even though I had my doubts since the message was very well crafted. Besides, the file was over 700 MB. Way above the size granted by online virus scanners.

I don’t have a PC, so I had to find one and scanned the file without opening it and, of course, it’s a virus (I didn’t investigate further, it looked nasty!)

The original message in French. Many attacks took place in Italy as well.It must be said that many LinkedIn accounts have been stolen and resold.

The attack was very subtle and well targeted. People familiar with the matter told Visionary Marketing that similar attacks took place in France in Italy.

Our recommendation is to protect your accounts systematically, generate automatic passwords (such as the ones proposed by Safari on macOS) and be wary of suspicious messages offering jewellery or anything else for that matter.

Above all, implement multi-factor authentication at all times.

Special note for macOS users: don’t even think that Macs are immune even though they apparently safer.

People from our network reported that attacks did occur in the past, most likely triggered from Russia. Yet, these were based on fake accounts. In today’s case, the LinkedIn hackers probably took advantage of a major data leak from LinkedIn to impersonate real people. That’s what makes this cyberattack so credible. Knowing the person who writes you tends to catch you off guard and that’s when you are at risk.

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Innovate or die is a mantra repeated by all but is it true. Getz and Robinson warn us that this may not be the case. Let’s take a bit of hindsight

Innovate or Die? Beyond Deceptive AppearancesInnovate or Die? Beyond Deceptive Appearances. A fundamental piece, well worth a few bucks for it could save you millions — Midjourney generated imageSeneca, the Spanish-born Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist once wrote “Ducunt volentem Fata, nolentem trahunt”, which means “Fate leads the willing, and drags the unwilling”.

Does that mean however that the “innovate or die” mantra is true? Isaac Getz and Alan G. Robinson are answering a resounding no to that question.

In their mind, the innovate or die motto has made too many companies believe in what they call the jackpot mentality, whereby consultants claim that disruptive innovation is the only approach that’s worthwhile but in actual fact never delivers on the promise.

Innovate or perish, really?Getz and Robinson believe that the innovation jackpot should always give way to sound, down-to-earth work with employees and clients, idea nurturing and management (entitled SMI, System for Managing ideas) and continuous improvement.

A bit radical, but this article is expressing a few important and universal home-truths. Don’t forget to read this article before embarking on an innovation venture. To buy this article click here.

Abstract – Innovate or die, is that a fact?Getz and Robinson — 2003

Innovate or what?… One more time‘Innovate or die’. This mantra has been repeated so many times – by the media, governments, business leaders, business professors, consultants and management gurus – that people have come to assume it is actually true. This article explores why business leaders have been so prone to fall for such a misconstrued message, and shows how it has caused them to overlook the true sources of long‐term high performance.

For your benefit, here’s the beginning of the introduction to this piece.

Introduction“In October 2002, as it does every year, the French daily Le Monde published the rankings of French corporate R&D budgets and held a special event to celebrate the biggest spenders. This year the winner, at €5.1 billion, was EADS, an aerospace consortium, followed by Aventis at €3.5 billion, and €Alcatel at 2.9 billion.

The media is not alone in hyping this kind of ranking. Governments do it, too. In 2002, for example, the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) published its twelfth annual R&D Scoreboard. Other governments track the same data in their own countries. Why?

The reason is the cherished dream of corporations and governments – a dream of innovation with its promise of success and riches. As the DTI R&D Scoreboard put it: ‘Innovation has been highlighted as the origin of growth in free-market economies and R&D is a key investment in innovation since it leads to new products, processes, and services’ (p. 3).

Although the report immediately backtracks and comes close to questioning this latter assertion (‘It is, of course, only part of the investment in innovation since investments in capital equipment and in the development of new markets, systems and skills are also important’ (p. 3)), it then carries on blithely about its business of displaying R&D budget data under the assumption that it holds the key to everything.”

[…]

To buy this article click here and it’s well worth a few bucks

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How do consumers form their perceived value of a product or service? This is the question that Bain & Company has attempted to answer in a very noteworthy brief published by Harvard Business Review. It opens up a new perspective on perceived customer value, beyond the hackneyed Maslow pyramid. This is the subject of today’s news flash.

Perceived Value: How Customers Rate a Product or ServiceWhat makes customer value? Bain offers a dossier on this subject – image made with Midjourney.Going beyond Maslow’s pyramidAccording to the Harvard Business Review in which this unique article was published:

“Three decades of experience doing consumer research and observation for corporate clients led the authors—all with Bain & Company—to identify 30, ‘elements of value’.”

Maslow’s pyramid reviewed“Their model traces its conceptual roots to Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” and extends his insights by focusing on people as consumers: describing their behaviour around products and services.”

Too much is made of the idea that a consumer’s relationship with his or her product is limited to the price. It is true that it depends on the product – image made with Midjourney.The beginning of the article points out that companies often focus on price, omitting other factors. This seems like an easy way out, as “raising prices directly increases profits”. That being said, price management involves many different tactics, as the authors emphasise.

Price is not the only element of customer valueA few years ago, Byron Sharp pointed out the propensity of brands to focus on lowering prices through a never-ending chain of promotions, a harmful strategy in his view, as it leads to margin loss.

However, there are many more things on Heaven and Earth than price, to be accounted for behind this notion of product or service value.

What consumers truly value, however, can be difficult to pin down and psychologically complicated. How can leadership teams actively manage value or devise ways to deliver more of it, whether functional (saving time, reducing cost) or emotional (reducing anxiety, providing entertainment)?

To that end, Bains’s consultants and authors propose a useful infographic. A clearer, dynamic version can be found on their own website.

Bain & Company’s Elements of Perceived Value PyramidPerceived customer value is not just about price, the authors argue. Their proposed elements of value hierarchy from 2015 and 2016 were published in HBR in the same period. A more elaborate interactive version of this pyramid is available on the Bain websiteThe interactive version of the perceived customer value pyramidClick on the thumbnail to see the interactive version of this customer value pyramidWe can summarise the different components of value as follows:

1. The elements of perceived customer value that are related to the product’s features. These are the most obvious benefits (a product, a washing machine for instance, relieves you from a chore or another allows you to earn money…). Let’s take the purchase of a folding bike as an example. It has an obvious functional value. In the city, it is the fastest way to get around. Count approximately 12 mph on average for a bike, and 7 mph for a motor car.
2. The emotional part of perceived customer value. A product will remind you of your childhood or reduce your stress. Or make you feel better or healthier. Buying a bike to stretch the old legs after work will make you feel great and eliminate unnecessary fat;
   Changing Your Life
3. Yet, your bike purchase could also be a life-changing experience. As it did for me. I ride 3,200 miles per annum and this bike positively changed the way I experience the city. I no longer hesitate to ride across the whole of Paris to go on an errand, if only for the pleasure of getting a bit of exercise. I no longer forbid myself a long detour to go to my favourite shops. Many subcategories exist within this category.
4. Finally, a pinch of social impact on perceived customer value. While I’m pedalling away on my Brommie, I also feel that I’m working for future generations and helping to provide them with a more pleasant, less noisy and above all less polluted environment. Well, there’s still work to be done in that department! With my folding bike, I can also travel anywhere in the region and even further afield by putting my bike on the train.

The Influence of Context and IndustriesThrough this wee example, we better understand what the perceived value of a product or service is. We can also relate it to the transformative value described by Joe Pine, he who coined the phrase ‘customer experience’, in our video interview.

And Now, the Ball’s in Your CourtElements of perceived customer value vary according to the product or service or the industry concerned. Buying a financial product has an impact not just on you but on your whole family. When you pass over, someone will inherit your savings, hopefully.

This impact is far greater than that of buying a folding bike. Even though I’m sure your faithful Brompton will be handed to someone else in the family, eventually.

And now, the ball’s in your court. All that’s left to do is to use this canvas to build a proper strategy for your products and services. One that is based on perceived customer value rather than sand.

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This morning’s newsflash was inspired by a tweet and refers to the recent Tech layoffs in Silicon Valley, no longer deemed the greatest place to work in Tech.Other posts tell stories of employees disappointed that they can no longer indulge in free pizza in the cafeteria before going to meetings in the “confetti room”. In short, it all sounds like a love story gone wrong. The main question emphasised by one of the sources I read this morning: is coddling your employees a good idea?

Tech layoffs and disillusionment in Silicon ValleyHere’s how Midjourney, as always very”creative”, sees Tech layoffs in Silicon ValleyTech layoffs in Silicon Valley: deja vuFirst in the 1990s (the great IT crisis), then in the 2000s (the Internet bubble).

These periods are engraved in my memory. No doubt the big IT company I worked for in the 90s was not as “cool” as Meta or Google, but we were fond of it and rightly so.

We learned a lot over there, roamed the world and the work was creative and exciting. A whole new era of work was then invented. Certainly much more creative than selling CPCs for a search engine.

Tech layoffs: absolutely hilarious, here’s how Midjourney interprets “fired”A sector of the futureI was caught off guard in those years and for good reason. As a newcomer to the world of IT, coming from the ill-fated household appliance industry, the future was bright. “This is the industry of the future,” I was told.

And it was true, real-time computing changed the lives of all employees worldwide, not just a few. The same is probably true of the technologies developed in Silicon Valley.

Nonetheless, I have seen all the big tech companies disappear: DEC, Control Data, Data General, ICL, Compaq and so on.

Anticipation of the 2002 purgeIn 2001-2 a new purge was on its way, but this time I wasn’t taken unawares. In a few months, the work of 4 years was kicked to the curb. A colleague came with a van to put the servers in the boot. A nuclear IT winter began.

A brief search for Silicon Valley layoffs in the Wall Street JournalThere is no doubt that the approach to work in these modern tech companies and what we knew in the prehistoric times of the beginning of real-time computing have nothing in common.

No entertainment nor treatsIn those days, there was no entertainment, no candy, no confetti room, and even less TikTok to post videos of your workplace.

UPDATE SHE JUST GOT FIRED $GOOGL $GOOG pic.twitter.com/xms1PSaRxe

— GURGAVIN (@gurgavin) January 23, 2023

It’s true that I don’t eat sweets, I watch my weight and I haven’t played table football since I left school.

Overly “coddled” employeesI recommend Marketplace‘s post on the subject which made me think about this situation. Certainly, there is a situation that seems unfair and even incomprehensible. The current period has nothing to do with the great Internet crisis of the 2000s.

There is no collapse, no reversal of fortunes and even some of the companies that are being thrashed on the stock market are growing by… 12% (unbelievable but true).

So, there is something seemingly irrational about this (here’s the explanation).

But beyond these sad facts, the questions posed by the Marketplace article are worthy of note.

• First there is a generation of employees who have been “coddled” and are coming to terms with the harsh reality of a ruthless working world
• Then there are employees who live and breathe their work, a phenomenon that is particularly acute in the US.

Excerpt and food for thought“I’m not rooting for anyone to lose their jobs. But I think there’s a big reckoning happening right now with employee expectations,” said Nolan Church, who is now a tech recruiting consultant and previously worked with DoorDash and Google.

Over the last decade, he said, there was a combination of easy money and hard-to-find talent in tech. That spurred a kind of arms race to be known as the best place to work. “But in hindsight, this created a generation of employees who expect to be coddled,” he added. “Now, employees are candidly shocked that their jobs are no longer safe, that the perks and amenities that they once had are evaporating quite fast.” [Source]

I always wondered about these “great places to work”, because every time I saw the label awarded I wondered what was behind it.

Since I have been self-employed, I no longer wonder whether my job will be cut. Strangely enough, I have zero job security and I’ve never felt more secure.

Maybe because I can only count on myself to get out of difficult situations when there are any.

Being “coddled” may not protect, it may even make you more vulnerable.

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Digital marketing is going through a shift, and it’s app-driven product-led marketing more than digital advertising and sales as a 2022 Amplitude report shows. In our interview with Adam Greco, who a product evangelist at Amplitude, we discussed this new groundbreaking trend and the reallocation of marketing dollars towards apps to generate more growth.

App-driven product-led marketing is the new coolProduct-led marketing is the new cool, Amplitude report states — image generated with Midjourney.The Amplitude report of August 2022During the COVID pandemic, there was tremendous growth in the usage of apps. Amplitude published its first report right after that. The August 2022 report is their second one.

“We were curious to see what the growth pattern would look like as the pandemic tapered down. We analysed industry trends across our 2000 customers,” Adam Greco said.

In the past, SaaS businesses invested a lot in sales and marketing. Nowadays, instead of hiring hundreds of salespeople, they favour product-led marketing growth

“The methodology of our study entailed looking at a bunch of industries over a year. The apps that we studied had to have at least 10,000 monthly active users in order to get rid of the outliers. We also interviewed over 200 business leaders from marketing and product to get their insights of what’s happening.” For the different industries, we analysed key countries across APAC, North America and Europe.

Product-led growth with apps is for all countries, not just the US — click picture to enlarge.The study covered different kinds of web applications, both social and transactional, with a focus on B2B, eCommerce, consumer tech, FinTech, wellness, etc. We saw a lot of situations where new, small businesses are getting started because of the fears of a recession or some of the impacts of a potential recession. So, a lot of things we are curious about is how does the potential economic downturn or coming out of the pandemic impact app usage.

Global product usage grew by a massive 16% year-over-yearOur previous report showed an amazing amount of growth in hundreds of percent. We went into this one expecting that there would be almost like negative product growth, but we were surprised that product growth increased year-over-year, with some ups and downs, from August 21 to August 22.

There was 16% growth showing that even during tumultuous economic times, there’s still massive investment in product-led marketing and apps as its key driver

Growth across different countries and geographiesSingapore witnessed the highest growth out of all, 43%, and their economy seems to be doing really well. Germany was at 38%, and then France at 32% growth.

These are significantly high numbers. I just spent a month in Europe, and it’s interesting to witness that it has started to become a powerhouse of start-ups.

A lot of these start-ups are using some kind of product teams and product methodology to differentiate themselves in the market. It is said that whenever you have potential economic downturns, it’s actually the best time to start new companies. We’re definitely seeing that.

What’s interesting is the largest product-led marketing growth that we saw was a social media app called BeReal. Their numbers were just through the roof. Interestingly, the CEO told us they use Amplitude to track growth.

He mentioned when he meets his investors, instead of showing them a pitch deck, he’s just showing them the growth data in Amplitude because it’s more impactful and it lets them see what’s happening.

French app Bereal was created by Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau and it’s one of the best examples of product-led marketing Greco explainsWe saw some massive growth in the travel sector in Europe since the restrictions have been lifted. One company based in the Netherlands was up 324%, another in Spain was up by 253%, and a UK-based firm scaled by 164%. It’s great to see how much the travel sector has kicked back after the pandemic.

Different Geographies Showed Growth in Different IndustriesAdam Greco talked to us about product led marketingIn Europe, we saw maximum growth in the travel sector, while in North America a large growth could be observed in SaaS, and health and wellness apps. I think a lot of people want to get back in shape after sitting around for a couple of years in the pandemic. FinTech has been huge as well.

In France, two companies stood out. One is Qonto, a Paris-based financial company that helps with payments, expense management, and accounting solutions. They registered 75% year-over-year growth.

Then there is Luko, which is an insurance tech company focusing on transparency and an open model to let its users understand where their money is going. They had 119% growth. So, it’s all over the board, different companies in different regions with a lot of them being pandemic upstarts.

Growth Across Staffing & Job Search and FinTech IndustriesThis one was really fascinating because everyone had talked about the great resignation. People worried about losing their jobs because of recession. But during the pandemic, people felt empowered as they could find another job any time they want.

Overall, we saw that this industry had 118% year-over-year growth. What we’re seeing is people flocking to job-related apps and products and trying to use them to figure out multiple job options that exist out there. Also, a lot of that has to do with networking with peers about finding jobs.

When it comes to staffing, especially as you’re thinking about a downturn and recession, you thought maybe that would be an area that would go down, but it actually increased pretty significantly.

Crypto has been in the news lately and the whole crypto market has definitely lost a lot of steam. What’s interesting, though, and this may just be timing of when our product report ended in August, we saw about a 26% year-over-year growth in crypto apps.

So I think there may be a little bit of a news story hype that makes it seem like crypto is going down a lot more than it actually is. We definitely see it in the news and the whole debacle, but we’re seeing still a lot of usage in crypto apps and it’ll be interesting to see in our next year’s report if all the news actually does have an impact on app usage.

SaaS market: valuations versus product usageOur stats showed that growth in SaaS was up on average about 25%. It seems like nowadays many B2B apps are SaaS apps. Talking about the valuation of SaaS companies, definitely, the stock prices have gone down, but it has not impacted product usage.

So we look at product usage as a fascinating indicator. It may be that the market valuation of companies versus the actual usage of these products is kind of misaligned.

Our assumption is that if SaaS app usage continues to stay strong, once the economy turns around, the valuations will probably go back up. You’d think that if the stock prices were down, the usage of these apps would be way down. But that hasn’t been the case as per our data.

Product-Led Marketing Is the New CoolI believe firmly in product-led marketing growth. For those who aren’t familiar with product-led growth, the idea is that companies have to decide where they want to spend their money. In the past, a lot of money was spent in sales and marketing. If you’re a SaaS company, you might hire hundreds of salespeople. At the moment, product-led growth has really taken off owing to a couple of reasons.

Companies are deciding to spend more money on their digital products instead of buying advertisements or hiring salespeople. It’s backed by the fact that if you have a really good digital app, the word will spread and people will tell their friends, family, and more people will come onboard.

Hence, the way you could best differentiate yourself in the market is to have the best product and invest in it.

In a lot of companies like ours, we have an offering where people can try the product for free. Once they like it, it becomes a habit for them. Then they hit certain limits and have to pay. You’ll see that across the board. Products like calendar, where people use it to schedule meetings and then later they have to pay for it. This whole concept of product-led growth has really gained steam because in marketing it’s becoming increasingly difficult to show your return on investment these days as privacy policies are becoming strict and cookies are starting to be deleted.

Thus, a lot of the ways in which people would show their ROI or return on ad spend are becoming more difficult. Companies are realising that one of the best ways they could spend their money is to invest in the product where they can make sure that people are having really good product experiences.

Marketing Based on Product, Recommendations and Word of MouthThere is a shift to a different type of marketing. It could be that ten years from now, people decide to move the other way and do a lot more of advertising. But right now, we just happen to see a massive change of where the dollars are going.

Suddenly, we’re also witnessing that the CTO, which is the chief product officer at many organisations and a role that didn’t even exist many years ago, is starting to become very prevalent. On the other hand, the Chief Marketing Officer role is somewhat ceding a little bit of budget and power over to the Chief Product Officer.

But it doesn’t have to be confrontational. Some of the leading companies are starting to realise that marketing and product should start to work together and almost join forces because the customer doesn’t care whether they’re interacting with the marketing or the product department. They just want to come to a website or an app and have a good experience. They want to have a good product that they can use and get value from.

How they get to the product isn’t as critical as they continue to use it week over week, month over month. The smartest companies are getting the marketing and product departments to acknowledge the need to work together because it’s the customer who is important, not their internal departmental hierarchy.

The Future May Come With Reduced Digital Advertising SpendsThat’s what we believe and are starting to see. A lot of organisations are questioning the value they’re getting out of spending in digital advertising. If you spend €50,000 a month on digital advertising, you’re definitely going to get some impact. But you’re going to have to keep spending €50,000 every month to realise similar results. It doesn’t really have a compounding effect.

Companies are telling us that the investments they’re making in the product is actually having a multiplier effect because it does get more people to join, to use the product and become loyal customers.

They feel like they almost get two, three or €4 per euro spent when they invest in the product, but it’s a 1 to 1 when they spend it in marketing.

It is certainly going to be interesting to discover how focusing more on product instead of advertisements will unlock value for B2B marketers.

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Customer communities aren’t for every brand. Yet, facilitating communities with your customers could supercharge your marketing. This is, in essence, what Sanjay d’Humières explained to us in this interview. Sanjay is the founder of RTCX (Real-Time Community Experience), a consultancy supporting businesses with their community marketing. He reminded us, lest we forget, we should always work with our customers to drive a successful marketing strategy. In doing so, Sanjay rightly reminds us, like Jonah Berger (Contagious), that social media makes up only a small portion of word of mouth.

Supercharge Your Marketing With Customer Communities“Brands fear unhappy customers,” Sanjay d’Humières tells us, and they are wrong. I asked Midjourney to show me a crowd of smiling customers raising their hands, but it seems that for AI, customers are necessarily grumpy. Yet it is possible to bring a community of customers together and turn it into something positive.

Brands Must Focus Their Attention on Their Loyal Consumers

Like it or not, the process of creating a new marketing strategy necessarily involves customers, Sanjay reminds us. Often, we interview them, which is a very important part of the process of creating new offers and new services.

Marketing to customer communities means bringing together engaged consumers around a brand or product, Sanjay d’Humières explains. Sanjay is the founder of RTCX, a “startup specialising in stakeholder listening dedicated to companies and communities”.“Brands shouldn’t make assumptions on behalf of their customers, they should value their opinion, then make strategic decisions based on hard facts. That’s how a significant ROI for the brand is obtained,” explains Sanjay d’Humières.

Involving consumers in the marketing process“Consumers must be involved in the whole marketing process,” says Sanjay.

Seeking your customers’ opinions allows them to take ownership of the brand

It is crucial to establish contact between customers and the human beings behind the logos. This is how customers take ownership of the discussion. Often, they do express pride in having contributed to the creation of a product or service.

With a little time and effort – as we spent with Midjourney – you’ll manage to make your customers smile too. So work with your customer communities and thank them for their commitment to your brand!“Involving customers in our marketing approach is the basis of our discipline, but a lot of brands are afraid of hearing what they have to say,” Sanjay points out.

However, unhappy customers also have important opinions that must be taken into account.

Customer feedback is often focusing on heated discussions on social networks. They only represent 20% of the iceberg, though.

Eighty per cent of customer reviews remain hidden. These people would like to give their opinion but do not know how to do it.

Social media does not represent the entirety of word of mouth

“Many companies rely solely on semantic analysis of social interactions and forget that there are many people who don’t know how to use social networks,” Sanjay points out.

Marketers thus form an idea from what a minority of customers have written or said. It is crucial marketers did away with this approach.

If you don’t communicate properly with your customers, they then vent their anger on social networks, sometimes for no valid reason.

[Jonah Berger, like Sanjay, is convinced that word of mouth doesn’t stop with social media and he gives evidence of that in his book].

How to build Customer communities“Step one is to define what you want to do with this community,” says Sanjay.

The methodology for creating an online community is to recruit people through social networks, using specific keywords related to your brand and service.

Then, the facilitation of this community can be performed in Facebook groups, closed or open depending on the needs. This makes it possible to collect and analyse comments and quotes.

For face-to-face communities and clubs, recruitment is also carried out on social networks, and then brands can gather the participants and explain what they are trying to achieve.

Subsequently, participants make observations, negative, positive or neutral. Proposals are built. Lastly, the brand will decide whether to implement the suggestions from its customers.

If a brand does not implement suggestions from its customers, it should explain why

If it does implement a customer’s suggestion, it must give a deadline and communicate with the participants afterwards. This is how a brand can create a bond with its customers.

Is working with customer communities risky?“Companies that do without these communities will miss out on vibrant and valuable consumer insights,” insists Sanjay.

Consumers are becoming increasingly demanding of the brands they trust.

Disregarding customer communities is a strategic pitfall

There is more and more talk about purpose and sustainability. Consumers are aware of this and all stakeholders need to be involved in the brand’s marketing process.

Does community marketing pay off?Developing brand awareness and images can be very expensive and time-consuming. Communities allow you to develop your reputation at a lower cost.

A pool of ambassadors will speak positively about your brand without you having to invest huge marketing budgets

Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. This also makes it possible to onboard new members.

Committed participants who enjoy coming to co-creation workshops will spread the word to others. This will allow new participants to join in.

Why aren’t more companies developing customer communities?The main reason is that instant ROI doesn’t exist with word-of-mouth marketing.

What really matters is the quality of exchanges and insights.

Do less, but do better

“Covid has made things happen,” Sanjay says. 2023 has a lot of surprises in store for us with regard to marketing and mass markets.

The energy crisis and inflation will also have an impact on the way consumers buy, and the way they express themselves. We need to capture all this.

Marketers must understand that they need to do perhaps a little less but to do it better.

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A study proves that “digital natives” do not exist: digital natives, generations X, Y, Z and now alpha, are a recurring theme on the Web and in the media. OK, boomer! I know. Yet, facts are stronger than fiction.

Study Shows ‘Digital Natives’ Do Not ExistStudy shows digital natives don’t exist – Midjourney has a rather dystopian view of digital natives that is far from reality. Fortunately…Digital natives have been a recurring theme at Visionary Marketing for years on end. A study by the ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) foundation sheds more light on this.

As I’m sick and tired of hearing that young people at good at IT and older ones are computer illiterates, I’m sharing this study with my readers and I hope it will be useful to you.

Prejudice against generations is ageismSuffice it to point out that, having been a lecturer in digital marketing for more than 20 years, I am a strong advocate of the collaboration between generations. I see any prejudice against any generation as ageism, which is a form of racism.

Coming back to digital natives, facts and figures contradict this myth. Digital natives do not exist.

An ECDL study debunks the myth.

While we’re Young is a 2014 films which show two generations at the opposite end of the stereotype. Old people obsessed with youth and techno. Young people attracted by anything vintage (bikes, HI-FI and vinyl records, old TV sets, handmade furniture, etc.) A bit of a caricature, with a touch of truth and irony.Generation Y? Digital natives do not exist, ECDL says.Whatever the generation, with varying degrees of precision, the premises are the same. Digital natives (generation Y, Z, Alpha, etc.) are computer literate.

The rest of us are “digital immigrants”.

Prensky coined the “digital natives” monikerMarc Prensky, himself a digital native, coined this wacky terminology.

I find the term “digital immigrant” particularly offensive. Mostly when you are an IT veteran and an Internet pioneer.

This is doubly insulting, both to all the dinosaurs over fifty (including Prensky himself), and to immigrants who are no less human than those who populate the countries they migrate to.

Infographics and clichés abound on the Web. Anecdotes too, but none of them passes the test of examination.

Twenty-year-olds are Internet wizards and all others are in the Stone Age and use wax tablets and styli to communicate. Smoke signals too – source.It is time to set the record straight, thanks to this study by ECDL, which stresses the urgent need for training young people in digital.

As a trainer in this field, my experience is that, even in digital marketing classes, there is a long way to go.

The study shows how computer illiterate some of the so-called digital natives are. In some countries, Austria for instance, more than others.

The impact on society and businessAs the ECDL study points out, misconceptions around generation Y/digital natives have serious consequences.

Impact of society, education and business.

Besides, as I have already pointed out, ageism has a serious impact on people’s lives. In Europe, where senior citizens are asked to work until they are 67 years old (in Italy, for instance), ageism is making it hard for many of them to remain in business.

In France, no more than 30% of workers over 60 have a full-time job. And getting a job interview when your CV shows you are over 50 is mission impossible. Unless you possess certain skills.

Ageism is harmfulNot to mention the pressure between generations within businesses.

All this is very harmful and goes against the necessary and healthy cooperation between the various generations. And we all need people around us, some younger, some older, to challenge each other’s points of view and favour diversity.

Inter-generational exchanges spur harmony, personal and collective improvement, and above all business efficiency.

A study on the fallacy of the term “digital natives”I’ve noticed another thing. The more business managers are out of touch with digital, the more they will sing the praise of “digital natives”.

I’m wondering why. Is it to corner young ones as “geeks”? Does it mean that they do not qualify for management positions?

Regardless, the concept of “digital natives” does not stand the test of time.

ECDL The Fallacy of the ‘Digital Native’The ECDL study goes against the grain.

It concludes that the lack of training of young people in digital skills is a danger. Exposure to technology, even from an early age, does not at all mean that one can use it properly. Let alone, wisely.

Advanced Users Are a Minority in Australia, Austria and ElsewhereFor example, in Australia, according to the ECDL study, a minority of young people can make advanced use of information technology. No more than 15% of the student population. While only 45% of these students have rudimentary skills in this area.

This is a 2015 study. I have a hunch that things have gone worse since then rather than better.

An Educational DisasterIn Austria, the numbers are even worse. A meagre 7% of 15-29-year-olds are deemed to possess good computer skills. Thank God, I believe they must be good at issuing ChatGPT3 prompts, though.

In Italy the results are even more disastrous.

Yet another study on digital natives: ICLSAccording to a study by the International Centre for Language Studies (ICLS), carried out over a large cohort, only 2% of students possess critical thinking skills when searching for information online.

Anyone who teaches knows the plague of plagiarism and copy-pasting. The risk, the ECDL points out, is high.

ChatGPT3 and the likes are bound to bring all this to an even higher level.

The situation isn’t hopeless, however. Not all countries are as bad. In the Czech Republic and Denmark, computer literacy scores of young people are somewhat better.

Before you join the crowd of worshippers of the so-called digital native tribe, please do me a favour and read the rest of the ECDL study.

• Download the ECDL digital natives study

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What is the current state of Sales Enablement in Europe and especially in the UK? A recent Seismic–LXA survey carried out amongst 1,000 UK, German and French professionals produced some very useful insights regarding the current transformation of the sales process. It shows how sales are becoming increasingly complex and how organisations are adapting to the new situation. Sales Enablement is more than ever at the heart of these changes. Here are my five takeaways from this very noteworthy report. #Disclosure: Visionary Marketing worked with Seismic in 2022.

5 takeaways from the 2023 Seismic-LXA State of Sales Enablement reportThe state of Sales Enablement in 2023. S.E. can turn your average salesperson into a superhero, but many businesses have to overcome a few challenges before they get there — image generated with Midjourney.State of Sales Enablement: A Survey of 1,000 European ProfessionalsLXA conducted this survey in Europe and focused mostly on the UK (72% of the 1,000 respondents), with a smaller proportion of answers from France and Germany. It allows some sort of comparison between countries with a little bias on the UK, though. Continental Europe is far less advanced in terms of Sales Enablement adoption, this nuance is somewhat important.

The state of sales enablement report by LXA is adamant: all respondents in the UK have a Sales Enablement Function.Most respondents are working in sales, with a fair proportion of managers and top managers. This is a fine sample and the insights we can derive from that survey are extremely newsworthy.

LXA evaluates the Sales Enablement market at $508.9 billion in their report. This number encompasses both SalesTech and MarTech. Sales Enablement is indeed a very broad subject, and one must take this into account.

My commentary is summarised in this post. You will find an unabridged version in the enclosed Loom video. Often, we will abbreviate Sales Enablement as S.E., for convenience.

Exec summary of my 5 takeaways from the 2023 Seismic Sales Enablement reportThe State of sales enablement report puts numbers on our impressions from the field: Clients are becoming more and more demanding and sales are becoming increasingly complexMy five takeaways from the report are the following.

1. Selling is getting harder. It takes more steps for you to get customers to come to a decision. And it makes sense in that context that Sales Enablement finds its place within organisations. That said, we still found 32% who are not entirely convinced that Sales Enablement means better performance. And I found this rather baffling.
2. All respondents believe that S.E. is effective, but there is room for maturity improvement. Let us stress again that the survey is mostly focused on the UK. Sales Enablement is not as developed on the continent and especially in France. Over there it only came to the agenda — if one excludes international businesses — a year ago or so. It may have preexisted but neither with this name nor with a proper S.E. philosophy. Often, there is no such thing as a Sales Enablement Function to start with. A recent interview we carried out on behalf of Sparklane with S.E. professionals in French (including a Seismic representative) confirmed this.
3. Respondents declare that sales and marketing alignment is a reality. But they keep contradicting themselves. Sales and marketing are increasingly aligned, that’s the good news. When I looked into the details, in the light of other surveys that we have analysed, I had my doubts and questions.
4. S.E. deployment is suffering from a lack of “sales professionals and necessary data skills, content sales, operation skills and knowledge…”. I wondered whether such people exist or whether the crux of the problem isn’t the collaboration between teams. As well as the way one has designed and implemented sales organisations.
5. Lastly, most respondents concur that processes and tools to drive their content strategy effectively are in place (but are content strategies implemented effectively?)

Clients are becoming increasingly demanding, and the sales process has changed and become more complexSixty-eight per cent of respondents agree that Sales Enablement is “key to driving business performance”’. But at the same time, one still finds 16% who strongly disagree and another 16% who feel “neutral” regarding that statement. And 32% still makes up one third of the total population.

Does this opinion relate to the tool itself or to how it was implemented? We witnessed similar reactions with CRM implementations, some 30 years ago.

Worthy of note is the fact that clients are becoming increasingly demanding as 47% think that it takes 10+ interactions with the average customer before they land a deal. It is an undeniable sign that sales are becoming increasingly complex and that complex selling is becoming the norm.

This is very consistent with what we see happening in the field.

Changing the way one engages with customers

The way you engage with customers has changed. Customers want to be challenged, and they’re also keen to learn from you as a supplier. You need to be seen as an expert – they want facts and credibility and expect you to know about them before you even pick up the phone. The planning, investigation and discovery that you do as a seller is probably one of the most important aspects of any customer engagement

Liz Waugh, Global Director of Sales Enablement, Crayon

The change in buyer behaviour has an undeniable impact on the discovery phase. This is probably where modern-day salespeople have the greatest shortcomings. We see a lot of sales reps who are feeling incredibly helpless regarding this changing sales process.

They know that they have to work differently and stop pushing their products and understand the customers better before they try to sell and close. They understand all the words but it’s very hard for them to put this new vision into practice.

A matter of educationSales Enablement can help but it’s mostly an educational issue with the overall approach of sales. One needs to change the way one does sales and turn the process on its head.

The Sales Enablement landscape is more mature in the UK than on the continent. Still, none of LXA’s 5 Ps gets a 5/5 mark. S.E. contributes to all the stages of the sales process and nearly 30% of respondents stress a split of responsibility between sales and marketing. This still leaves 70% of respondents where it’s not the case.

Sales and Marketing alignment: the good and the badSales and marketing alignment has been on the agenda for so long that the fact it is still on the agenda shows clearly that there is still a problem.

Where does alignment fit in a Sales Enablement deployment strategy? Well, that item is very confusing.

About sales and marketing alignment80% of respondents declare that sales and marketing alignment is a reality. When we look at the ownership of the S.E. function, though, this is a very different kettle of fish.

Most of that ownership seems to be in the hands of the sales function and marketing is only marginally in charge. Marketing, therefore, is kept on the side even though 30% of them are sharing the “responsibility for managing sales enablement” with sales.

I would like to see marketing a lot more involved in such projects and even possibly the merger of the two functions.

Beyond this, Liz Waugh has another good point.

Sales enablement doesn’t just land within sales. It should thoroughly involve the whole business. Everyone should be able to have a high-level discussion on what sales enablement does and the impact it makes. If you’ve made sure that there is consistency between sales and marketing, then everybody can land the right message

Liz Waugh, Global Director of Sales Enablement, Crayon

It’s not even a matter of sales and marketing alignment. That’s probably where it starts, but it’s a matter of really aligning the entirety of the company and focusing on customers’ needs and satisfaction.

Customer SuccessWe hear a lot about this new “customer success” function, yet we still have a long way to go before customer success is sales’ primary aim. As it should be.

Thus, I think it is high time that marketers change the way that they work, and it’s high time that sales started working better with marketing too.

Maybe it would be a good idea to stop calling them marketing and sales, to start with. Should we call them Smarketing from now on?

ABM and Sales EnablementAll of that is the essence of ABM — Account-Based Marketing — an area where marketers and sales are heavily focusing on deals and account planning together, not as separate entities trying to align with each other.

Now, despite all the talking, the way that sales have developed in the past decade has been going backwards in my honest opinion. Inbound and lead gen on one side, inside sales on another, Business development elsewhere, product development working separately, and yet another function, customer success, to patch things up.

Rethinking the way sales and marketing are runIt’s probably time to rethink the way that sales and marketing organisations are run, one cannot split all functions, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, talk about “alignment”. This doesn’t make sense and organisations should be simplified and made leaner for the sake of customers and sales efficiency.

Talent issue?On another level, 72% of responding organisations strongly agree with the fact that the market is lacking “sales professionals with the necessary SalesTech, data, sales content or sales operations skills and knowledge…”

This is consistent with what Tony Hughes describes in “Tech-Powered Sales”.

My experience in that area is somewhat different, though.

Such full-stack marketers/sellers exist, and I’m probably one of them, but I doubt that this is replicable on a large scale.

Sales and contentLet’s take the example of sales content only. Certainly, far easier than mastering SalesTech and data management and other technical things. Despite my efforts and the fact that I managed to implement large organisation-wide UGC-based content teams in many countries, the only population I’ve never been able to convince was sales.

I think that getting sales to contribute to a blog is understandably more difficult.

For one, it’s harder to ask them to concentrate on chasing new deals and be in the field and ask them to sit at their desk writing content. This is something that we knowledge workers and consultants do all the time. It’s part of our job and taking hindsight and writing is part of our selling process and skills. It’s not naturally so for salespeople.

I know that Tony Hughes disagrees, but I’ve tried too many times to bring salespeople to the water and I couldn’t make them drink.

So, what if one tried, once more, to work as a team rather than ask people to do other people’s jobs?

Upskilling the sales forceNow, when it comes to upskilling the sales force, it seems that respondents primarily focus on personal selling skills like deal closing and negotiation. Obviously, one needs to learn and master selling skills.

Yet, the fact that the respondents place “understanding customers, ICPs and personas” second seems to me to be the crux of the problem.

Indeed, as the sales process is getting increasingly challenging, salespeople have to convince prospective customers differently and stop pushing their products and features.

A new requirement for sales teamsHence, what used to be a nice-to-have for upper-level KAM in large organisations such as value selling and solution selling is now becoming a must-have in this world where every sale is complex.

It seems to me that this is the area where salespeople must improve the most and where they feel awfully isolated. Therefore, they need a lot of coaching in this domain, and this is particularly where marketing can help.

Sales reps must learn to focus a lot more on their customers and targeted industries’ pain points and how to solve them. They must become trusted advisers, to put it in David Maister’s words. This is no small task.

It seems to me a lot more important than becoming a SalesTech wizard or a content specialist. For these last two items, I think it’s a lot more effective and scalable for businesses to rely on the help of marketers whom they should include in their account-management teams.

The commissioning processTo this end, I also think that beyond the rethink of the sales organisation, one needs to re-engineer the commissioning process to encompass marketing. How can you call for more marketing and sales alignment and not compensate them when they play a major role in identifying new deals and even more, closing sales?

It happened to me a few times in the past when I was playing a major role in an account team in paving the way to success for a large multimillion-dollar deal. At the end of the process, only the salesperson was raking in the money.

I always found this unfair and not conducive to inciting marketers to join the account teams.

Certainly, a lot of people disagree with that and think even that compensation should be taken out purely and simply. And I often hear that you do not need to be compensated to be motivated to sell. But I’m rather sceptical about this and it doesn’t fit with my field experience.

I believe on the contrary that this is a major trigger for motivation in sales and it is a good thing that marketers learn to work in that way as well.

A helpful survey for understanding the state of Sales EnablementTo conclude with this analysis, this survey was incredibly helpful in showing the progress made with Sales Enablement deployment. It also highlighted the areas where there is room for improvement in sales and marketing alignment.

There is undoubtedly a huge gap between the US and the UK, and continental Europe, though.

One would have welcomed a more thorough comparison with other European countries and maybe Seismic will deliver this soon.

State of Sales Enablement report: download the entire pdf presentationA more in-depth analysis is available in the recording which I have included hereafter.

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Is Twitter still the right platform for advertisers? Twitter has been in the news lately for changes that have happened within the organisation as well as in its user policies. More recently, Musk even decided to ask Twitter users whether he should resign and it seems he didn’t quite like the answer. Journalists reporting on the whims of Mr Elon Musk are having good fun but what should advertisers do? Should they put Twitter on hold? To find out I interviewed Kelsey Chickering, Principal Analyst – CMO Practice at Forrester on how these changes are likely to impact brands and B2B marketers. Kelsey shed some light on where the platform is headed and what marketers should do. And her advice is clear: advertisers should put Twitter on the back-burner, both for ads and word of mouth. Let that sink in! Elon.

Forrester Advises Brands to Put Twitter on the Back-BurnerIs Twitter still the proper platform for advertisers? Forrester’s Chickering’s answer to that question is a resounding no. Let that sink in, Elon!Twitter for advertisers: should brands pay attention to Twitter’s new boss’s whims?Kelsey Chickering: From the advertiser’s perspective, you have to pay attention to Elon’s whims, because at this point these are directing the future of Twitter, the way moderation is happening, and the new tools that are popping up.

It’s a sound decision to pause your Twitter dollars for most advertisers as Elon Musks’s whims can change on a dime.

They should keep a pulse check on what Musk is tweeting and indicating about the future of Twitter, while taking a conservative approach to spending on it.

We don’t know the future, so let’s wait and see. I wouldn’t say take Twitter off your list forever. But it’s a sound idea to stop spending on it for the moment given the uncertainty associated with the platform. It’s proven in the last several weeks that it’s not really the safest place for brands to be.

The Future of Twitter for AdvertisersShould advertisers still dish out their advertising dollars for Twitter visibility? Our once favourite blue bird is crying its heart out.Consumers are worried about the future of Twitter and what it might become. Will it be a place where they want to spend time, or a place that gets overrun by misinformation and disinformation?

However, I think from an advertiser’s perspective, most brands don’t really need Twitter to meet their business goals in terms of advertising.

It’s not as big of a concern since you can put your ad dollars where you can get mid to upper funnel results. Many brands weren’t using Twitter for lower funnel direct response activities. I reckon there’s minimal impact to your bottom line to move your ad spend elsewhere. There are, of course, exceptions to it.

“Advertisers can find new avenues,” Forrester’s analyst warnsThus, for advertisers, they can find new avenues. For consumers, it’s a little different because Twitter is offering something that no one else is offering them right now.

It is a place where people go to find information, get real-time updates, and see the news as it’s happening. That’s something you can’t necessarily find anywhere else at this point.

Kelsey Chickering, who did away with her Twitter account @kelseyeats, kindly answered our questions.Twitter for marketers is more of a use case than a must-have. There are certain use cases like customer service where Twitter becomes important and is a channel you manage. It might mean that you have to find new vehicles to handle customer service.

Influencers and TwitterTwitter has certainly been a platform for the media and news reporting side. It’s a place where you can get seen and heard. All that said, there are new platforms popping up. TikTok, for example, is creator-born and a lot of creators are flocking to it. You might see more people on the news side spend time on it as well.

Alternative Platforms for Twitter Advertisers and MarketersTwo channels I believe are viable places for both creators and friends: TikTok and Reddit. Reddit is similar to Twitter where you can find very niche audiences. There are conversations about different and specific topics, a provision which Twitter had bestowed upon many communities. Major difference though is that Twitter is more real time and events-based.

Then we have Bluesky by Jack Dorsey. It’s quite unclear though what Bluesky actually is, what it will be and whether it would be a replacement for Twitter. I haven’t yet seen anything that indicates if it would be a replacement. However, this landscape is ripe for a new platform that has similar functionality to Twitter with the safety and content moderation it offers.

Verified Status or Paid StatusWelcome or Goodbye to Twitter advertisers? Whoever understands the current status of his or her verified account wins a free Twitter bird.Having a verified account on Twitter could actually be a good thing. It would be helpful for people to understand whether content is coming from a real person or a fake account.

But unfortunately, the recent changes have made it easier for impersonators to get verified. So it had a bit of an inverse impact.

All of the information that I’ve seen, it seems to be a back and forth from Twitter trying to figure out the right balance, while realising that there’s a problem if it’s accessible for everybody.

Regrettably, verification meant impersonation instead of true verification, which implies it was hard to put more trust in information from such accounts.

Current landscape and future of social mediaWe are at a turning point for Meta. Suffice to say, social media advertising has struggled in the last year with Apple’s privacy changes.

If you look at any report from Meta or in the more recent Forrester’s Ad forecasts that were released this November, social media advertising will decelerate to its slowest pace, rising only 7.4% this year.

Hence, there is a slowdown in spending that we’re projecting over 2023.

However, agency executives and brands are still seeing social media maintained over a year. They’re deliberating on how to continue maintaining those budgets, as the budget deployment avenues are changing.

Meta is a channel that delivers on many different aspects of customer lifecycle, everything from discovering a new product all the way through to managing conversations with your current customers. It has certainly gained the lion’s share of media because on the lower funnel side, it’s actually proven very efficient for advertisers. It’s a way for them to get lower funnel media for a good price.

New platforms emerge and you see consumers shift into new places like TikTok, for instance. We are beginning to see brands figure out how to shift their dollars into new modern spaces that people are spending time on. It presents a whole new set of challenges, especially from content creation perspective. In the foreseeable future, you’re going to see shifts out of legacy platforms like Meta into emerging ones like TikTok, and integrators that help you create the content for those platforms.

Content Creation: Brands Versus InfluencersWe’re starting to see a trend toward brands and agencies hiring creators to make content for organic channels. That’s not just to gain influence from their followers, but also to make content for them to publish. I reckon they’re realising that when you enter a platform like TikTok, you can’t use the same old strategy. Their content teams probably don’t fully understand how to make compelling content for that platform. So they’re hiring creators and outside resources to either make their content or advise on it.

Brands going back to work on their own content and channelsYou need to have your house in order while you’re advertising.

Your owned properties are incredibly important because consumers are seamlessly moving from social media platforms to your website, back to something else, and on to the blog content you might create.

It is natural and seamless for consumers at this point. So every touch point that you expect a consumer to have with you should reflect your brand and values. It should reflect your look and feel, and the experience that you want people to have with you. Regardless of social media, it’s crucial for brands to get their house in order and ensure that their own presence is good for consumers.

What’s in Store for Twitter Advertisers and ConsumersThe Twitter verified account status saga was enough to get the entire planet completely confused over what should or shouldn’t be done. It sued to state that your verified account was worth bloody nothing and that it was just a legacy verified badge granted to someone who used to be known. It now points out that “this account is verified because it’s notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category”. Advertisers are now granted a yellow “This account is verified because it’s an official business on Twitter” badge. Heck! Isn’t all that utterly confusing. I will not make any comments on Musk’s management capabilities.Wait for a Few Months Forrester Analyst SaysIn the next several months, things will pave way for some clarity. You might see that consumers double down on Twitter and realise they can’t go anywhere else and this is where they love to spend time.

Or there might be an exodus from the platform if it becomes a place that has a lot of unsavoury content or content that you don’t want to keep. Any of those two scenarios may happen with consumers, but I don’t see brands going back to Twitter in the next two quarters.

This is based on the uncertainty with the platform combined with brands tightening their belts.

Right now, we’re in a period of economic uncertainty where brands aren’t flushed with cash to spend on advertising.

So they need to make hard choices about where to show up. The way the platform has manifested itself recently makes it a pretty easy choice for brands to decide where to cut or put money elsewhere.

Organic Content on TwitterIf you think the platform is not suitable for your ad dollars, it’s not suitable for your content at all. Removing your content from a platform because you feel it’s not safe, translates into your organic presence as well.

Here’s the result, cowboy. Let that sink in! https://t.co/H4Fq8xRLd6

— Yann Gourvennec (@ygourven) January 22, 2023

Forbes showed that the result of Musk’s new governance is pretty clear. It stressed a 50% drop in advertising volume in November 2022 alone. Kelsey’s advice must have been followed. For us on the B2B marketing side, it might be high time we start exploring other platforms. Not forgetting to spruce up our digital assets.

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So you think your customers love your brand? Really?! Recently, I came across a motivational piece on Inc.com entitled: “People With High Emotional Intelligence Ask 3 Key Questions to Become More Likeable and Give Better Advice.” I am not usually interested in self development articles or books. However, I found these 3 questions useful to businesses if only you read them through the eyes of an entrepreneur. One may even venture to say that they are the very essence of marketing.

Ask these 3 questions if you want your customers to love your brandSelf-development isn’t my cup of latte but asking these 3 questions taken from a motivational article in Inc.com will help you become more likeable and make your customers love your brand!Love thy customers and they will love thy brand!Self-development isn’t my cup of tea, yet it’s one of the most popular book categories amongst the general public. It is understandable, people need advice and are in search of simple if not simplistic recipes. They need them to survive in a world which is generally perceived, not always rightly, as hostile.

When I came across that Inc.com piece, I found that I could turn it into a short bullet point list targeted at businesses and entrepreneurs.

After all, those who can ask these three questions can get their customers to love their brand better.

The piece is entitled “People With High Emotional Intelligence Ask 3 Key Questions to Become More Likeable and Give Better Advice”. Let us review these 3 questions and put them into a marketing and business context.

I have therefore hacked this list to my liking. You can read the original Inc.com article afterwards if you feel you need to become a more likeable person too.

[Businesses] like to be liked. It’s human nature: We crave connection and relationships, and we enjoy the affirmation and ego boost that results from knowing that other people enjoy being around us

So often, I come across business owners who will tell me, “I want to talk to my community.” Meaning “my customers”.

The issue though is that not all customers are part of a community. Brompton’s, Apple’s and Dyson’s customers maybe. Even that is debatable. Giff Gaff’s, that’s for sure. But most businesses’ customers aren’t forming a “community of customers”.

Number one reason is … you are not a likeable brand! It doesn’t mean your products aren’t good nor selling well. But there is no emotional bond between your customers and your brand.

Hence the three questions. Here they are.

1. “What do you think I should do?” (as a brand)The essence of marketing is being interested in one’s customers. This doesn’t mean that product-led marketing has no future. It means that you should always ask customers how they feel, what they like and what they don’t like.

And that means being genuinely interested in what they have to say.

You do not need to carry out online surveys amongst millions of buyers. Interviewing, in depth, twelve of them will suffice and it won’t take that long.

1. “What other facts would help you to make a decision?”

   People make decisions for emotional reasons all the time

Love your customers and they will love your brand too. Image generated by Midjourney with the following prompt: “An old-fashioned 19th century sepia drawing of a lady customer who offers a bunch of flowers to a shop owner in a department store like Whiteley’s and is kneeling before him.” Not sure the AI got Whiteley’s right, though. Maybe it’s never been to Bayswater.The author is right. Emotion is part of the buying process. It’s also true of B2B. Truth be told, it’s probably even more true of the B2B purchasing process. B2B is said to be rational and B2C emotional. More often than not it’s the other way around.

• A B2B buyer will need to be reassured. Buying expensive stuff for a business means taking a huge risk and putting one’s head on the block more often than not. The more you reassure your client, the better.
• Buying a B2B service or product isn’t always a matter of features. Most of the time it’s not at all. It’s about reassurance as mentioned above, and feeling the vendor will support you and help you

• Failure isn’t just a threat for sellers, it’s also a threat to buyers. Failing to negotiate and buy the right service at the right price could cost you money and your reputation. The buyer is as much afraid of buying than the seller (I’ve worked on both sides I can guarantee it’s the way it happens).

• “How do you think you would feel if you decided to do X?”Trying to put oneself in one’s customers shoes means genuinely help them make the right decision and partnering with them.

This is something I’m particularly keen on. Not just selling, but working alongside my clients to help them succeed.

“Customer Success” is even a popular job position at the moment. However I find that too often, it’s just a phrase and the customer success officer is just a seller in sheep’s clothing.

Try and be genuinely interested in the success of your customer and you will be surprised. We supported a client with a man from Mars report last year. It was just a wee three-day engagement but the outcome was nice:

Whereas our client was about to embark on a costly and useless B2C strategy which would have led to nothing, we comforted them by pointing towards a more rewarding low-hanging fruit strategy while emphasising a few issues that needed to be fixed.

This little engagement made our client save hundreds of thousands of euros (each year).

A few days ago, I received a little note from them with a box of chocolate. Yes! They sent us the chocolate, not the other way round. Not only that, they shared their prospects with us. They are genuinely grateful we helped them.

And we are genuinely happy we did. We feel proud that we’ve helped a nice company as best we could.

As the author at Inc.com points out:

You’ll give better advice, and you’ll become more charismatic in the process

See! Self-development articles can be helpful to businesses too.

Read the original Inc.com piece

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The people from Buzzsumo have released its 2023 report on the future of content marketing and it’s a must-read. Among other advice: resort more often to content repurposing and alternative social platforms and stand out from the crowd to get more visibility. The report has a few harsh words for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and especially Google. A follow-up on our cornerstone article on the subject. The report was written with the help of three agency experts, two in the UK (Reboot Online and Hallam) and one in the US (Fractl). The co-authors did quote ChatGPT3, but merely recommend you use it to get rid of repetitive tasks.

Buzzsumo deems Google and SEO clinically dead in 2023 reportBuzzsumo shoots a straight right at Google in 2023, SEO gone to bite the dust.2023 will be a year of innovation. There will be more newsflashes in our columns… with our commentary on top, goes without saying.

Here is the first of our 2023 newsflashes.

For many years now, we have been fighting against a certain vision of SEO, which is nevertheless dominant in the Internet world. Many professionals in the sector, and even more amateurs, think that one must “write for Google”.

Read the Buzzsumo 2023 reportOn the contrary, we believe that the duty of content professionals is to create content for their audiences and not for search engines.

In short, rather than creating SEO copy based on your competitors’ key phrases, one must create content on one’s digital assets and social platforms for one’s readers. Moreover, you must build this content for the benefit of your readers and take them by surprise as much as possible.

The authors of the Buzzsumo 2023 reportThe 3 experts interviewed by Buzzsumo for their 2023 report not sparing GoogleA recent Buzzsumo report, which arrived in Visionary Marketing’s mailbox and was written by three experts from the US and the UK, confirms our impression.

Here are a few highlights.

1: Google indexes old hats and penalises quality content“Improving your content doesn’t necessarily mean improving your rankings – and we’re getting wise to that fact.

[…]

Despite this, we’re not afraid to rock the ranking boat if it means creating something that’s genuinely helpful to our audience [Editor’s note view this post].

There are ranking anomalies in Google, with top-tier content struggling to gain traction, and old, ill-informed content sailing along in position one – uninterrupted for many years.

Even after Google’s helpful content update, this still seems to be the case.”

Take that, Google!

2: Search of Find Engines?Eventually, one can now say that Nicholas Carr was wrong. It is not Google that has made us stupid (or lazy). It is Google itself that is a victim of its own success, as I explained here.

“Simply put, quality content is in limited supply right now. Google is full of copycat blogs with a dearth of actual useful advice or expertise.

Software Engineer Dmitri Brereton wrote about this, and many more of Google’s shortcomings, back in February 2022 in a piece titled: “Google Search Is Dying.”

Our take is that this is not going to get any better with ChatGPT3 et al.

3: Old is New (hence #1)“The majority of today’s most shared and linked content was first published four years ago in 2018.

In fact, only 8% of the “2022″ headlines were actually created in 2022.

Updating a single piece of content in this way can afford you the time to be smarter, and make your clients’ content work harder.”

Read the Buzzsumo 2023 report it’s well worth it.

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Social Selling is about strategy, it’s not about tools or tactics, let alone the infamous LinkedIn Social Selling Index. Social Media is one of the most important avenues for B2B marketers in the post-pandemic world. Let’s hear it from an expert on what it takes to be great at social and leverage this channel effectively. In this podcast Tim Hughes talks to us about the updated version of his book on social selling.

Social selling is about strategy it’s not about toolsSocial selling isn’t a tool, it’s about strategy and it’s a must-have in a post-pandemic world – Buy the book from Amazon now!TH In this new version of the book I have added more content and bolstered it after discussing with 15 practitioners – people that are doing social selling. For an organisation’s executive team, social selling ought to be part of the strategy.

When social media came out, many didn’t know what to do with it. The marketing department would leave it in a cupboard and then bring it out every week or two. They’d post something on a corporate page and ask everybody to like it, which more often than not doesn’t fetch good results.

Social now is a clear competitive advantage for an organisation. But it has to be run as a strategy, not as a tactic.

The key thing about the book is that I want to show there’s a clear connection between social media and leads and meetings. How are you going to use social to build a pipeline and get revenue?

Social Selling Is Not Communicating Online, It’s About DollarsWe have a definition as well as methodology for social. Social selling is using your presence and behaviour on social media to build influence, make connections, grow relationships and trust, which lead to conversations and commercial interaction.

A proper Social Selling strategy isn’t about communicating online Tim Hughes says, it’s about dollars and cents!The key thing there is we’re driving commercial interaction. Organisations now at a leadership level should be able to say at board meetings that we’re spending ‘x’ on marketing and getting ‘y’ from social media. It’s not about getting likes and clicks and views, it’s about revenue. They should be able to say we’re getting $10 million from the use of social media. That’s about driving a strategy from the top down to actually understand why they’re on social.

Let’s talk social media in terms of a classic exhibition. You as a buyer know what supplier you want to talk to. So you go over there, sit down and have a conversation. Probably at that exhibition there would be somebody who would have seen you and would talk to you. Now, we would expect what happens on social media is I walk into it and a salesman comes up and smacks me in the face with a brochure. Nobody’s interested in that.

LinkedIn is your shop window!

We know from research that people come to social media to be social. We’re not coming to social media to be smacked on the face with a sales brochure.

One of our clients is Namos, an Oracle reseller, with whom we worked to transform their sales team. We now have buyers coming on to social media, walking up to their sales team, which is transformational. Normally when it’s about sales people, folks don’t like or trust them. Here, we have buyers coming up to their salespeople saying, I think you can help me – and that’s translating. One of them has recently signed a $2.6 million deal.

We have organisations that are doing multimillion-dollar deals purely because of their position on social and treating it as a strategy, while ensuring that everybody within the organisation is involved.

Creating a mission statementWe do a classic brainstorming session where we get the C-suite and probably one of their advisors into a room. Then we work through with them about the importance of strategy and using data to show how the world is changed. People quite often recognise that there’s been this change, but they don’t understand that now 60% of the world’s population is active on social media for two and a half hours a day. This is the data that comes from Simon Kemp.

Telstra Purple came up with a mission statement which says a social organisation sees social as a platform for closing the distance between clients, prospects, remote employees and potential recruits. Social gives them the ability to get traditional visibility that you would expect from marketing. They’re a cybersecurity company. So they are very keen to be trusted and to get the trusted advisor status, for people to say that company looks like they know what they’re talking about.

Humans are social animals, and social selling is well suited for social animals who need to converse and collaborate with one another.Tools for Social SellingWe as a business actually use very few tools because this is about you and being human centric. We use Slack internally. I have used internal social now for a number of years. When I was in corporate, we used it to attain an increased efficiency of the employees by 25%. That’s like getting 25% more employees at no cost and it saved so much time. It didn’t stop meetings, but it used to cut down their time. It works only when you have senior leadership using it. Leaders should say, as they did in my previous organisation, that if you want to get hold of me, I am on Slack. I might check email only at certain points in the day. So Slack is where we should connect.

What Matters Is Conversations and CollaborationsWe use Slack, LinkedIn and a number of social platforms purely because today we live in two worlds – physical and digital. As soon as we go online onto social media, we’re in digital.

What we need to be able to do as salespeople and leaders of organisations is to be able to walk digital corridors and have digital conversations.

The key is to make sure that if you’re going to start in sales as the point of actually transforming your organisation to digital, then what you need are people who have seen it, done it and whom the sales team respects.

Age doesn’t have an impact at all on understanding social

Mindset required for social sellingIt isn’t just about social selling, but transforming your organisation to digital. We have the physical world that we all know and love, and we have the digital world. Social media is a conduit to the digital world. Your LinkedIn profile is you – it’s your digital twin. So the way that your LinkedIn profile looks is how you want the digital world to recognise you.

For example, at Cambridge Display Technology, they’re not using any recruitment consultants or recruitment advertising anymore. They have gone digital and empowered their people to talk online that it is a great place to work for. They articulate how great their diversity program is, or how well their ESG program unfolds. Those who read this on social say that it looks like a place I want to work for.

It the world of digital, social gives us new efficiency and new ways of working.

It’s not about tools, a new ERP system or anything like that. It’s about using digital is the way that we work, and that empowerment across the organisation means that we can work in different ways. We can strip out cost and be more efficient. What we would recommend is having an open mind and understand that there is a new digital way of doing things.

Businesses Navigating Their Way in the New Digital WorldWhen Adam Gray and I started our company six years ago, we thought we had eight months, at which point everybody would get it and it would become the norm. Here we are in our seventh year and 99.99% of companies do not understand this. There are companies who have got big marketing budgets and don’t understand digital.

There’s this misalignment from a leadership perspective to understand what social and digital stand for and what it means for their business.

To break away from this, it’s about likes and clicks and things like that. I recently read about an organisation who have got 300,000 employees. They’ve got 8 million followers on LinkedIn, but get 15 likes per post, out of which seven are internal. This clearly means they aren’t influencing their prospects and customers.

It’s about understanding the world of digital, the way it works and not just an understanding about social, but having the business acumen about how to apply it.

Things have changed because of Covid-19 and we need to do things differently. Organisations are coming to us as they are completely redesigning their processes which are 30 years old.

Social Selling Doesn’t Take LongLook at the speed of things – LinkedIn allows you to have 200 connections a week. That’s 200 conversations with people you’re trying to influence. Social selling actually shortens the sales cycle because of not having to deal with a lot up front. People will see you as soon you are online and have a conversation with you instantly.

We saw a real tipping point in October 2020 when people in the UK went into the second lockdown. We had to relearn the way we worked. I don’t need to commute anywhere, I can sit in my office or at home and run a normal day’s work.

The impediment to success on social and digital is that there are still so many mental models out there that 30 years ago is the way that we do things.

LinkedIn and its impact on social sellingIn the physical world, when we meet a potential client for a meal or sports, we don’t immediately talk about work. We try to get close to the person, and this is what being social is about. We don’t talk about business posts and personal posts. This is life posts. This is about understanding each other. It pulls people towards you. I know social selling, but also the fact that my father has dementia and he’s in a home allows you to know the real Tim Hughes – the Tim Hughes that you would deal with if he delivers a service to you.

What you’ll find is that LinkedIn will become more like Facebook, because more people will actually recognise the fact that by doing this you’re getting people to understand you

When you come to my LinkedIn profile, you should better understand what it is that I stand for. Your LinkedIn profile is your shop window to the world. It’s about as soon as your ideal customer spots you, he thinks you are interesting. He is curious about that and walks towards you. Your LinkedIn profile explains who you are, and it cannot merely be the fact that you go to work, but that you’re going to spend the next weekend seeing your parents. That’s part of me and who I am. People respect that and I get people coming to me which punches out my network, punches into the people that I’m trying to influence.

Social Selling Strategy: Social Media, Not Spam MediaSocial is not about putting a brochure online – neither your ideal customer nor anybody wants it. People buy people. I’m looking for a relationship with somebody. Someone that can help me solve my business issues and that I can trust. Somebody that I know that if the project starts failing and I ring them up, they’re going to take that call. Even if it’s a Saturday, I can look upon them that they’re an organisation I want to do business with.

Now, when I do business in the physical world, I don’t walk into a meeting and immediately give people brochures. I sit there and say, I’ve been working here for 20 years. I’ve been selling accounting systems for 20 years across industries. I generally know about some things about accounting, but there’s bound to be something I have missed.

It’s about bringing that expertise and also bringing your personality as people buy people. This is social media. This is not spam media.

It’s about empowering the people, that’s when things actually start happening and the magic takes place.

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What if the immersive web were the ultimate goal of Meta’s new strategy? This idea came up during our interview with Pierric Duthoit, Business Director France at Meta, at the Tech for Retail exhibition, of which Visionary Marketing was a media partner. Pierric shared with us some of the innovations launched by Meta as well as his strategic views. A strategy closer to Forrester’s vision than that of B2C commentators.

Forget the Metaverse, Meta’s True strategy is about the Immersive WebThe world’s eyes are on the Metaverse, but Meta’s real strategy would be more geared towards the immersive webThe announcement by Mark Zuckerberg on the Metaverse, followed by Facebook’s name change took everyone by surprise. Immediately, naysayers seized the opportunity to denigrate it to the well-known tune of “it will never work!”

I have seen less than lukewarm comments regarding Meta’s plans for the future but some disgruntled Meta employees are even more critical. The least one can say is the Metaverse is not probably aimed at users of Meta’s historical brand, deemed tarnished by The Guardian.

Heated Discussions About the Future of the MetaverseOther, more enthusiastic commentators followed suit, speaking highly of this vision of the future. At the same time, they were pointing out that other players were already working on it too.

Visionaries, meanwhile, claimed that the Metaverse was a reality, but not for Meta, but with online gaming heavyweights like Fortnite.

The Immersive Web experience in business starts with all virtual meetings – image by MetaFinally, others announced that the Metaverse was promising and was already attracting investors, even if it didn’t really exist.

Finally, pragmatists like Forrester’s analysts, said that B2B was bound to be the future of the Metaverse.

Often, there are heated discussions between proponents and detractors of the Metaverse.

The future of nascent technologies is hard to predictI have read a lot about this subject and I must admit that sometimes I feel a bit lost. Not only because of its complexity, beyond reach for most. Above all, I find that many commentators do sound a bit adamant about the future of nascent technologies.

My experience with technology has taught me that one can never be too cautious. I had rather test innovations in the field… quietly and without getting too excited.

What I understand from Pierric Duthoit’s interview is that Meta’s strategy is not really the Metaverse, though, which would not be for now, but rather a new form of Web, the immersive Web.

I see it above all as a series of creative attempts. After all, this is how innovation works. One step at a time.

While some may find it hard to believe in the future existence of immersive experiences in virtual remote meetings, I would therefore remain cautious.

After all, we have waited 20 years for web conferencing to be universally embraced. The current Zoom fatigue, although real, will not make online meetings disappear. They are part of our working environment and innovations in this area are still possible, and even desirable.

Here is a summary of my discussions with Pierric Duthoit who described some of the innovations Meta is currently carrying out for its clients.

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns: a solution for optimising e-commerce performance campaignsMeta is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to dramatically increase the power of its platforms around the world.

So, “the goal of the Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (A+SC) solution is to allow our clients to reach the right audiences, test different kinds of graphic designs tailored with their audiences and improve their performance”, says Duthoit.

In these times of crisis, our customers are not looking to spend more, but rather to optimise their performance.

Using the solution results in an approximate 12% improvement in CPA (cost per action).

“On our platforms, many people discover brands or products. This is Discovery Commerce. The approach is to push a number of options thanks to the knowledge we have of our audiences,” Pierric emphasises.

Avantage+ Shopping Campaigns is used by companies such as Samsung. This allows them to test different images and texts, and optimise them for their audiences.

A+SC automatically pushes the best optimisation to the largest possible audience

Instagram and augmented realityMoving on to another innovation and Instagram, “When we talk about augmented reality, we are talking about the provision of filters that allow you to see almost in three dimensions”, Pierric explains.

Furniture vendors for example, will let you see the furniture in your home before you buy. A camera system films your environment and places the fixtures in it.

Using augmented reality to the full

More than 700 million of Meta’s 3 billion users use AR filters

Many B2C brands are already integrating three-dimensional elements into their product design. This then makes it possible to implement augmented reality very quickly.

Will the Metaverse ever be live on Instagram?“It is already possible to have your NFTs on Instagram. You can upload them and share them. It’s a first step,” Pierric Duthoit stresses.

The Metaverse as defined by Meta will see the light of day within ten years. These technologies take time

In the Metaverse experience, a lot happens in B2B, Pierric explains.

“Accor hotels are looking at how to practise online learning with virtual reality with people all over the world, and applications are starting to emerge in the medical field.”

Meta announced partnerships with Zoom, Microsoft, AutoCAD and Accenture at Connect 2022. It aims to begin deploying virtual reality around these B2B solutions any time soon.

Many commentators in the online gaming world have claimed that the Metaverse was a reality… but not for Meta.Meta on its way to the immersive WebThis interview showed us that Meta’s strategy goes well beyond the Metaverse. Its aim is geared towards the immersive Web. It all starts with a set of technological innovations that are being put in place one after the other.

It is too early to draw any conclusions, though. Visionary Marketing will therefore keep an eye on these initiatives over time to measure their progress.

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A worldwide survey of 7,000 people highlights the poor perception of customer service by consumers. In Europe and the rest of the world. Fortunately, technological solutions are available to marketers who want to improve their flailing customer service. This survey by CM.com is entitled “Customer Service: When Emotions Take Control”. It could serve as a roadmap for businesses that are keen to improve their customer experience in 2023. Visionary Marketing interviewed Pierre Garrigues, CM.com Country Manager for France, to dissect the survey and collect his recommendations.

CM.com survey shows customer service is a major source of frustration for consumersCM.com’s survey on customer service shows clearly that consumers aren’t really impressed with the quality of service they are getting from their favourite brands.

Disclosure: This podcast is produced in partnership with Ecranmobile.fr and CM.com.

Dutch company CM.com has interviewed 7,000 consumers worldwide. Looking at the numbers, barring a few exceptions, one finds that frustration is overwhelming with regard to consumers’ interactions with brands, regardless of the geography.

CM.com’s customer service survey shows that each interaction between a customer and a brand is a decisive moment in their relationship

A consumer braces for impact before contacting his customer serviceCustomer Service Interactions: Good and Not So Good Vibes“Consumers rarely contact the customer service department of a product or service provider to congratulate them. Consumers mostly contact support for questions about product quality, last mile delivery issues or product dissatisfaction,” Garrigues says.

This leads to rather negative emotions, as the study confirms.

41% of consumers are already irritated when they contact customer service

The study reveals that more than a quarter of respondents ask a relative to contact customer service on their behalf. This tells you how much of an ordeal that must be!

Contacting customer service? Not quite a picnic yet for most consumers. The good news is one third of them seem to be happy!“This survey shows how difficult it is to interact with a brand and get answers to the questions you have,” he says.

With this customer service survey, CM.com lays bare the emotions associated with each support contact channel. Live chat and point of sale (face to face) stand out in this panel. It is also worth noting that consumers view social media and messaging apps positively. Except for the French who don’t seem to use social for customer service. Some regional differences still exist apparently.Consumers’ love affair with omnichannel marketing

Brands need to do away with the old-fashioned ticketing approach

“If you contact a brand using the ticketing method, by email, phone and social networking, you will probably receive three different answers to the same question,” he points out.

The siloed approach to ticketing must be banned according to Pierre Garrigues of CM.comAbove all, one shouldn’t lose the human touch: “Tools are not designed to be natively connected to all available platforms and means of communication,” Pierre Garrigues went on. “Customers should never be likened to a number, they should be identified by their first and last names, purchase and relationship history with the brand.”

Different Channels in Different Geographical Areas“Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram for Asia-Pacific and WeChat allow omnichannel contact and exchange,” continues Pierre Garrigues. They are popular in most areas but some of these channels are unknown in some places. This is the case for Viber in France, Garrigues explains.

“The penetration rate of Viber in France is 4%, vs. almost 40% in Eastern European countries,” explains Pierre Garrigues.

International companies must therefore choose the most appropriate mix of channels. Depending on the geographical area, the age or idiosyncrasies of the customers they are dealing with.

Businesses need to adapt to their customers’ preferred channels, rather than impose theirs

What’s in store for customer service in the future?“The current period and the turbulent times we are going through will naturally force brands to better serve their existing and loyal customers,” predicts Pierre Garrigues.

CM.com’s customer service survey shows that almost half of the surveyed customers had rather change brands after a bad customer experience if the product or service they purchase is worth over €500.These customers are the primary source of revenue and results for the company. It has too often been neglected at the expense of customer acquisition marketing or awareness campaigns.

This will not last. Customer service used to be a low priority but it is bound to come to the forefront in the future

“Some brands have already taken steps towards this change. Omnichannel marketing allows for the collaboration between the customer service and customer acquisition departments. Brands should implement this change for the benefit and experience of their customers as well as their employees,” says Garrigues.

Community management can no longer make do with moderating comments on a social networking page

This survey is the living proof that customer service needs a major overhaul.

Download CM’s survey of 7,000 consumers in the UK, the US, China, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

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Scaling a B2B start-up globally sounds nice, but how do you do this? To find out, I interviewed D.K. Lee, co-founder of Marqvision, a promising US start-up with operations in Korea and European presence in Paris, France. I spent some time with D.K. to understand his background, here is a written account of this fascinating discussion with a seasoned multicultural entrepreneur.

Marqvision’s D.K. Lee shares his secrets for scaling a B2B start-up globally in just two yearsD.K. Lee told us all about how to scale a B2B start-up in just two years. Replicating this for yourself might well be a challenge for many.How It All StartedD.K. Lee was born and raised in Seoul until he was 14 years old. Then he moved to Canada mainly to study English, and then spent his middle and high school years in Canada near Toronto.

Subsequently, he crossed the border and moved to Cornell to study management.

The founding of a B2B start-upRight after college D.K. (aka Do Kyung), joined EY where he was “fortunate enough to work with large corporations in Seoul like Samsung and LG and help them on digital transformation matters behind the scenes” he told us.

This is when he realised that “Digital transformation was actually happening within big companies, not just in Korea but all over the world”. He then joined a start-up, Seoul-based Dailyhotel, as chief of staff and investment manager.

In 2019, the company was sold to a larger business, Yanolja, with a $60-million valuation. Yanolja is, according to their LinkedIn page, the fastest-growing and No.1 travel platform and the only ‘Unicorn’ among travel-related companies in South Korea.

“That was my first exit experience,” D.K. told us. “Although I was not a founder, I was one of the older members of the company.”

He then went on to found Marqvision in 2020. He first met his co-founder in 2019. “We gradually built up our idea, worked on the prototype, and launched our project in the first quarter of 2020.”

Why found a company in the US?“The US provides a better foundation for entrepreneurs to scale their companies globally” D. K. Lee told Visionary Marketing. That’s only one of the reasons, though.

“I think it’s still the place where you find the best talents in the tech industry, whether it be engineers, product managers and the sales and marketing folks,” he added.

Recruitment is essential for my start-up to scale.

Marqvision isn’t located in Silicon Valley, though, but 400 miles south of San Jose, in Los Angeles. The reason being that entertainment and luxury goods companies are situated near the city of angels, not San Francisco nor the Valley.

If you can’t beat them, join them!Despite the reports we are having in Europe that Silicon Valley is going through a slump and the economic climate is rotten, it seems no other place on earth can beat California.

One distinct sign of this is that all other competing technology areas are rebranding themselves as XXX Silicon Something. Replace XXX with Berlin, Tel Aviv and “Something” with Roundabout for London or Sentier for Paris and you have it.

A vast majority of technological innovations are still coming from the United States, mostly from Silicon Valley

Off to a quick and great startMarqvision is off a great start and it happened in just two years. I’m still amazed at the speed at which such businesses grow. In this case it’s no miracle. The start-up did find the solution to a major business problem (See our story here)

D.K. thinks he’s “been lucky in many ways”. Having met a great co-founder and all the folks who worked with Marqvision.

Yet, the building and scaling of a start-up worldwide that fast can hardly be the result of luck alone. I asked D.K. how he’d done it so as to share his tips with our readers.

“In order to really scale your start-up globally, especially if you’re in the B2B space, you need to meet your customers face to face

“That’s the only way to get a vivid, and real feedback about your product, about your solution, about your service,” he said.

That’s a clear warning to all these would-be entrepreneurs I’ve seen who are afraid to share their thoughts with you in the early stage of building their business.

“And that’s the only way to continuously enhance your product to the next level,” he added. In order to do that, your team must sit by your side to meet with your client.”

And the result is staggering. In just two years, Marqvision was able to operate in five different offices across the world.

Winning a Prestigious LVMH AwardMarqvision’s success didn’t pass unnoticed. LVMH awarded the US start-up the prize for innovation in the data and AI category whereas “more than a 1,000 companies had applied for this prestigious award”.

“We were fortunate and honoured to have won the LVMH Innovation Award in the data & AI category” DK Lee (second on the right) declared. LVMH’s Arnaud in fifth from the left. [LVMH 2022 website]Joining the LVMH acceleration programme“Following the award, we joined La maison des start-ups,” D.K. Lee added, “a start-up acceleration programme offered by LVMH group.”

This is why Marqvision is also based in Paris’s Station F. “We have our Paris office over there until next year,” he told us.

Multicultural management in a B2B Start-up“I love working with French people,” D.K. told us, “I love the breadth and depth of their experience and what they brought to the company in the field of the luxury industry.”

Admittedly, there are some language issues he confided, but “we have a great product manager who is acting as an ombudsman between the locals and the rest of the team in Seoul and the US”.

The sheer distance and time difference between all three continents are also an issue he admitted. “Working remotely is an inevitable trend moving forward,” he added, “but we should not deny all the benefits coming from working together side by side and in a nice office.”

Hence the organisation of all hands meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Working from Home or in the Office?I know some people might find it ironic that large businesses are moving forward with WFH policies and start-ups are pushing back on that same issue. It is perfectly understandable, however.

Big companies are more suited for remote working, I strongly believe that working together side by side for smaller start-ups is a much better way to build a stronger foundation early on

There is no doubt that collaboration tools have brought a great deal to modern management techniques and we, at Visionary Marketing, are using them on a daily basis.

However, D.K. has a valid point when he says, “all those tools are just a means to an end, and the end is actually the gathering of people. We could do that in person at a physical site, or we could do that through a gym or an audio conference. But I think one should know that it’s actually important for all people to get together.”

Marqvision even invited, a month ago, all its leaders from the US (East and West Coast) and Paris to their Seoul office. “So they could meet with our engineers, analysts and back-office employees. We had a great time, for just about a week. We had nice dinners and that was a great way to boost our morale.”

Scaling a start-up isn’t just about working hard. It’s also about keeping the old team spirit alive across all time zones.

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Counterfeiting is one of the biggest sources of dirty money on the planet. And it does not only affect the field of luxury goods. It also concerns the production and sale of medicines and even spare parts for aircraft! To discuss this, Visionary Marketing interviewed Emmanuel Alavoine, Head of Expansion at Marqvision, a US start-up that in just two years has managed to forge partnerships with the biggest brands. Its co-founder also told us that the start-up could well become one of the next American unicorns. Here is the transcript of our interview, recorded during the Tech for Retail exhibition in Paris, of which we were media partner.

Marqvision Tackles Counterfeiting on MarketplacesEmmanuel Alavoine at the Tech for Retail show on 28 November 2022. Counterfeiting would represent more than 3% of world trade according to the OECD, a figure that is constantly increasing.Counterfeiting: “the world’s biggest economic blight”“It is the world’s biggest economic blight. Counterfeiting surpasses even the organised crime of prostitution, arms dealing and drugs,” Emmanuel told us.

The OECD, in its 2020 report, estimates that the value of counterfeiting is €300 billion per year. “When we cumulate in value for the consumer, the damage is estimated at 3 trillion euros per annum,” Emmanuel Alavoine said.

When you think of organised crime, you immediately think of drugs and prostitution. But counterfeiting is worth much more: 300 billion euros, the equivalent of Belgium’s GDP.Counterfeiting is therefore a real scourge of organised crime, often in the hands of the mafia

Counterfeiters use all the methods of modern commerce, to piggyback on the fame of a brand they don’t own

Counterfeiting doesn’t just affect the luxury goods industryIt affects a wide range of industries and brands of varying reputations.

Among the products affected is indeed luxury, with brands from the sector’s major groups, French, Italian, British and Spanish. “For this sector, it’s about traditional copying of iconic brands.”

But counterfeiting also affects pharmaceuticals, food, hygiene, beauty products, kids’ toys, clothing and sports goods.

When counterfeiting affects public health, a new dimension of crime is reached.This counterfeiting also affects more sophisticated sectors such as car parts, automotive equipment and lubricants, and even aircraft parts, tools and industrial components.

“In terms of value, luxury goods still represent the greatest loss in relation to counterfeit products,” says Emmanuel.

These products are worth several thousands, even tens of thousands of euros. Counterfeit products are worth, depending on the case, a few dozen euros.

The price difference is already very revealing in the luxury sector. Sometimes the buyer is aware of what they are doing when they buy these counterfeit products. But the vast majority of counterfeit customers are in good faith and unaware of the nature of these products.

Counterfeiting on MarketplacesCounterfeiting is found on e-commerce sites hosted by marketplaces. But it is also found on standalone merchant sites with their own URLs and domain names.

They operate with impunity until brands spot them and implement legal solutions to remove them.

Counterfeiting: a potential danger to the publicThere are different geographical sources of counterfeiting.

“The OECD considers that 90% of counterfeit products today come from China,” explains Emmanuel. Counterfeiting from China is mostly transiting through Hong Kong.

Counterfeiting in the world according to El Pais (OECD source) – 2017India is another platform for counterfeit products when it comes to medicines. Also noteworthy are countries like Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Finally, there are the logistics resale platforms around the world.

They allow these products to transit through lawless export hubs. And then reintroduce them into Europe, the US, Latin America or Africa.

According to El Pais, apart from Hong Kong, other platforms include Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Ukraine and Albania.

The organised crime of counterfeitingCounterfeiting is the work of organised crime, explains Emmanuel Alavoine. “That is to say, the industrial sites of counterfeiting are almost comparable to the industrial sites of brands”.

They have international production capacities, quality control, international standards and they all have logistical channels for transport, registration, customs clearance identical to the original brands.

Counterfeit industry sites are comparable to brand sites

A hundred sensitive marketplaces“There are hierarchies of more or less sensitive sites. The majority of counterfeit production, as well as its consumption, is Asian,” adds the Marqvision representative.

But these products are very easily exported to Europe and the US as well.

No mistake on the final destinations of dangerous counterfeit goods… – Source OECD 2022Marqvision has identified around one hundred marketplaces that are lax to varying degrees and are open to the resale of counterfeit goods. However, according to its press release, the Korean system tracks “more than 1,500 marketplaces worldwide”.

Some of these marketplaces are well known in Europe, such as Wish (note: an American platform).

Others are extremely sensitive in South-East Asia in particular, or in China. They are trying to collaborate more or less openly and dynamically to stop this movement.

Indeed, “it’s worthy of note that these marketplaces have an economic interest in constantly attracting traffic, whereas the interest of the brand is to control its channels and customer relations.

These are conflicting interests,” explains Emmanuel, “that’s what causes the issue with counterfeiting”.

What about big e-commerce platforms?“Larger portals are doing some upstream control work, but they are not immune to hosting the resale of counterfeit products.”

Apart from Wish, there is Alibaba.

“The celebrated Chinese platform works in partnership with Interpol, Europol and all major brands to combat counterfeiting with varying degrees of success and results,” explains Emmanuel Alavoine.

“Alibaba has been somewhat stamped “counterfeit”, because they are a world leader in e-commerce, due to their mastery of the Chinese market. But their goal remains to attract more Western brands that won’t turn up if they don’t take a proactive stance against counterfeits,” adds Emmanuel Alavoine.

How Marqvision Is Fighting Counterfeiting“We have developed a proprietary artificial intelligence system,” explains Emmanuel. “Our AI engineers are based in Seoul and work on our algorithm.”

This algorithm will use two methods of detection: a) visual detection that will use images that have the appropriate resolution to compare them to the originals and b) semantic detection that is based on the analysis of text, titles, descriptions and price.

We were able to attend the demonstration on the start-up’s stand. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons of confidentiality, it is not possible for us to show the video of this demo. Here is the simplified process as we can summarise it from memory.

The work of detecting, and especially of denouncing irregularities, is done with the intervention of a human person. This choice is voluntary and justified.

The process can be summarised as follows:

1. The platform detects anomalies automatically as we described above, through image checking and semantic analysis,
2. An operator will verify the results by performing a visual check,
3. If the latter is satisfactory, the operator triggers the complaint procedure. It is voluntary that the machine doesn’t perform this operation,
4. The system will thus automatically send a deletion request via the standard platform form. The form will autofill. All complaint features for documented platforms (the 1,500+ platforms mentioned above) are being directly integrated into the tool;
5. The operator can proceed to the next check.

In conclusion, a future unicorn spotted by the LVMH groupGiven the stakes involved in counterfeiting and the importance it holds for the big names in luxury goods, it is not surprising that Marqvision was spotted by LVMH.

The luxury group awarded them the innovative start-up prize out of 1,000 applicants (AI and data category). The Korean start-up is now hosted by Station F in Paris.

D. K. Lee, the co-founder of the barely two-year-old start-up that has raised $25 million, told Visionary Marketing that Marqvision would probably be a unicorn before long.

If one can judge the importance of a B2B solution by the size of the problem it solves, one will not be surprised by this prophecy.

Read the OECD report on counterfeiting

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Can AI tools like Dall-E be used for business? Within the realm of blockchain and gamification, artificial intelligence (AI) is a key component to the Web3 movement. AI isn’t a new thing … Read on

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The myths of innovation are ubiquitous. Everyone thinks they know what innovation is and means yet in fact innovation is probably one of the most overrated business concepts. “Poor is the substance, … Read on

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Gamification is revolutionizing marketing and retail. In a way, providing a yellow brick road for brands and consumers alike. Though, not only does this offer a way for brands to … Read on

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Blockchain technology is transforming the supply chain with limitless potential. It’s strengthening connections, making it more secure and transparent. Therefore, it’s a gateway for consumers to hold their favorite brands … Read on

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First party data collection has become more important than ever. With consumer concern and the inevitable demise of third party data, companies are turning to first party data. This not only … Read on

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Make It Personal is the title of Adobe’s latest research on the subject of customer experience. In a nutshell, it concludes that it’s time to put CX stereotypes to rest … Read on

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Handshake has quickly taken the world of job search platforms by storm. It has been becoming highly promoted to students through their universities in the US. This is resulting in … Read on

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Last mile delivery is the most strenuous and expensive part of the supply chain when delivering goods. Whether it’s a commercial shipping such as UPS or Fedex, an internet enterprise … Read on

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Companies have been driving a wedge between them and their customers by misusing the personal consumer data they’ve collected. This generates a level of mistrust and has even caused many … Read on

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In 2022, brands and social media are in a long-standing and increasingly complicated love-hate relationship, due to the many challenges facing the sector. We are at a pivotal point in the … Read on

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When Elliot Boucher, co-founder of Paris-based start-up Edusign, contacted me last July to talk about Dark Social marketing, I thought I’d heard “Darth Social” and that he wanted to tell … Read on

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Wheat prices are spiking. Because of the present structure of commodity markets, hedging intermediaries benefit the most. To find out why, Yann Gourvennec, CEO of Visionary Marketing, asks Noah Healy, … Read on

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The media tends to focus on catchy and digestible stories for readers, which leads to disproportionate coverage of B2B vs B2C, namely in the high-tech sector. To find out why, … Read on

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According to the Global Slavery Index (2018), there are more than 610,000 victims of human trafficking in Thailand. Today’s head speaker Mat Boyle, a seasoned sales professional, shared his journey of … Read on

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A sound CRM system is a must-have in business-to-business sales. Which doesn’t mean it’s uniformly accepted by salespeople, who still tend to find it too unwieldy and useless. For good measure, … Read on

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With the forthcoming withdrawal of third-party cookies, the digital advertising industry is grappling with unpredictability. Such uncertainty is the result of a combination of legal, technical and even political factors … Read on

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Judging by how marketers are evaluating their own ability to implement marketing automation tools, they seem to be in need of sound tips from a field expert. Omnichannel marketing automation brings superior added … Read on

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The sharing economy, the circular economy, and the collaborative economy offer interesting prospects in B2B marketing, explains Navi Radjou in a video interview conducted at the Visionary Marketing Studio. Thanks … Lire la suite

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Oxbow, a clothing and outdoor equipment brand provided us with 10 top tips to optimise one’s digital marketing ROI. Pierre Charbonnel, Digital Director at Oxbow, shared the best practices he … Lire la suite

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Will there ever be a Google Analytics ban in Europe? Google‘s web stats platforms launched in 2005, and since then, an estimated 4.8 million companies have used it to track and report … Lire la suite

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The tremendous and relentless rise of digital was at the centre of our takeaways from Adobe Summit 2022, which delivered on all its promises with more than 26,000 connected viewers … Lire la suite

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What are the main guiding principles for achieving outstanding data-driven CX (customer experience) at scale. Today at Adobe summit 2022, I attended a great presentation by Susan Bloomberg, VP of personalization … Lire la suite

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What does the future hold for the so-called Metaverse and 3D immersive ecommerce? We’ve already covered this for B2B with Forrester, but I have a hunch that we haven’t heard … Lire la suite

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Will intermodal or multimodal transport be the future of transportation by 2050? At a time when climate change is looming large, and the current economic situation will probably, like it or … Lire la suite

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The trust of consumers in the digital economy is a key element in their relationship with brands. An Adobe study conducted in November 2021 on the topic of customer experience … Lire la suite

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At a time when Facebook was renamed as Meta, the so-called Metaverse (check Merriam Webster’s definition) is on everybody’s lips. Whereas experts are still wondering whether there is such a … Lire la suite

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As we are barely emerging from the Covid crisis, now is the right moment to assess the most prominent digital trends of 2022. Have companies made any progress and what challenges … Lire la suite

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The sale of Art with NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) is not yet mainstream. It is still an emerging form of selling that is not always easy to understand, though it can … Lire la suite

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How can Website search quality be improved? Marketers, according to a survey we conducted on behalf of Yext seem to be well aware of the link between customer experience and onsite search … Lire la suite

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AI is the future of sales according to Tony Hughes, the celebrated Sydney-based author of Tech-Powered Sales. I interviewed him to understand his view on the future of salesmanship. He unveiled some fascinating insights … Lire la suite

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For a long time, as far as business to business was concerned, e-commerce was only a solution for low-end mass-market B2B products. High-end B2B businesses were supposedly immune and went on with their … Lire la suite

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Walking down the roads of strategic thinking for professional networking or business building, most of us would agree to name LinkedIn as a well-built pathway to tread on. What’s better … Lire la suite

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Website search, i.e. searching for information or a product on a website (rather than on a search engine such as Bing, Duckduckgo or Google), is a topic that is rarely … Lire la suite

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Marketers should strive to know their B2B customers better. As implausible as it may sound, since it’s the essence of their job, B2B marketers may not always have a clear … Lire la suite

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A book on customer experience entitled Punk CX is bound to be entertaining, disruptive and provocative. Adrian Swinscoe made it also very insightful. With regard to Customer experience, frustration is … Lire la suite

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How to write high-quality B2B white papers? the question may seem trivial but is far from simple. To answer it as best we can, we have gathered 3 success factors and 3 … Lire la suite

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Are we all potential opinion leaders in B2B? Bruno Fridlansky answers in the affirmative. According to him, this holds true not only for digital media but also in real life. … Lire la suite

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When it comes to cryptocurrencies, and given the sheer volume of information poured into the media with each tweet from Elon Musk on the subject, it is quite likely that when you ask the woman or man in the street, you discover that they have only one word on their lips: Bitcoin! Yet, my interview with Michel Volle on the occasion of the release of The tectonics of currencies, a collective book published by the Institut de l’Iconomie(), led me to discover a very different reality. This book, only available in French, depicts a world, which will be ours in just a few years, where cryptocurrencies will top the list, but with one important nuance: the cryptocurrencies that will prevail, according to our economist friend and his writing pals, will not be Bitcoin or Ethereum and even less the laughable Dogecoin, but the national currencies digitised and transformed into cryptocurrencies. A provocative theory, remarkably substantiated, which I invite you to discover through this interview, also available from our podcast channel. As for the outcome, time will tell, but things are moving fast, Michel explains, so we should find out soon enough.*

Tomorrow’s cryptocurrencies may not be the ones you know The tectonics of currencies (or should it be tecHtonics? Pun intended), a collective book published by the Institute of Iconomy (), which made me discover a reality quite different from the one usually presented to us: a world, which will be ours in just a few years, where cryptocurrencies will reign supreme, but with one important nuance: the cryptocurrencies that will prevail will not be Bitcoin or even Ethereum, but digitised national currencies. Important notice: on May 13, 2021, Elon Musk’s about-face regarding Tesla’s acceptance of Bitcoins. While this about-face is justified on environmental grounds, it is quite possible that his motives run deeper. Would this prove the Iconomy Institute right? Until we find out, if you want to invest in Bitcoins, and you’re not afraid of the rollercoaster ride of a pure competition economy, it might well be worthwhile to listen to the statements made by the quirky entrepreneur. For instance as of May 13, the value of the flagship crypto had already dropped by 9%.*

cryptocurrencies will rise, but the dollar is King At the moment, the dominance of the dollar is obvious and excessive,” says Michel.

Animation depicting Pangaea and plate tectonics This allows the Americans to cover their balance of trade deficit by printing paper, as the demand for dollars by citizens all around the world is overwhelming.

According to Michel, our friends from across the pond are “abusing their legal system to bend all those who use the dollar – the whole world – to their geopolitical whims”.

At the moment, no one can trade with Iran, for example, because at some point you will have to use the dollar, which will expose you to very punitive fines.

The dollar is thus, for Michel and his fellow writers, compared to Pangaea in the Carboniferous era, where on the planet there was a gigantic ocean, then a gigantic continent. According to the theory of plate tectonics, as evolution took place, the plates broke apart and this resulted in the continents we know today.

The war is heating up between public currencies. While the commercial and judicial dominance of the dollar has made the world a monetary continent as compact as Pangaea was, that continent could be broken, as if by plate tectonics, into three pieces each dominated by a major currency: the crypto dollar, the crypto euro and the crypto yuan

The tectonics of currencies

What is likely to happen is that the monolithic, monopolistic dominance of the dollar over the international monetary system will be broken up, like Pangea, by the crypto yuan, the crypto euro, which will carve out new continents. This is why the authors speak of a tectonics of currencies.

Obviously, this development will not please the United States at all. They will do everything they can to slow it down and prevent it. But it seems inevitable, according to the Iconomy Institute.

The day the Chinese have a crypto yuan and offer the world the services that this crypto yuan allows, other countries will follow suit, as will companies. Michel is thinking in particular of Africa, he can well imagine the crypto yuan spreading throughout the eastern part of Africa and taking up a considerable area.

Cryptocurrencies based on national or collective currencies like the euro, versus completely invented currencies Michel considers that bitcoin is not really in the running because it does not have the qualities offered by a commodity.

Bitcoin is not really in the running because it lacks the qualities offered by a commodity

“It’s a bit like gold bullion, which you keep in a drawer, but you don’t go shopping with it,” he says. The day you want to get your money back from the gold bars, you go to a merchant or a bank that will buy the bars. Bitcoin works on the same principle, it is not a currency designed to make transactions every day quickly the economist explains to us.

Abandon the one-size-fits-all thinking, warns the Iconomy Institute: forget bitcoin, and consider the metamorphosis of the dollar and other national currencies into cryptocurrencies The three main qualities of a currency are: medium of exchange that facilitates transactions (liquidity, the fact that it is easy to spend, easy to receive, crosses borders); then, Legal tender (one accepts this currency in payment because one trusts it); then the function of a store of value. In Michel’s view, Bitcoin does not have any these three qualities.

In terms of electronic money, there is the Facebook project (formerly Libra, now called Diem), which makes it possible to offer very convenient identification, authentication, notarisation of exchanges, and also encryption and security services.

The Diem.com project pushed by Facebook offers a suite of interesting services according to Michel Volle Electronic money makes it possible to automate the back office, to install smart contracts that allow partners to trigger automatic payments in execution of the contract, and also to develop the token economy.

The ‘token economy’ opens up a new continent for individual and corporate action

The tectonics of currencies

The token economy and cryptocurrencies The buyout of the Huffington Post, which was sold in 2012 for $315 million to AOL, had then triggered protests from the contributors. They felt they had been wronged by the sale, from which they received nothing, despite their content contribution.

This has started a reflection on how to give rights to people who contribute to a company on a voluntary basis. These rights can be in the form of tokens. The number of these tokens can be proportional, for example, to the number of thumbs up an item has had, but it has no face value. It has no value in principle, but it is a right that may have a value on the day the company in question sells, and the people who have contributed may receive, as a reward for their tokens, the remuneration for their efforts.

There are also airline miles, loyalty rewards for shoppers in department stores. All these are tokens. And then, as soon as you have tokens from various sources, you can exchange them for other tokens. Exchanges have been created (“token exhanges“) where you can acquire tokens of another kind by exchanging with those you have.

Towards a completely virtual currency in time A token economy has thus been created, with non-fungible tokens even being presented as a new way of valuing dematerialised artworks.

A version of Wikipedia also follows this logic, offering tokens when you contribute. It is an economy of voluntary contribution, but at the same time it generates fees.

This is a new economy, the development of which has been impossible up to now because the transactions involve tiny sums, the unit value is low and a traditional banking system would never have been able to make this kind of activity profitable.

It is a new economic continent. The token economy is just one example of the novelties that electronic money can bring.

The virtualization of currency exchanges is already well underway

This computerisation of currencies is a considerable challenge, beyond the geopolitical game and the importance of currencies in relation to each other. It is a virtualisation of monetary exchanges that has already begun in earnest.

So the question, obviously, is one of security Of course, hackers can be counted on to come and harass these systems to look for loopholes. Michel anticipates several conflicts. There’s going to be a conflict between sovereign cryptocurrencies, like the crypto dollar (which is not yet in the pipeline, but is maturing), the crypto yuan (which is well advanced), and the crypto euro (for which decisions are being made), and private cryptocurrencies such as those of Facebook Diem, etc.

They will compete on a very simple argument, which is their convenience. The convenience of a currency is its essential argument. Is this currency easy to use, does it allow for intelligent contracts, a wide variety of applications, great flexibility?

Sovereign cryptocurrencies, being the work of heavyweight institutions, may be a little less nimble than private cryptocurrencies

“There will be a security problem. Computer scientists will have to show their virtuosity, knowing that the flaws still exist. It’s quite an adventurous future,” warns Michel.

What will be the role of banks in this new world? The prognosis varies according to whoever has made it. One of the contributors to the book, Pascal Ordonneau, who has a career as a banker behind him, argues that the banks do not have much of a future, that in ten, fifteen or twenty years’ time, we do not really know what will be left of these companies.

On the other hand, for the banks, the current fear of bank run (the fact that people withdraw their money from the banks to put the notes under the mattress) will totally disappear once the currencies are computerised. “Banks will manage accounts in cryptocurrencies and they will continue their business as it is,” Michel assumes.

Between the two hypotheses, the disappearance of the banks because we won’t need them so much anymore, or on the contrary, the electronic money that will allow them to avoid the bank run, what is the truth? A mystery. In any case, the question has been asked, Michel points out.

For sure, banks have taken their time to get interested in the blockchain, beating about the bush but never really trying to implement proper projects. It may well end up playing a trick on them, unless they were right to procrastinate. It’s impossible to decide right now, time will tell.

Now, scepticism is no longer in season, according to the institute. They are all working on it, even if it is difficult for them to shake up their business model to this extent.

National cryptocurrencies: when will they be available? Everything is moving very fast at the moment,” says Michel. Facebook’s announcement shook the world a lot. Facebook set up a company in Switzerland with important partners, some of whom have since left, but there are still a good number of them.

The United States was initially quite hostile. When Mark Zukerberg testified before Congress, he didn’t have it easy. But Facebook, it’s nearly 2 billion users, is already like a very big country on a global scale.

Michel thinks that, more than bitcoin, which was obviously seen as an interesting experiment, it was Facebook’s initiative that kicked the bucket.

“Everyone started to gamble,” he explains. The ECB, the Banque de France, the BNP. The Chinese, for their part, are making good progress with their crypto yuan. They are giving it an important role regarding their Silk Road project which will cross all of Eurasia, all the way to Italy. And the Silk Road is not only trains, it is also about ships.

Chinese logistics will be the vehicle for contaminating the world with crypto yuan

And since they are very active, very fast and very competent, a lack of get-up-and-go on the part of other countries is no longer possible. “It’s going to be a very busy year,” warns Michel.

And that’s why the Institute of Economics has brought out this book The Tectonics of Currencies quickly, “because now is the time to explain things,” Michel concludes.

() The Institute of Iconomics, created in 2012, brings together experts from various specialties, sociologists, philosophers, computer scientists, economists — including Michel Volle — who study the phenomenon of computerisation. Their thesis is that computerisation is completely transforming the economy and society in depth, and that it presents new opportunities and new dangers, and that we must know how to take advantage of the opportunities and master the dangers.”*

The Institute has constructed an economic model called the Iconomy. The Iconomy is a computerised society and economy that would hypothetically have reached full efficiency. They consider that today we are far from having reached this state. This model allowed them to highlight the necessary conditions for efficiency in a computerised economy.

The authors of the Institut de l’Iconomie behind the collective book the Tectonics of Currencies (in French) and published by Kindle Edition are: Michel Volle, Jean-Paul Betbeze, Laurent Bloch, Nathalie Janson, Vincent Lorphelin and Pascal Ordonneau.

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Content marketing statistics are both plentiful and quite vague but a 2021 Semrush survey has shed quite a bit of light on how significant this discipline has become. What is the importance of content marketing, its weight, and its budgets? As I was preparing for a lecture I delivered recently, I asked myself a question: content marketing has been on every marketer’s lips for long — Visionary Marketing has even been around for 26 years — yet how critical is this discipline and what is the weight of this industry? I came across this Semrush 2021 study, which I found particularly interesting, especially in light of what happened during this pandemic. The US SEO company interviewed 1,500 B2B and B2C companies and marketing agencies, mainly in the US but also in the UK, Canada, Australia and India. To a lesser extent, in France and elsewhere. Despite this bias, this study provides some interesting insights, namely with regard to the US where, “no one hires a marketing director anymore unless he is knowledgeable in content marketing” according to Karine Abbou.

Content marketing by numbers: 2021 Semrush survey statistics Content marketing 2021 statistics: what weight and what importance in business? Content marketing by numbers with the Semrush Content marketing 2021 statistics Among the 1,500 respondents interviewed by Semrush, a vast majority consider that they have a content marketing strategy, 11% of which feel very satisfied and 76% of respondents with teams of less than 3 people. Three people is already significant though, even if this number depends on the size of the respondents. 61% measure the ROI of content marketing (I’d say we should take this number with a pinch of salt though, but fair enough…) Interestingly, 89% of respondents rely on organic search via search engines (as an aside, let me remind you that Semrush is a company dedicated to SEO).

Semrush’s content marketing 2021 statistics on the importance of content marketing The three hard skills required for content marketing are social media (50%), SEO (44%) and strategy (42%). This result is quite surprising IMHO, despite the continued importance of social media in many areas, as social is now less prominent with regard to the dissemination of content, due to the decline in “organic reach”, i.e. the natural reach of social media, due to algorithms.

Essential soft skills On the soft skills side, we find leadership, which makes perfect sense because content marketing is all about thought-leadership. “Being able to deliver on time” comes next, this is important because I see a lot of companies yearning to become content marketers, but unfortunately failing to deliver anything decent in an acceptable timeframe.

Either they try to deliver “perfect content” and this endeavour tends to last forever, therefore defeating the object of content marketing, which must be delivered in a timely manner. Alternatively, they tend to deliver results that are not really up to scratch too quickly. You have to find the right balance, and it’s not easy, because it requires a lot of skills and it’s not rocket science.

Finally, “solve problems”: this is also very interesting because indeed, one of the great aims of content marketing is to document pain-points and how they can be solved.

Let’s dig deeper and look at budgets that further demonstrate the significance of content marketing In the United States today, content marketing is considered to be one of the most important budgets, certainly not the most important one, because as we shall see, allowances are still limited which is, in my opinion, one of the major concerns.

Companies are investing a lot in technology, and it’s a good thing. Yet they tend to invest far more in technology than they do in content. However, a marketing automation suite, for example, even when it’s top notch, without quality content, is useless.

Respondents’ content marketing budgets This survey is targeted at both B2B and B2C businesses. The priority of the respondents is to generate more leads, which sounds like a reasonable aim. Especially in these difficult times. But there is more to content marketing programmes than that. And there are a myriad of techniques for generating leads, which vary according to the size and nature of the industry in which a company is operating.

A majority of respondents say they use content marketing to generate leads Attracting more traffic comes second, it’s also natural, but we will notice that it is not really the number one objective anymore. It must also be said that it has become very difficult to attract traffic to your website organically.

More 2021 content marketing statistics by Semrush The average number of daily visits to a B2B site rarely exceeds 50, which is not much, to say the least. At the same time, if amongst these 50, a visitor places an order for €100,000 worth of goods or services, this should keep you happy for a while. There is no obligation for any website to attract millions of visitors for it to be useful. When markets are very specific, expect lower numbers of more engaged readers and communities. All in all, that’s what I favour most.

Inbound marketing besides, isn’t suitable for all (it is especially made for mass markets, including B2B mass markets) and is completely irrelevent for (B2B) complex sales.

Challenges are plentiful though. Content marketing is a complex discipline, both from a technical and strategic points of view. At one point, Semrush talks about a “Swiss Army Marketer”. What I call a “full-stack marketer”: you have to be good at technical stuff, SEO, content, blog writing and story telling, marketing and strategy. Well, people like that are few and far between.

And there are many techniques available, even if the blog remains, regardless of naysayers, the number one content marketing tactic by far. Where I am rather disappointed is the low share of UGC (“User-Generated Content”) among the tactics favoured by the respondents.

In a way, this is understandable because it’s harder to implement and marketers have a tendency to keep away from time-consuming and resource-hungry marketing tactics. Yet, it means you are losing a golden opportunity of producing high-value content.

There are many challenges in content marketing Finally, let’s talk about money: the 2021content marketing statistics survey by Semrush shows that there is a majority of small budgets. There might be a bias in these results since Semrush’s sample is made of a good proportion of smaller companies.

So a majority of budgets are under €10,000, which is compatible with what I noticed in the field. About 20% of those budgets are between €10,000 and €25,000, which again is compatible with what I found out. And everything else is in much smaller proportions, but still 3% of the results, which, for me, is far from negligible.

That’s about 50 companies (out of 1,500) spending €500,000 to €5 million on their content strategies, which is no small amount

Such humongous budgets are dedicated to large multinational companies in the consumer and mass market sectors, which will launch global campaigns that will usually be allocated to larger international advertising agencies.

How will this budget allocation change in the future? Respondents to the Semrush study indicate a 25% increase.

The women and men behind content marketing Last but not least, content marketing is produced by people and the teams are quite large. For me, the importance of investing on in-house content marketing teams is nothing new, since I initiated this approach at least twenty years ago. I started in ’99, I would say as a digital director and before that I was doing the work myself with my fellow consultants.

In large companies, especially in social media, you can have global teams of more than 200 community managers, content marketing and social media are now very important. It is also interesting to see the myriad of jobs that exist in this field, which opens up a great perspective, especially for students who want to start a career in that business.

About the Semrush survey sample Let’s finish with a description of the respondents. 17% are CEOs and 16% marketing managers, 8% SEO managers, and CMOs are in smaller proportions. Eventually, one finds people who are responsible for content production per se.

Interviewees are mostly located in the US, India, Australia, the UK and Canada. Some work could be done, in my mind, to adjust this sample and make it more representative. Europe has been left on the side, and it’s a bit of a shame.

Many small businesses are making up this sample (73% with less than 40 employees). But this is an interesting indication. It shows that small companies, mainly in the countries surveyed, are already sold on content marketing, whereas in Europe, we still have a long way to go.

Interest among small and medium-sized companies is growing there. Amongst our clients, even our top customers, one often finds small and medium-sized companies. This is fortunate because it is for them, in my opinion, that content marketing was really made. For those businesses, in a nutshell, for whom advertising is out of reach or even unusual.

Last but not least, I would have filtered agencies out of this sample purely and simply for it’s a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

What you need to know from this study about the significance of content marketing Apart from its slightly quirky sample, we learn from this survey that content marketing is becoming a serious discipline, that some of the budgets spent on it are substantial, even if the majority remains modest. In any case, content marketing is now a staple for a majority of businesses in the countries surveyed, although perhaps not in Europe.

Europe will, in my opinion, keep up with the Joneses in the next four or five years, because changes here always take longer to implement. We can also see that content marketing requires a large number of skills, both hard and soft, that the jobs are very varied and that’s what makes this industry worthy of note. Content types are also varied and require a lot of skills and they will increasingly resort to what we call “full-stack marketers”, who are able to deal with the whole content marketing process, from strategy all the way down to content production, SEO and even platform optimisation.

This means that in my mind, particularly for high-end B2B and B2C services and products, there is a bright future for humans who do qualitative content marketing. On the other hand, for mass markets as well as repetitive and basic markets such as real estate or financial data analysis or others, where databases are key, data will be – and it already is to some extent – king, not content. And so will be robots that will produce automated content. In my opinion, this will also be the case with ecommerce, where traditionally, little or nothing is done by way of quality in-depth content, barring a few exceptions.

Hence, in the suite spot I have just decribed, there will be a lot of business to me made both for specialist agencies, and especially verticalised boutique agencies, and also for content creators (aka influencers) and all the various professionals that have something to do with content marketing.

Read on: Semrush survey on the importance of content marketing

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The digital shift is a fairly recurring topic for our visionary readers. But what evidence do we have of this? Is it just an impression or a reality? During the Adobe Summit 2021, of which Visionary Marketing was a partner, we discovered the Digital Economy Index (DEI), a fascinating initiative that finally underpins ours impressions with numbers. The DEI is just one of the things I spotted at this event, which was held online from 27 to 29 April 2021. Here is a simplified and deliberately personal account of this ginormous event

The evidence of the digital shift is shown by a study of 1 trillion wesbite visits The notion of Digital shift, which sometimes has been called a myth, is demonstrated by Adobe in numbers in this DEI index that I discovered at Adobe Summit 2021. Transparency: although Adobe is our client, we have written this post with our usual self-imposed standards of professionalism, independence and authenticity

Have you ever attended an online event with 22,000 other people? I doubt it. Yet that’s what happened to me last week as I watched the “Sneaks”, the showcase of 7 innovations made by Adobe employees at Adobe Summit 2021.

Here is, in this long blog post my feedback on this huge and remarkable event, which I attended throughout the day on April 28.

I missed the opportunity to record the screen grab of the 22,000 Sneaks participants. At another morning session, I was able to take this snapshot of the 11,659 participants spread across the globe. By the way, let’s point out that numerous connections are coming from Africa and South America. Here I provide a wantonly partial and idiosyncratic exec summary of some of the sessions I attended and especially the introductory keynote and a special session called ‘Sneaks’, during which 7 Adobe employees demonstrated the solutions they had developed for the event.

22,000 online attendees: a tangible sign of the shift to digital in itself 22,000 people in an online event, for me whose webinar record attendance is 1,100, was unheard of. And that in itself is already a blatant demonstration of the reality of the digital shift. Who could have imagined this even a few months ago? 22,000 people, for the record, is more than the latest IRL version of this event held in London in front of 16,000 people (almost 40% more if I’m not mistaken).

Okay, granted, there weren’t 22,000 people in attendance all day, nor over the entire three days, nor the 400 presentations that went on at Adobe Summit 2021.

Nowhere in any of the conferences I attended did I see the capacity drop below 10,000 though. A bit of a difference with the Kafkaesque Covid-19 indoor capacity limitations imposed by most governments around the world.

I’ve been organising online meetings for over 20 years and I’ve never seen such an audience at an online event. It’s huge and gives an idea of the organisation and technology needed to run a set of conferences like this without any technical glitches. That too is noteworthy. It’s a clear signal of a shift towards digital if you ever needed one.

Moreover, the presentations were remarkably scripted. For those who want to make an opinion for themselves, the summit’s videos are available online at https://summit.adobe.com. No sign up needed.

The Summit announcement screen minutes before the keynote began 400 sessions is massive too. Even if I had wanted to attend more presentations, I had to make a selection. With all my notes in hand, I still had too much content on my plate, so here are my selection and impressions.

A somewhat disjointed account of what I saw and heard at Adobe Summit 2021 So here is my admittedly patchy and completely personal account of my experience at this event, and wherever it seemed relevant, I have tried to add my commentary and appreciation.

Paul Robson, President of Adobe, International, the master of ceremonies, kicked off this presentation with that statement about that shift to digital, which we have all felt, if only intuitively.

“E-commerce will represent a trillion business opportunity by 2022,” he declared.

“E-commerce will be a trillion-business opportunity” Paul Robson said. That’s a digital shift for you.

E-commerce will represent a trillion business opportunity by 2022

“We have moved from a world with digital to a digital-first world” added Robson. Such is the configuration of this “new normal” everyone is talking about. A world where e-commerce “went from convenience to the preferred way of shopping.”

Worthy of note is this remarkable study carried out by Adobe with the help of economists Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago and Pete Klenow, Stanford University, that provides facts and figures about the current state of the shift towards digital. It’s called the DEI study, Digital Economy Index 2021.

2020 Digital shift numbers – and future prospects for 2021 Briefly presented by Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s CEO, the DEI index is a study based on 1 trillion visits to retail sites and over 100 million SKUs.

[Editor’s note this is a study carried out on US sites, and it should be remembered that there is a definite gap between Europe and the US regarding the status of e-commerce]

DEI: 42 percent growth in e-commerce in 2020 Adobe’s analytics measured the transactions of 7 of the top 10 airlines in the US. But that’s not all, a survey complemented this analysis with a questionnaire sent to 1,000 US consumers at the end of the first quarter of 2021. Here is a summary of the results.

E-Commerce grew by 42% in 2020 to $813 billion in revenue

Key findings from the DEI 2021 Digital Shift Study 1. E-commerce grew by 42% in 2020 ($813 billion). We most likely won’t see the same growth in 2021. Yet, from January to February 2021, compared to last year, e-commerce still grew by 34%, 2. Sustained growth in online spending recorded in 2020 is seen in 2021, the fastest growing sectors are electronics, home improvement and groceries, while sales of apparel and home office furniture have grown much more slowly (is this the first signal that telecommuting will take a nose dive?), 3. Stock-out levels for online products are still quite high, as e-tailers seem to face continuing logistical problems, 4. Price rises remain significant for electronics, household goods and groceries, online purchasing power is down and prices are rising in the first few months of 2021 after the traditional winter sale.

Let’s move on to another topic, while I might well comment on this index in more detail at a later date.

Pfizer: how digital save people’s lives … and the health sector as well This massive shift to digital is confirmed by the man everyone is talking about, Albert Bourla†, the CEO of Pfizer, on whose board Narayen also sits. Pfizer, in association with German start-up BioNtech, successfully launched its vaccine at the cost of risky bets.. “It was an impossible task,” explained the Greek businessman, “that’s why we had to change the method to solve this problem.”

† For the sake of transparency, we should point out the controversy that arose when the new vaccine was filed, and do away with the rumour right away by stating that Bourla’s stock sale has been declared legal (source: France Info)

But the success of the Pfizer vaccine, as conspicuous as it is in the US and a little less so in Europe, is not only due to a change of method or the mere fact of having “asked for 3 billion doses, which was, at first, impossible and forced manufacturers to circumvent the issue.”

A success due to culture change and a shift to digital It is also largely due to a change of culture and on the other hand to a strong contribution of digital: “We initiated our investments in the 1990s and reinforced them significantly in digital and research” said Bourla who explains that he “was appointed the same day as the new CDO”, a strong signal that this transformation was important explains Pfizer’s boss.

“Usually, we need four weeks to run some very specific processes in vaccine formulation using advanced analytics in these particular vaccines and a supercomputing platform. We cut that down to 18 hours,” allowing “submission of the tables to the FDA” in record time, concluding that “without digital, we wouldn’t be here today.” When we know the impact of this research on the current situation, surely we could add “and neither would we.”

Without digital, we wouldn’t be here today

Albert Bourla – Pfizer

Among the presentations that impressed me the most – Serena Williams will no doubt forgive me – I made a note of the very clear and newsworthy presentation on digital transformation by Michael Nilles, CDO & CIO of Henkel. No need to introduce the German conglomerate with its flagship brands such as Persil, Loctite and Schwarzkopf, which are universally known and used.

For Michael Nilles, the digital shift is not a pipe dream, he has lived and driven it at Henkel and shared his tips and tricks with us

For Nilles too, “COVID has accelerated everything” in what he called a “key moment for retailers and FMCG manufacturers”, which has seen “e-commerce become the preferred channel.” A confirmation of what Paul Robson had announced in his introduction.

“Time to market” on the fast track, driven by digital

For Nilles, time to market is absolutely critical. New DNVB brands are able to release a new product in a matter of weeks. So there is a need for a digital platform that brings together all the parties involved in launching a new brand. Also, marketing or data-driven marketing is absolutely essential to understand the needs of consumers and attract them to your company and products.”

The most interesting part of this presentation was about how Henkel implemented its digital transformation. For this, Nilles gave us a few tips and tricks.

They created a new business unit called Henkel DX (for Digital Experience) around which business experts, marketers, IT and digital specialists, and members of the logistics department are actively collaborating. This digital business platform, built with the help of Adobe, has five different components which are key to becoming a digitalized company.

1. The Martech Studio the go-to place for all people involved in digital marketing and data-driven marketing. Its goal is to drastically reduce the time to market for new products, brand evolution and ancillary services,
2. Digital experience (DX): this is about attracting consumers, converting visitors into customers “with the aim of maximising lifetime customer value,”
3. At the heart of this digital platform is the consumer intelligence engine to better know consumers and prospects, and pre-empt their desires by providing them with content tailored to their needs, community spaces in which they find themselves at ease and relevant offers,”
4. Fourth, e-commerce. It is important to be able to offer a truly unique shopping experience,
5. Last but not least, technology to better serve consumers: integrating augmented reality to show customers the final result, even in an all-digital environment, what she or he will look like after using the product.

5 challenges of digital transformation according to Henkel However, Nilles was keen to challenge the idea that digital transformation iseasy, in actual fact, it’s not a picnic. He described five major challenges in digital transformation endeavours:

1. Technology is often underestimated according to him. Digital is complex, he explained to us, it is necessary to acquire a certain level of expertise according to him. His point of view is also that you need to surround yourself with expert partners. On these two points I fully agree.regardless of the clichés that are being circulated all around and claim that knowing nothing about technology is a clear advantage,
2. On the other hand, you’ll need to get into the value chain. “We are sitting on tonnes of data,” he explains. So you need to create a data centre of excellence, not just with software, data and analytics experts. You’ll also need to share that data across all business units,
3. It will also be necessary to move away from intellectual property to open ecosystems (on the technological side with public domain standards, APIs, etc.)
4. Developing an MVP, which is quite an easy task, and you will need to take your projects to market, at scale and monetise them quickly. This is something that is absolutely essential for digital transformation,
5. Finally, one of the most important points according to him, one of the biggest challenges of digital transformation is cultural change. This transformation is “one of the biggest transformations in the history of the company” according to Michael Nilles. This is what, in his mind, justified the partnership with Adobe, the aim being to become one of the leaders of their industry leaders in the digital space.

A pretty straightforward lesson in digital transformation and another sign of the acceleration of the shift to digital with which I can but agree.

I would also add that all of this is useless without the ability to make the rubber meet the road, in the field. Only the result matters. That the users’ and end customers’ perception of course.

Finally, let’s move on to my third topic taken from this Adobe event, the inevitable “Sneaks” that we already mentioned above.

7 engineers, 7 innovations and a twitter feed to sum it all up This was the climax of this April 28 session, the presentation of the Sneaks (for ‘sneak previews’). I.e. are 7 innovations developed by Adobe employees that you can discover in this Twitter thread that I created while watching the event.

Let me put my trotters in the trough and jump right to the presentation that caught my attention, Segment Tuner, which brings AI into play to clean up data. We are on repeartung that data isn’t information at Visionary Marketing. It is, for the most part, raw material that needs to be refined, cross-referenced, polished and tidied up, like most raw materials in fact.

Fan Du is the San Jose-based engineer and researcher behind the “Segment Tuner” solution. I’ll be damned if his project isn’t included in the roadmap What I liked about this presentation is the pragmatic side of the idea, starting with fields that are misspelled, email addresses that can be corrected automatically (e.g., @yaooh.com can be easily corrected into @yahoo.com by comparing unusual occurrences with patterns established across the entire database, while learning from past mistakes). Ditto with differently spelled words like, for example, CA or Calif. or California, which all mean the same thing.

Segment Tuner, Fan Du’s project and my favorite of the Sneaks

7 engineers, 7 innovations, these are the Adobe Sneaks (for sneak previews) Get ready for blockchain demos on https://t.co/Za4Z4H5H5d #adobesummit #adobepartner Thread to follow on this account pic.twitter.com/sFFsY46VWk

– Yann Gourvennec #Adobepartner (@ygourven) April 28, 2021

It’s worth noting that among these “sneaks,” a specialty of the Summit every year for the past 10 years, the presenters are regular Adobe engineers and marketers. None of these ideas are accepted in advance – a vote determines those that will – yet 60% of them end up in Adobe’s roadmap.

Digital shift: the proof is in the e-bacon At a time when many companies in Europe, even large ones, are still wondering how to attract even a hundred participants to their events – or even whether they should do so at all – Adobe has demonstrated that the tremendous acceleration of the digital shift we have experienced is not just an impression.

Assuming an audience of 3,000 to 7,000 people at each of the 400 sessions, this leads to an estimate of a total audience of 1.2 to 2.8 million people who would have connected to the conferences at this 2021 edition of the Adobe Summit. To say that this is significant for a B2B event would be an understatement.

Admittedly, considerable effoprts and budget was put in place by the American software giant, and I, who like those who walk the talk, was extremely impressed with the result.

A large number of additional case studies were demonstrated at this conference, such as GM which, like all car manufacturers, is undergoing a 100% transformation of its business model in record time with the switch to all-electric vehicles. To this end, digital technology is once more playing a very important role in controlling and even updating the vehicles’ software remotely.

The world is changing, and even if it is still difficult to know to what extent and when, what is certain is that digital will be one of the main drivers, if not the main driver, of these changes.

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Informal networks have been known for a long time and so has the role of digital in their development. Malcolm Gladwell goes one step further and predicts that they will become the “new-normal” after this crisis we have experienced, and that a new society is born out of this development. Beyond that, companies will also have to adapt and get up to speed.

Disclosure: even though Adobe is our client, we have written this post with our usual aim of professionalism, independence and authenticity

Malcolm Gladwell celebrates those informal networks spurred by digital Malcolm Gladwell thinks informal networks, including the ubquitous social networks, are the ultimate model for the society of the future. A cheering message which I welcomed readily. I attended Malcolm Gladwell’s “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” keynote at the Adobe Summit on April 28, 2021 and I must say that I had been looking forward to this keynote for a long time. I had seen Malcolm Gladwell in the US in 2001, when the crisis was already on the agenda (at the time, as it was before 9/11, it was more like the DotCom crisis).

I had already been struck by his extraordinary ability to express complex things in a few simple and profound words. He often starts off with a few comparisons that seem insignificant and he outlines trends in an astounding way.

Ad the Covid crisis unfolds, Gladwell’s keynote loops quite nicely with the one I attended at the Rockfeller Center in 2001. The world, simply put, has become one of informal networks, not hierarchies.

This is not new, we said this as far back as the founding paper of Visionary marketing written in the 2000s and there we quoted De Rosnay’s 1976 macroscope.

The macroscope and its diagram about informal networks. Timeless since 1976 But this has become not only obvious, but natural. Natural to a younger generation, which will soon replace us, but not only in my opinion. It is not only a matter of generations, but also of overall change in society. From a fundamentally hierarchical society to a new world based on open networks.

As Michael Gladwell explains in his keynote, there is no one system that is better than the other. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. And as he also says, the children of Occupy Wall Street have not revolutionised the planet. But we can hope, beyond ready-made ideologies, of which there are unfortunately many, that we can reinvent the system from within. And it’s high time we did, we all know that.

Gladwell’s demonstration can be viewed directly on the Internet on the Adobe Summit 2021 website but if I wanted to summarise it, here is what he meant in a nutshell.

He begins by describing the tremendous civil rights movement in the United States with Martin Luther King. And he deduces the three most important points to change things at that time.

1. having a clear strategy;
2. An obvious and clear ideology;
3. Finally, putting a plan together which, in the case of King in Birmingham took over a year. Gladwell’s demonstration is very thorough.

The equivalent of the civil rights movement today is the Black lives matter movement in 2020. In this case, there was no clear strategy, nor ideology nor plan set out over a long period of time, he tells us.

For Gladwell, it is the victory of informal networks both in activism, and in business, right down to the vaccination plan which he rightly hails as a success in the United States (Gladwell was born in England, is a Canadian citizen but lives in the United States).

And for him COVID-19 has definitively killed the hierarchical model.

There will be no going back according to him and this may even have ramifications even in education where he imagines systems where students will group by affinity.

This isn’t all.

Companies too need to reform and take advantage of this crisis-driven momentum. He cites Starbucks as the archetypal “military” hierarchical company. Against it, small independent companies centred on informal networks are changing the world.

It is incredibly utopian, but at the same time excessively exciting. Of course, in Continental Europe, we’ll mostly talk about the gig economy and its shortcomings.

But I think behind this speech by Malcolm Gladwell, there is hope and this is actually his conclusion, for an incredibly better world. And behind this better world, we find these informal networks that have developed, this is also his theory, inexorably and thanks to digital.

Below all this theory and all these rather philosophical developments, but philosophy is very important isn’t it, we find this need to personalise the customer experience in companies.

And this will involve systems, technology and digital of course but also organisations, from the point of view of their own customer-driven approach, changing fundamentally to be customer-focused for the benefit of consumers rather than a mass market point of view.

Raw transcript of Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote (unedited)

Hello everyone, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’ve always thought we can’t do this in person, maybe next year. Until then, this is all we have. So I am happy to meet you all. What I thought I’d do today is make an argument for how the post pandemic world will be different. So what are we getting ready for when we get ready for anything right now? And obviously it’s going to be different in lots of different ways. But I want to focus on one particular idea and also keep in mind, as I’m making this argument that I’m famous saying only only a fool makes predictions, especially about the future. So I am that fool. And I may it may well turn out to be to be wrong. But I thought it would be interesting at least to give this one a shot. So here goes. Like some of you, I am a baby boomer. I was actually born in the last year of the baby boom. And when I asked myself the question, what is the most iconic social movement of my generation, the answer is obvious. It is a civil rights revolution. Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement of the 1960s in particular, the most famous of all of those campaigns, the Birmingham campaign of nineteen sixty three. Martin Luther King was the head of something called the Southern Christian Council, which was a group based out of Atlanta, which had been around for some time doing kind of civil rights work. And he was a an enormous devotee of the ideas of Gandhi. And so he infused this group with this strategy of non-violent protest. And it takes it first and most to Montgomery in the 1950s for the Montgomery bus boycott and then around the south, Albany, Georgia, and finally to Birmingham in 1963. Now, he chose Birmingham for a reason. Birmingham was the was called the Johannesburg of North America. It was the most racially divided city in the American South. And the police chief, there was a kind of Bull Connor who was a horrible racist. And King devised this plan to bring down Bull Connor. It’s called Project C. C stood for confrontation. And King gets there with all of the ministers and black leaders in Birmingham and plots out this incredibly precise, detailed strategy for bringing the civil rights revolution to Birmingham. The idea is they want to provoke Bull Connor into a confrontation where he will overplay his hand and prove to the world what a horrible person he is and what a horrible system Birmingham is. So for a year, King plans out this campaign. And he you know, he he trains marchers in non-violent protest and he maps out routes and he sends them out and wave after wave. And Connor starts just by arresting everyone who protest. But pretty soon the jails are all full. And then King stands a second wave. He has one of his deputies got got James Bevel, go to local schools and recruit schoolchildren. And the schoolchildren come and Connor starts to arrest the schoolchildren. And and now the world is getting kind of outraged. And King sends wave after wave of people. It’s perfectly choreographed marches. And Bull Connor finally overreacts and he brings out the dogs and he attacks the children with the dogs. And King has newsmen and cameras and journalists from all around the world lined up along the streets of Birmingham to capture that moment. And the minute Connor overplays his hand, King knows that he’s what in fact, is, is that famous moment where King’s people are in there looking out the window at the dogs and the kids marching and they start jumping up and down and they say, we’ve got to move. They’ve got a movement because the thing they had been planning for had finally come true. We had seen what it would what a horrible racist regime was in place in Birmingham. Now, for those of us who are my age or older, this is what a revolution looks like. It looks like a military campaign, right? It’s got a leader, a general Martin Luther King. It has an ideology. King had a very clear goal to accomplish in Birmingham. He was trying to set the stage for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, bring about an end to segregation in the South. And it has a very clear strategy. King had a clear way that he wanted to bring about this end, which was through these very carefully choreographed marches to the streets of Birmingham. And if you look at all of the revolutionary movements of that era, they were all like that. That’s what Mahatma Gandhi get in India. That’s what Ho Chi Minh did in in North Vietnam. That’s what Fidel Castro did in Cuba. That’s what Nelson Mandela. In South Africa, they all follow this model of a clear leader, a clear strategy and a clear ideology. Now, if you are a member of GenZE, if you’re a member of the millennial generation, what is your equivalent of Birmingham in 1963? Well, it’s probably the Black Lives Matter movement of IA, right? This extraordinary series of protests that go across this country in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, probably the most sustained period of civic unrest we’ve had in this country since the riots of 1968. Now, let’s compare Black Lives Matter of last summer to Birmingham in 1963. Did the Black Lives Matter protests of last summer have a clear leader, someone who was in charge? No Black Lives Matter was founded by collective, by a group of activists. But nobody really knows who they are. Their names, they weren’t front and centre. They weren’t on the on everyone’s lips the way that Martin Luther King’s name was on everyone’s lips in 1963, they were in the background. Did Black Lives Matter last summer have a clear ideology? Well, they had some ideas amongst them to fund the police and other kind of slogans, but there were a multitude of ideas that were encapsulated in those protests. People had very different notions about how the police ought to be reformed, very different notions about what would be the best response to the death of George Floyd. It was a movement that encapsulated a wide ranging set of attitudes and notions. It wasn’t like King in sixty three, where there was one idea that he was pushing forth. Did this movement last summer have a clear strategy and mapped out strategy like Martin Luther King? No, it was instantaneous. I mean, King spent a year planning what he wanted to do in Birmingham before he finally acted. Those protests last summer started the day after George Floyd died. They were spontaneous. This was something that, you know, that came seemingly out of nowhere, could not be more different from what happened in Birmingham 50 years before. What passes for a social revolution in today’s world and what passes for a social revolution in the US in which I was born could not be more different. They are like night and day now. What’s the nature of that difference? Well, for someone who is a baby boomer, we took it for granted that when you wanted to make any kind of sustained change in the world, whether it was for social justice or if it was for starting a company, you used the hierarchy, right? We were children of hierarchies, our parents and our grandparents and our great grandparents, many of them served in the military. Right. What is the military? It is the purest expression of a hierarchy that we know they were used to the notion that if you wanted to get something done, you use that particular model. Now, what is the nature of the hierarchical model? Well, a hierarchy is, first of all, a system that’s closed. There’s a clear line between who belongs to the organisation and who does not. You’re a soldier or you’re not a soldier. Right. The second thing a hierarchy has is determined, right? It has a clear set of ideas and codes and conducts that you have to learn before you can join. Martin Luther King would send people off to be educated in how they in non-violent protest before they were eligible to join those marches in the city of Birmingham. And thirdly, hierarchy has a centralised right. Power and authority are all possessed by a very small group of people at the centre of the movement. You have a general and everyone does what the general says in Birmingham in nineteen sixty three, no one took a step without the approval of Martin Luther King. He was in charge and there was not a single moment when his authority was challenged during that entire campaign. Now that’s where I think our default assumption about what social organisation looks like differs from the digital generation, GenZE and others. Their reference point is not the hierarchy, it’s the network. Right. So think about the big social movements of the last ten years. Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter last summer. What are they, all their networks? Right. They don’t resemble hierarchies at all. And what is the definition of a network? A network is something that is open, not closed. Anyone could join the protests last summer over Black Lives Matter. You didn’t have to qualify by. Taking a course in non-violent protest networks are by definition flexible, not disciplined. They make up their rules as they go along. Like I said, you know, the Georgia protests happened the day after the death of George Floyd. They did not require a year of planning before people took to the streets. And lastly, the network is decentralised, not centralised. There’s not a small number of people at the centre and top of the who are directing traffic. No authority and power is sent out, is diffused to the people on the streets, to the front lines. People make their own decisions last summer about when they wanted to march or what they wanted the march to be about or what they wanted their side to say or how they wanted to behave to the police officers who they encountered along the way. Right. That is a profoundly different model. And you can see evidence of this new model when you look around the new economy. I mean, I grew up on an encyclopaedia as my way of organising knowledge. What is an encyclopaedia? It’s a hierarchical model for organising information. Right. It’s in one place. It’s super disciplined. You have to own the encyclopaedia, get access to it, and it’s centralised. It’s a small number of experts who write it. Today’s model is Wikipedia, which is a network model. It’s wide open to anyone. It is totally flexible and not disciplined any way they want. And it is decentralised, right. It’s a million people writing as we speak as opposed to a small number of people writing on the command of Encyclopaedia Britannica or whoever else. You know, it’s funny to think about what would have happened if many of the network based innovations at the present day were somehow transported back in time. I mean, imagine if it was nineteen seventy and I said to you, I had this great idea. When you go on vacation you can rent your house out to a stranger who you’ve never met and just trust me, they’ll pay you for it. There’s no one in America who would have said yes to that idea. Right. It sounds nice in a world that is comfortable with the network, with comfortable with the idea of flexible, open, decentralised arrangements that kind of make sense. Or think about Uber. You know, I, I, I was I came to New York in the early 90s when the city was as dangerous in America, when the murder rate was, I think, seven times higher than it is now. At the end of every evening, we would all gather together and we would cool our money and we would figure out a strategy for everyone to get home. Right. If you had told me in nineteen ninety three in New York City, then I could summon a car without making a phone call, without making any human interaction driven by someone who I would did not talk to and had never met, which would show up unannounced. And I would get in the back and it would take me without any conversation to where I wanted to go. I would have said you were out of your mind. Right. That’s a crazy idea I’ve ever heard. But that’s because that was a world before the network model had taken hold, when we were still in the thrall of the hierarchy. And what we wanted in that moment was a hierarchy and not a network. Right. You know, I worked for years at The New Yorker magazine, and like many media organisations right now, The New Yorker magazine is going through a big conflict with a union, with some of the staffers have formed a union. And, ah, this has been going on for months and it’s very hostile. And if you look at the conflict between the union and management there, you realise it’s not a typical labour management conflict. It’s just generational. But it’s about the thing I’ve been talking about. The New Yorker was founded seventy five years ago as a classic hierarchy. It is a system with a bunch a small group of editors at the top who control everything. It is closed, not open. It is highly disciplined. There’s a certain way things are done and have always been done. And now a younger cohort has come to the magazine and their model is the network. And they’re saying, well, why does a small group of people control everything? Why is everything closed and not open? Why or do we have this rigid set of rules? Why can’t things be more flexible? Right. That that’s a profoundly different perspective on how the world ought to be organised. Now, a couple of questions come from this. Is the hierarchy better than the network or the network better than the hierarchy? I don’t think that’s a useful question at all. Both of them have their own strengths and weaknesses. You know, hierarchies are really, really good at executing complicated plans. Right. What King pulled off in Birmingham in sixty three was, I mean, saying I mean, it was an extraordinarily difficult thing. But at the same time, hurricanes are really hard to build if you want to do that difficult thing, you’ve got to have a leader as good as King. If you don’t, you’re sunk right on the other side. Networks are much, much easier to form. You can fund them overnight. They’re incredibly resilient. You killed the head of a network. The networks fine kill the head of a hierarchy. The hierarchy is in trouble, but networks have a lot more trouble in executing things, you know. What did Occupy Wall Street actually do at the end of the day? How much would that Arab Spring do that bring about a democratic revolution in the Arab world? Actually, not really right now would struggle sometimes to execute those very, very difficult tasks. I don’t think that’s the important question. I think the important question is which of these two models is winning right now? I think the pre pandemic, what we had were these two models in tension that you had a world that was full, on the one hand with networks, on the other hand with hierarchies. And sometimes they they clashed and sometimes they did and sometimes they worked in harmony. What I think has happened with the pandemic is the network has won that. What we are going to take away from this experience is a clear preference for that way of organising ourselves over the old way. I mean, think about the lessons that we will draw from this pandemic. You know, from the moment the lockdown starts last March, what happened? We deconstructed every hierarchy in the whole economy. I thought a year ago that kind of economic meltdown in the face of this pandemic. I didn’t see how we could possibly deal with all of this disruption. I mean, we had a system that had been in place for hundreds of years where employees went to a specific place at a specific time, every working day to be supervised by a more experienced manager. Right. And overnight we took that system and we just threw it out the window. And we replaced it with what? With a system where you work from wherever you wanted to work. You worked whenever you wanted to work. Your supervisor was off somewhere else. God knows where. And all you did was check in periodically and zoom. Right. And think about the vaccine rollout that’s going on right now. If you had asked Malcolm Gladwell, you know, hierarchy lover to design a vaccine rollout six months ago, I would have said, all right, I’m going to get a retired general from the army who’s going to run the whole thing. And I’m going to set up last time to identify places across the entire country where we’re going to do the actual vaccinations. I’m going to recruit the National Guard to help out. I would give I would have assigned every single person in United States a number and, you know, based on Social Security records. And then you would have gotten an email or a text or a piece of mail or a phone call telling you exactly when and where you would show up to get your vaccine. I would have run it like D-Day. Did we run it like didn’t know we didn’t like a network. We will figure it out. States, cities. Do whatever you want. People take charge. You know, when you can go will change the eligibility rules every couple of weeks and it’ll be on a website somewhere, which you can find. Right. And what was the result of doing it in an open, flexible, decentralised way outside of Israel, the best vaccine rollout in the world. When you had proof of just how networks are solving a lot of problems, I don’t think we can go back. I think this model has one. So what does that mean? If that’s the world you have to get ready for, what do you have to do to get ready for it? Well, there’s a bunch of implications. I think the obvious one is this notion of decentralisation is a really powerful one. So just to give you a random example, you look at something like higher education. We’ve had a hierarchical model in place in higher education for for millennia. You know, you go to in person, you go to an institution, one institution, stay there for four years and do all of your education there. Right. A totally disciplined, centralised, closed system of education. Does that survive? I don’t think so. I think that people are going to go towards a network model. What you’ll have is self organising groups of students who will make deals with a series of posters for parts of their education. So I can imagine imagine a group of 20 kids who are really interested in political science and they say, OK, we’re going to spend our first year at Penn State because there’s a couple of professors there we love. We’ll go there. Second year we’re going to go we’re going to make a deal with Brigham Young because they have a great overseas study programme. Because we really are interested in going to Thailand and learning about how the Thais run their government, there’ll be a year or two that year three, we think we by the way, we want to do some coding and figure coding. So we take online courses from Emmett Till. We get back. Right. That’s an awful lot of education. That strikes me as something that is probably a lot closer than we think as a change we have to get ready for. I think there’s also a big implication here for brands. You know, we’ve had a hierarchical notion about what a brand is for a long time that is dictated the way organisations interact with consumers. So think about a classic example would be Starbucks. Starbucks is an old school hierarchical brand. Right. Everything is directed from headquarters in Seattle. Every single it’s super disciplined. You know exactly what your coffee is going to be like. Every store is exactly the same. All the staff are perfectly trained. I mean, that is the embodiment of a hierarchical way of serving coffee. Now, in every city in this country, there are Starbucks, but there are also any coffee shops. Go to any coffee shop, what is it, any coffee shop? It’s a completely different model of what coffee is all about, right? It’s in the coffee shops are not all the same. They’re all different, though different. According to the city that they belong to, they operate differently. They have weird people who look different. Behind the counter is a totally decentralised, open, undisciplined way. And what’s the story they’re telling you or they’re telling you a network story. When you go in there, they’ll tell you where they come from, who grew the beans, how much they paid, the grower of the beans, what the name of the grower of the beans was. Right. And then they’ll give you a choice for different kinds of roasting if you want. What are they saying? They’re saying this cup of coffee belongs to a whole network people and stretch all the way back to the person who could experience it. When you buy that outfit, you are embracing the network. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to educate you and inform you about every node in that network, and that will help you appreciate your cup of coffee or decide whether you want to buy a cup of coffee from us, that it’s a fundamentally different story than the story being told by the soldier in the Starbucks army that you bought your latte from at the airport a generation ago. In the era of hierarchical brands, not a single consumer ever asked the question, what is the power source for the manufacturing plant for low tide? That’s just not what you would you evaluate tied according to its price. And it was a container close. That’s it. But now in a network model, people want to know about the whole network that made brought that tied to your laundry room. And if you’re Proctor and Gamble, you have to change the way you manufacture it in order to be able to answer that question in a way that conforms with this new model of expectations on the part of the consumer. But there’s a parallel idea here that also comes out of the pandemic, you know, and that’s what the pandemic has taught us about our own resiliency. I mean, if you look back on the years leading up to the pandemic, in retrospect, what’s striking is how much gloom and doom there was in the air. We were worried about our future. We were worried about the ability of our institutions to deal with the modern world and the economy. We were many people were profoundly pessimistic about our ability to solve the problems that we saw in the future. You know, what has happened over the past year is something without precedent in the history of medicine. We identified covid virus in December of last year. The genome was sequenced and published online in early January. But during it, look at that sequence and created its candidate vaccine over a weekend. They were in the clinic for safety trials by March and they were successfully inoculating people with ninety five percent certainty in December. That’s never happened before. There’s an unbelievable sequence about science responding to a complex problem in the face of this. Do you honestly believe that people can continue to be pessimistic about our ability to solve problems? Do you think that opposition to genetically modified organisms can survive that kind of case study? And how credible sciences do you think they’ll still be a powerful anti vaccination movement in this country in the face of an experience where we’ve managed to stop a deadly disease in its tracks this year? I don’t think so. I think we’re in a very different world now, and it is a much better place. It is a much more hopeful place and it is a much stronger and resilient place. That’s the world that we have to be ready for. Thank you.

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Personalization is on top of the marketing agenda in 2021 and for years to come, and I have invited Christophe Marée, Western Marketing Director EMEA at Adobe, to talk to us about the Adobe Summit 2021 event, of which Visionary Marketing is pleased to be a partner again this year. A summit that is quite special for it will take place online, for the reasons we know. In this interview, Christophe talked to me about a topic that our Visionary Marketing readers are passionate about: personalization. Besides, it’s precisely the main theme of this event.

Disclosure: even though Adobe is our client, we have written this post with our usual aim of professionalism, independence and authenticity

Customer journey personalization is on top of the marketing agenda and Adobe Summit 2021 The Adobe Summit 2021 will bring together prominent speakers from all over the world such as Serena Wiliams, Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, Rajesh Subramaniam from FedEx or Malcolm Gladwell (I’m already booked for this session). See you on April 27-29, 2021. Customer journey personalization in Marketing will be on the agenda of this 2021 edition of Adobe Summit. Customer journey personalization is on top of the marketing agenda in 2021 (and Adobe Summit 2021) Interview with Christophe Marée

Christophe Marée Personalization is a key issue for marketers in 2021. Firstly, I would like to look back at what has changed in the last few weeks and months. We’ve all experienced it: the economy has changed dramatically.

Working methods have changed too. Most of us are working from home. As a result, we are completely digitised, or at least, for the most part, our consumption patterns have been digitised.

Click and collect has boomed too in 2020.

[source: eMarketer’s]E-commerce is ubiquitous. To cut a long story short, we are changing the way we consume and in doing so, we are becoming much more sensitive to our relationships with brands. Brands will have to become more consumer-centric To be able to stand out in this digital environment, brands will have to become much more consumer-centric. What does this mean?

This means that at some point, we will seek to develop authenticity, to develop a long-term relationship between the brand and the customer. This explains why personalization is now on top of the marketing agenda for all businesses.

No customisation, no business If a company does not engage its customers with a certain amount of personalization, in this almost 100% digital environment, its development will be put at risk. Personalization, above and beyond content, must be done in real-time based on data.

Customers have become so impatient these days, that this requirement is compelling: we want everything, right here, right now. This is one of the topics we’ll be covering at Adobe Summit 2021.

First and foremost, understand your customers! When it comes to personalization, one needs to understand and know one’s customers. Hence, the use of data. At the moment, in Europe, retailers, banks and luxury goods companies are performing data acquisition in order to better understand the profile and behaviour of their own customers.

And when we try and develop a long-term relationship between a brand and consumers, one must get to grips with one’s customer profiles, how they buy, whether they buy in brick and mortar stores or online, when they buy, whether they use their mobile phones or consume at night, etc.

All this will allow businesses, and especially B2C companies, to be able to personalize the content at will on their websites. When visitors land on a website, only the right content, based on their behaviour and profile, will be displayed.

We can also bring this amount of customisation to traditional communication channels such as email or SMS text messages. And finally, it will also be possible to send them content, offers and products that are more in synch with their desires and profiles in a much more proactive way.

When it comes to personalization there are no two similar customer journeys, there are as many journeys as there are customers

First-Party Data is the number-one challenge Collecting First-Party data is a real challenge. Precisely, to find out about this, I invite you all to join us, because we are going to organise sessions to present the next generation of technology, what we call Real-Time Customer Data Platform.

Sign up for this session to learn more about real-time personalization (Apr 27, 2021 at 8:30 pm CEST) This will enable the collection of First-Party data, i.e. data collected by the company itself. It is from this First-Party data that we will be able to develop personalization. In addition to this, collecting data from various environments is key.

Beyond that, this data must be made available to all, across silos. And above all, it must be activated in real-time. We are going to present this new generation of platforms that we call “cookieless”. This will be one of the major topics we will cover during these three days.

Visionary Marketing invites you to check out the conferences dedicated to personalization at Adobe Summit 2021 All this heralds a new era for digital marketing. To learn more about marketing personalization, Visionary Marketing and Adobe invite you to join us on 27-28-29 April at Summit.adobe.com.

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What is the status of the luxury market and digital in this Covidised 2021 world? A little more than three years ago, Philippe Jourdan, one of the world’s leading marketing experts regarding the luxury market, told me that the role of digital in the luxury market was not as significant as one may have thought. I interviewed him a few weeks ago in order to better understand the current situation and assess how much it had changed under the pandemic. Let’s see what has happened in the past three years and more particularly in 2020-2021. Namely, with regard to the unstoppable rise of China in the luxury market. Above all, according to Philippe, attitudes regarding the online purchase of luxury products have changed dramatically during this crisis. All this might well end up alter consumers’ behaviours forever.**

2021 luxury market update : it’s all about digital and China What is the status of the luxury market in 2021? It’s all about China and digital What has happened in the past three years in the world of luxury?

As I was expecting, we have witnessed the quickening pace of trends I had already uncovered years ago. The first trend in the global market is obviously the growing share of the Asian market.

The Chinese market is now the world’s largest market for luxury goods

China’s market share is around 30%, depending on the sectors and product categories involved

In 2021, digital is all about China, and digital and even digital in China for that matter This is more than the US, more than Europe, and has obviously been boosted for some time by the growth of Chinese tourism around the world.

We predicted this trend three years ago, and we have been proven right.

Luxury 2021: the prominent role played by digital In addition, there has been a change in the distribution channels mix, with the growing share taken by digital.

Digital was initially used with great caution. In 2017, the share of e-commerce was between 8 and 12%.

Things have now changed dramatically.

Luxury has probably been lagging behind, which is not surprising, as luxury brands are meant to be marketed in their own stores as well as they encourage face-to-face contact with customers.

We’re talking about products that people like to touch and try, and about a business model whereby the brand seeks to attract its customers and bring them to where it has invested the most, i.e. in those ubiquitous flagship stores, all over the world.

The versatility of e-commerce in luxury Initially, luxury was more prone to resort to the web-to-store* business model: one presented products on the Internet, with the aim of bringing customers into one’s stores.

Then, brands became aware of the alternative store-to-web* business model. A model whereby people who came to the shop, then went on to continue their product search on the Internet.

The Chinese have set the pace, because there is a continuum from digital shopping to in-store shopping over there. Web-to-store and store-to-web are the two inseparable parts of e-commerce.

Web-to-store and store-to-web are the two inseparable parts of e-commerce Plain vanilla e-commerce also exists in luxury: people buy online what they have seen in the store or on the website.

Initially, brands considered the Internet as an incredible sounding board for demonstrating their collections, their fashion shows and their know-how.

Today, barring a few exceptions, luxury brands have all really taken to e-commerce

They have even gone a little too far at times. If they started out with e-commerce sales on their own websites, today they are marketing their products online, in partnership with online marketplaces.

2021 luxury market update: as with Louis Vuitton, luxury brands have been moving into online sales

Marketplaces are and will continue to be the go-to places for online shopping in China, even after the pandemic is over

These marketplaces are sometimes luxury digital subsidiaries of Chinese e-commerce giants, such as Alibaba. Their potential for luxury brands in terms of logistics is humongous.

However, there is a danger that in the future perhaps, they might order luxury brands around.

They own the data, they will have access to consumers, and they will be able to impose their negotiation terms. Maybe not on the biggest brands, which remain desirable and unavoidable. But they will be able to do so with all the new players in the luxury sector wanting to tackle the Chinese market and the digital part of this market in the future. Working with these Chinese players will be a no-brainer.

The increased weight of digital in luxury due to the pandemic, especially in China Of course, recent developments in the health situation have amplified all previous ongoing changes.

One may wonder whether the acceleration of digital in luxury is here to last. Will things return to the old normal after COVID-19, or vice versa? That is the question.

The role of digital in China is staggering: 7 out of 10 purchases of luxury goods in China are made online.

The reason for this is obvious: stores are closed and, above all, the travelling of Chinese tourists around the world, particularly in Europe has ground to a halt. This means that Chinese people who wish to buy luxury goods have done so massively on the Internet.

Depending on the sector, around 50, 60 or even 70% of purchases in the luxury sector have been made on the Internet in the recent period

This is slightly less true in the US and France, but even so, digital accounts for nearly a third of purchases there. It’s the same all over Europe. So we are seeing a tremendous acceleration.

As much as 70% of luxury purchases in China are made online, only 30% in Europe. Incidentally, in China, digital already accounts for 25% of online purchases for the entire retail sector. A sign that the luxury market in 2021 has shifted to Asia and even, digital in Asia Today, there are multiple ways to buy luxury on the Internet An easy way for luxury brands to go online is to offer their products and propose to their customers, in the traditional way, to put them in their basket, pay and have them delivered to their home.

But of course, web-to-store is a viable option. It’s also possible to ask customers to make an appointment online with pre-booking, especially regarding ready-to-wear, with the possibility of personalized coaching.

The total revenue brought by the Internet for luxury brands exceeds the online turnover by far. In order to understand the total revenue contribution of digital to these brands, it’s necessary to include the share of customers who chose their brands and models on the Internet, but ended up buying them in store.

The importance of web-to-store will depend on what happens when we come out of the crisis and how likely customers are to return to high-street shopping. There is a possibility that behaviours could change significantly for good

Today, we are witnessing a strong growth in purchases made online. The real question is: are these online purchases made because of the lockdowns that prevent us from doing high-street shopping?

Or, on the contrary, will consumers realise how much potential digital offers, in terms of practicality and convenience?

Marketers used to say that attitude paves the way for behaviour, i.e. what I perceive as pleasant I end up doing. Here it might well be the other way around. That’s noteworthy

Behaviours have changed out of necessity, and this change might impact attitudes that will never go back to the old normal.

This would suggest that there is an attitude towards buying luxury goods on websites that was created at the time of a change in behaviour, but which eventually changes behaviours in a lasting way.

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Silicon Valley is home to the world’s biggest innovation and tech giants. A true melting pot of innovation and creativity, the nerve centre of new technologies. Silicon Valley too, is a source of inspiration for many business people around the world who dream of discovering the secrets of this success.

Silicon Valley can be defined as the global epicentre of innovation Innovation in Silicon Valley: what makes that part of California so fruitful and why so many successful startups were born over there? 5 years ago, I interviewed Guillaume Villon de Benveniste, a Franco American tech expert and friend, about what Silicon Valley really was about and why it is so fascinating to so many people and businesses. As I was doing some housekeeping on our site I came across that piece which I had never had a chance to translate.

I wonder if things have changed since then. And they probably have. I even wonder to an extent whether Silicon Valley isn’t more about money than it is about innovation. Yet, Guillaume’s depiction of the valley’s 4 ingredients for innovation still stands true in my opinion.

As I described in a previous post about the subject, there is not one single reason why Silicon Valley is different from what is seen elsewhere. It is often copied and rarely matched, even in the United States. This region is really a maelstrom of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Silicon Valley isn’t always what it says it is At the same time, Silicon Valley isn’t always what it says it is. A lot of what is done there and sounds like the true spirit of start-ups is in fact standard big white-collar business for you. Similar to what we’ve known in the 1980s in the IT industry. To an extent I even think that the 1980s IT industry was way cooler than all these high-strung start-ups which aren’t start-ups but humongous corporations after all.

Google today has as many employees as Unisys had in the 1980s. Unisys was number 2 in the IT world back in those days and look at what it is now. So things may change and they inevitably will and time will tell in what direction.

Yet, looking at how Silicon Valley is dealing with remote work sounds very much like traditional office building investment to me.



So, after all, is Silicon Valley so… innovative? It’s up for you to decide. Here’s Guillaume’s interview from 2016 with just a few minor changes, so that you can make an opinion for yourself.

In the nineteenth century, Paris was like Silicon Valley Silicon Valley can be defined as the global epicentre of innovation. What’s interesting is that 120 years ago, Paris was the world’s Silicon Valley, the very place where this interview was recorded. At the time, people imagined that from the Avenue de l’Opéra, which was very broad, airplanes would be able to take off!

Let’s talk about entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley? What are the businesses that have inspired you? There are many of them, but I was very much inspired by Apple, as this company has achieved an unparalleled performance in innovation over the last decade. I was also inspired by the way they innovate in Silicon Valley. Europe could learn many lessons from that. My aim is to explain what people do in Silicon Valley, and how they achieve innovation and where we, in Europe, are struggling a bit.

What is Silicon Valley’s secret sauce? There are four main secrets for success in innovation in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley’s number one secret, which we Europeans should be focussing on, is that everyone in Silicon Valley is convinced that innovation is the major ingredient for competitiveness. Here in Europe it’s been nothing but cost cutting in the past 30 years, and jobs have flown to emerging countries, and it’s been nothing but mergers and acquisitions. In Silicon Valley, I see that there is faith in innovation, not just because innovation is fun, but because there is an underlying understanding of its business impact and contribution to competitiveness.

Silicon Valley’s second secret is to make innovation meaningful. There are different ways of doing this, and the pitfall that we have in Europe is, from my point of view, that we are able to make new things that nobody buys. We invent stuff but revenues aren’t there because we are lacking a marketing culture. In an innovation process, question number one is: “What will trigger a purchase?” This is something we are not quite used to asking in Europe. Silicon Valley companies are less obsessed with technology and more about what makes customers buy.

The valley’s third secret is consumer and customer culture. Let’s take the case of music: Over the last 75 years, music has been sold in various ways: 5-inch and 12-inch 45 rpm EPs, LPs, cassette tapes, CDs, iPods and now streaming platforms. It’s worthy of note that leadership kept changing as music formats evolved throughout the years. Even though the leader has a competitive advantages and should be able to invest in innovation. Strangely enough, music businesses have never been able to do this. For example, Philips was the leader in cassette tape technology, and it co-invented the CD with Sony, but lost its leadership when the CD became the dominant product form in the music world. You can’t blame Philips for not having invented the CD: they did invent, or co-invent it, but they may not have known how to innovate continuously. In this case, after Sony designed the Walkman, all the innovation in musical hardware based on CD technology was performed by Sony, not by Philips.

Silicon Valley’s fourth secret is the idea that moving from one product form to another is crucial. The idea is to make life easier for consumers: listening to music becomes easier by moving from CD to the iPod. Buying music also becomes easier with streaming as you don’t need to go to a store, and this has incredible economic consequences. Like Tower Records going under with 200,000 jobs disappearing [in this case, Internet piracy did play a major role however]. Consumers choose a technology, a product form and even an entire economic structure to make their lives easier, not out of love for technology.

For an innovation to last, one needs to understand what it stands for, and that makes the difference between innovations and widgets. Widgets are flavour of the month, but in the long run, they are not part of our lives in a lasting way like true innovations.

Silicon Valley is also very atypical of the rest of the United States It is indeed quite atypical: a number of studies have been carried out to try to understand what makes Silicon Valley so special. During the Cold War, the American army invested heavily in Silicon Valley, in companies like Intel.

There is also the fact that today, on a slightly different level, we find a different culture in Silicon Valley than in Los Angeles, for example. There is a tradition of collaboration among engineers, investors etc.

One day I was in a coffee shop in Silicon Valley in San Francisco, and while I was waiting for someone, I was listening to what people were talking about. And I think about three quarters of the people were talking about start-ups, investment, what one person had lost, what another person had gained, etc. I also go to cafés in Europe and Paris in particular, where they talk about very different subjects, mostly politics, and not so much about innovation.

There is a growing interest for innovation and start-ups in Europe and especially in France. For example, it has become more common to raise money, whereas only three years ago business people were whinging that there was not enough money dedicated to innovation in Europe. This is a change for the better.

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A “digital” transformation should just be called a transformation and it’s a question of leadership. Full stop. Such is the conclusion of my interview with my friend Minter Dial who talked to me from London about his new book, “You Lead, How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader”. In this new opus, he draws a parallel between what he saw during 9/11 and the current COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, nothing will be like ever before and there is a need for a radically new leadership. This applies to digital as well, and Minter had a few harsh words for CDOs and digital transformations which should be, well… transformations. Here is what he told me.

Leadership: a transformation needs to be called transformation, not digital transformation Leadership: a transformation needs to be called transformation, not digital transformation Onto something new in the way we operate in business I wanted to make a point at the very beginning that in my view, we are onto something new in the way that we need to operate in business.

Sometimes we might not realise the need to change before we are faced with something unexpected

My observation has been that in order for us to get on the programme and really figure out what was important in the way we ought to lead and run business, we needed to have some kind of life-changing experience. Mine was 9/11, and I draw a parallel between 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic because both of them are linked by one very important topic, which is death, albeit at a different level and in different ways.

But they do bring life into the question because by its nature, we’re looking at death, and more broadly and in philosophical terms, I have seen from my little vantage point a lot of other massively interesting similarities, which aren’t necessarily positive.

The first is that these two events came out of the blue for most of us, we weren’t prepared and secondly, it was an invisible enemy, whether it was the ideology or the virus.

The third point was that your neighbour could become your enemy, so anyone on the street is potentially the end of your road.

Obviously, this is pulling big generalisations, but it does have that sort of nature seeping into our daily lives, whereby you look at somebody differently as you walk down the street. Certainly, that’s what happened back in 2001, and for many of us who’ve lived through terrorist attacks have now got this feeling of everybody carrying the virus, everyone’s going out to get me.

I fundamentally believe that this is going to last, because it is part of a bigger movement

The next thing is that we have a media narrative that is kind of monolithic and you’re not allowed to talk differently than the main narrative. This happened with regards to 9/11, terrorism and so on. It’s either you’re a friend or an enemy, a la Bush.

In this situation now, it’s like you have to kowtow and obey the laws, you have to listen to what the government says, whatever country you’re in. The media have played into that, and as a result, based on fear, are issues of security, whether it’s a terrorist attack or health security.

Our privacy and freedom have been changed for the sake of protecting us. I think ultimately, we have come across the challenge which is we’re no longer allowed to accept or want to accept any death, though it’s such an obvious reality.

We are so conscious about our lives that we can’t accept death; any topic of death is enough to feel a sense of fear and drives us to listen to a unilateral type of narrative from the media. I am not talking about some big conspiracy, I just think it’s sort of the way society interplaying with media and government is leading us down a longer path.

Owing to these life changing experiences, it is time for a radically new way of thinking and leading Fundamentally, a lot of the things I have talked about in the book were already written before the pandemic.

What I feel the pandemic has done is sort of make us realise and become more aware of the need for a radical change in the way we operate. Let’s say that before the pandemic, typical numbers looked somewhat like 70 percent of employees were not engaged with their work.

During the pandemic that didn’t get any better, and people are now deeply considering why on earth am I spending my precious time in the small life that is left just to sell some more widgets?

What we need is to lean into this and do things at work that are distinctly more meaningful at a more personal level than just dealing with performance, productivity, efficiency, getting the numbers in, which is what we were so programmed to do and taught to do at business schools

But now what we need to think about is the stuff that you and I are living on: how we interact, friendships, relationships, trust, emotions and all the other gooey stuff that we can’t put into numbers. We can’t measure it, all the engineer minds that we like to be. It’s making us feel very uncomfortable because you can’t measure love or empathy any more than you can measure purpose and trust.

This life-changing experience implies doing something other than merely selling widgets and instead of leading, leaders should rethink the way that businesses work and what the objective of business is. One point is you can sell widgets and have purpose, or you can sell widgets and just be hungry for profitability and revenues. Your widgets, what do they do? Well, they hold up an edifice, the building where people live and work. So you’re making the world go round by making your widgets.

At the end of the day, this plays into our ability to run business and I have a conviction, which is I kind of believe we need to continue to progress. If we’re not progressing, then the issue is the shareholder, and right now, I don’t see many shareholders who are interested in trading water with their money, whether it’s inflation that pushes us to always want more or something else. I think it’s more of a human nature story. In any event, we haven’t got the shareholders, the private equity and VC folks on board yet with this idea of we don’t need to make money.

I could nuance it by saying I think we need to sell more value, maybe not more widgets. I mean, there is an issue of consumer society and pollution and over buying everything. If we could focus more on the value we were providing, not just in the product, but for society or community outside of the company as well, in other words, the bigger purpose. I feel we should do a lot more of that, and business can be a force for change, all the while being profitable and making more money.

What do these life-changing events teach us about digital transformation? As far as the pandemic is concerned, I think it is a more relevant crisis compared to 9/11, because digital transformation was not a topic back then. The pandemic has shown us that we can do it a lot faster, a lot better than we were thinking before, when it was something like almost a luxury for some companies. It was really difficult to do that kind of stuff. Now all of a sudden, we can do e-commerce and a lot more. Afterall, we need to do a lot more. It has opened up our eyes about how important it was to get with the programme. For those who are not able to really manage the transformation, I think the issue with them is that they don’t know where they’re going in the first place.

One of the big parts of this radical idea is that we need to lean into the sense of what we are doing and not just to have a purpose for the company for the sake of it, but a purpose that makes sense with who I am and who I want to be as an individual. When I am trying to get the numbers and do the transformation for a company, even if it’s a great company, does it really resonate with me? Is it meaningful for me at a personal level? Is it going to make me feel more fulfilled such that when I get to my death, I can say, “God, I really was part of a great movement that helped define who I was, I contributed to this and I made the world a better place until we got that.” Before we figure that out, we are going to have a lot of headless chickens running around.

A lot of people are trying to find what the objective is all about. Businesses are trying to digitise, but they don’t quite know what to do and for what purpose, so they start mixing technical stuff with non-technical stuff and they don’t know where to start. If you don’t have a leading light, a purpose and then a strategy that links to that purpose, it all becomes kind of irrelevant. Of course, there are things like ‘this is a really interesting project and I can make sense out of it’. But is it really going to contribute to the strategy and is the strategy well aligned with some bigger purpose?

That’s the ideal right now I think, because everybody’s sort of being led by fear, and there’s a lot to be fearful about. Notwithstanding the virus, I think we have to worry deeply about how the economies are going to be after all the subsidies run out and we see all the debt that each of these countries have put on themselves. There’s going to be a lot of bills to be paid in the coming years, and I believe economically we’re in for a very tough ride. I am also worried about how media and democracy will evolve.

Going through the book, there’s a schematic about ‘climbing the digital mountain. Tell us more about it. I have climbed a few tall mountains and it always struck me what was the path that we’re going to take. The idea of the digital mountain is that it is a big thing to scale, and certainly if you’re not equipped to do it, you have to think what equipment you need and then which path you’re going to take. Who are your Sherpas and your teammates that are going to take you up? Then, there are things you have to deal with which are unexpected, like the weather. These come out and change the course of where you’re going and how long it will take. The analogy is for the path you’re going to take up this mountain from the plethora of choices you have.

Depending on where you start and then up you go, you need to figure out the number of steps per day and the equipment to take. Should you carry all of it or just the stuff that you can because you’re only capable of carrying so much?

So, for the digital mountain, you need to go up with a certain amount of equipment. You have to choose the right technologies to achieve your strategy. You have to have a mix of talent that’s able to deal with this technology

You have to have the right talent to figure it out. Then you need to have this mindset which says that pretty much after every boulder that you go around, you might have some unexpected encounter, which could be a cyber-attack, an issue with the infrastructure, your cloud falls apart or any number of things that can come out around the corner. You need to be in a constant learning mode as you’re going around, and that’s a mindset issue.

Tackling the digital mountain is this idea that if you have a strong strategy, it’s going to help you find your path up the mountain because you need to put everything at the service of that strategy. The funny thing is that so many companies think they have a strategy, but it’s either poorly understood or not well shared throughout the organisation. This means that people are going to be at loggerheads, different departments fighting one another, spending resources without utility because they’re not at the service of the strategy. That’s how I tried to depict the digital mountain.

Talking about this mindset, a few years ago we had these wonderful people called CDOs, who were there to instill the mindset within businesses. Didn’t it work? It became so apparent to me back in my days when I was working at L’Oreal and we thought of empowering sustainable development, save the planet kind of thing. How it worked out was that we had to identify somebody who’s pretty green, likes to hug trees, though he has zero credibility within the organization by the way, and we’re going to make him the chief of sustainable development. He went running around, trying to save electricity by turning off lights because nobody else is taking it on board.

They don’t take it seriously. It’s just for this department, this man. The same goes for diversity and inclusion. We have to name the one black person to be head of diversity, as if that’s the way that you’re going to embed diversity and inclusion within your organisation. The same is true for digital, because like other stuff, it touches everything.

Today, having a CDO seems to be completely backwards

It needs to be everybody’s business, and just like a lot of these mindset ideas, the CEO needs to be the chief in each of these capacities.

At the end of the day, you can have expertise and there is a need for it. I understand why these CDOs exist, it’s because they’re trying to share best practices and unify purchasing within digital platforms. Yet, it just seems that ultimately it needs to be the responsibility of everybody to be digital. Everyone should understand how digital is part of everything and the way it impacts their business, their side of what they’re doing, whether it’s logistics, finance, sales, or marketing.

A transformation needs to be called transformation, not digital transformation

The idea of the CDO is “dépassé” for me, as they say in French.

The book talks more along the same lines and it is available on Amazon and other platforms too. There is one called Bookshop.org in the United States, which is designed to help independent bookshops get beyond digital and it’s coming to Britain in 2021.

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Web content marketing strategies have become a staple of marketing management at least in Britain and the USA, and to a lesser extent in certain parts of continental Europe. Marketing directors now have to master content marketing strategies, it can’t be circumvented. However, content marketing is not new — it can be traced to John Deere at the end of the 19th century. Even Internet content marketing is, to an extent, old hat. In 2021, Visionary Marketing will be 25 years old to begin with. Yet, standing out from the crowd is becoming increasingly difficult for those who aren’t pure players and can’t spend zillions on traffic management and CPC. So, how do you make your content stand out from the crowd? Here are my 10 golden rules for Web content marketing success.

10 golden rules for successful Web content marketing strategies Here are my 10 golden rules for making web content strategies successful and stand out from the crowd 10 golden rules to make your content stand out from the crowd To e-merchants, SEO is key. Large e-commerce websites will typically employ teams of 8-9 people or more to take care of their Search Engine Optimization. As we found out with the SEMrush 2020 state of content marketing report, SEO is where most visits come from, stemming from queries on generic keywords and not from brand name-related searches which smug marketers dote on (“Hey people! Let’s see who searches our name!”)

Brand names are like magnets for self-satisfaction. In a sense, it’s perfectly understandable. Anyone who has ever created a brand knows this. A brand needs to be nurtured, protected and enhanced. Strong brands convey values, bring awareness, recognition, loyalty and sometimes even a community feeling.

Web content marketing strategies require more than just a strong brand name But it would be wrong to believe that this is sufficient to provide proper Web visibility. Owning a strong brand is, in itself, far from being sufficient. It may be the case with luxury and premium brands, but in no case does this apply to any kind of brand especially those whose markets are more competitive in terms of SEO.

Targeting generic keywords rather than your brand name is indeed more important if you are looking to capture leads, and eventually new clients. Once you have established that, there is a choice to be made between SEO (free marketing) and SEA (paid marketing).

Paid marketing offers instant gratification, but it is expensive and makes you dependent on vendors in the SEA market where supply is ruled by a fistful of grossly dominant players (once again, check the SEMrush numbers in the 2020 report for details. The insurance market tops the list with keywords at $23 per click!)

Content marketing strategies work wonders as long as you inject heroin content in them Owned and earned marketing are, logically, less demanding in terms of budget. However, they require time and effort if you want to deliver better results and make your Web assets stand out in the long term.

That’s what Web content marketing strategies are for. Long term awareness and results, not one-offs like SEA. But it requires patience and effort.

Such strategies will also guarantee that your users will come back to your Web assets and will recommend them to others? They will come back repeatedly to your site or blog for more content, as Vincent Flanders wrote on Webpagesthatsuck.com ; Flanders’s language is somewhat stronger as he is referring to “heroin content“. Well, that says it all, doesn’t it?

Web content marketing strategies: when the rubber meets the road Yet, as always, describing a solution is easy, implementing it is a tad more difficult and demanding.

There are rules you should follow, things to do, traps to avoid.

I have therefore identified 10 rules for successful Web content marketing strategies that I feel are particularly important when it comes to the creation and distribution of Web content. These ten rules are by no means comprehensive.

10 golden tips for successful Web content strategies 1. Do not aim at perfection, there is no such thing: don’t try and make your text perfect, perfection doesn’t exist. Often in big businesses, one spends hours on end for a choice of words, but the real question is: “Should I spend more time on this and how much will it bring?” If you can’t answer that question, leave it as is and go to number 2. 2. Multimedia is back: Content has become manifold and can be repurposed easily. A podcast can be turned into a blog post, so can a video etc. There are so many content forms one could spend a whole day describing them. That’s an idea by the way, I shall do this in the future. 3. Make the most of your content: most brands post content and think it’s over. Well, no, it’s just the beginning in fact. 4. Write for people, not for search engines: writing for search engines can be done with robots. Writing for people requires experience, anecdotes, real-life examples… Only human beings can do that, a robot will never have any experience (well, for the foreseeable future at least). 5. Avoid siloed content: Good content takes time to produce, make sure you repurpose it. 6. A dedicated mindset: More than skills, digital content requires a dedicated mindset, the ability to launch new ideas, invent new things, explore new ways of producing and distributing content. 7. The expert down in the basement: Many experts are available. They are right down there in the basement. I made a career of finding them and supporting them and writing on their behalf or interviewing them. They are an endless source of top-notch content. 8. Three things matter: Swiftness – creativity – sharing. 9. Embrace UGC: User-Generated Content is also an endless source of rich and interesting content. 10. Agencies should change the way they work: In my mind, agencies should move away from being content providers and try and coach their clients so that they start eating their own dog-food. It requires different business models and a different mindset. Businesses should also learn from their vendors and the influencers they work with. We do a lot of that at Visionary Marketing, it’s a new way of working, and we enjoy it to the full.

Good Web content strategies require one more ingredient: practice. So, walk the talk and think beyond your brand name and shine!

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