I don’t think the marketing space has changed this much in such a short time before. In the last 6 months, AI has grown up and showed up – and marketing will never be the same.

I haven’t published much recently. Most of my time went into learning about AI, experimenting, and trying to see where things are heading. Part of this comes from urgency – my job type feels under threat.

Here are a few highlights from this quiet period:

• ChatGPT has become my companion researcher and editor
• I can now write blog posts in 25% of the time, without losing quality (I hope) – and not just repeating other people’s thoughts
• I vibe coded a WPBakery addon
• I created an AI avatar of myself that is better at presenting than I am
• I moved my website to Urumi.AI, who are building a next generation AI-native platform
• I came to a number of conclusions – read on:

The Big AI Shift of 2025

1 – AI wears a strategist’s hat too

AI is a strategist that can tap into a huge pool of case studies, blog posts, videos, research – successes and failures – and apply the formulas that work best. Tools like Digital First provide the framework to do so – see their Strategy Canvas Generator.

2 – Data-driven creativity

I used to think AI produced IKEA-level quality. That’s not true anymore. GenAI produces perfectly polished creative. Not only that, it can learn from past success/failure metrics, to produce highly optimized assets. Check out videos generated using Google Veo – they are incredible.

3 – Content consumption habits are shifting

Mine have. I get most of my information from ChatGPT and Google AI now. I’m not going through websites in the same way I used to. Google search isn’t dead yet, by no means. but the shift is happening fast.

4 – Brand building is becoming critical

Campaigns can be automated, but a brand is different. It’s the idea people form in their heads. It’s the story that builds over time and through thousands of interactions. AI can’t deliver this. Interestingly, SEO platforms are positioning their new AI tools as measuring brand performance – as SEMRush are doing.

5 – Folks are congregating in smaller communities

It feels like professionals are moving into smaller gated groups. Not leaving big networks entirely, but finding spaces that are less noisy and slower-paced. I’m spending much more time in discussions Groups on Slack and Discord then Facebook and LinkedIn.

So – what does “changing everything” mean for this project?

Here’s what I’m thinking doing:

• Create LLM-first content, re-purpose it using AI and distribute as much as possible. This is the name of the game these days – pushing our your brand out as much as possible.
• Run my own GPT – if it’s technically and financially possible. Offering a chat prompt along with ‘pages’.  The team at Urumi.AI will help figure this out.
• Build a community of practice – which was always part of the original idea behind this site. And if I get enough interest, spill that over in the real world, MeetUp-style.

The goal is not just to stay technically relevant. I want to explore how a publication can thrive in this new era. At the same time, it’s also about survival – because there’s a risk that publications just become training data for LLMs, with no way to make them financially sustainable.

All this sounds scary. But it’s also exciting, and it’s not all bad news:

• AI is helping level the playing field. You don’t have to be a multi-million dollar company to produce effective marketing
• I think we’re going to see more people move away from Big Tech and gravitate towards smaller, local properties and communities – and also spend more time offline
• WordPress is very well placed for an AI-first era. I’ll write about this soon.

That’s where I am right now.

How has AI changed your perspective and modus operandi?

I’d love to hear your view on this.