Our Thinking on AI: Insights for Leaders

February 18, 2026
Episode 5 is live: What Took a Year Now Takes an Hour
We called it an AI tsunami. Now it’s here. Almost two years ago, when PVAI Consulting launched Mastering AI Skills for Marketers, we told participants AI wouldn’t be “another tech wave”—it would be a tsunami. Read more here…

February 9, 2026
Episode 4 is live: From AI Potential to AI Proof
AI hype from opportunists can sometimes, unfortunately, overshadow the realities many enterprises are experiencing. That’s what Episode 4 of The AI Outcome podcast is about. We’re seeing AI changing the economics of knowledge work widening the gap between frontier adopters and everyone else - even when it is not visible in the org chart. Read more here…

January 29, 2026
Episode 3 of The AI Outcome Podcast: Virtual Professionals
This is the third episode of our trilogy on redefining knowledge work, where the ideas turn into an operating model. In this episode, we focus on virtual professionals—what they are, how they differ from AI agents, and why they’re emerging as a new source of operating leverage for CMOs, CEOs, and their teams. Read more here…

January 22, 2026
Episode 2 of The AI Outcome Podcast: Virtual Customers
Episode 2 in our three-part series on redefining knowledge work is now live. This latest episode of The AI Outcome podcast focuses on a capability that fundamentally changes how organizations decide: virtual customers. Read more here…

January 15, 2026
New from PVAI: The AI Outcome Podcast
Most marketing organizations aren’t short on data or tools. They’re short on a repeatable way to turn customer truth into decisions—fast enough to matter. Read more here…

December 12, 2025
The Six Capabilities Reshaping Marketing in 2026
Marketing leaders are moving fast, and the competitive edge is shifting. Not from more AI pilots — but from the operating systems teams are wiring in right now. As organizations finalize their 2026 plans, six capabilities are emerging as the foundation of modern marketing. Read more here…

December 5, 2025
What Top CMOs Are Learning About Product Content
Most brands have more customer data than ever — and still struggle to translate it into connection. Read more here…

December 2, 2025
How CMOs Are Linking Efficiency and Customer Connection
Marketing leaders are being pulled in two directions at once:
Deliver more with less and get closer to the customer than ever.

AI has become a primary lever that affects both sides simultaneously and that’s what this year’s AI Day is built around. Read more here…

November 18, 2025
From insight to execution: your AI Day ROI + Value Creation Audit
AI Day 2025 isn’t just about marketing ideas — it’s about turning them into execution that moves the business. Read more here…

November 11, 2025
Your AI Playbook For Getting Closer To Your Customers
Most teams are piloting AI. The best are rebuilding their business around it.

This isn’t a tech story, it’s a growth story. In the next year, the advantage won’t come from adopting new tools, but from integrating AI into the way decisions are made, customers are understood, and value is delivered. Read more here…

October 14, 2025
Three AI Questions Leadership Teams Are Asking Right Now
In the last AI Outcome, I wrote about the Potential and Peril of AI and how business leaders and employees are shifting from curiosity to urgency. That urgency was underscored again in the Wall Street Journal article, “Walmart CEO Issues Wake-Up Call: ‘AI Is Going to Change Literally Every Job.’” (You should read it—it’s a concise look at how different employers are approaching this transition.)

It hit home because when a company of that scale speaks openly about the magnitude of workforce change ahead, it reflects the reality nearly every brand will be confronting. The blend of candor and uncertainty mirrors what we’ve been hearing in our own executive conversations. Across industries, leadership teams are wrestling with how to turn AI from a disruptive force into a defined strategy. Three questions keep surfacing: Read more here…

October 3, 2025
AI Possibility + Peril: A Two-Part Series on the Future of Work
It’s been a few months since we last published here. The reason? We’ve been deep in the work running pilots, building virtual employees and agents, and helping leadership teams redesign how their organizations operate with AI infused throughout their workflows. It’s been busy in the best way.

Today we’re back with a two-part series that captures what we’ve been learning and advising at the highest levels:

Part 1 — Possibility: My One-Year-Old Just Became a Principal Consultant: Meet Auggie → how the new operating model of Humans + Virtual Employees + Agents raises the bar and opens new leverage.

Part 2 — Peril: Elevate the Best. Automate the Rest. Now What? → what business leaders and LLM model-makers are really saying about jobs, workflows, and teams, why leaders should take note, and what you can do to position yourself for the change.

The floor is rising. The ceiling is rising faster.

April 11, 2025
Master the AI Shift: Strategic Content, Upcoming Courses & Free Webinars
For a couple of years now, we have shared in our courses and with our clients that we believed 'GenAI will be the most fundamental change in society and the workplace, ever.' With the pace of innovation in recent months already outpacing all of 2024, we’re now more confident than ever that GenAI is that change. Read more here…

March 14, 2025
Navigating AI's Disruption and Transformation of Consumer Product Discovery & Search
The digital marketplace is experiencing a fundamental transformation as AI-powered search engines reshape how consumers discover and interact with products. Traditional search engines like Google, which relied on keyword-based queries and static rankings, are increasingly being supplemented or replaced by AI-driven platforms that provide real-time, contextual, and conversational search experiences. Read more here…

February 14, 2025
The Transformational Impact of AI on Market Research
Market research is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the integration of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies. Traditional approaches—characterized by manual processes and static analyses—are being eclipsed by AI systems that deliver unprecedented depth, precision, and efficiency. For business and marketing leaders, the adoption of AI-enabled market research is not just an operational improvement but a strategic imperative that reshapes competitive dynamics.30 years of advising brands on leveraging emerging tech, we have never seen such an impactful period as the past month, with generative AI capabilities evolving to incredible levels. Read more here…

December 20, 2024
Looking Forward: AI's Dual Impact in 2025
In our 30 years of advising brands on leveraging emerging tech, we have never seen such an impactful period as the past month, with generative AI capabilities evolving to incredible levels. Read more here…

December 13, 2024
Unlock Opportunity with AI Disruption
In times of rapid technological change, disruption often presents unique opportunities for brands willing to innovate. Creative storytelling is one area where this is happening today —but it requires bold foresight, strategic planning, and disciplined execution. Read more here…

December 4, 2024
Bridging the AI Knowledge Gap: A Strategic Imperative for Boards and Executives
As you finalize plans for 2025, a recent Deloitte study revealed a concerning gap: nearly 80% of board members and C-suite executives report their boards have limited to no knowledge or experience with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Read more here…

November 14, 2024
The Emerging Impact of AI Agents on Consumer Behavior and Brand Engagement
In our launch post, Embracing ‘What If?’: How Leaders Navigate AI, we asked Leaders to explore future opportunities. Today, we ask, ‘What If the promise of AI agents in 2025 becomes reality?’ Read more here…

November 7, 2024
Budgeting for AI in 2025: Strategic Considerations for Organizational Leaders
Are you grappling with how to allocate resources effectively for AI initiatives in your 2025 plan? If so, outlined below are key considerations to guide your budgeting process to help ensure AI investments create clear, measurable value—not vague promises. Read more here…

October 29, 2024
From Technology to Transformation: Embracing AI as a Strategic Partner
We are often asked about the role of AI in marketing, particularly as it relates to one’s career or how to shape an organization. Our response is straightforward. It will be both profoundly transformative and challenging. Read more here…

October 25, 2024
AI is Changing Search
A few months ago, Perplexity was probably known mostly to a niche audience of AI innovators and now it’s being mentioned in a top story in The Wall Street Journal along with TikTok and Amazon as threats to Google. Time will tell on that, given Google’s AI capabilities, data, distribution and Overviews product, but regardless, it’s a good example for leaders to think about three lessons learned from past emerging tech cycles: Read more here…

October 22, 2024
Embracing ‘What If?’: How Leaders Navigate AI
Much of the focus and captivation with Generative AI (GenAI) is on its current capabilities—rightfully so, as it’s crucial to understand how AI is impacting businesses today and laying the foundation for future scalability. But with AI progressing at a breakneck pace, forward-thinking leaders are already asking, “What if?”—exploring future opportunities, while those who don’t, risk becoming Laggards and falling behind. Read more here…