Artificial intelligence is no longer a looming disruptor in marketing; it’s here, it’s accelerating, and it’s already shaping both consumer expectations and internal workflows.
At B&T’s CMOs to Watch breakfast, held at presenting partner Zenith Media’s Sydney headquarters in Pyrmont yesterday, some of the industry’s top marketers framed AI’s rapid rise not as a disruption to brace for, but as an essential driver of creativity, strategy and business transformation.
The breakfast featured a keynote presentation from Penny Shell, Zenith’s Chief Strategy and Product Officer, followed by a candid and wide-ranging panel discussion with Jenny Melhuish (CMO, ALDI Australia), Goncalo Pinto da Costa (Head of Marketing, Swarovski), and Jason Tonelli (CEO, Zenith), moderated by B&T’s Editor Tom Fogden.
At the heart of it all? A simple idea: AI acceleration is not the problem; stagnation in the face of it is.
The Rise Of AI Has Happened. What Comes Next?
Shell opened with a compelling insight from Zenith’s proprietary panel, Australia’s largest single-source survey, which gathers data from over 5,000 people each month.
“The rise of AI is something we’ve all witnessed firsthand. We reached out to a panel of everyday Australians to learn how they’re using AI and what they envision when it comes to meeting their AI needs,” Shell explained.
The results reveal that AI usage for personal tasks has jumped from 9% in February 2023 to 58% today, with 57% of Australians now also using AI at work. To illustrate the magnitude of this acceleration, Shell compared GenAI’s growth trajectory to tech giants of the past.
“Globally, it took AI, or GenAI, two months to reach 100 million users worldwide. Facebook took four and a half years. Netflix took 10 years. It even beat the iPhone.”
With AI becoming mainstream faster than any other consumer technology in history, and Shell predicting that by January 2026, 70% of Australians will exceed their weekly AI usage, Shell’s message was clear: marketers must adapt quickly.
Speed Is A Feature, Not A Flaw
The panel echoed that sense of urgency, but without panic. Instead, they framed AI’s speed as a welcome shift that could unlock deeper thinking, better work and more meaningful business contribution.
“We’ve always got more we can do,” said Melhuish. “And there’s always stuff that we have to say no to because we don’t have enough FTE or capacity. So what I’m trying to think about it is, how do I educate my business, my team and my business partners, to lean into it [AI] and use it in the right way.”
Melhuish rejected the cost-cutting narrative surrounding AI adoption, making it clear that the goal wasn’t to replace people but to empower them, giving them back hours in their day to complete more valuable work.
“I’m not going to get rid of five full-time employees because we’re saving time. I can actually give them more work and they can do the stuff AI can’t do”.
Melhuish pointed to ALDI’s weekly catalogue, often the clearest expression of the brand’s voice, as a prime candidate for AI optimisation. By training AI to handle portions of its creation, her team could shift their focus toward solving broader business problems.
“How fantastic if we could train AI in our tone of voice, and 50% of that was just done. You still need a human to come over and tick over the top, but that would just save us in our team so much time. I could then use those brains that don’t have to do that anymore to be solving bigger business problems for us.”
No Roadmap? No Problem, Just Move
For Pinto da Costa, AI represents not just acceleration but exploration. And that, he said, is where the opportunity lies.
“It’s fair to say that the majority of marketing teams or companies do not have [an AI] roadmap. They are curious. They want to see what’s out there. But they are also sometimes overwhelmed with all the opportunities”.
Rather than wait for perfection, da Costa emphasised adaptability and education, a practical stance shared by others on the panel.
“The biggest challenge is speed. So everything is happening at a speed that no one can estimate or control. If you think too much about it, you have already wasted time… Go, try things. Be aware. Be adaptable.”
In global companies like Swarovski, regulation and brand governance can slow implementation. Still, da Costa sees AI as an essential tool to help smaller teams accomplish more with less, and do it more efficiently.
For agencies, the appeal of AI is in freeing people from low-value tasks. Tonelli painted a clear picture of the operational shift already underway. “What we’ve got to create is more space and time for our people, because what we know people do best is think. And what we’ve seen computers do really well is enact on that thinking.”
He predicted that AI-generated brief responses, dashboards, and post-campaign reports will soon be standard. “I’m not talking 2027. I’m talking this year.”
Tonelli sees AI as a pathway to earlier strategic contribution from younger talent, a way to help people “lift sooner in their careers,” rather than getting bogged down in manual tasks like pulling data or building slides.
The Evolution Of Search & What It Means For Brands
Shell’s presentation also addressed the shifting dynamics of consumer discovery. 19% of Australians now say they use an AI app as their primary search destination, with Gen Z and Millennials increasingly turning to platforms like TikTok over Google.
This shift has major implications for content strategy. Shell emphasised the role of organic and native content in making brands visible within AI-generated outputs, particularly as traditional paid search becomes less dominant.
“We all know that we can’t actually advertise in that space formally as yet. However, AI is drawing, as you know, on native, on organic, on social, online content. So thinking about that content profile for our brands more broadly will only help gain advantage early in this space.”
Consumers, too, are warming to AI-powered interactions, especially where they add convenience or personalisation. While customer service remains a more human-led space for now, Shell pointed out that brand sentiment around AI has significantly improved in just a year.
“69% of people are neutral or positive about receiving personalised comms or offers thanks to AI. 54% don’t even mind if AI takes their order in a restaurant or in a drive-through.”
The Key Takeaway? AI’s Speed Is The Co-Pilot To Your Success
The discussion repeatedly returned to the idea that AI alone won’t change marketing, but the mindset of its users will.
To better highlight this, Shell asked ChatGPT what the most important thing a room full of CMOs needs to know about advertising, media and AI today is. Its response?
“The most important thing for a room of Chief Marketing Officers CMOS to know about advertising, media and AI today is this: AI isn’t just a tool for efficiency, it’s a creative and strategic accelerator. The brands that win will be those who treat AI as a co-pilot for human insight, not a replacement”.
Rather than issuing warnings, the room sent a clear message: marketing must stop treating AI as a disruption and start treating it as a launchpad.
Whether it’s unlocking new time, smarter search strategies or freeing teams from repetitive work, AI is moving fast. But that acceleration, if met with the right leadership, might just be the unlock marketers have been waiting for.
