I love the Back to the Future series, especially Part II where we see “the future.” Of course, the most famous part of our promised 2015 was the Mattel Hoverboard. A decade later, and I’m still waiting to glide down the sidewalk on my hoverboard. The pattern of excitement, overpromising, and then reality isn’t relegated to the movies. Because I’m a marketer, AI tools have flooded my working world with the promise of revolutionizing my department and company. The latest push centers on agentic AI. I’ve found AI agents helpful in some capacities — saving me time, automating repetitive tasks, […]

I have seen things I wouldn’t have believed even a few years ago. ChatGPT drafting content strategies from a three-sentence prompt. Grammarly solving my Oxford comma woes across an entire manuscript. I have yet to watch C-beams glitter in the dark. But I’ve witnessed AI reshape how I work — and it’s only just begun. One area I find most compelling is agentic AI. Right now, AI agents sit squarely in the “next generation” of AI tools: developing quickly but not quite ready for the limelight. Still, Deloitte’s latest State of Generative AI in the Enterprise report urges companies to […]

I grew up a Nintendo kid (and yes, that includes the original NES console and Duck Hunt Zapper). For those who remember the Nintendo GameCube, you know a memorable brand experience. How could anyone forget this nine-second clip of branding brilliance? Whenever I think of “branding,” I go back to my memory of the GameCube boot-up screen and the feelings of joy and anticipation it evokes. That makes a brand work — the experience behind the logo. But getting your brand experience right is incredibly hard for any marketing team. Logos, visual identities, copy, websites, social media — “brand” requires […]

When you hear the word agent, what do you think of? A real estate agent, an insurance agent, or even an FBI agent? Far beyond an assistant following rote instructions, an agent has the power and ability to make things happen on your behalf. Wouldn’t it be great if we had technology that could carry out independent tasks and take work off your plate? Autonomous agents are rapidly becoming a reality, capable of completing tasks for humans ranging from mundane to complex. In 2024, just 1% of software included autonomous agents, but by 2028, that number may rise to 33%. […]

Over the last year, I’ve seen AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT transform from cool tech novelties into total game-changers. These technologies are no longer nice-to-haves — they’re critical for any organization looking to stay competitive. Of course, implementing new AI-powered tools is often easier said than done. In this article, I’ll share some common roadblocks, including a few I’ve encountered as HubSpot’s senior director of global growth. Then, I’ll share some tips and tricks for becoming an AI champion on your marketing team. By the end of this post, you’ll have the tools you need to drive effective AI […]

AI agents are like the backstage crew at the concerts we attend: Operating independently on the backend to deliver a smooth experience on the user end. They power many of the tech we use – and have for a while – but haven’t gotten that visibility until recently. In this article, we’ll break down real-world examples of how AI agents are used across industries. AI Agent Examples in Real Life 1. Recommendation Engines Every time you sift through recommendations on your Netflix, you’re seeing AI agents at work. AI agents take action without constant human intervention by recognizing patterns and […]

When HubSpot’s Global Events Team had its first kickoff planning session for INBOUND 2024, they weren’t sure about the creative direction they’d take. One thing was clear though: Given how huge AI has become in the last few years, they knew they’d incorporate it somehow. I connected with the team to learn more about the important role AI played in pre-production – from creating eye-catching visuals with Midjourney to targeted agendas with Claude. Creating Fresh Interstitials Prior to INBOUND 2024, the team kept the onsite interstitials pretty consistent year-over-year, sticking to static visual imagery and light animation. It was time […]

We turned our standard nurture email flow into an AI-driven conversion powerhouse. Here’s what we did, what worked (and what didn’t), and what we learned along the way. When our marketing team began discussing how to strategically incorporate AI into our workflows, we knew we wanted big results. But here’s the thing about big results: They don’t come from trying everything at once. With limited resources and unlimited possibilities, we needed to hone in on which AI applications would deliver the biggest impact. Email marketing seemed like a natural starting point for us. We’d been running optimization tests on our […]

Shortly after news spread that Google was pushing back the release of its long awaited AI model called Gemini, Google announced its launch. As part of the release, they published a demo showcasing impressive – downright unbelievable – capabilities from Gemini. Well, you know what they say about things being too good to be true. Let’s dig into what went wrong with the demo and how it compares to OpenAI. What is Google Gemini? Rivaling OpenAI’s GPT-4, Gemini is a multimodal AI model, meaning it can process text, image, audio and code inputs. (For a long time, ChatGPT was unimodal, […]