Neuroscience, behavioral economics, and AI—applied to brand partnership strategy.
TikTok Shop drives $33B in sales. Agentic AI promises $5 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, brands keep failing for the same structural reasons they always have.
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OpenAI testing ads, Coke creating a Chief Digital Officer, Gap hiring an entertainment exec - the signals are everywhere. Big brands are reorganizing around where attention actually lives now.
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As retail faces cost pressures and brands chase global campaigns, the real competitive advantage isn't landing partnerships - it's having the infrastructure to execute them.
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Four stories about what happens when the visible layer becomes less important than the systems underneath.
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At NRF 2026, executives from Home Depot to Wayfair are exploring agentic AI with visible caution. The industry sees the potential but refuses to hand decision-making authority to systems optimizing toward uncertain signals.
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Walmart bets on open partnerships. Amazon builds alone. The Onion discovers AI can't do satire. What these moves reveal about where real value will live in the AI commerce era.
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While some brands chase store counts and viral moments, the winners of 2026 are using January's slowdown to build something more durable - genuine customer relationships.
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From hotel chains to department stores to airlines, companies are splitting themselves in two - shedding physical assets while doubling down on premium experiences. The bet is that owning the relationship matters more than owning the building.
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Brands built moats through messaging for decades. Now the moat is infrastructure - the systems that prove what you promised. Amazon's redesigned Dash Cart shows exactly how this works.
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As AI agents automate shopping decisions, brands are doubling down on human experiences. Both strategies are responses to the same problem - consumers who've stopped paying attention.
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The marketing playbook is flipping. As AI agents mediate more purchase decisions, brands chasing impressions will lose to those meeting customers where intent already exists.
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86% of marketers now use AI, but most are missing the point. The real shift is not about tools - it is about letting machines talk to each other.
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Everyone's launching AI agents. Almost nobody's asking whether consumers actually want them. The gap between technical capability and psychological readiness explains why most will fail.
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Omnicom's new Google partnership reveals something bigger than search optimization: AI can now decode the messy, specific questions consumers actually ask. For brands struggling with local activation, this changes everything.
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When SaaStr replaced 10 salespeople with 20 AI agents managed by 1.2 humans, it wasn't just a tech story - it was a preview of how every brand relationship will be evaluated, initiated, and maintained.
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AI-generated content is flooding the internet with plausible-sounding nonsense. As trust erodes, brands that double down on authentic local connections will win.
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2,000 pharmacy closures, TikTok ownership drama, and agencies rethinking talent. Three disruptions that point to the same opportunity: local partners you can actually trust.
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Three forces are dismantling middlemen across industries: agentic browsers summarizing content, frictionless payments eliminating spending restraint, and consumers demanding substance over hype. The question isn't whether disintermediation accelerates - it's whether your brand is worth seeking out directly.
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Grocery stores are becoming community centers. The neuroscience is clear: emotional connections drive 31% more profit than rational ads. As digital channels fragment, smart brands are discovering that local partnerships beat algorithmic reach.
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As the year closes, clear patterns emerge in who's thriving and who's struggling. The winners aren't who you'd expect.
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From neural sensors to airline AI, 2025 was the year we finally started listening to what customers, brains, and markets have been trying to tell us. Or at least, that's the claim.
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2025 was the year we learned that neither AI nor billion-dollar deals can bypass the fundamentals. The common thread? Human judgment still matters.
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Neuroscience research reveals that perception literally becomes reality in your customer's brain. Here's how operators can design experiences that work with, not against, how decisions actually get made.
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The jewelry brand deployed AI agents that don't just answer questions. They sell feelings. Here's why this changes everything for brick-and-mortar operators.
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