> “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." — Wayne Gretzky
Back in 2008, the puck was “mobile-first.” Brands that adapted fast won big. Everyone else got pinch-zoomed into irrelevance.
Today, the puck has moved again.
Not to a screen. To a brain.
Large Language Models now sit between your customer and every question they ask. If your brand isn’t part of that answer, you don’t exist.
This Wave Won’t Crash
At the 2025 EMW Conference, Coatue called AI the next “super-cycle.” Not a blip. A megatrend.
Every 10–15 years, a new platform flips the script: Mainframes → PCs → Web → Mobile → Cloud → Now AI.
But this time’s different. The curve doesn’t peak. It compounds.
Microsoft processed 100 trillion tokens last quarter. That’s 5x YoY. And they’re warning of a compute shortage. Translation: the wave’s here and it’s only getting bigger.
If You’re Average, You’re Toast
Mitchell Baldridge of Baldridge Financial nailed it: “AI is going to destroy everything below the 95th percentile.”
The distance between idea and execution is now zero. The only limit left? Nerve.
Three Questions for CMOs Who Don’t Want to Suck
Can the bots find us? If ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity can’t quote you, you’re invisible.
Can my team talk to the machine? Prompt craft > PowerPoint craft. Hire curious builders, not checkbox tickers.
Are we learning in real time? AI doesn’t do “quarterly cadence.” Neither should you.
The SIMPLE Framework for Going AI-First
S: Start with real pain. Fix one thing.
M: Map the logic. So humans trust the output.
L: Lock the guardrails. Ethics, privacy, integrity—baked in.
E: Expand what works. Press winners. Cut losers.
3 Quick Wins to Ship This Quarter
Add plain-language FAQs to key pages. Become quotable by bots.
Host Internal AI Office Hours. One hour. Live demos. Zero slides.
Run a 30-day prompt sprint. Each marketer automates a nagging task. Share wins.
Wayne Gretzky didn’t wait for the puck. He skated to the next position. AI-first brands do the same.
Get curious. Ship small. Spin the flywheel.
Because being late to a meeting sucks. But being late to a paradigm shift? That’s career malpractice.