Hey everyone,
It’s finally gorgeous out in NYC. I hope, wherever you are, that you’re enjoying your day and prepping for the week ahead. If you’re in NYC, take a friend or your favorite podcast over to Central Park and enjoy the beautiful, blossoming trees (that’s where I started my day with a friend)!
I’m Julia, and every week in this newsletter, I break down marketing insights I’ve learned building software and consumer products (bootstrapped + VC-backed) and lean into the organic, creator, and paid strategies that fuel viral growth.
Lately, I’ve been hooked on scrolling through AI content on social media. So much so that a video I stumbled on became one of the highlights in our company Town Hall this week (linked in section 1).
Some weeks, I share my favorite hacks, tips and learnings. This week, I’m focusing on the bigger shifts I’m seeing in marketing and tools major winners are leaning into because, TBH, I can’t stop thinking about them. Yes, I’ve been calling friends and industry people nonstop to talk about everything you’re about to read. Things are changing quickly, and I’m excited and ready for what is shaping this next version of marketing, product, and company building… and you should be prepped because this is how you’ll win.
What you’ll read about:
AI Agents: How can I build something that does my entire job (so I can do more things)?
Imagine a super cool, futuristic product roadmap
Totally unhinged influencing by Chinese luxury goods manufacturers
BTW – If you’re in town next week, I’m speaking on an AI marketing panel at the GroupM global headquarters. Reply if you’d like to join me as a guest and hear from/meet other cool leaders in the space.
1. AI Marketing Agents: We’re So Ready to Uplevel
I watched an Instagram reel of someone demoing an AI agent setup, and sent it to 1,000 people because it honestly blew my mind. We’re at the very early stages, but you can already see where this is going: AI agents that run big chunks of marketing, making decisions, creating content, and optimizing campaigns…mostly on their own.
I’ve started to build one. Spoiler: it’s (sadly) not as easy as it looks. Most of what’s out there right now is good at repetitive stuff: answering emails, scheduling, and basic research. If you want an AI agent that can actually review competitors, create content, publish it, and then analyze results? You’re looking at a lot of custom work.
With that being said, you should know that AI agents are fundamentally changing how marketing teams operate. In 2025, 85% of enterprises are projected to use some form of AI, and many have agents to automate tasks, analyze data, and personalize customer interactions. These aren’t your basic chatbots… which is good because does anyone actually like those?
Imagine that this system autonomously manages your marketing workflow, from ideation to analytics, while you focus on literally anything else. That’s the promise of agentic AI (aka, AI models that operate autonomously within workflows, making decisions about the next steps without human intervention). Unlike traditional automation tools, these agents learn from data, make context-sensitive decisions, and interact with other systems independently.
What does this mean for you?
Write a list of all the boring stuff you hate doing: AI agents are no longer optional or magic yet, but they’re essential for staying competitive. The best ones today automate the boring stuff.
What are your 3 most dense marketing workflows that you can start to break up with AI? The opportunity lies in integrating AI into your existing workflows, not waiting for a perfect solution. Start small, automate what you can, and scale up as the technology evolves
Do you want to grow faster? No, this isn’t a trick question. The companies that adapt fastest will set the pace for the next era of marketing. If you’re able to produce 10x volume at minimum 2x the speed, you should be able to iterate enough to compel your target audience.
While I’m working on building more of our AI Agent workflow out, if anyone has built a truly end-to-end AI marketing agent, I want to hear about it. Reply to this!
2. Product Building Includes Willing Things Into Existence…Now, Let’s Imagine an Ultimate Marketing AI Agent of the Future
This is a fun exercise, so just go with it and see where your imagination takes you, and how this could look integrated into your business and workflow. You have a futuristic AI Agent that is a self-evolving system merging strategy, creativity, and execution into a seamless, autonomous force. Here’s what a north star for this agent could look like:
Core Functionality:
Omnichannel Universe Synthesis
Integrates every marketing channel (social, AR/VR, electronic billboards, airspace ads from drones, consumer phone lock screens) into a unified ecosystem, deploying campaigns across thousands of platforms at once while adjusting content format, tone, and timing for each consumer. I want something that really speaks to me, and only me.
Generates interconnected 3D product demos (I feel like we are already here, or very close), interactive story worlds (where the storyline is shaped by the user’s choices and actions), and viral meme cycles in seconds. Basically, everything evolves for individual customers in a hyper-personalized way.
Predictive Market Creation
Identifies unmet consumer needs 18 months in advance by analyzing global search trends, satellite imagery of retail traffic, and even EEG brainwave data from wearable tech (aka, “wearables”), like your Apple Watch or Whoop.
Automatically prototypes virtual products for fast A/B testing before production even begins. Let’s make good use of our capital with some high-end fake door tests….I’m curious if you’re opposed to this and why? Reply and let me know.
Self-Optimizing Brand DNA
Evolves brand voice and visual identity based on cultural shifts, things like customer feedback, tweets, etc., to stay culturally dominant and relevant.
Deploys millions of micro + nano influencer AI avatars to specific niche communities, each trained on hyper-local contexts and subcultures. If we’ve learned anything from Citizen’s Creator Program, it’s that speaking the language of the people in your specific city is key in quick, widespread adoption because it jolts authenticity.
What’s interesting is how you can make the AI-generated brand ambassadors feel totally seamless and relatable to the end consumers, since this format is what I have seen personally work for the highest UGC conversion.
All of that can now power something like an autonomous product launch:
Spots rising demand for trends, like in clothing
Designs printable clothing patterns using generative AI
Negotiates with factories via smart contracts
Launches a viral TikTok campaign with AI-generated influencers
All within 12-72 hours
It’s giving Shien’s production model, but supercharged. Would you trust your capital with this?
Did you catch this week how China is using social media to shake up the luxury goods market? Chinese factories are running campaigns telling people to skip the big brands (think LVMH) and buy directly from the source. They’re using satire, memes, and even trolling Western consumers… and the videos have gone completely viral, including ones about Birkins (watch here, here and here).
It’s a bold marketing tactic to directly challenge the tropes that give luxury brands their status: operating undercover, secretive, and exclusively. And it’s completely working, at least in terms of attention, given that on Friday, the #2 and #4 apps in the U.S. App Store were Chinese shopping apps popular for purchasing dupes (Check these out: DHGate and Taobao).
What does this mean for you?
What narrative do you want to drive on social media about your business? Social media is just as much about narrative control as it is about reach, including in brand campaigns and product launches.
What legacy players do you have to keep an eye out for on social media to protect your business? The old luxury playbook (exclusivity, heritage, high prices) is under attack from agile, internet-native players. You can apply this across so many different social genres, from meme accounts to unhinged fanbase community activation. Even the Lovable CEO posting a cease and desist letter on LinkedIn from Figma over the word “Dev Mode” is a move.
If you’re in a “safe” industry, don’t think you should be comfortable and untouchable. Disruption can come from anywhere, fast. I saw very few brands respond to this. What do you think: is that the right PR move, to keep the veil when consumers are begging for authenticity? I personally think this could have been a good opportunity for luxury brands to show that they are modern and can talk in the voice of today’s customers by crafting witty responses.
Final Thought
Inspired by this article on AI Marketing Trends 2025…. Have you ever thought about SEO being a thing of the past and “Answer Engine Optimization” being a thing of the present and future? This would involve brands positioning themselves across LLMs such as Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini (P.S. Click each LLM name to read a few secrets on how to curate your company on there). Each LLM will require a different strategy based on how it ingests information, and you should definitely start thinking about this to stay ahead of the curve. If you didn’t already realize SEO is changing because even when you Google something, Gemini spits out an answer right under the search bar, completely limiting your browsing.
Well, How’d I Do
It’s so important to riff on what companies are adopting now for AI, what the future could look like in marketing, and how crazy social media takeovers are continuing to happen on a global scale.
I hope you had fun reading, and keep in mind that you can get as creative as possible when you think about what you want to build, how to reshape your workflow, and how the world can evolve. It’s more fun to create > consume, in my opinion. I love thinking about how everything around us was thought up by someone, somewhere, somehow, and made into reality.
If you found this interesting, get in on my referral program for cool perks detailed below and share it with someone who’s trying to figure out what’s going on in the AI marketing world right now.
Have a great week!
Julia
