ETIP #315
AI Overload at the Possible Conference in Miami
AI, AI, AI! When every booth is “AI-powered” and every keynote is “AI-driven,” it’s hard to tell who is actually doing something new and who just updated their PowerPoint template. It all started to blur together and all started to sound the same. Sifting through all the white noise, I did find some key learnings and insights that I found valuable. Starmark has long been supporters of the MMA and the Possible conference is top notch for marketing and media technology.
Here are the three biggest shifts I noticed at the conference:
The “Workforce” Shift: From Tool to Teammate
The biggest takeaway from the “Enterprise AI Agents” and Coca-Cola sessions isn’t just “use AI to create content.” It’s the move toward Agentic Workflows. When the world can be flooded with generated content, they are finding that longer form content, and premium content stands out.
- Last year was about Generative AI (making things). This year is about Agentic AI (doing things).
- If your team is still “prompting” AI one by one, you’re behind. The “Possible” standard is now automated agents. I like the idea of small discreet “Insta-workers” that run autonomously in the background to flag inventory or spend issues before a human even logs in. The idea you can then string them together with handoffs sounds like a more flexible way to get value over generative AI.
The “Strategy” Shift: Vulnerability & Answer Engines
There were many sessions about AEO/GEO, the move from SEO to Answer Engine Optimization (or Generative Engine Optimization – the final term is still up in the air). This is a noticeable threat to website traffic, but also has real opportunities that can be executed now to get ahead.
- The fact that “AI can refute your brand marketing spin” is huge. AI prefers substance over spin, and it severely punishes inconsistency. As marketers this may be a tough adjustment, but it’s necessary.
- As always, AI models are trained on data, stats, science, and Reddit/LinkedIn are important off site content that is used to train these models. If what your website says doesn’t match what real people are saying on Reddit, the AI (and therefore the consumer) will call you out. Substance is now a survival tactic, not just a brand choice.
The “Process” Shift: Agility over Planning
We have been talking about Agile for over a decade. But it’s always great to hear how others are doing and what benefits they are finding. McCormick discussed their shift to “Agile Pods” and “2-week sprints”, which highlight a massive change in their marketing department’s structure.
- If it works for the audience, it will work for the brand. Instead of long plans pushed onto a platform, marketers must adapt their strategies to fit the audience’s existing behavior and needs.
- Being agile lets them try new things not in the plan, test, and learn. It opened up a lot of experimentation for them they didn’t have previously.
The Bottom Line: If you had to delete every slide that mentioned “AI” and only keep the ones that changed your business goals, you’re left with:
- Community over Reach (Creators/Reddit/LinkedIn).
- Agility over Planning (2-week sprints).
- Outcomes over Metrics (Effectiveness over Efficiency).