At a time when AI, automation and the agentic web are rewriting the rules of customer experience and digital marketing, success requires more than just technology. The brands that win will be those who combine intelligent technology with genuine human connection and a culture of experimentation.
In this blog, we’ll share the major trends and actionable insights we observed at this year’s Technology for Marketing conference and how you can put them into practice to build lasting value, not just fleeting engagement.
The modern marketer’s dilemma
Marketers today face a perfect storm of challenges. Ad costs are climbing, organic reach is shrinking, and the digital landscape is fragmenting. As Michal Leszczynski, Head of Content and SEO at GetResponse, put it, “Getting clicks is getting harder. Way harder than it used to be”. AI overviews in Google search alone are shown to reduce clicks by 34.5%. And even when you do “win” a click, it’s only the beginning. Most customer journeys are non-linear, and the path from awareness to loyalty is riddled with distractions.
There’s also a deeper shift underway. Adam Landis of Branch described how we’re moving from a search-driven web, through an algorithm-driven mobile era, to what he calls the “agentic web”. AI agents are increasingly acting on behalf of users, discovering products, and even making decisions. In this new world, you compete for agent attention, and your brand must be both discoverable and machine-readable.
On top of this, trust is becoming increasingly scarce. Communities are fragmented, and customers are wary of transactional relationships. As Areej AbuAli, founder of Women in Tech SEO, noted, “Community is a new currency.” Yet building genuine connections takes time, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of endless acquisition at the expense of loyalty.
So, what’s the answer to this modern marketer’s dilemma?
Building for humans and agents
One key to overcoming these challenges is a relentless focus on experimentation, grounded in data and empathy. But it’s not always straightforward. As Jeff Bezos famously said, “It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.” Grace Miller, Head of Failure and Experimentation at FlightStory Studio, shared that in her experience, out of every ten experiments, seven were inconclusive, two were failures, and just one was a success. This underscores the value of perseverance and learning from failure.
“Failure leads to feedback, feedback leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to power.” Grace Miller
This culture of experimentation is not just about innovation for its own sake, but about systematically improving outcomes. AI is now essential to this process: from automated content recommendations and video editing, to analysing touchpoints and personalising journeys at scale. The modern marketer’s toolkit is expanding, but the principle remains: curiosity, backed by data, drives progress.
But technology is only half the story. Building meaningful communities, whether for your customers, partners, or internal teams, creates a feedback loop that makes your products and services better. Community is an engine for retention, advocacy, and co-creation. For marketers, the next frontier lies in building cross-functional communities and fostering collaboration between marketing, product, and technology teams. Product managers, for example, are increasingly living within the communities they serve, iterating features and services alongside users.
Personalisation, automation and the agentic web
So how do you translate these principles into action? Start by optimising every owned channel. Lifecycle automation should be context-aware, empathetic and powered by AI that adapts in real-time.
“The brands that are thriving right now aren’t the ones getting the most clicks. They’re the ones who've mastered what happens after the click.” Michal Leszczynski
In a world where 60% of searches now end in zero clicks, it’s not enough for your content to rank. It must also be structured for AI discovery and trusted as a source of expertise. This means optimising for entities, not just keywords, and ensuring technical readiness for both traditional search engines and generative AI models.
Meanwhile, as the agentic web emerges, your data must be clean, well-structured, and validated. Social proof, dynamic optimisation, and seamless user journeys are essential for being discovered and recommended by both humans and machines.
“You need to do it all: be findable (to rank in search), be discoverable (to master algorithms) and help the agent make the best decision (to thrive in the agentic AI era).” Adam Landis
Most importantly, success is no longer measured by clicks or opens, but by outcomes: retention, advocacy, and the lifetime value of each relationship. As the digital world becomes more automated and AI-driven, the most human brands, those that experiment, listen, and learn, will stand out.
The way forward
The Technology for Marketing conference confirmed what we see every day at Credera: the future belongs to brands that combine the best of technology with a deep understanding of people. Intelligent experimentation, AI-powered automation, and genuine communities are the pillars of sustainable growth.
At Credera, our MarTech and AI experts help you cut through the noise, create practical strategies, and build scalable solutions that deliver measurable results. If you’re ready to move beyond campaigns and clicks, reach out to get connected with our experts.
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