Here’s a new episode of The Reddy Rundown, crafted so you don’t have to frantically follow every headline in the AI space wondering what you’re missing as an exec in 2025 trying to keep up.

At my core, I’m a marketing professional who’s evolved into the CEO chair—but the architect mindset hasn’t left me. In this AI era, the systems we deploy are no longer background support. They are the growth engine. Each week, I break down what’s happening in AI and translate it into marketing strategy you can actually use.

Personalization Is Exploding—But Trust Is Cracking

AI-powered personalization is advancing fast. Platforms now deliver real-time, tailored messaging across channels with large language models at the center. From a systems view, that means marketers can finally scale true one-to-one experiences without burning their teams out.

But here’s the tension: while 92% of marketing pros say they’re already using AI, consumers are growing wary. People want the benefits of personalization without feeling exploited. For execs, that means the differentiator isn’t just adopting the tech—it’s how transparent you are about data usage. Trust becomes part of the system design.

The Speed Wars Are On

AI innovation is accelerating past the old agency model. Generative, agentic, and autonomous systems are collapsing timelines—campaigns that took weeks now launch in hours. For me, this confirms a belief I’ve had for years: if you’re billing clients on hours instead of outcomes, you’re already behind.

The bigger implication? Search and discovery. If AI agents reshape how consumers shop, it’s not just Google’s ad model under threat—it’s the way we think about distribution moats in marketing.

Platforms Are Positioning for Scale

This week, RE/MAX rolled out a “Marketing as a Service” platform through Realforce—giving every agent free access to social content, ads, and performance dashboards. It’s a case study in how entire industries will adopt AI not as a tool, but as infrastructure.

On the MarTech side, Amplitude, Anokis, CallRail, and Colle AI all pushed out features that make it easier to test, target, and scale creative without engineers in the loop. The signal is clear: tools are moving downstream, giving marketers more leverage without technical bottlenecks.

As a systems guy, I see this as the real unlock. Tools that reduce creative friction free you to reallocate energy into distribution and strategy.

AI Literacy Is No Longer Optional

The Washington Post highlighted how employers now demand “AI literacy” across roles—including marketing. Translation: it’s not about whether you’re technical, it’s whether you can adapt workflows with AI.

If you’re leading a marketing team, this means training isn’t optional. Either your people are fluent in AI workflows, or your system bottlenecks at human skill level.

The Melbourne Billboard Backlash

On the other side of the spectrum, Melbourne’s Royal Show went viral for all the wrong reasons. Their AI-generated billboards—built with Midjourney and Firefly—were blasted as “dog-shit” by the public. Deformed hands, surreal faces, nightmare fuel.

As much as I love AI for creative velocity, this is the reality check. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Consumer trust is fragile. AI isn’t an excuse for lazy creative direction—it’s a multiplier of whatever system you’ve already built. If your review process is weak, AI will magnify the flaws.

My Move

This week’s stories reinforce something I’ve been telling clients: your marketing moat isn’t just the story you tell—it’s the system you build to deliver it. AI accelerates everything: personalization, campaign velocity, and even consumer backlash. The exec move is to design systems that can absorb the speed of AI while protecting trust.

Toolbox Plays

Here are the tools that caught my eye—and how I’d use them in a marketing stack:

• Amplitude’s AI Campaign Testing → Lets marketers run faster A/B tests without engineers. Use this to validate creative at scale before dumping budget into ads.

• Anokis Scene-Level Targeting → Contextual targeting for connected TV. Think brand storytelling delivered in the exact right moment.

• CallRail + MNTN Integration → Track performance TV campaigns directly into inbound calls and texts. Great for service businesses who need attribution beyond clicks.

• Colle AI → Personalize digital assets at scale. Perfect for systematizing creative variations for different audience segments.

  
  

That’s it for this week. The drama might be in deformed billboards, but the real action is in how fast AI is embedding itself into the marketing system. As a CEO who still thinks like a marketing architect, I’ll say it plainly: your systems are your moat.

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