Beyond Automation: How Leading Brands Are Operationalizing AI for Growth and Trust
As artificial intelligence shifts from a novelty to a fundamental component of the marketing stack, industry leaders are moving past the initial phase of experimental automation. At the recent Zeta Live conference in New York City, executives from PepsiCo, Babylist, and Sharp Electronics shared how they are navigating the complexities of integrating AI into their core operations, emphasizing that the technology’s true value lies in strategic application rather than mere efficiency.
Scaling Personalization Without Sacrificing Brand Integrity
For Babylist, a universal baby registry platform, the transition to AI-driven operations has been transformative but challenging. CMO Jill Cress noted that the company has scaled its email and push notification output from 5 million messages two years ago to a projected 1 billion this year. However, this massive increase in volume has necessitated a shift in the marketing team’s role. Rather than manually crafting content, marketers at Babylist are now managing AI agents, allowing them to integrate more deeply into product squads to focus on design and high-level strategy.
Despite these gains, Cress warned that rapid scaling risks diluting the brand’s unique voice and authority. To combat this, the company maintains a strict division between machine-assisted tasks and human-led initiatives. Notably, Babylist continues to rely on human writers for independent reviews, viewing its reputation for trust as an essential competitive moat that cannot be outsourced to algorithms.
Redefining Search and Consumer Discoverability
At PepsiCo, the integration of AI is reshaping the fundamental approach to search and consumer behavior. Mark Kirkham, CMO of PepsiCo Beverages U.S., argued that the industry should stop distinguishing between traditional search and agentic, AI-powered search. According to Kirkham, search is a human behavior that remains constant, regardless of the underlying technology. The goal for marketers, he suggested, is to optimize for speed, efficiency, and accuracy within these evolving digital environments.
For a brand like Gatorade, which requires significant consumer education regarding its scientific benefits, AI-driven discoverability has become a priority. As platforms like Gemini and Reddit play a larger role in how consumers gather information, PepsiCo is focusing on ensuring its content remains visible and clear. While the company is leveraging generative AI to accelerate creative processes like animatic production, Kirkham remains cautious about whether these tools inherently improve the quality of creative output, suggesting that the primary benefit currently lies in process optimization.
Turning Operational Data into Strategic Intelligence
Sharp Electronics is demonstrating that AI’s most practical application may be the transformation of dormant operational data into actionable intelligence. Grace Dolan, President of the company’s U.S. Consumer Division, explained that Sharp’s extensive network of repair services and call centers generates thousands of data points daily. Previously, this information was siloed and underutilized.
By applying AI to categorize and analyze this feedback, Sharp can now provide internal teams with daily reports on emerging customer issues. This intelligence informs everything from marketing FAQs to proactive sales strategies. To foster this culture of innovation, Sharp has designated team members to act as internal advocates for AI, developing case studies and newsletters to keep the organization aligned. Dolan emphasized that while the company is still learning, the strategy is less about radical disruption and more about the smarter utilization of existing information to better serve the customer.
