Curiosity, Capability and Creativity: What MAICON Taught Me About AI and the Future of Marketing

Real takeaways from the Marketing AI Conference for marketing leaders eager to integrate human insight with machine intelligence.

It’s been nearly three years since the world met ChatGPT. Since then, we’ve seen incredible leaps in generative AI’s reasoning, memory, and creative capacity. Yet many marketing teams – especially in middle-market companies – are still asking the same question: How do we actually make this work for us?

After attending the Marketing AI Conference (MAICON) in Cleveland, I returned home with clarity and renewed optimism. The most compelling takeaway wasn’t about prompts, data, or the latest AI integrated tech – it was about mindset.

1. From Policy to Practice: Training Must Be Human-Centered

McDonald’s Chief Data, Analytics and AI Officer Michelle Gansle shared a refreshingly simple approach to AI readiness: “Just start by getting started.” Her framework begins with education, teaching employees the basics of AI ethics and prompting, and then moves to practice. She encourages teams to spend one hour a week experimenting and sharing learnings.

For middle-market businesses, that message matters. You don’t need a formal AI Council to make progress. What you need is curiosity followed by accountability built into the culture, to create a community of practice.

Pro Tip: Start small but make it stick. Encourage play within AI marketing tools. Dedicate time in employee one-on-ones or part of a team touch base to share findings.

2. Beyond Efficiency: Use AI to Spark Innovation

Paul Roetzer, Founder & CEO SmarterX & Marketing AI Institute, framed it perfectly: “Technology gets better every day, but the magic still comes from people and the ideas, emotions, and stories that machines can’t replicate.” His “Move 37” concept – the moment you realize AI can outperform you at parts of your job – wasn’t meant to intimidate. It was a challenge to evolve.

This was a theme across multiple sessions: AI isn’t just a productivity tool; it’s an amplifier for imagination. Like Gansle and others echoed at MAICON, it’s important to “live in the tools.” Use whatever dedicated time your schedule allows to brainstorm solutions in ChatGPT. Probe with questions and prompt it to interview you to delve deeper. Let the systems challenge your assumptions and open up new ideas with human-driven brainstorm sessions.

Quick Win: Geoff Woods, author of The AI-Driven Leader, led an engaging session introducing his prompting technique that included an interview step where the LLM is prompted to ask you three questions to expand your thinking on a campaign or strategy.

3. Content and SEO: Adapt to the New Rules of Discovery

Seer Founder & CEO Wil Reynolds didn’t mince words about how LLMs are affecting search: “SEO’s dead. Good night.” (I attended three SEO sessions where the common thread, unsurprisingly, was declining traffic thanks to Google’s AI Overviews.) But his point was this: discovery hasn’t vanished, it’s fragmented. Customers are asking questions across ChatGPT, Gemini, and social channels. The brands that win won’t just rank; they’ll be believed.

Authenticity and credibility matter more than clicks. That means a human still must be connected to content creation from the prompt forward – AI can draft, but humans must verify what folks are truly searching for, refine, fact-check, and add perspective.

Pro Tip: Measure belief, not just reach. Track engagement and shares as indicators of trust. Mine sales call transcripts, Slack groups, and customer interviews for real keyword insights.

4. Use AI to Enhance Creativity for Digital Campaigns

Fire&Spark President Dale Bertrand’s session encouraged AI use to enhance creativity and improve ideas. I love this use case. He recommends keeping a swipe file of appealing design and articles as well as gathering feedback as context to inform prompts and campaigns. Using AI to enhance campaigns starts with a prompt requesting it find gaps, restructure, improve strategy, apply frameworks and polish. He reminds us to prompt with specificity, “Your brain should hurt when writing a prompt that matters.”

The Throughline: A Human in the Loop

AI is the great equalizer – it gives everyone access to never-seen-before capabilities. As Roetzer stated, “AI is changing everything. It is becoming the underlying operating system for business and society.” Yet, creativity, empathy, and strategic judgment remain human territory. It’s up to us – leaders and enthusiastic adopters – to bring everyone, including the skeptics, late adopters, coworkers, kids, and family along. For business, the opportunity isn’t just to use smarter tools, it’s to build smarter teams that use AI for marketing effectively, wisely and to enhance and innovate. Keep humans at the center to shape, question, and guide. That’s how innovation happens.