Agentic AI in marketing: How can CMOs scale strategy without losing brand control?

By Beatriz Cuesta Unkhoff, Kira Wasserthal, Canan Eldemgil

Agentic AI, by its very nature, acts on its own. How can we harness it in a brand safe way – and without harming our future talent pipeline?

The age of multiple endings: when everything that stands begins to fall

By Martin Recke

Are we witnessing the end of modernity? The post-war order, neoliberal globalisation, shared truth, and work are dissolving. We inhabit the interregnum.

What comes after the website?

By Adam Tinworth

Will AI be the final nail in the coffin of websites? If so, what branded experiences will replace it?

Endings as thresholds: NEXT25’s search for what comes after

By Martin Recke

NEXT25 reimagined endings – from AI and creativity to screens and agency – and found new possibilities in our shifting digital world.

Nina Jankowicz: AI and Great Power Competition: from Exploitation to Resilience

By Adam Tinworth

AI is accelerating the spread of misinformation – and people are trying to corrupt LLMs. How do we fight back?

Media & AI: exponential change is here

By Adam Tinworth

The media industry has been trapped in digital disruption for two decades. AI is only going to accelerate that change. Buckle up.

This is the end. Of truth?

By Martin Recke

The reports of the truth’s death are an exaggeration. Rather, we’re witnessing the end of our current regime of truth.

Games: the huge cultural catalyst we’re all downplaying

By Adam Tinworth

Even as talk of “gamification” has faded, games have become a defining force in culture. Why are we still treating them as child's play?

The time regimes they are a-changin’

By Martin Recke

Time has collapsed into the tyranny of the moment. There is no time for anything. We barely understand what’s happening.

Brandformance: Achieving Balance in Modern Marketing

By Maxi Versbach, Leon Nalic, Vincent Hirsche, Lilian Streicher, Dominique Brosch, Sandra Murin

Need to both drive short term revenue and continue strategic brand development? Brandformance might be just the framework you need in challenging times.

Big Tech, media, and democracy

By Martin Recke

In times of a unique combination of political, economic, technological and media dominance, do we have to choose between tech and democracy?

How the Big Tech oligarchy came to power

By Martin Recke

It took decades for Big Tech to rise and become the oligarchy it is today. Is it too late to prevent it from destroying democracy?

The power of the quick fix

By Martin Recke

People know what they want, and they want it now. The quick-fix economy is on the rise. Brands are vulnerable, but not helpless.

AI as new media

By Martin Recke

Generative AI will create new media forms where artists and creative technologists are both at the forefront and at risk of being put out of business.

The Hives and the creative urge

By Adam Tinworth

On stage at NEXT, The Hives’s Pelle Almqvist talked to Fabian Frese about their creative process, and how drugs, money and AI impact it…

Harry Yeff: building the digital Second Self

By Adam Tinworth

Can AI be a creative assistant, mentor and even opponent? Harry Yeff thinks so, and he wants us to embrace a narrative of hope.

Paula Zuccotti: today’s objects and future archeology

By Adam Tinworth

The objects we touch are more than just possessions or tools; they’re a narrative of our lives. And they’re a path to understanding customer needs in a deeper way than marketing segments.

Marketing cuts accelerate the shift to digital

By Martin Recke

Cuts in marketing spending are disproportionately affecting traditional channels, accelerating the shift to digital.

Nick Law: embracing a new age of digital creativity

By Adam Tinworth

Creativity is a core skill to navigate digital change — and yet is too often misunderstood. As Nick Law explains, creativity is deeply rooted in a medium, and great leaders understand that.

Your NEXT read: Christmas reading for digital minds

By Adam Tinworth

Turn your festive break into a feast for the intellect as well as the stomach with this reading list from members of the NEXT community.

Why the link of brand and performance marketing is broken

By Martin Recke

The schism between brand and performance marketing has deep roots in the history of the craft, and it’s a systemic issue.