The Marketing & AI Podcast: The MAP

AI is accelerating the work. It cannot replace the human behind it.In this episode Hal Kimber speaks to Alan Boyer - a former CMO and senior marketing executive at AT&T, Coca-Cola, and Equifax, before crossing over to become an Educator - both as a management professor and curriculum architectAlan has recently been focussed on looking at how humans need to equip themselves for the AI era and is here to tell us about his new book “ The 7 Communication Superpowers That AI Cannot Automate — the #1 New Release in Business School Guides on Amazon”Tasks that once required analysis, coordination, writing, and problem-solving can now be completed in seconds. Execution is cheap. What remains — and what becomes more valuable than ever — is everything AI cannot automate: the ability to think clearly under pressure, read signals others miss, govern intelligent systems responsibly, stay steady as conditions shift, and move people toward shared understanding.These are not soft skills. They are not personality traits. They are structured human capabilities — and in an AI-accelerated world, they determine who leads and who plateaus.Follow Alan here: Buy the book here

How can you take AI from pilot experimentation to lasting P&L impact?On this episode of The Marketing and AI Podcast, Hal Kimber and Nick Darby sit down with enterprise transformation specialist Scott Robertson to dismantle the industry hype and focus on what actually drives bottom-line P&L impact.Over his career, Scott has led transformation portfolios of up to £200m and, more importantly, delivered benefits scaling beyond £100m a year. Unlike many consultants in this space, he’s also held senior operational roles with direct trading accountability—giving him a commercial grounding that shapes his work: pragmatic, outcome-led, and focused on decisions and execution rather than theory alone.Scott has been using machine learning, predictive analytics, and AI operationally for nearly a decade, recently completed the AI-Driven Business Transformation programme at Oxford Saïd Business School, and is the creator of the newly launched online AI Transformation Playbook.In this episode, we discuss:Digital Transformation 2.0: Why AI fails on top of chaotic data, and how Superdry fixed inventory accuracy to cut excess stock by 40%.High-ROI Unsexy Wins: How £1.5m athleisure brand JLuxe connects Claude to Shopify to run enterprise-level merchandising without adding headcount.Getting It Right First Time: Actionable steps senior leaders can execute this month to get real ROI out of their AI investments.Links & Resources:Scott Robertson's AI Transformation Playbook: transformationplaybook.aiLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsonsm/

IKEA didn't use AI to cut headcount. It used AI to unlock €1.3 billion in new revenue. So why are so many businesses still getting this wrong?In this episode, Hal and Nick are joined by Guy Meisl, Operations Director at Radley, to ask some uncomfortable questions about AI's impact in the real engine room of business: operations, logistics, and supply chain. Why did Uber burn through its entire 2026 AI budget in just four months — and what does that tell us about the hidden cost of AI at scale? Why, despite decades of digital transformation, is the spreadsheet still the bedrock of demand planning and logistics? And what can Starbucks' decision to scrap its AI stock-counting system after nine months teach every business leader about the gap between the promise and the reality?Plus: Nick hears back his own case study from his work at Unilever on ice cream as a best practice example of using AI for demand planning!Guy Meisl is Operations Director at Radley and can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guymeisl/

PR used to shape what humans read. Is it now about shaping what AI LLMs summarise?In this episode, we speak to Jackson Wightman, founder of Proper Propaganda, about one of the biggest shifts happening in marketing today: the rise of AI search.By mid-2025, Jackson noticed that AI search engines were becoming a key discovery channel for both his clients and his own agency. Rather than simply advising clients on Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), he decided to put his own business to the test first.The results were striking.After developing a GEO framework and systematically optimising Proper Propaganda's visibility across AI search platforms, the agency saw a 5x increase in inbound leads. In this fascinating conversation, Jackson shares what worked, what surprised him, and why PR may be entering a new era where success is measured not by share of voice, but by share of answer.We discuss:Why AI search is changing the role of PRHow consumers are using AI throughout the buying journeyWhy different AI models require different optimisation approachesThe growing importance of Reddit, Wikipedia and earned mediaWhy AI bots may have become a new customer segmentThe shift from share of voice to share of answerWhat marketers should actually be measuring in the age of AI searchYou can discover more about Jackson and his work below:Website: https://properpropaganda.net/Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proper-propaganda/Substack: https://jacksonwightman.substack.com/

How do you take your AI skills to Expert Level?In this episode we speak to Charlie Hills, a London-based entrepreneur who left his 9-to-5 in September 2024 to become a full-time AI-focussed creator.Today Charlie's LinkedIn posts, his Substack and now YouTube channel on using AI for content creation have become the gold standard for those seeking to build their brands, their businesses and their careers.He runs Linked Agency (a LinkedIn-focused content agency), The AI Creators Club (a paid community offering AI-powered LinkedIn growth systems and live coaching), and Vislo (an AI-powered infographic and carousel design tool).Using his AI skills Charlie has grown his LinkedIn following from 0 to 218k+ in roughly two years, and his AI infographics have generated over 7.5 million impressions.In addition he has a Substack newsletter with over 50,000 followers, His Instagram has over 70,000 followers and has just launched his YouTube channel.Charlie's mastery of AI and willingness to share how he does it is truly inspiring - are you ready to build your AI brain?Follow Charlie here:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charlie-hillsSubstack: Martech AI newsletter