Podcast Summary: The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®

Episode #809: Jacquard Chief Product & Growth Officer Toby Coulthard on Sounding Verifiably Human in an AI World
Date: February 6, 2026
Host: Greg Kihlström
Guest: Toby Coulthard, Chief Product & Growth Officer, Jacquard

Overview: Sounding Human in an AI-Saturated Landscape

This episode dives into the challenges and opportunities brands face as generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, rapidly scale content creation. Host Greg Kihlström and guest Toby Coulthard discuss the risk of brand “sameness” and explore strategies to achieve authentic, differentiated brand voices in the era of mass automation. They cover how Jacquard leverages predictive AI layered on generative models, the shift from reactive testing to predictive performance, and the crucial role of human expertise in preserving brand “soul.” The conversation also touches on compliance, cultural nuance, and advice for marketing leaders seeking to move beyond generic AI content.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Paradox of Generative AI: Scale vs. Sameness

• AI's Promise and Pitfall: While generative AI unlocks rapid content creation and personalization, it often leads to generic, undifferentiated output.
  • “Generative AI has promised unprecedented scale and personalization, but for many, it's delivering a sea of sameness where brand voice gets lost.” (Greg, 00:48)
• Tonal Convergence: Overreliance on a single model (e.g., ChatGPT) leads to detectable uniformity in tone and style across brands and platforms.
  • “85% of marketers are just using ChatGPT to generate content... There’s a tone of voice, there’s a cadence, there’s usage of different linguistic devices that you can just tell that it’s AI-written.” (Toby, 03:08)
• Business Risk: Brands risk becoming indistinguishable, sacrificing unique voice for short-term productivity gains.

2. Breaking Free: Jacquard’s Approach to Authenticity and Performance

• Beyond the LLM: Jacquard uses a blend of “neuro symbolic architecture”—combining generative models with deterministic guardrails.
• The Predictive Secret Sauce: Jacquard’s added value comes from natural language understanding models using billions of data points—tracking customer opens, clicks, conversions, and responses—to fine-tune content for performance and brand voice.
  • “LLMs themselves...can come up with some content, but it doesn’t know what’s good, what’s bad. So applying this layer of predictive AI on top...means that you can actually take a very data-driven approach to coming up with content and refining that output to be very highly performant and on the authentic voice.” (Toby, 05:23)

3. Moving from Reactive to Predictive: The Evolution of Testing

• Traditional Test-and-Learn Limitations: Relying solely on A/B testing amounts to “finding the best of a bad bunch.”
• Predict Before You Pay: Jacquard’s models predict content performance before deployment, leveraging massive data for tailored predictions.
  • “You want to test a range of diverse but also performant variants...People cannot look at a piece of content and say, that is going to resonate...Our model...trained [on] billions of opens and clicks...can understand this is actually going to resonate with your customers.” (Toby, 07:59)
• Brand Context Matters: Jacquard optimizes for each brand’s specific audience and KPIs, not just generalized engagement metrics.

4. Human Expertise: Elevating (Not Replacing) the Copywriter

• Augmentation, Not Replacement: AI handles scale, but copywriters retain authority over brand articulation and voice.
  • “A copywriter’s expertise is in brand voice...this is just another tool for them...rather than something that ultimately will ever replace a copywriter.” (Toby, 12:13)
• Scaling Hyperpersonalization: AI enables copywriters to direct and supervise personalized content across vast segmentations.

5. Compliance, Culture, and Nuance in Content

• Beyond Performance: AI must also respect compliance—especially in regulated industries (e.g., healthcare) and handle cultural/local nuances.
  • “On a cultural nuance side...the tone of voice that really resonated with boomers...was the opposite of that which resonated with Gen Z...even between countries with the same language, urgency has a massive difference.” (Toby, 17:50)
  • “Not sending the wrong message is as important or more important than sending the right message...having that cultural nuance and compliance layer is incredibly important for a brand.” (Toby, 21:01)
• Fine-tuned Guardrails: Jacquard incorporates rule-based filters and data-driven insights to prevent compliance missteps and adapt messaging by demographic and geography.

6. Beyond "Conventional AI": Focusing on Outcomes, Not Just Output

• Old vs. New AI: Pre-2022 “conventional AI” was predictive (churn, send time optimization). Now, the buzz is around generative models, but the real breakthrough combines both.
  • “Moving beyond generative AI means that you kind of need to lay a predictive AI on top because that’s the thing that...shifts from a productivity and efficiency tool to a performance tool.” (Toby, 22:41)
• Outcome-Driven Mindset: Leaders should focus on marketing results—engagement, retention, customer value—rather than mere efficiency.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the AI Voice Epidemic:
  • “The risk is not that your marketing becomes less effective, it becomes ineffective because you can’t differentiate your brand.” (Toby, 03:08)
• On Adapting to Human-Centric AI:
  • “I don’t want to receive content that feels AI generated. I want to receive content that...feels unique and feels human.” (Toby, 04:52)
• On Compliance and Nuance:
  • “We have all these rule-based filters to prevent something from being sent that you wouldn’t want to send and also feeding it with the data to ensure...cultural nuance both demographically and geographically.” (Toby, 19:50)
• On What’s Next for Brands:
  • “I think AI slop is what everyone’s talking about at the moment and I think it’s only going to get worse … The whole Internet has either already or will become just a series of bots talking to each other...how to navigate your life surrounded by AI content that doesn’t resonate, I think that will become more of a challenge.” (Toby, 27:45)
• On Staying Agile and Human:
  • “We’ve kind of lost this human part of communicating digitally...I try and speak to people as much as I can on a one-to-one basis and in front of, and, you know, get real face time. That kind of grounds us in what we build.” (Toby, 28:42)

Important Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------------------|-----------| | The Risks of Generative AI Sameness | 03:08 | | Jacquard's Approach: Predictive Over Generative | 05:23 | | Predicting Content Performance | 07:59 | | The Role of Copywriters in the AI Workflow | 12:13 | | Compliance & Cultural Nuance | 17:50 | | The Dangers of Sending the “Wrong Message” | 21:01 | | Moving Beyond “Conventional” AI | 22:41 | | Advice for Marketing Leaders | 26:29 | | Future Trends: The Proliferation of “AI Slop” | 27:45 | | Staying Human and Agile | 28:42 |

Actionable Takeaways for Marketing Leaders

• Start Small, Think Strategically: Begin with one campaign or channel to implement predictive, brand-aligned AI; gather data and iterate.
  • “It isn't this total transformation…you start with one, collect data, refine, and scale from there.” (Toby, 26:29)
• Wrap AI With Human Insight: Leverage computational linguists or internal experts to calibrate AI outputs and maintain authenticity.
• Prioritize Outcomes Over Efficiency Gains: Tools should be selected for their ability to drive engagement, conversion, and brand value—not just for content volume or reducing time spent.

Episode Tone and Style

The conversation is frank, highly practical, and a bit skeptical about AI hype. Both host and guest use relatable analogies and real-world examples while maintaining a future-focused, evidence-driven approach.

This summary encapsulates the rich discussion on how brands can leverage AI not merely for productivity, but to deliver truly human, differentiated communications that drive measurable business results—without losing the essence of the brand.