Five years into the AI revolution, the conversation about AI has shifted from possibilities to tangible approaches for marketing teams to accelerate their operations—from creative prototyping to rapid pre-testing to robust measurement and insights.
From left: Daily Mail’s Greta Lawn, Mobian’s Jonah Goodhart, Mondelez’s Sally Barton, and Swayable’s James Slezak discussed the intersection of AI and creativity.
At Possible 2026, held last week in Miami, more than 7,000 marketing and insights professionals gathered to discuss AI’s growth and how their teams are navigating the challenges and opportunities it brings.
Key insights from the event spotlight how marketers are successfully applying AI in their daily operations while maintaining human-driven, culturally relevant campaigns. Keep scrolling for our takeaways and highlights.
Marketers are increasingly using AI to create concepts, test them, and measure their impact on consumers in days rather than months—meaning there's no reason to put stock in untested ideas. Swayable CEO and Co-Founder James Slezak noted the importance of pre-testing ad prototypes in conversation with Bonin Bough, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Portrait Media Group.
“Within the past year, there's been about a 6-7X improvement in how much AI ads can effectively look like ads you shot,” said Slezak. “As it gets easier to use AI to produce creative, it becomes more important to figure out what works and what doesn't.”
When marketers can use AI to produce dozens of ad variants to test instead of one, the ability to measure consumer impact becomes their biggest competitive advantage. Relying on gut instinct or vanity engagement metrics won’t cut it—teams need direct evidence of brand lift and purchase intent, which they can generate through rapid, creative pre-testing.
While it’s already been established that measurement of AI-generated creative isn’t optional, it also requires an organized, comprehensive structure to be successful. Jonah Goodhart, Co-Founder and CEO at Mobian, stressed the importance of consistent measurement.
“You can't improve if you don't measure. Measure your creative and see how things change over time," said Goodhart.
As AI accelerates content creation, personalization, and discovery, the most successful teams are tracking what's working in real time. Establishing a measurement infrastructure today enables marketers to iterate and prove impact as the AI landscape continues to shift.
Platforms such as Claude and ChatGPT are increasingly becoming a new mode of product search, with 40% of consumers using them for product discovery. When consumers ask these platforms what to buy and certain brands are included in the answer, they gain a major competitive advantage.
During a panel presented by Makers AI, Sally Barton, Director of Marketing Growth Strategy at Mondelez International, highlighted how her team views the impact of AI platform search as e-commerce continues to grow rapidly.
With AI becoming an omnipresent tool for creative ideation, establishing human connection in brand campaigns has never been more important. Successful marketers are balancing their AI experimentation with stories that tap into human emotions and are culturally relevant.
Greta Lawn, President of Daily Mail North America, explained the importance of capturing human-driven stories during the Makers AI session.
“We are really focused on the strategy of bringing our consumers and subscribers into the future. And we are always focused on the human element,” said Lawn. “We are thinking about unique ways to make our scoops move faster, while maintaining authenticity and cultural relevance."
Overall, the brands winning right now are using AI to amplify a strategy that's already deeply human and rooted in trust, cultural relevance, and emotional storytelling.
Swayable works with global brands to pre-test all types of creative, including prototypes, among real consumers. And our AI tools deliver consumers the most relevant test insights in as little as 24 hours. Book a demo today to learn more.