Navigating the AI Gold Rush: Insights on Marketing Automation in 2026

Hannah Kelly: Welcome to the Marketing Automation Moment Podcast. I'm Hannah Kelly.

Mike Maynard: And I'm Mike Maynard. Um, this is Napier's podcast to tell you about the latest news from the world of marketing automation.

Hannah Kelly: Welcome to the Market Automation Moment Podcast. I'm Hannah Kenny.

Mike Maynard: And I'm Mike Maynard.

Hannah Kelly: Today we ask if market automation tools really help us save time.

Mike Maynard: I get excited about gold rushes and hype cycles.

Hannah Kelly: I talk about being human.

Mike Maynard: And Hannah and I present our tips for 2026.

Hannah Kelly: Well, hi, Mike. Welcome back to the first episode of 2026 of the Market Automation Podcast. How are you doing?

Mike Maynard: I'm doing good. Hope you're well as well. And, um, I'm really looking forward to having some good conversations about market automation in 2026.

Hannah Kelly: Me too. But before we get started, I think we've actually got some exciting news to share, haven't we? And that's actually that our big motor race of the year has just been booked in Napier's Go Karting race.

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I mean, forget about, you know, races at Monaco or Monza. Uh, the really big race is the, the Napier Go kart race in a month's time. And I'm sure we'll share who wins. Although I hear that there's even people driving who haven't yet passed their driving test. Hannah, is that right?

Hannah Kelly: I can either confirm or deny that, Mike,

Mike Maynard: for listeners, Hannah's not passed her driving test, but she's decided to enter the go karting race. So we're all very excited to see how well she does.

Hannah Kelly: Yes, wish me luck, everyone. Well, let's kick off, Mike, because we've got quite a bit to talk about and actually we've got some interesting perspectives to talk about. So something slightly different, not necessarily news, but actually some things that both of us have come across in how the mart automation platform are really marketing themselves. And what I mean by this is I came across a webinar from Acton. Now, we've talked about act on a lot. They do webinars, you know, several times a week. But what I thought was really interesting is that they actually have just hosted a webinar, which was yesterday. So for our listeners, this was actually the 14th of January, and they talked about doing more with less. So how lean marketing teams are thriving. And I thought this was quite interesting because, you know, there's no denying that the economy is in a bit of a situation at the moment. The market is struggling slightly and actually act on a capitalizing on this to be like, okay, well, look, you might be having lean marketing teams, but look at what we can do for you, look at how we can make our lives easier. I don't know. What did you think?

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I mean, I think it's an interesting claim. Uh, I mean, this do more with less has been a cliche for, uh, I mean, quite a few years now. Everybody's been pushing it. And I think it's true that teams are struggling, they are being reduced, people are having headcount looked at, and marketing is no exception to that. I think the real question is whether overall martech is actually helping marketers or whether it's actually introducing more and more to do that's actually giving us more work. And I think there's pretty good arguments on both sides.

Hannah Kelly: I couldn't agree more, Mike. And actually we'll talk about this a little bit later, but I think it does come down to that argument of are people reducing headcounts because AI is meant to be the savior? Uh, is martech stack integrating with Aya making everyone's life easier? I'm not actually sure that's true. And I mean, we've had conversations in the past where people can invest so much in a martech stack. They actually have too many platforms, too many apps that they're using, and so it's not saving them any time at all.

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, you know, stack complexity is a real issue where people have got lots of different tools and they're having to jump from one tool to another to get a campaign playing together. I think what Acton would say is that tools like Acton and a lot of the other marketing automation platforms, they can do a lot in one platform, which I think does help. But to me, what we're seeing is, yes, tools are actually making marketers more productive, but there's still a massive requirement on marketers to do more and more. And ironically, the cliche do more. I think that's absolutely true. Whether, uh, the tools are actually enabling us to get more done, um, at the same quality with fewer people, I don't know. My gut feel is that still today, most of the tools are still quite focused on features, rather necessarily simplicity.

Hannah Kelly: I couldn't agree more, Mike. And I think what you're saying here as well is that the marketers are having to do the strategy, they're having to actually implement things right. And again, if things aren't being used correctly, if there's not thought going into the processes of how things are set up, then actually that quality is never going to be there and they're never going to be achieving More results, and they're just doing more and more, but actually it's less effective than it would have been before.

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I completely agree with you. I mean, maybe we should move on to the next topic, because I think, you know, the thing we've been dancing around a bit is AI. So tell us about the next story you found, Hannah.

Hannah Kelly: Yes. So this was actually from MarTech, and I'm an avid reader of MarTech. And the reason I've actually picked this out is because they use the phrase, is the AI Gold rush over? And just for our listeners, um, Mike's favorite phrase at the moment is gold rush. So I couldn't resist bringing it up today. But this was really interesting because the article actually talked about, you know, we've had a whole year of AI agents, you know, different AI capabilities being integrated onto platforms, and it's been this really amazing bedazzling. Like, look at what we're doing. This is so exciting. This is going to be amazing. And then, actually, the world's taken a step back, it feels like, over the last couple of months and been like, oh, actually, is this helping me or is this hindering me? Actually, is AI as advanced as we were thinking it was? Or actually, are we doing more work to get AI up to a quality that a human could do? And then that was really interesting because I read another article by Martech again, and it actually talked about human connection. So we've gone from this. Use AI agents, save time, you know, increase your momentum on strategy. Focus where you need to focus to. Don't forget personalization. Don't forget that humans matter. Don't forget about connection. And I actually feel it's a real extreme from one to another, but I don't know. Do you agree?

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, I don't know how familiar you are with the Gartner hype cycle. People don't talk about this so much now, but a few years ago, you know, everyone was talking about this. You know, Gartner said that when some new technology is introduced, you have this process where technology comes out and everyone gets super excited. So you get this, what they call the peak of inflated expectations. And I think, without doubt, we've seen that with AI, and some people are still, you know, at the peak, dizzy with the lack of oxygen and saying some crazy things. But actually, what happens after that, according to Gartner, is you fall into what they call the trough of disillusionment. And I'm not sure people have quite got there with AI. But I think what, uh, increasingly is being found is that, uh, the quality you get from AI and certainly the differentiation is very limited. You know, it very much is a statistical reflection of all the available information on the web. And that I think doesn't necessarily differentiate. So I don't know. Do you feel you're in the trough of disillusionment, Hannah?

Hannah Kelly: I have to say I think I am. And I haven't heard that before, Mike. So thank you for explaining. But I think it's really hard because I think AI is still useful. Using the right way AI can actually help your productivity. But I think by now marketers were expecting it to be a solution to lots of things that it isn't. And you know, last year around this time, we were like, wow, we're all going to be out of jobs in two years. I actually now, as a marketer myself think I'm safer. I think if you're not using AI, that's a mistake. You need to be up to date with the technology. But I also think that actually we hold so much more value than AI and a lot of marketers are kind of coming out of this, you know, rose tinted glasses phase and realizing that as well.

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I mean, we just ran a webinar about AI and marketing and uh, we did a human versus AI competition. All a bit of fun. And the thing that really brought it home to me is we were looking at some Google Ads and one of our team, Hayden, had drafted some ads and we got AI to draft some ads. Um, and then we asked ChatGPT which were the better ones. And ChatGPT just went, yeah, Hayden's much better. And I thought AI is often criticized for being overly positive and the way it presents things super confidently gives you this veneer of like, credibility that perhaps it doesn't always deserve. But the fact that AI just went, yeah, no human wants better. I thought, you know, really illustrated the problem. Now I'm not sure, but I know Hayden actually does use AI, you know, to help him with the creativity. He may well have used AI for this particular campaign to suggest some ideas. But the important thing is, is the AI couldn't get all the way. You know, if you look at, uh, I mean, my example would be self driving cars. And I know you'd love self driving cars because you're not yet a driver. Although soon to be, I believe. So it's all very exciting. Um, but if you look at self driving cars, you know, a lot of the time, maybe 99% of the time, self driving cars, are working today. But that last 1% is so incredibly difficult. And in the case of self driving cars, if you're crossing the road at the 1% time when the self driving car's not working, it's really, really important. So you know, it's much harder to get that last bit and it's also much more important to get it. That's the thing that really differentiates, that makes the campaign work, that gives you disproportionately good results. So from my point of view as an engineer, we used to talk about the last mile, you know, just getting that last mile solved. That's so difficult to do. And it's so much harder than the first hundred miles that I don't think people have really understood that until now. And now they're beginning to realize that. I mean, do you feel that, do you feel, you know, AI kind of gets you most of the way and then actually humans can do that last bit better than AI?

Hannah Kelly: Oh absolutely, Mike. And I love how you've explained that by the way. But yeah, I mean, if we look at my role, you know, I do a lot of the marketing for Napier and you know, we use AI. We use AI to do help with our blogs, you know, maybe our first draft of our content, you know, ideas for our social posts, things like that. But the difference is that we have, is that we have a DC and DC is one of our content writers at Napier and we always send our content off what we call a magic edit. So he's a brilliant editor, he's a brilliant writer. And actually the difference and the level of that content that comes back once DC has reviewed it versus just what AI spits out is that last mile. And I think that was a great way to explain it because I wouldn't post just what I has spewed out because it's not good enough quality. It's not that I look at and go, yes, this represents Napier, this represents what we want to put out there. But once D.C. has done it. Absolutely. Has it saved us time overall? Absolutely. But it's not done that last mile. It's not a replacement.

Mike Maynard: Yeah. And I think, I think this is the, you know, the amazing thing about AI is, you know, AI is great, it's an incredible tool. Mhm. It's not a magic wand. Um, and I think people are expecting this tool, this hammer to actually be a magic wand, um, and be able to do everything. And what has happened is people have now got disillusioned because they've recognized that it's not this incredible. Do everything. Magic wand. You know, you can't go to ChatGPT and say set up and run my marketing campaign and fire your marketing team. Doesn't work like that. The interesting thing about the hype cycle, and I mean this is something listeners should go and have a look at, is actually what Gartner says. After the trough of disillusionment, which hopefully we can get you out of hand and cheer you up, you go through and eventually you end up in what they call the plateau of productivity. And I think a lot of technologies really do work like this. People get super excited, they think it's amazing, it's going to change the world. Then they think it's, uh, not really changed the world. It's, you know, it's okay. But it doesn't really do everything. I hope so. They get all a bit disillusioned, irrationally disillusioned because actually there's a lot of benefit. But eventually what happens is it just becomes part of your productivity and you almost don't notice it. And I think, you know, where AI is working more and more, we're actually seeing things being built into different tools, into martech tools and they're not really standing out. You know, when you see the flashing lights and the big neon sign saying AI that normally doesn't work very well where things are using AI and ah, not really overhyping it, I think that is where you get the biggest benefit. And so I think more and more AI is going to disappear in marketing. We're not going to be talking about AI, it's just going to be marketing going forward. But I don't think we're quite there yet. Uh, and I think going back to that webinar from Acton, I think there's a difficult push, pull balance here. You've got definitely some benefits from the tools that are making it easier for small teams to deliver great results. But also you've got more and more demands and the tools can't do everything. I'm sure you see that in your job. You can't get everything done automatically, no matter how much you'd like to.

Hannah Kelly: Oh, 100% Mike. And I want to move on because I want to keep in mind what you've just said, but actually relate it because I actually came across a webinar from Salesforce and it's really interesting what you've just said is that, you know, people are coming out that disillusionment. They are, you know, maybe a bit depressed. You know, it's kind of disappearing actually the core elements of AI is when we're like, oh, is that AI? That's great. But what I found interesting is Salesforce has actually held a webinar and it was literally titled Building Trust in Generative AI. And I do wonder if some of the platforms are panicking because, you know, I've talked about my love for Einstein. I. I've loved everything they've done marketing wise. But they're obviously feeling maybe that bit of pressure that marketers aren't that impressed. And so now they're like, oh, okay, how do we need to address it? Oh, it's all about trust. We need to be building trust. But then you've got everything else in marketing at the moment talking about building trust and building connections with actual humans. And I just thought it was a really interesting parallel of what they're actually trying to get across when we know that that isn't the focus for marketers now. I don't know. Do you think it's a mistake? Do you think it's okay? What do you.

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I mean, I think it's probably the case that, you know, Salesforce have got really excited, gotten a hype cycle, promoted AI hugely, and actually people have found it doesn't quite deliver, uh, to the promises in the real world. And so potentially some of Salesforce customers are actually in this trough of disillusionment. They're irrationally disappointed and they should be much happier. And so Salesforce is trying to do that. But you've got to worry when, you know, running webinars, trying to explain how to measure answer quality and to explain that hitl, as I believe it's called Humans in the Loop is an important thing. So it's interesting. I think what's happened with AI, this is maybe a kind of deep conversation about marketing, is that AI has shown that language is not that difficult for computers. We thought it was really hard for computers to do language, but actually, as it turns out, with large language models, it's really easy. And, um, because we've always thought that language is a sign of intelligence, it's what sets us apart from, you know, animals. Basically, then we've assumed, because AI is great at language, it's great at everything else. It's not necessarily, um, brilliant. I mean, there's some amazing things it does, but I think it gives you this, this sort of veneer of confidence. And so people have thought, it's incredible, it's going to be brilliant. And now they're thinking, oh, uh, it's not brilliant, so therefore it must be Rubbish. And actually the answer is somewhere in the middle. And I think we need to get that plateau of productivity. And the smart people are ignoring the hype on both sides. They're ignoring the fire or your marketers run everything through. AI. They're ignoring the AI is terrible. Don't use it. You know, both of those sides are ridiculous. Let's get and focus on practically how you can use it. And I think that's what Salesforce is trying to do with the webinar. I think it's interesting. Sorry to waffle on, but just to go back to the original, um, topic we talked about, which was the act on webinar. I mean, one of the things I think that, um, Acton brought up was really interesting is small marketing teams are more agile. And one of the things I've seen is where you've got clients with very large marketing teams that are quite bureaucratic, actually. They're finding it more difficult to get real benefits from AI than some of the smaller teams that can actually play about with AI, be a bit more flexible and adopt what really works. I mean, do you agree with that, that smaller teams are getting the best benefit?

Hannah Kelly: Absolutely, absolutely. I think as well, when you're in a larger team, you're often in a corporation that has a lot more red tape as well. And when you can be agile, when you can be like, okay. And I actually just want to go back to something you said about having that middle ground and you understand that middle ground. As an agile team, they're getting the best use of it and they're getting the best results from it. And I think that is really key as well. It's not just the best use, but it's actually the best results from how it's helping them.

Mike Maynard: Yeah, I totally agree. I think, you know, there's also a, uh, feeling that firstly, everything needs to avoid any risk in large teams and large companies. But also everything has to be a big project as well. Yes. And we see that also in public sector where everything has to be a huge project. Actually, sometimes you can use AI for a tiny little thing and it can be really beneficial. And I think, you know, again, those are the parts where actually people aren't shouting about using AI, they're just using it as part of their workflow and it's brilliant. And I think more and more that's going to happen. And, you know, probably in three years time we won't talk about AI in the same way we do now. It won't be a separate thing, it will just be part of the tools that we use.

Hannah Kelly: I fully agree, Mike, but I'm conscious of time, so I want to move on to our next segment. So insightful tip of the week. Now, we've talked about this obviously before our recording, and I wanted to do something a little bit different and that is to share a tip from each of us for what marketers should look out for in 20, 20, 26. Now I'm going to kick us off, um, and then I think yours is going to work quite nicely into mine. So for those marketers that are out there listening to this, my advice is remember to segment your lists. I think it's something we've mentioned so many times, but it comes down to that personalization. It comes down to that what is again coming, that really increasingly important human connection. Like make sure that when you are actually sending out your emails, you're not just doing a generic E blast, you are figuring out who you're talking to. The markets, the sectors actually drill down to job title. It could be based on what people have brought before. The difference you will see in your results, we've seen it again and again, cannot be understated.

Mike Maynard: I love that. I mean, I think, you know, we all buy stuff online and we all get, the people who bought this, bought that kind of emails. The reason we get them is they're incredibly effective at, ah, selling product. I mean, we've, we've run campaigns for clients and, you know, increased sales by millions. And I, uh, think personalization, you know, based around not only what people do, their role, but also their behavior is super important. I love that tip. That's a great one, Hannah.

Hannah Kelly: Thank you, Mike. Now, what about you? What's your tip for 2026?

Mike Maynard: Well, my tip's really based a little bit on what we're doing now at Napier, and it's to get an outside perspective and I think what we see when we go and talk to clients. So, um, you know, I'm thinking about some of the newer clients we've won. You look at some of their marketing, you say it's all about you and the client. That's what you mean. And you say, well, look, it's, we do this, we do this, we do. We never realize that. Or you see, you know, clients writing content, particularly technical content, and assuming people have incredible knowledge about the way that they view and approach to design. And the answer is, is they're actually writing content for their own internal engineers who are experts on the project. And it's almost a, uh, you know, a technical, grandstanding thing. Of who can write the best, you know, detailed content. But it's not very impactful for people who aren't customers and don't understand the products. Or indeed, they can just be sounding very corporate, not very human. So, you know, I think getting someone from outside, and as I say, the reason we're doing this is, you know, our website and anybody listening out there, it's definitely a case of cobbler's, uh, shoes. You know, we haven't put a lot of, uh, time, uh, into the Napier website for, you know, really quite a few years working on client stuff, being really busy, and you look at it and you eventually go, yeah, this really, really needs updating four years ago. But what we've done is we've brought in an outside consultant to come and, you know, really look at how we talk about ourselves. And, you know, Carl has been amazing. Um, including getting us to say, kay, that probably is a bit insular. That's probably not the right thing to say to customers. I mean, don't you agree it's been great getting someone in from outside.

Hannah Kelly: Oh, it's been fantastic. And I think we all surprised each other of how much we agreed. So we sat in this, you know, with the consultant, with Carla, and she said this, and we went, yeah, you're right, and every single one of us said it. But it does take that outside perspective to kind of bring you out of your head and go, oh, if I was someone else, if I was on the other side looking in, I would absolutely be doing this. So I couldn't agree more.

Mike Maynard: Mike, that's awesome. That's been great. I mean, Hannah, thank you for another great episode.

Hannah Kelly: Thanks, Mike. Have a great rest of your week. Thanks for listening to the Marketing Automation Moment podcast.

Mike Maynard: Don't forget to subscribe in your favorite podcast application and we'll see you next time.