The marketing landscape is undergoing significant transformation, driven by shifts in consumer preferences, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI), and evolving professional priorities. The 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference, in partnership with The Harris Poll, captured real-time sentiment from industry leaders to provide a clear perspective on these changes. This report, “Signals From The Stage“, identifies four critical imperatives for enterprise marketing and CX leaders to consider, balancing technological advancement with authentic human connection and talent development.
The Resurgence of Tangible Engagement
Despite the pervasive digitalization of consumer interactions, a distinct preference for physical brand experiences is re-emerging, particularly among younger, digitally native demographics. This trend necessitates a strategic re-evaluation of marketing touchpoints to foster deeper emotional connections.
Seventy percent of marketers surveyed at the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference indicated plans to increase investment in physical touchpoints over the next year. Top priorities include community/brand-hosted events (70 percent), experiential retail (66 percent), and limited-time pop-up stores (56 percent). This aligns with consumer data showing that 79 percent of Millennials anticipate brand catalogs, and 77 percent of Gen Z and Millennials plan trips specifically to visit stores or brands, viewing these interactions as part of a cultural moment. For enterprise CX leaders, this signifies that physical presence, when executed strategically, amplifies digital storytelling and strengthens brand relevance.
What this means for leaders is a requirement to integrate authentic, sensory experiences into the broader customer interaction strategy. These are not merely optional activations but integral components that can significantly enhance brand recall and customer loyalty. For example, a telecommunications provider could host local tech workshops or product experience zones, while a financial services firm might offer pop-up financial literacy clinics that foster community trust. Such initiatives provide measurable engagement points that complement online interactions, influencing sentiment beyond digital channels.
What to do:
- Integrate physical and digital strategies: Design campaigns where physical events or samples drive digital engagement (e.g., QR codes at events leading to exclusive online content).
- Prioritize experiential retail and community events: Invest in temporary physical spaces or local activations that offer unique, shareable brand experiences, rather than relying solely on traditional storefronts.
- Measure comprehensive engagement: Track not just attendance but also social media mentions from events, post-event sentiment, and the uplift in digital interactions or conversions attributed to physical touchpoints. (KPIs: event attendance, social media reach, lead generation from physical activations, post-event survey CSAT).
- What to avoid:
- Exclusive focus on digital channels: Neglecting physical touchpoints in a bid for efficiency can alienate segments seeking more tangible interactions.
- Treating physical interactions as isolated campaigns: Ensure physical experiences are fully integrated into the customer relationship management (CRM) system to provide a unified customer view and inform future personalized outreach.
AI’s Transformative Impact on Discovery and Purchase
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the customer discovery and purchase journey, shifting consumers from direct search to delegating tasks to intelligent AI agents. This fundamental change demands that brands rethink their data architecture, content strategies, and governance frameworks to remain discoverable and trusted.
A significant 79 percent of marketers at the conference agreed that “AI is the new search” (ANA and The Harris Poll, Signals From The Stage, November 2025). This consensus indicates a shift from keyword-based search to conversational prompts, where AI algorithms drive brand visibility. Moreover, 71 percent of respondents emphasized the critical need for establishing ethical and privacy standards as AI agents begin making choices on consumers’ behalf. Consumer data supports this shift, with 44 percent of Gen Z and Millennials using AI tools for brand discovery, comparable to Instagram and TikTok (ANA and The Harris Poll, Signals From The Stage, November 2025). This suggests a future where brands must “teach” AI agents about their offerings through structured data and transparent, credible content.
For CX and marketing leaders, this evolution mandates a proactive approach to AI readiness, focusing on robust data governance and clear operational protocols. For example, a large e-commerce retailer must ensure its product information management (PIM) system feeds highly structured, AI-readable data to conversational AI platforms. A B2B SaaS company needs transparent knowledge bases that Large Language Models (LLMs) can access to accurately represent product capabilities and policies.
What to do:
- Establish robust AI governance: Implement clear policies for AI agent-led recommendations and purchases, including data privacy (e.g., GDPR, CCPA compliance), consent management, and bias detection protocols. Conduct regular red-teaming exercises for AI systems.
- Standardize structured data: Ensure all brand data, including product feeds, service catalogs, and policy documents, is standardized and machine-readable to optimize for AI interpretation and accurate responses.
- Develop API integrations: Create secure and well-documented APIs that allow AI platforms and agents to directly access brand information, pricing, and service entitlements.
- Optimize content for conversational AI: Rework content strategies to prioritize Q&A formats and agent-friendly messaging, ensuring brand voice and policies are consistently represented across all AI interactions.
- Define AI operating models and roles: Appoint AI content strategists, data architects focused on AI readiness, and AI ethics officers. Establish clear thresholds for AI agent autonomy and escalation paths to human agents for complex or sensitive inquiries (e.g., complaint resolution, high-value transactions).
- What to avoid:
- Underestimating AI’s impact on discovery: Assuming traditional SEO will suffice in an AI-driven search environment.
- Neglecting AI ethics and transparency: Failing to build consumer trust through clear policies on AI data usage and decision-making will lead to reputational damage and regulatory risks.
- Siloed AI initiatives: Deploying AI tools without integrating them into existing CRM, billing, or ticketing systems will fragment the customer experience and hinder unified data collection.
Cultivating Future-Proof Marketing Talent
The priorities of young professionals are shifting, with stability, security, and work-life balance now outweighing the appeal of traditionally high-growth, high-tech roles. This demographic shift necessitates a renewed investment in talent development and retention within the marketing industry.
Conference attendees underscored this trend: marketers surprisingly encouraged a career as an electrician (44 percent) over marketing (30 percent) or AI (26 percent) for the next generation, signaling a perceived lack of stability in tech-centric roles (ANA and The Harris Poll, Signals From The Stage, November 2025). Furthermore, almost 80 percent of marketers believe that continuous training on new technologies, data, and digital platforms is crucial for demonstrating job stability, with 68 percent citing upskilling and reskilling programs as critical. This aligns with broader Harris Poll data indicating that 76 percent of young professionals prioritize stability over once-coveted tech jobs (ANA and The Harris Poll, Signals From The Stage, November 2025). The ANA Growth Agenda, particularly its Talent and Marketing Organization Practice, directly addresses this need for investing in people to secure the industry’s future.
For senior marketing and CX leaders, talent stability is a strategic imperative for managing a constantly evolving tech stack and complex customer demands. Developing a robust internal training and mentorship framework is essential for retaining skilled professionals and attracting new talent. This involves not just technical upskilling but also fostering clear career progression and emphasizing work-life integration. A large financial institution, for example, might implement a structured AI literacy program for all marketing staff, coupled with a transparent career path that outlines opportunities for specialization in areas like AI-driven analytics or ethical AI deployment, complete with defined salary bands and growth metrics.
What to do:
- Invest in comprehensive education and training: Establish ongoing programs for employees to gain proficiency in AI tools, advanced data analytics, and digital platform management. Partner with external providers or leverage internal subject matter experts (e.g., certifications in specific AI platforms, data science bootcamps).
- Implement structured mentorship and career pathing: Develop formal mentorship programs and clearly defined career paths that show progression within marketing and CX roles, emphasizing cross-functional mobility opportunities. Provide transparent communication around long-term business strategy to instill confidence (e.g., annual performance reviews tied to skill development, internal job posting priority).
- Prioritize well-being and work-life balance: Develop policies and initiatives that support employee well-being, such as flexible work arrangements, mental health resources, and fair compensation structures (e.g., clear policies on PTO, health benefits, balanced fixed vs. variable pay).
- Measure talent development effectiveness: Track key metrics such as employee retention rates, internal promotion rates, training program completion and efficacy scores, and employee satisfaction with career development opportunities. (KPIs: 12-month attrition rate <15%, internal promotion rate >20%, 90% training completion rate).
- What to avoid:
- Assuming technical roles are inherently attractive: Without a clear path to stability and growth, even high-demand tech roles will struggle to retain talent.
- Neglecting continuous upskilling: The rapid pace of technological change means that static skill sets quickly become obsolete, leading to talent gaps and decreased productivity.
- Opaque career progression: Lack of clarity on growth opportunities and compensation structures can lead to disengagement and high turnover rates.
Summary
The “Signals From The Stage” report from the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference provides a critical roadmap for senior marketing and CX leaders. As 2026 approaches, the path to sustained brand growth requires a balanced approach: prioritizing authentic, real-world engagement, responsibly integrating AI into discovery and purchase, and strategically investing in the stability and development of marketing talent.
The four imperatives for growth outlined by the ANA and The Harris Poll—Prioritize IRL Touchpoints, Embrace the Director Shift, Reimagine the Path to Purchase, and Invest in Next-Gen Skills—collectively emphasize a core mandate: reclaim creativity, redefine trust, and reinvest in people. By mastering the intersection of insight and empathy, brands can navigate the evolving landscape effectively, ensuring progress is built on a foundation of both technological innovation and human-centric value. Leaders who implement robust governance, standardize data, and prioritize continuous talent development will be best positioned to deliver measurable outcomes and build lasting brand equity
