The Craft We Have to Relearn
In November 2026, Interbrand published the finding that most of the marketing industry had stopped expecting. After a decade of measured decline, the influence of brand on purchase decisions is climbing back. Organizations raising their Role of Brand by 7% or more are growing revenue 40% faster than those that are not. And the algorithms that were expected to flatten brands into commodities are doing the opposite: they systematically favor brands with the strongest equity.
The reversal is not news. It is the reappearance of something the industry spent ten years forgetting how to practice — and the recovery is not going to be an act of adoption, but an act of recall.
Can You Automate Good Taste?
I arrived at Web Summit Vancouver without the obvious credentials. I'm not an engineer, I don't raise venture rounds, and I don't have a repository to show. I come from the creative side — and I went precisely because I suspected the most important conversation about creativity wasn't happening in design studios anymore. It was happening in the hallways where the direction of AI gets argued out. Twenty thousand people, one hundred countries, and a single thread underneath it all: when machines can make almost anything, what becomes scarce is the judgment to decide what's worth making. Field notes on the only thing that doesn't automate — good taste.