Why saying "no" to AI can be a brand strategy · Oct 14

Your weekly AI + Marketing roundup is here! What’s on for this week?!.....

First, one quick change! I'm moving this newsletter from Monday to Tuesday sends so all the AI launches and news happening right when they drop at the start of the week are included...and you never miss an AI + marketing beat!

The headline this week from Adweek: the real edge in AI marketing isn't the model, it's the judgment, taste, and problem framing around it. Most teams don't need another tool; they need better questions and clearer choices.

Meanwhile, Aerie just codified a no-AI-ads policy to protect their authenticity (loveeeee), Fast Company explored who really owns the future of AI (spoiler: it's about data rights and distribution, not just content), and new stats show creator-led work beats brand-only outputs on trust and recall.

The breakdown, as always:

What's your take on Aerie's no-AI in creative stance?

♻️ Repost if you want to help others in your orbit know the latest in AI + Marketing

💌 Subscribe if you want to grow your AI + Marketing skillset.

The breakdown, as always:

What's your take on Aerie's no-AI in creative stance?

♻️ Repost if you want to help others in your orbit know the latest in AI + Marketing

💌 Subscribe if you want to grow your AI + Marketing skillset.

Adweek | 6-minute read

Overview: Argues the differentiator isn’t the model—it’s the judgment, taste, and problem framing around it.

Key Points:

• Ideas improve when teams use AI to explore, then decide with context.

• Taste and strategy separate great work from fast work.

• Leaders should reward clear thinking over tool-count.

My take: Most teams don’t need another tool; they need better questions. Use AI to widen the option set, then let taste and context do the pickin’, plz.

Marketing Week | 4-minute read

Overview: New datapoints on campaign effectiveness, creator ROI, and how teams are actually using AI.

Key Points:

• Creator-led work shows higher trust and recall versus brand-only outputs.

• AI helps with speed and scale, but creative distinctiveness still drives the long tail.

• Measurement maturity (not tool count) predicts effectiveness.

My take: Handy Tuesday fuel! If your creator work isn’t beating brand ads on recall, the brief, not the budget $$$, is probably problem.

Fast Company | 6-minute read

Overview: A perspective connecting compute, capital, and distribution, and what that means for the open web.

Key Points:

• AI assistants could reroute traffic from websites to answers and actions.

• Nvidia and asset managers shape capacity and pace.

• The web’s next power layer is data rights and distribution, not just content.

My take: The homepage isn’t the hero anymore…your data is. Get your facts straight (entities, schema), and design for the places answers actually show up.

Adweek | 3-minute read

Overview: The #AerieREAL brand codifies a no-AI-ads stance to protect authenticity and community trust.

Key Points:

• Clear policy: no AI-generated people in ads.

• Leans on a long-running brand promise about unretouched imagery.

• Turns restraint into differentiation in an AI-saturated feed.

My take: Saying “no” can be a perfectly great strategy on AI, especially when it comes to the actual creative. I love that Aerie is coming out strong on this. If your equity is built on real people and real stories, codify it and win on trust.

CMSWire | 6-minute read

Overview: A CMO explains consolidating a sprawl of point tools into a coherent, AI-forward brand experience.

Key Points:

• Tool rationalization improves speed, security, and message clarity.

• Publishing your governance can be a trust asset, not just paperwork.

• Outcomes: fewer handoffs, tighter creative, clearer roadmap.

My take: Too many tools starts to feel like clutter. Consolidate, define the system, and make your day-to-day process part of the brand promise.

Instagram’s latest update means: prioritize DMs (use Broadcast Channels and Manychat), keep carousels & stories for daily rhythm, and use Reels for reach…treat each as an introduction to your brand. See Post

Sarah lists eight “AI slop” symptoms (generic openers, adjective soup, robotic rhythm, empty thought‑leadership hooks, buzzword chains, clichéd empathy, over‑polished paragraphs) and offers fixes: use data/conflict, outcome‑specific statements, varied rhythm, genuine questions, earned truths, specific actions, and human empathy. Watch for red flags like overuse of em dashes, passive verbs or content that could belong to any company. See Post

Paula argues AI isn’t taking jobs, it hands you a blank page. Her framework: audit your weekly tasks to automate repetitive work (reporting, scheduling), transform translatable tasks (copywriting, SEO) using tools like ChatGPT and Zapier, learn to orchestrate systems (connecting people, prompts and platforms), and publish your process to attract opportunities. See Post 

Prestonimagines a conversation where a CMO counters budget cuts by showing ten posts proving brand’s value: Warren Buffett calls brand the most important moat; public‑company CFOs report record earnings after shifting spend to brand; simple charts like “The Brand Lifecycle” resonate; scripts, dialogues and data‑rich studies make CFOs rethink and sometimes double the budget. See Post

The Marketo cofounder says pipeline misses aren’t about bad campaigns; the system broke. Budgets shrank (marketing spend dropped from 11 % to 7.7 % of revenue); cost per lead skyrocketed (Google Ads CPL up 31 %); buyers stay anonymous (70 % of the journey happens outside tracked systems); cookie deprecation and privacy laws cripple tracking; content noise exploded while organic reach and email open rates collapsed; and many teams still optimise for obsolete MQLs. See Post

Sean writes visibility isn’t just about keywords—brands must be interpreted, cited and trusted by AI systems. AI visibility bridges data, content and customer trust: start with structured data and semantic clarity, then build credibility through community engagement and measurable authority so both people and machines can understand and recommend you. See Post

All tools covered continue to be added to the 200+ AI + Marketing tool directory!

Decisioning Studio & Generative Agents Braze launched BrazeAI Decisioning Studio, BrazeAI Agent Console, and BrazeAI Operator - a trio of configurable AI agents for autonomous campaign decisions, content generation, sentiment analysis, and workflow automation. Best for: Customer Engagement Marketer • Lifecycle Marketer • Martech Strategist

Salesforce rolled out Agentforce 360, embedding AI agents into Slack so marketing teams can query data, draft campaigns and act on insights without leaving the chat environment. Best for: Marketing Ops Lead • Slack-Centric Team • Data-Driven Marketer

YouTube unveiled the Brand Pulse Report, a new AI-powered measurement tool that scans paid, organic and creator content to detect brand mentions (audio, visuals, text) and compute metrics like unique viewers and watch share. Best for: Video Marketer • Brand Manager • Media Buyer

Anthropic released Claude Code plugins, enabling Claude to execute custom code within chats. Marketers can fetch internal data, perform analyses or integrate other systems without leaving the chat interface. Best for: Marketing Analyst • AI Developer • Insights Team

Below is another interesting event added this week to the full AI + Marketing Events blog post!

June 10–11, 2026 - London, UK

Applied AI with commercial focus; increasingly relevant marketing tracks. Learn more

Chat GPT - Product Marketing Manager, ChatGPT Consumer

Snowflake - Product Marketing Lead - AI 

Together AI - Staff Brand and Content Marketing Manager

Manychat - AI Search Specialist  

CoreWeave - Head of Brand Strategy 

Lightricks - VP of Brand and Global Communications 

Thanks for reading! Enjoyed this TL;DR take on all things AI + Marketing this week? 💌 

Subscribe and share away!