Podcast Summary: The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®
Episode #737 – Unlocking Sustainable Growth Using AI with Bryan Gernert, Resonate
Date: September 19, 2025
Guest: Bryan Gernert, CEO & Co-Founder, Resonate
Host: Greg Kihlström
Episode Overview
In this episode, Greg Kihlström speaks with Bryan Gernert, CEO and co-founder of Resonate, about how AI-driven consumer intelligence can do more than just streamline marketing workflows—it can unlock true agility, anticipate changing trends, and generate sustainable business growth, even amid economic and regulatory uncertainty. Bryan shares firsthand insights into where marketers are seeing tangible value from AI, how to separate real innovation from hype, and practical advice for building data privacy–compliant AI solutions that drive meaningful ROI.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
The State of AI in Marketing: Hype Versus Real Results
[02:31 – 05:01]
- Tangible AI use cases: Most marketers have embraced creative uses for generative AI (e.g., content generation for social and other channels), but Bryan sees a much larger opportunity: “It’s really about being more effective in marketing and driving business results that creates value.”
- AI should move beyond efficiency and cost-cutting, instead enabling prediction of consumer behavior, hyper-personalization, and dramatically faster time-to-insight.
- Bryan predicts the future of marketing intelligence will involve “shorten[ing] insight from weeks to days, and that’ll be minutes, and eventually probably won’t require us as human beings to actually evaluate the insights” (Bryan Gernert, [04:08]).
Sustainable Growth with AI: Beyond Efficiencies
[05:01 – 07:55]
- Many marketers are hesitant or narrowly focused on “easy” applications of AI; sustainable growth requires shifting from focusing on efficiency to effectiveness and business impact.
- Bryan cautions against being dazzled by surface-level AI claims: “Every company has kind of slapped AI in front of what they do… that creates a real challenge for a market to understand what is real, what isn’t real, and what’s innovative.” ([05:43])
- Advice for skeptical marketers: Focus on identifying specific, measurable problems and leveraging AI as a tool to improve those outcomes, rather than AI adoption for its own sake.
AI for Navigating Uncertainty & Predictive Analytics
[08:19 – 12:24]
- AI-driven predictive analytics is key in times of uncertainty, but only if used to enable actionable decisions, not just dashboards.
- Bryan explains, “The big takeaway from what we’ve built is the ability to predict the future one consumer at a time and identify those shifts… using AI to predict shifts in individual consumers and then how to engage that consumer and what’s important.” ([08:57])
- Case Study: Resonate helped a client in elective medical procedures—a sector sensitive to economic downturns—identify customers still likely to purchase. By shifting marketing to address prospects’ true concern (“safety” over price), they achieved a 200% increase in campaign ROI ([11:20]).
- Notable Quote: “A real good example of really identifying how things are changing, what the impact is and what you can do to drive a better result.” (Bryan Gernert, [12:10])
Data Privacy and Responsible AI Implementation
[13:24 – 16:59]
- AI’s dependence on large data sets makes privacy central. Bryan encourages solutions using pseudo-anonymized data (replacing PII with artificial identifiers), and proactive compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
- Marketers should demand specifics from AI/data providers beyond blanket statements of compliance: “Ask, okay, tell me how you actually do that. Give me the process that you leverage… How do you work with CCPA from an opt out perspective?” ([16:01])
- The privacy landscape is evolving; marketers need to keep up-to-date and be prepared to ask detailed questions as new regulations appear.
Looking Ahead: The Future of AI in Marketing
[17:28 – 19:11]
- Bryan is particularly excited about “autonomous optimization”—systems that automatically adapt campaigns and continuously improve results, with humans serving as checkpoint validators.
- He anticipates advances in multimodal AI (combining text, image, voice), mass personalization (“the world is going to be customized to us as individuals”), and seamless AI agility across the martech stack.
- Quote: “Agility and intelligence across the Martech stack from an AI perspective is going to accelerate results.” ([18:53])
Preparing Teams & Organizations for AI Acceleration
[19:12 – 21:19]
- Adopting an “AI-forward” mindset: Bryan describes practices at Resonate—every employee has access to company-wide and personal ChatGPT instances, and AI is deeply integrated into all workflows.
- He stresses, “It’s really important to work with your team to embrace AI as a tool, as something that can improve their jobs and, candidly, their careers… The opportunity isn’t one that says we need less people, but… smarter people using the tools available.” ([20:21])
- Success depends on a focus on concrete business problems and measurable results, not AI usage for its own sake.
Staying Agile as a Leader
[21:20 – 23:17]
- Bryan’s personal approach to agility: staying close to customers and markets, constant learning, and fostering company-wide intellectual curiosity.
- The four pillars at Resonate:
- Nimble by nature (prioritizing intellectual curiosity)
- Tech and AI-forward
- Unrelenting focus on innovation
- Constant self-disruption
- Quote: “Our goal is to disrupt ourselves before we get disrupted… That constant disruption is kind of a mantra.” (Bryan Gernert, [23:08])
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “I think the acceleration of what’s possible is almost mind blowing at this point.” —Bryan Gernert, [02:48]
- “If you build a marketing capability set that drives better business results, efficiencies will come with it versus focusing on efficiencies first.” —Bryan Gernert, [05:11]
- “It’s not really about adopting AI. It’s about focusing where you want to improve performance and then what AI is available to do that and then measure the result.” —Bryan Gernert, [07:18]
- “Unless you can take [analytics] and drive action, it’s just interesting information.” —Bryan Gernert, [09:47]
- “Ask… tell me how you actually do [privacy compliance]… Go beyond just hearing the words of yes, we’re CCPA compliant, ask about some specifics.” —Bryan Gernert, [16:08]
- “The opportunity isn’t one that says we need less people, but I do think it’s one that says we need people that are really smart on how to leverage the tools… First, is build or support a team that is AI-forward.” —Bryan Gernert, [20:18]
- “Constant self-disruption… is probably the hardest, which is constant self disruption. Our goal is to disrupt ourselves before we get disrupted.” —Bryan Gernert, [23:04]
Key Timestamps
- 02:31 – Bryan Gernert’s intro and AI in marketing today
- 05:01 – Shifting from efficiency to impact; AI as a tool for effectiveness
- 07:10 – Advice for skeptical marketers; focusing on measurable outcomes
- 08:57 – Predictive analytics and shifting consumer behavior
- 10:38 – Elective medical procedure use case and measurable ROI
- 14:12 – Responsible data use, privacy regulations, and compliance details
- 17:28 – Near-term future of AI: autonomous optimization and personalization
- 19:43 – Building and leading an AI-forward marketing team
- 21:32 – Staying agile: proximity to customers, learning, and fostering an innovation culture
Takeaways for Marketing Leaders
- Embrace AI as a means, not an end: Focus its application on specific, measurable business challenges for meaningful impact.
- Prioritize real innovation over hype: Ask tough questions of vendors and internal teams alike—what’s actually new, and what’s real?
- Actively manage data privacy: Go beyond compliance statements to process-level scrutiny and build privacy by design into AI initiatives.
- Foster organizational agility: Invest in tools, training, and mindsets that let teams quickly adapt to new technologies and market changes—starting with curiosity and self-disruption.
- Prepare for autonomous AI: Start laying the groundwork for systems that will optimize and personalize marketing in real time, with human intelligence serving as a critical checkpoint.