The Great Compression

How AI is collapsing the time between insight and action

AuthorAuthor

Peter Benei & Torsten Sandor
June 03, 2025

In partnership with

We had a nostalgic talk. We were chatting about what to write as an intro for this week’s edition. We ended up revisiting our first marketing projects, more than 20 years ago.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my first marketing job. The one where building a competitive analysis meant three days of manual research, two days of PowerPoint wrangling, and one long night before the presentation.

Last week, I watched that same process happen in under 10 minutes.

Torsten

I remember my first marketing proejct. I was reviewing thousands of news clippings to analyze industry sentiment across a few brands. It took a team of five over a month to pull together the final PR report — and weeks more to get it published.

Today? I alone can do it with the right AI tools in under an hour.

Peter

From Perplexity's real-time dashboards to CEOs deploying digital avatars, the headlines this week aren’t just about AI automating tasks. They’re about collapsing entire workflows. The time from question to insight — and from idea to asset — is now measured in minutes, not weeks.

But here’s the part the “AI will replace you” crowd keeps missing:

This isn’t about replacement. It’s about amplification.

The marketers who are winning right now aren’t the ones with the deepest resumes. They’re the ones who know how to orchestrate — tools, agents, workflows — faster than anyone else.

When your competitor can spin up market research over coffee and deliver a pitch deck before lunch… being good isn’t enough anymore.


You need to be f—in’ fast.

Peter Benei | Co-author

Consultant at Anywhere Consulting

Torsten Sandor | Co-author

Senior Director of Marketing at Appen

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Perplexity Labs

AI Dashboards and Reports in 10-minutes or less

The AI-native search engine Perplexity just launched Labs, and it changes the game for insight generation.

With a single prompt, Labs pulls data from the web, runs code, and creates fully interactive dashboards — all in under 10 minutes. It's like having a data analyst, researcher, and junior strategist rolled into one.

We tested it on a fictional baby-wearing sling brand. Labs delivered a fully interactive dashboard highlighting the best subreddits to monitor — complete with engagement breakdowns and messaging strategy. Normally, that’s a two-day research task. Labs did it over coffee.

Our example dashboard was created via Perplexity Labs

Why it matters for marketers

This isn’t just a cool demo. It’s a legit strategy tool. Labs compresses research workflows from hours to minutes:

• Build audience maps in real-time
• Size upmarket segments before the meeting starts
• Prototype content or SEO strategy with live inputs
• Skip data requests — generate visuals and code yourself

The outcome is deeply actionable. You get structured insights, not just text.

What to do next?

If you’re a Perplexity Pro user, start with your biggest research bottleneck. Ask it to scope your competitors. Or identify where your ideal customers hang out.

If you’re not on Pro yet — good news. We’re part of the Perplexity Business Fellowship and have a few early access passes.

» Reply to this email if you want one.

Manus Slides

Your Deck - Done before the meeting starts

The team at Manus AI just dropped something every leader will appreciate: Manus Slides — a tool that turns a prompt and source materials into a fully designed presentation.

We tested it by feeding in several past AIReadyCMO issues and asking it to generate a 10-slide talk on AI transformation for CMOs.

The results are surprisingly solid. The deck covered core themes like orchestration, augmentation, and AI upskilling. It wasn’t perfect — but it got us 80% of the way to a boardroom-ready presentation. That’s usually hours of work.

An example auto-generated slide from our Manus deck

Why it matters for marketers

Slide building is one of the biggest time sinks in marketing and sales. And most of it is formatting, layout, and synthesis — not strategy.

With Manus Slides, you can now:

• Generate sales decks tailored to a specific lead
• Repurpose past assets into executive presentations
• Build internal reports or kickoff decks in minutes
• Free your team to focus on story, not structure

It’s not just about saving time. It’s about shifting from production mode to insight mode.

What to do next?

Think about your last internal deck. How long did it take to go from blank slide to ready-to-present?

Now run that same brief through Manus Slides.

Use an old report, a Notion doc, or just a prompt. Even if you don’t ship it as-is, the time savings and structure will change how you work.

Sign in with ChatGPT

The Battle for Customer Identity Just Got Interesting

OpenAI is reportedly working on a new feature: "Sign in with ChatGPT" — a login method that lets users access third-party sites and services using their ChatGPT credentials.

This might sound small. It’s not.

This is OpenAI’s play to become a consumer identity layer — like “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Apple” — but with a twist: it comes with context. ChatGPT doesn’t just know who you are. It knows what you like, what you’ve asked for, and what you’re likely to want next.

Why it matters for marketers

This could unlock a whole new surface for customer acquisition and personalization:

• You get rich, intent-driven user context — instantly
• Onboarding could become AI-guided and frictionless
• Early integration could boost your brand visibility within ChatGPT
• Loyalty and retention flows can become far more predictive

Imagine: a user lands on your site, signs in with ChatGPT, and gets a customized product recommendation — not based on a cookie but on months of conversational history.

That’s not a UX tweak. That’s a CX transformation.

What to do next?

This is early-stage — but it’s a first-mover moment.

  • Start mapping where identity shows up in your funnel: signups, recommendations, re-engagement

  • Brief your product and growth teams on the opportunity

  • Consider what data or experiences you’d want ChatGPT to personalize on your behalf

Consumer identity is being rebuilt — and AI is the new passport.

CEOs Are Sending AI Avatars to Earnings Calls

UBS Clones Analysts. Zoom and Klarna’s Digital Doubles.

First Klarna. Then Zoom. Now UBS.

In just one week, we saw multiple companies deploy AI-generated avatars of their executives and analysts. Klarna and Zoom used digital doubles of their CEOs to present quarterly earnings. UBS is reportedly creating AI clones of its investment analysts to scale financial commentary and client briefings.

The tech is no longer a novelty — it’s a communication strategy.

Klarna’s CEO’s AI Avatar

Why it matters for marketers

This is a signal: high-stakes communication is shifting.

AI avatars now offer a way to scale human presence — without compromising brand voice or clarity. Picture this:

• A CEO avatar that welcomes every new enterprise customer
• Sales avatars delivering multi-language pitches, simultaneously
• Product experts giving demos 24/7, across time zones
• Analysts presenting market insights instantly on demand

You’re not replacing your people. You’re multiplying their reach.

What to do next?

This isn’t science fiction — it’s software. Platforms like HeyGen, AI Studios, Synthesia, and D-ID can generate a first version of your avatar with minimal lift.

Start small:

  • Record an internal update with your AI self

  • Test a client follow-up in multiple languages

  • Use avatar-based video to replace static onboarding slides

The key? Start experimenting now. 

You don’t want to be the last brand in your space still relying on Zoom recordings while your competitors are sending personalized avatar messages at scale.

The Great Unbundling of White-Collar Work

Why It’s NOT a Bloodbath, but a Rebuild

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei made headlines this week, warning of a potential “bloodbath” in white-collar jobs as AI scales across knowledge work. We don’t disagree — but we see it differently.

This isn’t mass extinction. It’s unbundling.

The role of a marketer, salesperson, or strategist isn’t vanishing. But the job as it was is gone. Repetitive, process-heavy tasks — entry-level decks, outreach emails, basic research — are now easily done by AI agents. That changes who you hire and how you scale.

» We also recommend Axios’ Leadership in the AI age article, worth a read from Axios’ CEO, Jim VandeHei.

Illustration: Aida Amer / Axios

Why it matters for marketers

AI is redrawing the org chart. And fast.

• Task-based roles are fading
• Strategy, orchestration, and interpretation are rising
• Entry-level headcount is being replaced by tools
• Teams are getting smaller, but sharper

The future marketing org looks more like a team of AI-augmented operators — each person running 10x faster with a personal stack of tools.

This isn’t a cost-cutting move. It’s a capability upgrade.

What to do next?

  • Audit your workflows: What’s repetitive, templated, or rules-based? Start there.

  • Rethink hiring: Shift toward multi-skilled operators, not functionally siloed specialists.

  • Upskill now: Teach your team how to prompt, orchestrate, and quality-check AI work.

  • Build around leverage: Structure your team so humans handle the creative edge — and AI handles the bulk.

The bloodbath isn’t inevitable. But irrelevance is — for teams that don’t adapt.

WPP Goes All-In on AI Media

WPP Just Rebuilt Its Media Business For AI

The world’s largest ad group, WPP just announced the launch of WPP Media, a fully integrated, AI-powered media company built from the ground up. This is not a rebrand. It’s a full reset of how the largest ad group on the planet handles planning, buying, and measuring media — and it’s centered on AI infrastructure.

They’ve pulled together GroupM’s scale, EssenceMediacom’s digital chops, and new AI-native capabilities to create a single system that’s designed to move faster, get smarter, and deliver better results — at scale.

Why it matters for marketers

This isn’t just agency consolidation. It’s a signal: the future of media is systematized, automated, and intelligence-led.

• Strategy, buying, and optimization are no longer siloed
• Measurement is embedded at every step — not tacked on
• AI is used not just for targeting, but for creative and channel mix
• Clients get a single operating system, not a patchwork of tools

WPP is betting that the future competitive edge comes from orchestration — not just headcount.

What you should do next

Even if you’re not working with WPP, the move is instructive.

  • Evaluate your agency model: Are your media efforts siloed or integrated

  • Audit your ops stack: Do you have AI in planning, buying, and measurement — or just one area?

  • Push for orchestration: The winners won’t just use AI — they’ll build systems around it.

  • Watch where talent goes: Moves like this change where top planners and strategists want to work.

The media landscape just got a new default setting: AI-first.

Rapid-Fire News

AI News You Need to Know

What Just Happened in AI (That You Should Actually Care About)

1. Telegram Signs $300M Deal with Musk’s xAI

Elon’s AI play gets social. Telegram is integrating the Grok chatbot via a $300M deal with xAI — and will get 50% of all future revenue from AI services on the platform.

» For marketers: Another signal that chat-based interfaces are becoming commercial surfaces. Expect user journeys to start — and convert — inside chat apps.

2. Business Insider Cuts 21% of Staff to Pivot to AI

BI is leaning into AI content creation and live events, cutting a fifth of its newsroom. The union calls it “a pivot away from journalism toward greed.”

» For marketers: This is where publishing is headed. The race is on between AI quantity and human-quality storytelling. Brand credibility will come from how you use AI — not just that you do.

3. Opera Neon Launches the First AI-Agentic Browser

Opera is calling its new browser “agentic.” It includes built-in AI agents that can browse, click, and take actions online — no human input needed.

» For marketers: Think beyond SEO. Agentic browsers could be the new gatekeepers. Your content, structure, and UX must be agent-friendly, not just user-friendly.

4. DeepSeek’s Open-Source Model Levels Up

Open-source AI just got a serious boost. DeepSeek’s upgraded R1 model now rivals big players on reasoning, handles 23K tokens, and reduces hallucinations — all while staying lightweight and free.

» For marketers: Competitive AI isn’t limited to the big names anymore. Expect new tools built on open models — with better customization and lower costs.

That’s it for this week.
» Forward this to someone still building campaigns like it’s 2019.
» Ready to rethink your stack, strategy, or team? We help B2B companies do exactly that.

Until next week,
Peter and Torsten