Welcome to the post-creative age: how objectivity and data-driven marketing will define the AI era
- Manelik Sfez
- Nov 25
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 26
For decades, marketing and advertising were an art form: persuasion, intuition, the magic of an idea well told. I've worked in this industry for over twenty-five years, often in creative leadership roles, and I've loved—truly loved—the great campaigns and the minds behind them.
But the rules are changing. Fast. So fast that it's sometimes stressful, testing our cognitive inertia in ways we didn't expect.
AI has entered the room, not quietly, replacing human curiosity with algorithmic reasoning. And in a way, that's not bad. It will finally put an end to the advertising nonsense that too often spirals out of control. Those of us who've spent years in B2B, where facts matter as much as emotion, are seeing something familiar take the lead again: substance over spin, proof over poetry.
People aren't searching the web the way they used to. They're asking machines to find, evaluate, and recommend for them. They're no longer responding to enticing slogans or clever creative hooks; they're trusting algorithms to filter the noise and deliver the best, most verifiable answer.
Machines don't get seduced. They don't care about tone or beauty. They validate truth—quite brutally, most of the time. That's why the future of marketing isn't about louder stories or better slogans. It's about systems that can prove what they say. It's about content structures that bring clarity, evidence, and integration.
At Ultrabrand, we see this as a new creative frontier emerging faster than anyone expected. And it's beginning to challenge the entire industry, clients included.
Why AI discovery rewards data, not discourse
AI systems don't read websites like humans do. They scan, parse, and verify structured information. Then they assign a series of scores—credibility, depth, clarity, authority—and decide whether the content can be believed, cited, or recommended.
AI doesn't reward emotional appeal. It rewards consistency, coherence, and truth.
The tragedy, as you've probably guessed, is that countless websites that are beautiful and well-designed from a human perspective are now completely invisible. A poetic tagline and cinematic video mean nothing to a machine trained to detect verifiable data.
Data-driven marketing, supported by an objective, structured, and detailed content strategy, is the logical response. I can already hear people fuming about the disappearance of creativity. Understandable. But it's not the death of creativity; it's the formalization of it. Every element, from site structure to CRM to campaign analytics, becomes part of an interconnected system that can prove a brand’s claims.
Until recently, data-driven marketing referred mostly to behavioral data—CRM insights, analytics, personalization. But with AI, content itself becomes data. Every piece of text, every claim, every connection between pages now feeds machine models that decide how visible and credible your brand appears. The old "data" optimized targeting; the new "data" defines discovery.
Creating a content layer designed specifically for machines, whether in text or code, doesn't diminish the human layer. It might even liberate it from the constraints of traditional SEO.
The clearer and more structured your data, the higher your visibility in AI discovery. The fuzzier your story, the faster you vanish. But this applies mainly to the content layer built for AI, not for humans. This is assuming there are still any left reading in a few years, skeptics might say.
The real question becomes: how do we separate those two layers in the code to preserve creative freedom? And will tomorrow's systems even allow that separation? If there's anything that should concern us, it's this in my opinion.
How creativity becomes systemized
It sounds cold, but it isn't. Creativity isn't dying; it's being redefined. Emotion still drives human connection, but emotion without evidence can't survive in an AI-filtered world. To be seen, creativity must attach itself to proof. These may seem like stifling constraints, but they also enforce clarity and truth. And creativity has always thrived on constraint.
Call it systemized creativity: the art of crafting ideas that live inside structured, verifiable systems. Publicis saw this early. In 2019, Arthur Sadoun shocked the ad world by spending 4.4 billion dollars to acquire Epsilon, a data company. Six years down the road, it looks visionary. Publicis turned from a creative powerhouse into a data-driven marketing platform.
The result is higher growth, stronger margins, and a business model built for the algorithmic age. They didn't abandon creativity. They industrialized it. And in a world where the watchword is "at scale," it's hard to imagine a smarter move.
The human factor is integrating, not disappearing
As mentioned earlier, machines can analyze and evaluate, and do it at a scale that we humans can barely comprehend. But they can't feel. Feeling remains, for better or worse, the prerogative of humans.
The job changes, though. We're no longer performers chasing attention; we're designers of meaning, building emotional resonance on top of structures that machines can read and trust to help humans find what they need.
There's irony in this. Advertising once prided itself on creating needs people didn't have, selling things they didn't need. Now our own "intelligent" machines are forcing us to ask whether we truly need what we promote. And to prove it.
That's the new balance: human truth expressed through systems of proof. The brands that thrive will speak to both audiences simultaneously, the human seeking emotion and the AI filtering for credibility.
What data-driven marketing means in practice
In practical terms, data-driven marketing connects every element—content, audience, reach, website, CRM, automation, analytics—into one coherent infrastructure. It turns marketing from a collection of campaigns supported by empty slogans and exaggerated imagery into a continuous, verifiable demonstration of value.
From a human perspective, that's good news. The era of surface-level storytelling (rubbish?) is ending.
When AI crawlers read your site, they don't see design or style; they see entities, relationships, and patterns that either confirm or contradict your brand's claims. That's why we now build websites as semantic ecosystems.
There's more depth behind the surface than most human visitors can see, and, for once, machines understand it. It takes more effort, more thought, and more discipline than typical content writing. But it's bulletproof.
CRM integration links every contact and interaction.
Marketing automation translates intent into measurable triggers.
Structured content exposes context machines can parse.
First-party data ensures ownership and traceability.
Analytics verify performance in real time.
This is what "marketing infrastructure" now means in my opinion: an intelligent system where emotion sits on structure, not beside it.
Why most brands still miss the point
Most companies still treat marketing as decoration with beautiful visuals, clever lines, disconnected tools. It worked when attention was cheap. It fails when AI mediates discovery and human attention spans collapse to eight seconds (and no, that’s not an exaggeration, mind you).
The AI revolution is turning the web into a verification layer for machines. Not completely yet, but we're halfway there. If your claims aren't backed by structure, AI filters you out. If your message lacks emotion, people ignore it. Both matter, but the order has changed.
System first. Emotion second.
And yet most businesses still cling to the fantasy that visitors type their company name into Google or their exact URL, then patiently read every word. It’s delusional. That’s the deeper issue: many business leaders in their forties and above still don’t understand what the internet really is, and live in a kind of fantasy world made of paper communications—just on a screen. In their minds, we’ve merely stopped printing brochures and storing them in the basement. Now we store them on servers and display them on screens. And of course, Google is waiting for us and will kindly show us to the ideal client tomorrow. It’s going to hurt…
What data-driven marketing really changes
The convergence of data-driven marketing and AI redefines the purpose of everything:
Design becomes clarity architecture.
Copy becomes semantic precision.
Automation becomes evidence delivery.
The result isn't sterile, it's intelligent. Every pixel, every phrase, every form now serves both human emotion and machine logic. Ironically, that will make creativity matter more, not less. Because when everything can be measured, true creative distinction lies in how beautifully you express verified truth.
The brands that adapt and those that won’t
Regardless of size or reach, winners will master both sides: logic and feeling. They'll build emotional narratives inside data-verified systems. They'll feed AI engines structured content that reinforces credibility while still speaking to humans.
Losers will cling to campaigns without structure, claims without proof, and fade from visibility. Slowly, if I'm being kind. More likely, brutally. They won't sink in the rankings: they'll disappear from the results altogether. Like magic, but in an unpleasant way.
Ultrabrand's perspective: building intelligent marketing systems
At Ultrabrand, we stopped building "online brochures with a contact page" a while ago. Don’t come to us saying you're a small company and just want something simple. We're not interested in that, and we know it’s a pointless waste of money.
We build integrated marketing systems: unified ecosystems of automation, CRM, analytics, and structured data—designed for AI readability and human understanding. The front-end interface is the website.
Creativity still drives our work, but it's grounded in architecture and content intelligence. We don’t replace inspiration; we frame it.
Because in this new era, a great idea isn't enough unless it can be read, verified, and trusted by both audiences: human and machine. That's why every project begins with a strategy workshop and ends with a system, not a slogan. Even though, as a former advertising executive, I still love phrases that sound good.
Next steps
Ask yourself:
Can AI understand what your company does as clearly as a client can?
Can you prove your marketing claims in measurable, data-driven terms?
Does your website demonstrate what you promise, or merely describe it?
If you hesitate, honestly you already have your answer. The future won't reward improvisation. It will reward structure.
Book your Digital Check-In or join a Strategize Workshop to assess how your marketing infrastructure performs in the AI era.
About the author
Manelik Sfez, founder of the Swiss web agency Ultrabrand, brings 25 years of international business, marketing, and brand strategy experience to the table. He has worked with some of the world's most iconic brands throughout his career. From luxury goods to global retail, financial services and technological and industry giants, he has guided companies through brand-led transformations that have enabled significant business growth.
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