AI’s Real Value? Augmenting Talent.

I was recently invited to attend the Ignite Conference from the Institute for Research in Marketing at the University of Minnesota. The theme of the conference was “balance” in the face of all the changes that are occurring in the business environment because of artificial intelligence. This has been a theme for me across 2025, when I realized I was spending too much time online. One of my main goals for myself this year was to do more networking and attend more in-person events. The Ignite event was a perfect example of why that is really important.

Here are some of my biggest takeaways from the conference, and hopefully they resonate with you and generate some ideas for what you’re doing.

Balance Is a Process, Not a Destination

Ken Greer, Augeo’s Chief Innovation Officer, opened the day by asking the audience of several hundred marketers a simple question: “Do you feel balanced?”

Fewer than a dozen hands went up.

He followed up with another: “How many of you have studied what it means to live a balanced life?”

This time, about a third of the room raised their hands.

That disconnect says a lot. We’re consuming ideas about balance—books, podcasts, certifications—but we’re not doing much to implement them.

Ken’s point was sharp: “It may be more productive to seek balance than to achieve it or find it….Focus on the journey and not the destination. Moving from the noun to the verb.” That stuck with me.

What we call balance is really just the accumulation of micro-decisions we make each day. And those micro-decisions get shaped by our preferences. Preferences function like internal filters—letting us focus on the things that align with our goals and values. That’s true when we’re choosing which channel to invest in for a campaign, and it’s true when we’re choosing what peanut butter to buy. Without that filtering system, everything feels like noise.

AI as a Partner (Not a Shortcut)

One of the more substantial panels was titled “From Inspiration to Application,” and focused on how marketers are adapting to AI inside large organizations. There was a small but meaningful shift in how the panelists framed their work—not as “marketing tasks,” but as “commercialization tasks.” Things like product descriptions, ad copy, and press releases. That word choice signals a broader scope of responsibility—and a recognition that AI is being applied across functions, not just within traditional marketing silos.

There was a study shared by Jason Chan, a professor from the Carlson School, that I think deserves attention. It compared the performance of ad copy written by three groups:

1. Experts writing from scratch.

2. Novices using AI as a sounding board.

3. AI writing independently as a ghostwriter.

Where they saw the biggest improvement (on clicks on the paid search ad) came from a novice leveraging AI as a sounding board. The worst performing was AI handling everything and acting as a "ghost writer." However, while the novice improved more with AI, the results were still not better than an expert writing things by hand (for now).

If you’re leading a team, the takeaway is clear: AI should be a partner, not a replacement. Use it to coach your juniors, not to cut them out of the process.

Samantha Schumacher from Target summed up her own approach this way: after she gets output from AI, she asks it, “How well did you execute the prompt that I gave you?” It’s a simple prompt, but it repositions the AI as a participant in the process—not the final authority.

Michael Lacorazza, CMO at U.S. Bank, shared that the bank is building synthetic audiences—essentially AI simulations of their customer segments—for pre-campaign testing. The upside is faster iteration. The downside is that synthetic audiences often miss cultural nuance. And nuance, as we know, often drives conversion. His takeaway: the human still needs to be in the loop.

What If Presence Is the New Productivity?

Another session—titled “Harmony Versus Hustle”—introduced an idea that I’ve been thinking about since: presence as a KPI.

Maggie Tomas, who leads career coaching at Carlson, said business recruiters are now prioritizing “self-awareness” and “resiliency” as top traits in candidates. That’s new. Historically, these traits have often been considered as soft skills, nice-to-haves. Now they’re front and center.

That shift suggests something real. We may finally be moving away from the default hustle narrative and toward something more human-centered, especially for marketers who work in environments that are always on.

Branding Isn’t Just Messaging

The last session I attended focused on iconic brands, and it made the case that we’ve started to confuse brand with communications. Dave Schneider from Red Wing Shoes reminded the room that the four P’s—Product, Price, Place, Promotion—still form the backbone of a brand. Too many companies reduce branding to storytelling and creative, forgetting that what you deliver and how you deliver it is still what drives trust.

He also offered a line that’s worth repeating: “Brand is a promise that is delivered consistently over time.” Not new, but still relevant. And in a world where AI can mimic tone and create campaigns in seconds, consistency—not novelty—might be the more important brand differentiator.

So What?

Here are five things to think about—or try—based on the conversations at Ignite:

1. Create filtering mechanisms for balance: If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start with your preferences. Build your days around them. Fewer inputs. Better decisions.

2. Redefine your use of AI: Don’t offload the entire task to AI. Use it to pressure test your thinking or help team members refine theirs.

3. Audit your onboarding pipeline: If AI is replacing low-level work, what’s replacing the learning that came from doing that work?

4. Treat self-awareness like a skill, not a trait: Reflect regularly. Track where you’re present and where you’re reactive. Build muscle memory around awareness.

5. Revisit the full marketing mix: Look at where your brand promise might be breaking down—not just in messaging, but in how you price, deliver, and support your product.