Amy Beeken – Strategy Director at The Media People
The conversations throughout the day reinforced how AI is reshaping marketing strategy, AI search and the way businesses measure success.
One question ran through the day: what do you want to be known for? As AI makes content and capability more accessible, brand values matter more, not less. When customers compare brands in a few lines of an AI-generated answer rather than visiting 10 websites, differentiation comes from clarity of purpose, trust and reputation, not glossy websites.
That same shift is reshaping measurement. The move from marketing metrics to business metrics is something we’ve always championed at
The Media People, and AI has only accelerated it. Reach, impressions and clicks still have their place, but they aren’t the destination, especially
in a zero-click search economy where customer journeys through Large Language Models (LLMs) can’t yet be mapped.
The brands seeing real impact are linking CRM and sales data to their marketing, and measuring what actually moves the business: growth, efficiency, profitability and customer value. The challenge is shifting from proving marketing worked to proving the business moved forward.
If confidence was the reassurance, challenge was the push forward.
The Microsoft session scratched an itch I’ve had for a while: the great unbundling of the website. We’ve spent decades treating websites as destinations. But as customers increasingly discover, compare and evaluate through AI assistants, websites become structured data sources that feed those systems. They don’t disappear – they become the infrastructure that powers experiences elsewhere.
Then came the call for Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). Back in the 90s, Microsoft set a BHAG to get a computer in every home. In a world of chaos and constant change, it’s easy for a team to get lost or paralysed. That’s exactly why a BHAG matters more than ever: it’s the guiding light that keeps everyone pointed in the same direction, helping them think bigger, move faster and believe in the seemingly impossible.
The challenge that stuck with me most was evolution, not just efficiency. For two years, the conversation has been about doing the same things faster or slightly better. When electricity arrived in our homes, we just swapped gas lamps for light bulbs. It was only later, once we understood its capabilities, that we built radios, microwaves and TVs.
Right now, we’re obsessed with the AI versions of the lightbulb. The more interesting question is: what’s next?
The most unexpected takeaway was a feeling I’ve struggled to articulate: grief.
Not because AI is replacing everything, but because some of the processes and ways of working that we’re being asked to leave behind genuinely worked. They delivered results. They made sense. Our processes run like a well-oiled machine.
Yet progress means letting go of practices designed for a previous era. There’s a real tension between respecting what got us here and accepting that it won’t get us where we need to go next.
I left the summit optimistic, not because all the answers exist, but because the direction of travel is getting clearer.
One line from the day that keeps coming back to me is this: “The change will never be this slow again.” Capturing both the opportunity and the responsibility ahead.
Amy Beeken – Strategy Director at The Media People
The conversations throughout the day reinforced how AI is reshaping marketing strategy, AI search and the way businesses measure success.
My biggest takeaway was confidence. Much of what was discussed on stage mirrored the conversations we’re already having with clients and the strategies we’re already recommending. What felt like bold ideas in January are fast becoming best practices across the industry.
One question ran through the day: what do you want to be known for? As AI makes content and capability more accessible, brand values matter more, not less. When customers compare brands in a few lines of an AI-generated answer rather than visiting 10 websites, differentiation comes from clarity of purpose, trust and reputation, not glossy websites.
That same shift is reshaping measurement. The move from marketing metrics to business metrics is something we’ve always championed at
The Media People, and AI has only accelerated it. Reach, impressions and clicks still have their place, but they aren’t the destination, especially
in a zero-click search economy where customer journeys through Large Language Models (LLMs) can’t yet be mapped.
The brands seeing real impact are linking CRM and sales data to their marketing, and measuring what actually moves the business: growth, efficiency, profitability and customer value. The challenge is shifting from proving marketing worked to proving the business moved forward.
If confidence was the reassurance, challenge was the push forward.
The Microsoft session scratched an itch I’ve had for a while: the great unbundling of the website. We’ve spent decades treating websites as destinations. But as customers increasingly discover, compare and evaluate through AI assistants, websites become structured data sources that feed those systems. They don’t disappear – they become the infrastructure that powers experiences elsewhere.
Then came the call for Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). Back in the 90s, Microsoft set a BHAG to get a computer in every home. In a world of chaos and constant change, it’s easy for a team to get lost or paralysed. That’s exactly why a BHAG matters more than ever: it’s the guiding light that keeps everyone pointed in the same direction, helping them think bigger, move faster and believe in the seemingly impossible.
The challenge that stuck with me most was evolution, not just efficiency. For two years, the conversation has been about doing the same things faster or slightly better. When electricity arrived in our homes, we just swapped gas lamps for light bulbs. It was only later, once we understood its capabilities, that we built radios, microwaves and TVs.
Right now, we’re obsessed with the AI versions of the lightbulb. The more interesting question is: what’s next?
The most unexpected takeaway was a feeling I’ve struggled to articulate: grief.
Not because AI is replacing everything, but because some of the processes and ways of working that we’re being asked to leave behind genuinely worked. They delivered results. They made sense. Our processes run like a well-oiled machine.
Yet progress means letting go of practices designed for a previous era. There’s a real tension between respecting what got us here and accepting that it won’t get us where we need to go next.
I left the summit optimistic, not because all the answers exist, but because the direction of travel is getting clearer.
One line from the day that keeps coming back to me is this: “The change will never be this slow again.” Capturing both the opportunity and the responsibility ahead.
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