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We can’t stop talking about AI coworkers, because the future we warned about isn’t coming. It’s already here.

This week, Anthropic’s security chief dropped a bomb: AI "virtual employees" — bots with logins, memory, and tasks — could be inside your company within a year.

This is where things get uncomfortable. Juniors and middle managers are already feeling the heat. Meanwhile, CEOs quietly call consultants like us to "optimize teams" (you know what that means).

We’re not above it either. We started this newsletter because we needed it — to force ourselves to master AI before it masters us.

Here’s the deal:
If you stick your head in the sand, you’ll be automated.
If you lean in, you might just get augmented.

No drama. No sugarcoating.
You choose.

Now, let’s dive into this week’s edition. It’s intense, long, and important.

Cheers,

PS: You probably noticed that we’re no longer Horizon 01.
We’re now AI Ready CMO — because that's who we are, and that's who we serve.

Almost every reader here is a marketing leader or founder trying to outpace the chaos. And we’re not another AI-hype machine. We’re CMOs talking to CMOs, making sense of the mess, and winning with it.

During this transition, there might be some issues accessing our content online for the next couple of days. Thank you for your patience, and send us a message if you spot any hiccups. By the next edition, all issues will be resolved.

A quick word from this week’s sponsor:

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Oscars Embrace AI

AI-Assisted Films Now Award-Eligible

Big news from Hollywood: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has updated its rules—films using AI are now fully eligible for Oscars.

That means if AI helps craft a movie’s visuals, dialogue, or effects, but human creativity is still at the core, the film can still win.

(And yes, this year’s Best Actor winner The Brutalist used AI to help an actor deliver a Hungarian accent — we’re Hungarians too, and we loved it.)

What It Means for Marketers

This move normalizes AI in storytelling—and sends a loud message beyond Hollywood:

• Using AI is no longer “cheating” — it’s expected.

• AI is now a legitimate creative partner, not a shortcut.

• Human emotion, voice, and final judgment still matter most.

If AI can help a movie win an Oscar, it can help your brand win attention.

But only if you treat AI as an amplifier, not the author.

Meet Suna

An Open-Source AI Agent Built in 3 Weeks

A small European startup just made big waves. Suna, a fully open-source AI agent, was created by Kortix AI (by a 20-something founder in just three weeks from a Lisbon Airbnb!).

It immediately shot to the top of GitHub’s trending list.

Why the buzz?

• No invites, no paywall — it's free and open to everyone.

• Suna acts like a “virtual employee,” able to handle real-world tasks via conversation.

• Unlike closed SaaS agents, you can customize, audit, and adapt Suna to your needs.

Why it matters for leaders

Suna signals how fast the AI coworker ecosystem is evolving — and how accessible it’s becoming. For marketing, sales, and operations, a tool like Suna could mean:

• Crawling the web for leads

• Automating competitive research

• Drafting customer emails or reports

• Handling basic CRM updates

At a fraction of today’s enterprise software costs. And the bold claim from its creators?
Suna could eventually help businesses replace up to 70% of their workforce with AI (a provocative goal, but one that shows where ambition is headed).

At minimum, tools like Suna could handle repetitive grunt work: freeing your human team to focus on strategy and creativity.

China’s AI Coworker Momentum

Z1 Rumination & Manus on the Rise

China is accelerating in the AI coworker race. Two major developments just hit the radar:

• Z1 Rumination (from Tsinghua spinoff z.ai) launched a free AI agent that can perform deep research, web searches, travel planning, and report writing.

• Manus AI, that made waves with “the world’s first general AI agent”, just raised $75M from Benchmark (now valued at ~$500M) and plans international expansion to the U.S., Japan (rumoured), and the Middle East.

Why it matters for leaders

This is a clear glimpse into how the future of work is unfolding — fast.

• In China, AI agents are becoming digital colleagues inside enterprises.

• Z1 Rumination’s free model is a land-grab for mass adoption and a data advantage.

• Manus’s $199/month paid agent is scaling fast, and global expansion is on the table.

For marketing, sales, and customer experience leaders, this shift means:

• Localized AI agents could drive hyper-personalized marketing in Asia.

• 24/7 frontline AI (fluent in regional dialects) is no longer a distant concept—it’s here.

• Competitors using AI coworkers will move faster and at lower costs.

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index

AI Adoption Hits Overdrive

Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index is clear: AI isn’t an experiment anymore — it’s the new normal.

From a survey of 31,000 workers across 31 countries:

• 46% of business leaders already use AI agents to automate workflows.

• 45% rank “expanding team capacity with digital labor” as a top 12–18 month priority.

Companies are no longer dabbling in AI — they’re going all in.

Why it matters for executives

For CMOs, CROs, and other growth leaders, this shift is critical:

• Top AI investment areas: customer service, marketing, product development — the growth engines.

• Frontier Firms (AI-forward companies) report far better performance:

  • 71% say their company is thriving vs. 37% of others.

• 78% of leaders (and 95% at Frontier Firms) plan to hire for new AI-specific roles, like:

  • AI marketing strategists

  • AI customer success leads

  • AI operations specialists

Building AI-literate teams isn’t optional anymore — it’s the next competitive differentiator.

A culture to use AI as second nature

Walmart Goes “All-In” on AI for Employees

Walmart, one of the world’s largest employers, is setting a bold new standard: AI will be part of every employee’s daily work.

Executives say they’re “throwing the doors wide open” to generative AI across the entire company.

Over the past two years, Walmart moved fast:

• From small AI pilots to embedding AI across supply chain, store ops, and more

• Expanded internal AI tools

• Built a smoother developer experience to create AI solutions faster

• Focused on making AI accessible — not just for data scientists, but for every associate

Why it matters

Walmart’s approach is a blueprint for operational AI at scale:

• Sales and support: Faster, AI-assisted customer interactions (think: associates using handheld AI tools to answer on-the-spot questions).

• Marketing: Smarter use of vast customer data for predictive trends and hyper-local campaigns.

• Training and guardrails: Innovation paired with strict security, legal, and ethical input.

This is no longer about experimenting with AI — it’s about making AI as natural to use as email.

Power tools for creatives

Google’s Generative AI Tools for Marketing Creatives

At its recent Cloud showcase, Google dropped major news: new open-source MarTech tools designed to supercharge creative workflows with AI.

The standout: ViGenAiR, a multimodal AI system that:

• Turns a 30-second YouTube ad into multiple shorter variants — like a TikTok-ready 10-second vertical video.

• Automatically generates suggested images and copy for banners — all from the original content.

• Picks the right scenes and messages (no mid-sentence awkward cuts).

Google also rolled out new tools for scaling image creation and ad copywriting using its latest Gemini AI models.

Why it matters for marketers

Marketing teams are under pressure to create more content — faster and cheaper.
Google’s new AI tools attack that pain point:

• Shorten campaign production timelines.

• Slash the costs of multi-format ad adaptation.

• Empower creatives to focus on ideas while AI handles the grunt work.

Imagine creating one great ad — and instantly getting five optimized edits for Instagram Stories, YouTube pre-rolls, TikTok, and display banners.

This is also a glimpse into the future of programmatic creative at scale — AI auto-generating variations based on audience segments.

Even better: the tools are open-source or available via Google Cloud, meaning you stay in control of brand standards and data.

Steerable AI

EasyEdit2 Lets You Tune LLM Behavior on the Fly

We don’t usually highlight academic papers — but this one matters. EasyEdit2 introduces a simple, powerful way to steer AI behavior at runtime — without retraining the model.

Think of it as control knobs for your AI:

• Adjust tone, sentiment, factuality, or reasoning style — instantly.

• Guide AI outputs with just one example or prompt.

• No complex fine-tuning or risk to the model’s core — it’s plug-and-play.

Why it matters to marketing leaders

If you're deploying AI assistants in marketing, sales, or support, brand safety and consistency are non-negotiable.

EasyEdit2 hints at a future where you can:

• Keep a chatbot empathetic and on-brand at all times.

• Ensure AI-generated sales content stays factual and compliant.

• Adapt an AI’s personality to fit campaigns or markets — instantly.

And crucially — you can do it without retraining or rebuilding your AI models.

Rapid-Fire News

AI Updates You Need to Know

1. Microsoft 365 Copilot Gets Major "Digital Labor" Upgrades
   Microsoft’s Copilot just became a true enterprise smart assistant:

   • Copilot Search now pulls insights across Outlook, Slack, and other apps — summarizing unstructured data.

   • Memory lets Copilot learn your preferences (privately) for a more personalized experience.

   • Copilot Notebooks enable mini-AI models trained on your company documents for highly targeted answers.

   Copilot is evolving from “helpful AI” to multitasking team member, boosting productivity across every department.

2. CharacterAI’s AvatarFX: Chatbots Become Video Avatars
   CharacterAI launched AvatarFX, a beta tool that animates static images into talking, emoting video avatars:

   • Turn a character image (or brand mascot) into a speaking, smiling, even singing video assistant.

   • Great for customer support, marketing, or brand storytelling.
     Imagine: Instead of chatbot text, your customers get a face and voice to interact with.

3. Cluely’s "AI Wingman" App Launches — Use With Caution
   Cluely offers an AI tool that feeds you real-time prompts during live conversations (like interviews or sales calls).

   • Early reviews flag tech hiccups — like audio glitches during meetings.

   • Warning: Cool idea, but risky in high-stakes settings.
     If you test Cluely, start in low-pressure environments and stay transparent with others.

4. ElevenLabs Debuts Agent Transfer for AI Conversations
   ElevenLabs now allows one AI agent to hand off a user to another AI agent — without losing context.

   • A general FAQ bot can seamlessly transfer a user to a billing expert bot.

   • No dead ends, no human needed.

   • Big potential: For customer service teams, this means smoother escalations and faster resolution — fully automated.

This week’s developments point to a clear trend. AI isn’t just a concept anymore — it’s becoming a real part of how teams work.

Whether it’s:

• a virtual "employee" collaborating in Slack,

• or AI tools splicing your marketing videos,

• or a bot colleagues handing off tasks to each other.

We are rapidly moving from experiments to everyday integration.

The companies leaning in — with clear vision and strong safeguards — are already seeing big gains in productivity and creativity.

As senior leaders, it’s our job to set the tone:

• Champion AI innovation responsibly

• Build the right guardrails

• Focus on using AI to augment, not alienate, human teams

Because the goal isn’t to adopt AI for its own sake.
It’s about smarter strategies, happier customers, and stronger results.

Here’s to staying ahead of the curve — and maybe even surprising a few of your (human) coworkers with just how AI-savvy you’ve become.

Until next week, stay sharp.

— Peter and Torsten