What's more important in the AI era: trust, traffic, or personalization?

Summary

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MarTech Podcast™ – "What's More Important in the AI Era: Trust, Traffic, or Personalization?"

Release Date: July 10, 2026
Host: Benjamin Shapiro
Guest: Anda Ginska, Co-Founder & CEO of Notch

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Episode Overview

This episode of the MarTech Podcast centers on a crucial question for marketers in the age of artificial intelligence: What matters most—trust, traffic, or personalization? Host Benjamin Shapiro and guest Anda Ginska dive into the evolving roles each element plays, exploring the nuanced interplay between them and the risks and rewards of AI-driven marketing. Anda draws from her industry experience to weigh the implications of prioritizing one over the others, particularly in a landscape where AI tools are rapidly reshaping personal interactions and data-driven strategies.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Dilemma: Trust, Traffic, or Personalization?

[02:26] Anda Ginska:

• Anda kicks off by prioritizing personalization, suggesting that "personalization drives trust and ultimately word of mouth is going to drive traffic."
• She challenges the traditional emphasis on traffic, noting, "I don't necessarily think that traffic matters. Right. There's going to be less traffic. Right."
• The conversation shifts to how trust and personalization are intertwined—Anda calls it a "chicken or the egg" scenario:
  • “If you have a personalized experience, do you build trust? Or if people trust you, can you get around having specific personalization?”

The Dark Side of Personalization

[02:53] Anda Ginska:

• Anda raises a warning about personalization becoming too intense, referring to it as possibly “jumping the shark,” and veering into the “creepy factor”.
• She recalls early marketing automation tools:
  • “We saw all these really creepy emails when people started really doing automation at first. Yeah, but that's cause they were bad. Yeah, you didn't. And that. And now we're relying bad personalization.”
• Key Insight: The problem stems not just from automation, but from poor-quality personalization efforts and a lack of human touch.

The Role of AI in Personalization

[03:20] Anda Ginska:

• Anda critiques the delegation of personalization to AI, specifically large language models (LLMs):
  • “Now we're just saying, hey, LLM, go do a better job at personalization. But their training data is the mediocre job we were doing before.”
• The limitations of AI are emphasized: Without human oversight, AI risks perpetuating mediocre or misaligned messaging.

The Importance of Human Touch and Trust

[03:38] Anda Ginska:

• Anda concludes that it still takes a human to understand the right “tone and tenor” required for effective, authentic personalization:
  • “I really do think that it takes a human to figure out what the right tone and tenor is to have great personalization, to really master it.”
• She ultimately leans towards trust as the fundamental priority:
  • “If somebody trusts you, the message doesn't have to be as tailored because they already have that equity. My answer, if you trust.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Prioritizing Personalization:
  "I'm going to go with personalization because I think personalization drives trust and ultimately word of mouth is going to drive traffic." (Anda Ginska, [02:26])

• On the Risk of Over-Personalization:
  "We might have experiences that are so personalized they get into the creepy factor… We saw all these really creepy emails… when people started really doing automation." (Anda Ginska, [02:53])

• On AI Limitations:
  "Now we're just saying, hey, LLM, go do a better job at personalization. But their training data is the mediocre job we were doing before." (Anda Ginska, [03:20])

• On the Enduring Role of Trust:
  "If somebody trusts you, the message doesn't have to be as tailored because they already have that equity. My answer, if you trust." (Anda Ginska, [03:38])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:26] – Anda’s initial answer: The case for personalization
• [02:53] – Discussion of the pitfalls and “creepiness” of over-personalization
• [03:20] – Limitations and risks of AI-driven personalization
• [03:38] – Final thoughts: Human touch and the primacy of trust

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Episode Tone & Style

The conversation is open, candid, and pragmatic—Anda is willing to question industry trends and openly critique both AI and human fallibility in marketing. The tone remains collegial, with Benjamin Shapiro inviting Anda’s opinions and ending on a note of mutual respect and humor about ongoing digital marketing standards.

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Takeaways for Marketers

• Trust matters most in the long term—even as technology accelerates personalization and efficiency, brand equity and customer faith remain central.
• Personalization works when it builds trust, but can backfire if overdone or handled poorly, especially by AI without a human in the loop.
• Marketing strategies must balance AI capabilities with human judgment to keep communications relevant, ethical, and non-intrusive.

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Transcript

[Benjamin Shapiro]

The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com.

[Anda Ginska]

From advertising to software as a service to data across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55 to 65% open rate. Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising. Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours. We're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action. Then it's just a matter of timing.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world class marketers that you technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

[Shift Paradigm Marketing Announcer]

Today's interview is brought to you by Shift Paradigm Marketing today is buried in complexity. You've got the tech, you've got the tools, but moving the needle feels harder than ever. And the last thing us marketers need is another consultant pitching digital transformation. Enter Shift Paradigm Shift is an integrated team of experts who help enterprise brands turn complexity into traction. Their work is insight led and strategically grounded, designed not to sell you a service or a piece of tech, but to actually solve real business challenges. What makes them different? Well, they're AI enabled but not AI dependent. They're human first, but plugged into the latest tools and models and the moments those models need to go through to prove themselves. They get techy without losing sight of the real person behind every click. And they don't just hand you a deck, they build the blueprints and stay to develop, deploy and run the engine. Growth isn't one size fits all. So stop settling for strategies that collect dust and start working with the team that actually builds for you. Visit ShiftParadigm.com to see how they can help you connect meaningfully with your audience. That's ShiftParadigm.com all right, last question for you.

[Anda Ginska]

What's more important in the AI era? Trust, traffic or personalization? I'm going to go with personalization because I think personalization drives trust and ultimately word of mouth is going to drive traffic. It's a tough one. You know, I don't necessarily think that traffic matters. Right. There's going to be less traffic. Right. So it gets down to trust versus personalization, and that's a little bit of a chicken or the egg. If you have a personalized experience, do you build trust? Or if people trust you, can you get around having specific personalization? I think actually personalization might jump the shark. We might have experiences that are so personalized they get into the creepy factor. And you know, we sort of saw that with the initial wave of, of automation and you know, like all the, the marketo style tools. It's like if I had information about you, I feel necessary to put it in an email. We saw all these really creepy emails when people started really doing automation. At first. Yeah, but that's cause they were bad. Yeah, you didn't. And that. And now we're relying bad personalization. You said personalization. Yeah. And that's the question when we're doing personalization. Now we're not relying on humans to do the personalization, which we did kind of a mid job to begin with. Now we're just saying, hey, LLM, go do a better job at personalization. But their training data is the mediocre job we were doing before. I really do think that it takes a human to figure out what the right tone and tenor is to have great personalization, to really master it. So I think I'd probably lean on the trust side. If somebody trusts you, the message doesn't have to be as tailored because they already have that equity. My answer, if you trust. All right, on that. That wraps up this episode of the Martech podcast. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate you coming on being our guest and as I build my website, I hope it lives up to your standards. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, I'll, I'll definitely keep you posted on that. I'm opinionated on these things. All right.

[Shift Paradigm Marketing Announcer]

A special thanks to Shift Paradigm for sponsoring this podcast. Shift is an integrated team of experts who help enterprise brands bridge the gap between strategy data and customers. Human first, AI enabled and execution led. They build the blueprints, then stay to develop, deploy and run the engine you need. So stop settling for decks that collect dust and start working with a team that actually builds for you. Visit ShiftParadigm.com to see how they can help you connect meaningfully with your audience.

[Anda Ginska]

And that wraps up this episode of the Martech podcast. Thanks to Anda Ginska, co founder and CEO of Notch, for joining us. If you'd like to contact Onda, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com or you can visit her company's website, which is notch.com that's k n o t c h.com if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed every week. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers is happy.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Thanks for listening to the Martech podcast and I hear everything. Production Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iheareverything.com.