It’s harder to tell what’s real anymore (and no, I’m not talking about the Sora Sam Altman videos all over LinkedIn right now).
At one point, I thought I saw a robot on stage wearing a sport coat and holding a laser pointer.
That didn’t happen. But it could’ve. And that tells you everything about the energy at MAICON this year. The tools are smarter. The demos are flashier. But what people are really interested in is how to get this stuff into the hands of teams without everything melting down.
The hallway talk wasn’t about AI breakthroughs. It was about org charts, content workflows, and what actually works when the marketing calendar doesn’t care that you’re “experimenting.”
That’s where we’re focused, too. Tools like ComfyUI are helping us speed up creative production with more control. And platform updates from Slack, GA4, and Google are changing how everyday work gets done.
Here’s what I’ve been tracking this week.
Patrick Patterson
CEO at Level Agency
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What's interesting this week
The AI SEO Prompt Library You Actually Want This collection of prompts is a practical cheat code for marketers using AI in content and search strategy. These are not abstract use cases. They’re real examples of how to push large language models into doing valuable SEO tasks quickly and accurately. Read more
AI Digital Twins Are Rethinking Consumer Research Researchers are training models to mimic individual buyer behavior across demographics. These AI “twins” let you run messaging and product tests instantly across virtual audiences. If that holds up under scrutiny, we’re looking at a faster, cheaper, and more flexible approach to customer research. Read more
NotebookLM Appears to Bypass Robots.txt New findings suggest Google’s NotebookLM may be collecting and summarizing content from sites that have opted out via robots.txt. That’s a pretty big deal. It raises questions about content ownership and AI model boundaries. Publishers and marketers should watch this closely. Read more
Gemini Enterprise Launches a New Work Stack Google is now rolling Gemini AI directly into its productivity suite. Think smart prompts inside Docs, automated formatting in Sheets, and live note-taking in Meet. If you spend your day in Google Workspace, the way you interact with these apps is about to change. Read more
Slackbot Evolves Into a Smart Assistant Slack is rolling out a major AI upgrade that turns Slackbot into an actual assistant. It now drafts responses, handles meeting notes, and surfaces key messages. The more integrated it gets, the less time you’ll spend chasing threads or rewriting the same updates. Read more
GA4 Experiments with AI-Powered Insights Google Analytics is testing a built-in “Analytics Advisor” that acts more like a strategist than a stats dashboard. Early reports say it can highlight issues, flag opportunities, and even suggest tactical changes based on your data. Read more
Deep dive: AI
What's really slowing down your AI strategy
Most AI strategies don’t stall because of the tech. They stall because nobody knows what to do next. A recent breakdown in VentureBeat nailed it. The blockers are cultural, not technical. Lack of internal clarity. Fear of mistakes. And the classic “AI initiative” with no business case behind it.
The fix isn’t another vendor demo. It’s leadership that makes AI part of the operating rhythm. That means pilots with clear metrics, quick feedback loops, and team-wide literacy. I’ve seen orgs flounder with fancy models they can’t explain or deploy. Meanwhile, the ones running weekly experiments are building real momentum.
If you’re not shipping something AI-related every month, you’re falling behind. Doesn’t need to be huge. Just needs to be live.
Martech’s breakdown of must-have marketing skills for 2026 is a wake-up call. The standout insight: marketers who succeed with AI will be the ones who can frame the right problems, not just prompt the right answers. It's not about using tools. It's about knowing when, why, and where to use them.
The list goes beyond technical skills. It points to real gaps in business acumen, data interpretation, and cross-functional fluency. Creative teams need to get comfortable with iteration and experimentation. Analysts need to start writing prompts. Strategists need to think like engineers.
If you're leading a team, this should guide your hiring, training, and planning conversations right now.
Some of my team swears by ComfyUI for AI image generation. It’s a free, visual tool that lets you build and edit creative workflows by dragging blocks on a canvas. You can generate, remix, and fine-tune images with a lot more control than most prompt-only tools.
It’s great for marketers and designers who want to experiment fast without getting stuck in code or menus. Everything runs locally and exports clean, so you can share work or reuse it later without losing the setup.
If you’re doing anything visual with AI, this one’s worth a spin.
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