McKinsey’s latest report quietly confirmed what most leaders already feel: almost everyone is “using AI.” But almost no one is getting value from it.
What can we say? We are not surprised…
The real gap isn’t in access to tools. It’s in how you embed AI into the structure of your business. Here’s what the 1% are doing differently:
They don’t run pilots. They rewire workflows. AI isn’t bolted onto old systems. It’s used to rebuild them from the inside out.
They replace dashboards with agents. Not just insights, but action. Think orchestration, not observation.
They treat AI like infrastructure, not an app. Tools change. Foundations don’t. The winners are building operating systems, not experiments.
They measure trust, not just efficiency. How your AI behaves matters. Internally and externally. Especially when the stakes are high.
They reskill for strategy, not execution. Prompting isn’t the skill. Designing intelligent systems is.
This edition is packed with examples, from Walmart’s full-stack AI buildout to the ethics bomb Delta just triggered. Let’s break down what’s working, what’s failing, and where the leverage lives now.
— Peter & Torsten
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The Ranking Game Has Changed
AI Doesn’t Pick the “Best Page.” It Picks the Best Pattern.
We are leading with a bit of nerdy news. But hey, it is important! For years, we’ve been optimizing for Google’s search algorithm. Keywords, backlinks, metadata. But AI doesn’t play by those rules. It plays a different game: pattern recognition at scale.
A new forensic analysis by Metehan AI reveals that ChatGPT uses Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) to rank content. Translation? It rewards consistency across a cluster of related queries, not a single hero blog post.
The model isn’t asking: What’s the best answer to this question? It’s asking: Which source shows up across the board, again and again?
In AI’s eyes, authority looks like a pattern.
Why it matters for you
Topical authority used to be an SEO advantage. Now, it’s the cost of entry. If your brand isn’t the most complete, coherent, and frequently cited voice on a topic, you don’t just lose clicks. You disappear entirely from AI answers.
You can’t “hack” the algorithm. You have to prove you know what you’re talking about, at volume.
What to do next?
» Audit for Gaps, Not Just Keywords: Pick your most important topic. Then map every subtopic, question, and edge case a buyer might ask. Where are you absent? That’s your next content sprint.
» Build with AI, Edit with Experts: Manual content ops won’t scale. Use generative AI to draft outlines and copy. Let your team focus on refinement and accuracy, not brute-force writing.
» Create a Content Mesh, Not a Blog Roll: Link your content like a knowledge graph. Think: Wikipedia, not WordPress. The goal isn’t just ranking. It’s training the AI to treat your brand as canon.
Get our guide on AI SEO
AI is transforming how brands are discovered, and SEO is no longer enough. AI tools are reshaping search.
The new challenge isn’t ranking on Google, it’s being recognized, trusted, and referenced by AI systems.
Ask yourself:
Are you mentioned in credible third-party sources?
Is your content structured so AIs can understand it?
Are you aware of where AI tools get their data from?
If not, you’re invisible.
We’ve distilled the strategic playbook into a single briefing, “Brand Visibility in the Age of AI,” available exclusively to AI Ready CMO referrers.
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The future of visibility isn’t search, it’s AI. Make sure your brand isn’t invisible.
Stop Piloting. Start Rewiring.
McKinsey Just Put an Expiration Date on AI Experiments
McKinsey’s new 2025 Technology Trends Outlook is out. And the verdict is in: 78% of companies are using AI, but only 1% are doing it well.
Ok, but why? Not the tech. Organizational inertia. The report introduces a new framing: the shift from passive AI tools to Agentic AI. Virtual coworkers that don’t just reply, but act. These aren’t chatbots. They’re autonomous agents that manage workflows, draft docs, qualify leads, and take real steps in your business without supervision.
In other words, AI doesn’t sit on the bench anymore. It’s running plays.
Why it matters for marketers
This is the wake-up call your board needs. It’s not about whether your org uses AI. It’s whether you’re building around it. The maturity gap isn’t just a problem. It’s an opening for leaders ready to rebuild the machine.
What to do next?
» Audit for Embedded Intelligence: Look past the surface. Where is AI deeply wired into the system vs. bolted on? Choose one mission-critical GTM process and redesign it around an autonomous agent.
» Redefine Roles, Not Just Skills: “Upskilling” is old news. Your next key hire is an AI Orchestrator—someone who designs workflows across agents, not slides in prompts.
» Deploy a Virtual Coworker: Pick a high-volume, rules-based process (onboarding, outreach, research). Let a small team spin up an agent. Track what it handles—and what time it gives back to humans.
» Update the Board Narrative: Don’t talk about tools. Talk about transformation. Use McKinsey’s numbers to frame AI not as an add-on, but as the new OS for your business.
Become the Next-Gen Marketing Leader
If you want to be part of that 1% who not just use but leverage AI as a leader, this is for you.
We’re launching a community for marketing leaders navigating the challenges of AI-driven change.
A space for CMOs, founders, and growth leaders to stay relevant, rewire their orgs for the AI era, and connect with peers shaping the future of work.
It’s built for the Autonomous Leaders we wrote about in our Manifesto—those ready to trade micromanagement for systems, and effort for leverage.
Reply to this email to get on the early-access list with serious discounts on membership fees.
» The official waiting list opens on August 5th.
Walmart’s AI Edge Isn’t Checkout. It’s Architecture.
How One Giant Is Turning Agents into Infrastructure
While most companies are piloting chatbots, Walmart is building an AI nervous system. Their new “super agents” connect logistics, inventory, customer service, and e-commerce. Not as silos, but as signals in a single, intelligent system.
This isn’t AI as an app. It’s AI as architecture.
Why It Matters
The biggest returns don’t come from customer-facing gimmicks. They come from operational leverage. Imagine:
A promotion tailored by real-time inventory.
A campaign adjusted based on service trends.
Sales plays are driven by actual behavior, not assumptions.
When AI sees across your business, marketing stops guessing and starts compounding.
What to do next?
» Launch an AI Friction Audit: Bring marketing, ops, sales, and CS leads together. Ask one question: Where do we block each other? Then: How could an AI agent reduce or remove that friction?
» Trace the Data Arteries: AI super agents thrive on integrated data. Inventory what data lives where, and what’s currently disconnected. It’s boring. It’s necessary. It’s the foundation.
» Start with One Broken Workflow: Pick a process everyone hates. Lead routing? Customer feedback loops? Build an agent to fix it, not for scale, but for proof.
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Your Post-Production Bottleneck Just Vanished
Runway’s ‘Aleph’ Turns Video Into Clay
Runway just dropped Aleph. A new in-context video model that doesn’t edit footage. It rewrites reality. The demos? Unreal.
Add a thunderstorm to a sunny scene.
Age an actor 40 years.
Drop a flock of birds into an empty sky.
All from a single text prompt. No reshoots, no VFX team, no timeline bottleneck. This isn’t post-production. It’s creative reinvention on demand.
Why It Matters
Video has always been the most expensive, slowest content format. Aleph flips that. It turns locked footage into an open canvas, where the only constraint is imagination. Campaign variations, A/B tests, localization, suddenly affordable, scalable, and fun.
What to do next?
» Run a ‘Creative Refresh’ Sprint: Pick one proven video asset. Use Aleph to create 3 visual variants. New setting, new vibe, new call-to-action. Then test performance. Small input → big output.
» Evolve Your Briefing Process: Production no longer ends with the shoot. Build post-production pivot points into your brief. Ask: How else could we use this scene?
» Define Your Synthetic Ethics: The blur between real and generated is permanent. Work with legal and brand to codify your limits before you need to defend them.
Personalization vs. Manipulation
Delta Just Showed Us Where the Line Is
Delta Airlines made headlines this week. But not the good kind. Their plan to use AI for “hyper-personalized” ticket pricing triggered instant backlash.
The idea? Use your browsing history, loyalty status, and behavior to guess the highest price you personally would pay. Lawmakers called it exploitative. Customers called it creepy. Delta backtracked. But the trust hit is permanent.
Why It Matters
There’s a fine line between personalization and extraction. And AI makes it dangerously easy to cross. If your AI strategy feels like it benefits you more than the customer, you’re walking into a brand crisis. In a trust economy, perception is performance.
What to do next?
» Stand Up an AI Ethics Council: Make it cross-functional. Give it real veto power. Your AI roadmap needs more than ambition. It needs boundaries.
» Redefine Personalization: Every initiative should answer this first: How does this help the customer? If it doesn’t pass that test, don’t build it.
» Lead with Transparency: Don’t wait for backlash. Be upfront about how you use AI, and why. Trust isn’t just earned. In AI, it’s engineered.
AI Tool Of The Week: Descript
We’re deep in production mode right now, editing an AI-Ready CMO course for our upcoming community launch. Descript is doing the heavy lifting.
This isn’t just another editing app. Descript turns raw recordings into polished, repurposable assets fast. Cut video like a doc, auto-generate captions, remove filler words, and even clone your voice, all in one timeline.
It’s the kind of tool that removes friction from the creative process and makes iteration fun. It's your creative team's not-so-secret weapon.
Rapid-Fire News
Quick Hits. Big Implications.
Jupitrr AI Launches Levio Creator-focused. Jupitrr just rolled out Levio, a chat-driven smart editor that adds B-roll, captions, and hooks to talking-head videos, without a timeline.
» For marketers: Refine via text prompts, export for LinkedIn or Reels, and iterate fast. Think: creative edits at Slack speed.
Claude x Canva Integration . Anthropic’s Claude now works inside Canva, designing and resizing visuals from documents or prompts.
» For marketers: The dream? Briefs → Assets. The reality? It’s clunky (for now). But watch this space.
AI Overviews Cut Clicks by Half. A Pew study confirms Google’s AI Overview drops clicks to organic links by 50%.
» For marketers: If you’re not cited, you’re invisible. AI-first SEO is no longer optional. It’s existential.
Leena AI Drops “AI Colleagues.” Voice-enabled agents with personalities, now in Teams. These aren’t tools—they’re team members.
» For marketers: Start thinking about workflows where your next ‘coworker’ doesn’t sleep or forget.
GPT-5 May Drop in August. Sam Altman warns Congress to prepare for “entire job categories” being wiped out. Rumors point to an August release.
» For marketers: Don’t wait. Reskill now. The next leap is coming, and it won’t be subtle.
CMO Tips
How to Pick the Right AI Pilot
Without Wasting 3 Months.
Before you pilot anything, assess your AI readiness. If your team isn’t aligned, trained, or integrated, no pilot will stick. Start with a quick AI readiness audit. It reveals where your leverage points are (and where your blockers live).
Then, score your pilot ideas like this:
Impact — Time saved | Revenue relevance | Strategic visibility
Effort — Input quality | Tool integration | Learning curve
Plot the opportunity on this 2×2:
🟢 High Impact / Low Effort = Pilot priority. Do it now.
🟡 High Impact / High Effort = Strategic bet. Plan it well.
🟠 Low Impact / Low Effort = Nice to have. Skip it.
🔴 Low Impact / High Effort = Waste of time. Avoid it.
Reminder: Great pilots don’t solve everything. They prove what’s possible, and unlock the next stage.
AI isn’t a strategy. It’s a system upgrade. This edition was packed with signals about what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next.
If you take one thing away, let it be this:
The winners aren’t the ones who adopt AI fastest. They’re the ones who adapt their business around it. Start small. Move fast. Build trust.
See you next week.
— Peter & Torsten
» PS: Ready to level up AI across your marketing team? We advise CMOs of the future.