🎼 AI Has a New Job Title: Orchestrator-in-Chief

As AI agents multiply and generative tools go mainstream, mid-market companies are hitting a different kind of wall: coordination. This week, we’re diving into why orchestration — not just innovation — is the real unlock for scaling AI across the enterprise. From brand storytelling and finance ops to infrastructure and consumer trust, the theme is clear: AI only works if it works together.

Let’s dive in.

🎶 Why Orchestration is the Real AI Power Play

There’s no shortage of AI hype in the enterprise, but one foundational truth is starting to surface: your smartest AI agents are only as effective as your infrastructure is coherent. That’s the argument made in a recent Crunchbase article exploring the hidden hero of AI success — orchestration.

Think of AI agents as talented musicians. Individually, they’re brilliant. But without a conductor — a system that coordinates their timing, role, and boundaries — you don’t get a symphony. You get noise. This is where orchestration platforms come in. These technologies act as connective tissue between AI models, human teams, and enterprise systems.

Why does this matter for mid-market leaders? Because AI agents are only as useful as your ability to govern them. That means:

• 🤖 Seamless connectivity across your existing tech stack

• 📍 Role-based accessibility embedded in employees’ workflows

• 🛡️ Guardrails for governance and data security

As Meta’s Clara Shih puts it, “Every business will use AI agents the way they use websites or email addresses today.”

But without orchestration, you’re left with fragmented tools that solve local problems, not enterprise-wide outcomes.

Smart orchestration platforms also keep humans in the loop. Agents can be designed to escalate tasks, defer to subject matter experts, or follow predefined processes. It’s not just about automation — it’s about augmenting decision-making across functions.

⚡️ The action item? Before investing in your next model or chatbot, ask: Do we have the infrastructure to orchestrate AI at scale? Winning with AI isn’t about having the most agents — it’s about having the best ensemble.

🏗️ AI Across Industries

🏦 Finance: Data-Driven CFOs Are Building Growth Engines

CFOs are stepping into the role of data strategists, not just number crunchers. In a recent Payhawk-hosted webinar, finance leaders from companies like Biscuiteers and Secret Food Tours revealed how modernizing finance isn’t about chasing flashy tools — it’s about cleaning up fragmented data, aligning with business objectives, and starting with high-impact wins like spend control. Automated expense management gave Biscuiteers back hours of strategic bandwidth and allowed real-time insights across departments. But the biggest transformation? Culture. Leaders noted that shifting teams away from spreadsheet firefighting to forward-looking analysis takes trust, proof points, and patience.

📌 Takeaway: AI won’t fix broken processes — but smart automation on clean data can.

🎨 Marketing: Storytelling at Scale With AI Co-Creators

Hyper-personalized content isn’t just possible — it’s now essential. According to a Marketing Inc. deep dive, brands like Nike and L’Oréal are embracing AI tools like GPT-4 and Sora to generate platform-specific campaigns that resonate with segmented audiences. These AI tools help draft copy, generate video content, and optimize emotional tone — all while maintaining a consistent brand voice. This shift transforms creative teams from bottlenecks into high-throughput storytellers who can A/B test, iterate, and deploy faster than ever.

📌 Takeaway: AI isn’t replacing creative teams — it’s turning them into scalable content studios.

🧑‍🏫 Education: Duolingo’s AI-First Transformation

Duolingo is evolving from a language-learning app into a full-fledged AI-powered education platform. As explored in an HBR podcast, the company is leveraging generative AI to expand beyond languages into broader educational offerings. CTO Severin Hacker sees this shift as a way to personalize learning at scale and capture more of the $56B edtech market.

📌 Takeaway: Generative AI is reshaping how products — not just content — are built.

🛒 Consumer: Amazon Bets Big on Agentic AI

Amazon’s 2025 roadmap, per PYMNTS, includes a revamped Alexa that functions as a true personal assistant — orchestrating complex tasks like managing routines or controlling smart homes. Combined with logistics automation and Bedrock’s multicloud AI stack, it’s a full-court press toward an AI-powered operating system.

📌 Takeaway: Trust, not just tech, will decide who wins the AI-native customer experience.

📊 AI by the Numbers

🧪 84% of developers now use AI to automate tasks — not just assist (Source: Anthropic).

🛍️ 4 behaviors — streaming, scrolling, searching, and shopping — now converge in one AI-powered loop (Source: Google + BCG).

📦 10% YoY: Amazon’s Q1 revenue rose 10%, driven in part by AI-enhanced logistics and agentic automation (Source: PYMNTS).

📚 148 new AI-generated language courses launched by Duolingo — doubling content in one year (Source: Techcrunch)

💸 $10M funding round for Cheehoo, an AI animation startup aiming to democratize content creation (Source: TechCrunch).

📰 5 AI Headlines You Need to Know

🎥 The Best AI Video Generators Compared — Google Veo 2, Sora, Runway and more are redefining media production. These tools are leveling the creative playing field by letting anyone produce cinematic content in minutes.

🧠 Marc Benioff on AI’s Future — The Salesforce CEO sees AI creating digital workforces and an era of “augmented humans.” He also emphasizes ethics and leadership in guiding the next wave of AI transformation.

🔍 GEO Is the New SEO — Generative Engine Optimization is reshaping how brands get discovered in AI-first platforms. Instead of optimizing for search, marketers must now optimize for AI-driven results and summaries.

👁️ Worldcoin Expands in the U.S. — Sam Altman’s iris-based ID project rolls out retail locations with backing from Visa. It’s part of a broader push to establish a global digital identity infrastructure.

🧰 Zapier Reinvents Automation — CEO Wade Foster is turning Zapier into a no-code, AI-native integration engine. The goal: simplify automation across teams without the need for technical support

 💬 Harmony Over Hype

In enterprise AI, tools will come and go. What endures is structure. The companies that win won’t be those with the most models or flashiest chatbots — they’ll be the ones that integrate, coordinate, and govern them well.

This week’s stories are a reminder: real transformation happens not when you deploy AI, but when you orchestrate it. Finance teams unlock strategy by automating the mundane. Marketers scale personalized stories by coordinating data and tone. Platforms like Duolingo and Amazon succeed not because they use AI, but because they’ve woven it into how they operate and deliver value.

⚡️ In other words: Orchestration isn’t a backend function. It’s a leadership mindset. And in 2025, it might just be the most important job in your company.

📩 Stay Ahead with Velocity Road

Want to future-proof your AI strategy? Velocity Road helps mid-market companies operationalize AI across strategy, training, and automation.

👉 Book a consultation 

👉 Subscribe to Velocity Meter

🔥 The Rise of the Digital Runway

AI isn’t just optimizing workflows anymore—it’s rewriting the creative process itself.

From fashion and film to internal IT and customer service, intelligent agents are stepping into roles once reserved for humans—not to replace imagination, but to redefine how it’s expressed, scaled, and monetized.

This week, we’re looking at how brands like H&M are turning code into content—and why synthetic media is just the tip of the iceberg. What happens when your top creative asset is… an algorithm?

Let’s dive in.

💡When the Model Is Code—H&M’s Digital Twins and the Future of Brand Storytelling

In a move that blurs the line between tech innovation and brand identity, H&M is introducing AI-generated digital twins of 30 real-life models to power upcoming marketing campaigns and social content. This isn’t a sci-fi gimmick—it’s a scalable, strategic effort to cut production costs, streamline creative workflows, and expand content velocity.

But there’s a twist: the models own the rights to their digital likenesses. This means their virtual selves can be licensed to other brands—yes, even competitors—potentially creating a new asset class for individual talent. It’s the influencer economy, but upgraded for the synthetic age.

🧵 Why this matters:

• Operational upside: AI-generated imagery reduces the need for physical shoots, travel, and manual post-production. For retail brands navigating tight margins, this unlocks major savings.

• Creative scale: Need a campaign tailored to a local market or seasonal vibe? Digital twins can be styled, posed, and placed anywhere—in seconds.

• Talent empowerment (or erosion?): While H&M’s licensing model offers an ethical baseline, the broader question looms: what happens to the photographers, stylists, and creative teams this tech may displace?

📣 For mid-market leaders, this is more than a fashion trend. It’s a signal that AI is moving upstream—from automation to imagination. Brand building, content ops, and customer experience are now fair game for intelligent agents and synthetic media.

👉 The opportunity: Adopt AI tools that amplify creativity, not just replace labor.

💡 Think of AI as your new creative intern—one who works 24/7 and iterates at scale. But don’t outsource judgment. As H&M demonstrates, the future belongs to companies that blend AI capability with human ethics—and build governance models that protect people, even as the pixels take over.

🏗️ AI Across Industries

🌐 Web Development Hits Warp Speed

In just five months, Netlify and Bolt powered the creation of over 1 million AI-generated websites. This signals a sea change in how businesses prototype, launch, and scale their digital presence—with far fewer bottlenecks.

👉 Takeaway: Embrace AI dev tools to move faster from idea to execution—especially for microsites, MVPs, and campaign landing pages.

🖥️ AI-Powered IT Support at American Express

Amex has rolled out a generative AI chatbot that clarifies IT issues, guides users step-by-step, and reduces escalations by 40%. Meanwhile, 85% of engineers using GitHub Copilot report high satisfaction.

👉 Takeaway: AI tools can dramatically reduce support burdens and improve internal experience—consider starting with chatbots in IT or HR help desks.

🎓 Claude Goes to School

Anthropic has launched a classroom-friendly version of its Claude chatbot to support education and critical thinking. Leaders at LSE describe this as a transformational moment for how students engage with ideas.

👉 Takeaway: Pilot AI tools not just in ops, but in L&D and employee enablement, where they can foster smarter, more agile teams.

📊 AI by the Numbers

🎬 $3B: Valuation of Runway AI, following a new funding round backed by Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures—highlighting the soaring investor appetite for AI video tech (Reuters).

💻 1M+: Number of AI-generated websites created via Netlify and Bolt in just five months—an eye-popping stat showcasing the speed of AI adoption in web development (Netlify).

🧑‍💻 40%: Drop in IT ticket escalations at American Express, thanks to an AI-powered internal chatbot that resolves issues interactively (VentureBeat).

🚀 85%+: Percentage of Amex engineers satisfied with GitHub Copilot, reinforcing the value of AI in developer productivity and workflow optimization (VentureBeat).

📈 5–15%: Expected uplift in marketing productivity through generative AI, as reported by McKinsey’s research into business AI impact (McKinsey).

📰 5 AI Headlines You Need to Know

🧠 SoftBank and OpenAI Announce Massive Startup Financing: In a historic move, SoftBank is backing an investment of up to $40 billion in OpenAI, marking the largest startup financing ever and highlighting the intense investor focus on leading AI companies.

🔍 Google Warns Scaled AI Content Will Be “An Issue” for Search: Google’s Danny Sullivan reiterates that the origin of scaled content (AI or human) is less important than its lack of originality and value to users.

🌏 GroupM Taps DeepSeek for Smarter Media Buying in China: GroupM partners with a Chinese LLM, DeepSeek, to improve targeting and efficiency in one of the world’s most complex ad markets.

📈 Amazon Introduces Nova Act, an AI Agent to Control Web Browsers: Amazon’s new AI agent, along with its SDK, signals a move towards more autonomous AI capable of performing online task

🍎 Apple Reportedly Developing AI “Doctors”: Sources say Apple is building generative health agents that could advise users based on data—hinting at a major push into AI-powered healthcare.

⚡️ Final Take

We’re entering an era where the most scalable creators aren’t human.

That’s not a threat—it’s a turning point. The companies that win won’t just use AI to do more work faster. They’ll use it to ask better questions, tell better stories, and build entirely new value chains.

The future isn’t automated. It’s augmented. And the clock’s already ticking.

📩 Ready to operationalize AI in your mid-sized business?

Let Velocity Road guide you from experimentation to execution. Whether you’re exploring agents, automation, or org-wide AI readiness, we’ll help you move fast—and move smart.

👉 Book a consultation 

👉 Subscribe to Velocity Meter

🔥 Welcome to this week’s Velocity Meter.

This week, AI took a step closer to running full marketing operations on its own — while also becoming smarter, more intuitive, and more embedded across industries.

We’re seeing real progress in the development of autonomous agents, advanced reasoning models, and creative content tools. These are signals of how AI is becoming more integrated into how businesses think, operate, and grow.

Let’s get into it.

🏢 The Rise of Autonomous Marketing: Are Your Campaigns Agent-Ready?

This week, Zeta Global launched its AI Agent Studio, enabling marketers to chain together generative agents to drive full-funnel performance. Meanwhile, Google’s Media Lab showcased how AI agents can now pull insights for briefs — no human search needed.

What’s emerging is more than automation — it’s orchestration. AI agents can now manage workflows like programmatic buying, audience segmentation, and even creative brief generation. For mid-market teams with limited resources, this could unlock speed, personalization, and scale once reserved for enterprise giants.

But adoption isn’t plug-and-play.

At the Adobe Summit, Hilary Cook emphasized that operational excellence is table stakes. Before unleashing autonomous AI, companies need clean processes, clear data flows, and defined roles.

And while agents can run the machine, humans still steer the ship. The “human in the loop” isn’t optional — it’s what ensures strategy, ethics, and brand voice stay aligned.

📌 Bottom line: Autonomous marketing is real — and rising fast. The companies that win will be the ones who treat AI as a team member, not just a tool.

🏗️  What AI Changed This Week

🤔 Next-Gen AI Reasoning Models Emerge:

Google unveiled Gemini 2.5, a new family of AI reasoning models designed to “think” before answering, achieving state-of-the-art performance on various benchmarks. This leap in AI intelligence, capable of handling complex prompts and large contexts, paves the way for more sophisticated AI applications across various business functions.

📌 Takeaway: Monitor the capabilities of these advanced reasoning models as they become more accessible, exploring potential applications in areas like data analysis, content generation, and customer support.

🎨 AI Fuels Creative Content Innovation

Beyond marketing automation, AI is revolutionizing creative content creation. Reve Image 1.0 has emerged as a top AI image generation model excelling in prompt adherence and text rendering. Midjourney is also exploring techniques to make LLMs write more creatively.

📌 Takeaway: Leverage these advancements to produce high-quality visual and textual content more efficiently, enhancing their branding and marketing materials without significant design overhead.

📚 AI Fluency = Competitive Advantage

As AI adoption accelerates, data and AI literacy are no longer optional skills but crucial for staying competitive. Initiatives like the OpenAI Academy aim to democratize AI knowledge.

📌 Takeaway: Invest in upskilling their workforce to understand and effectively collaborate with AI tools, ensuring they can be the “human in the loop” and drive responsible and strategic AI adoption.

📊 AI by the Numbers

🔍 90% → The forecasted percentage of US citizens expected to use AI search as their primary search tool by 2027. (Source: SEM Rush)

💰 $100 Billion → The estimated value gains for the insurance industry through AI-enabled customer experience. (Source: Qualtrics)

📈 19% → The percentage of B2B decision-makers already implementing generative AI use cases for buying and selling. (Source: McKinsey)

🚀 $60 Million → The amount raised by n8n, a fair-code pioneer in AI-powered workflow automation. (Source: TechCrunch)

📊 5x → The revenue increase n8n reported after pivoting its workflow automation platform to be more AI-friendly in 2022. (Source: TechCrunch)

📰  5 AI Headlines You Need to Know This Week

🧠 Bill Gates Says ‘We Won’t Need Humans For Most Things’ in 10 Years: Gates’ perspective on AI’s potential to automate most human tasks, including high-value services, underscores the long-term transformative impact of AI on the workforce and business operations.

🎨 Adobe Integrates AI Deeply Across Marketing Ecosystem: The Adobe Summit revealed that AI is now core to Adobe’s entire digital experience ecosystem, impacting content creation, audience segmentation, and personalization at scale.

🎨 Family Offices Increase Investments in AI within Private Markets: Ultra-wealthy family offices are significantly boosting their investments in AI in private markets, demonstrating a strong belief in AI’s potential for early-stage innovation and portfolio growth.

📚 OpenAI’s Sam Altman Warns of the Necessity to Learn AI: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman emphasized the critical need for individuals to learn and master AI tools, comparing it to the importance of coding skills in the past, as AI increasingly automates tasks like coding.

🔧 Nvidia Presents an AI-Centric Future at GTC Conference: Nvidia’s GTC conference highlighted its central role in the rapid evolution of AI, showcasing new AI chips and partnerships aimed at accelerating AI adoption across various industries, including robotics.

✅ TL;DR / Takeaways

The marketing landscape is evolving towards autonomous operations with the rise of sophisticated AI agents.

📌 Advanced AI reasoning models and innovative creative AI tools are unlocking new possibilities for mid-market businesses.

📌 Developing data and AI literacy within your organization is crucial for effectively leveraging these technological shifts.

📌 Focus on building a strong operational foundation to maximize the benefits of AI adoption.

The key to success lies in human-AI collaboration, where technology augments human capabilities for greater impact.

📩 Need Help Navigating AI?

At Velocity Road, we help middle-market companies seamlessly integrate AI into their operations—driving efficiency, scaling automation, and enabling smarter decision-making. Whether it’s strategy, implementation, or change management, we ensure AI delivers real business impact.

Let’s explore how AI can transform your business—schedule a consultation today!

📩 Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Velocity Meter straight to your inbox!

See you next week,

— The Velocity Road Team

🔥 Welcome to this week’s edition of Velocity Meter.

Companies aren’t just adopting new tools. They’re rebuilding how they work, rethinking how they lead, and reimagining what humans and machines can do together.

From autonomous agents making real business decisions to AI copilots built by employees themselves, the game has changed. And the companies playing to win? They’re shifting culture, structure, and strategy all at once.

Let’s dive into what’s happening this week.

🏢 AI Isn’t Eating Jobs—It’s Restructuring Organizations

This week’s shift? The rise of digital coworkers: autonomous AI agents embedded in operations, making real decisions—not just automating tasks.

📈 At Intuit, mission-based teams with embedded AI specialists have delivered an 8x increase in development velocity. More on that below.

🤖 At Colgate-Palmolive, employees build their own AI copilots—fostering buy-in and bypassing resistance.

🔐 At Visa, to meet employee demand for AI tools while ensuring data security, a secure RAG-powered chatbot retrieves regulatory data 1,000x faster, with citations.

But the transformation isn’t just technical—it’s cultural. McKinsey predicts the leading brands in 2025 will combine AI, immersive tech, and authentic social values. Turning AI into a megaphone for purpose.

💡Key Takeaway: The AI advantage no longer lies in choosing the right tool. It lies in how you design your people, processes, and platforms to use it.

🏗️  How AI is Shaping Industries

🪢 The Talent Tug-of-War: AI Proficiency and the Rise of Deepfakes

The job market is witnessing a significant shift towards AI proficiency. Companies are prioritizing AI integration, fundamentally changing skill demands. However, a concerning trend has also emerged: AI-powered deception in recruitment. A security startup nearly hired a non-existent backend engineer using an AI filter as an on-screen disguise in video interviews. This highlights the increasing sophistication of fake applicant scams and the need for robust verification protocols.

💡 Key Takeaway: While AI skills are in demand, companies must be vigilant against AI-driven recruitment fraud and refine their verification strategies.

🛡️ The Shadowy Side of AI and the Governance Imperative

As AI tools become more accessible, the rise of “shadow AI” – the use of AI by employees outside official IT frameworks – presents significant governance challenges. This uncontrolled dissemination of sensitive company data and the potential for inaccurate information can lead to poor decision-making. Organizations often unknowingly grapple with shadow AI, as employees leverage services like ChatGPT without corporate alignment. Establishing clear, acceptable use policies and technology controls is crucial.

💡 Key Takeaway: AI governance frameworks are essential to mitigate the risks associated with shadow AI, ensuring data integrity and compliance.

⚙️ The Perpetual AI Motion Machine

The buzzword? Continuous AI Transformation. It’s not a one-and-done deal; it’s about building a culture of perpetual adaptation and growth. Intuit, for example, has embraced three guiding principles around technology, people, and processes to fuel this ongoing innovation. Their strategies include rigorous technical reviews, embedding AI experts in cross-functional teams, and encouraging constructive conflict. This approach has led to tangible customer benefits, like small businesses getting paid faster through AI-powered invoice reminders in QuickBooks Online. These “mission-based teams” are driven by measuring customer benefit in real-world terms, contributing to both innovation and talent retention. Regular progress assessments ensure AI investments align with customer needs and market demands. This dynamic approach allows businesses to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing AI landscape.

💡 Key Takeaway: Building a culture of continuous AI innovation is crucial for maintaining competitive advantage. Regular technical reviews, cross-functional teams, and structured conflict resolution are key pillars.

🔋 Supercharging Productivity (But Watch Out for the Human Factor!)

Generative AI promises better, faster, easier, and cheaper workflows, with a potential $4.4 trillion in productivity growth. Early adopters are already seeing results in areas like supplier negotiations and equipment maintenance. A European automotive supplier achieved a 20-30% time saving while improving code quality using gen AI. However, realizing this potential requires more than just implementing the technology.

A recent survey reveals a significant disconnect between executives and employees, with half of company leaders acknowledging that AI is “tearing their company apart.” Employees harbor skepticism and frustration, often stemming from fears of job displacement and dissatisfaction with current AI tools. As May Habib, CEO of Writer, aptly put it, “Asking those employees to embrace AI is like ‘asking a turkey to vote for Thanksgiving.” Trust in AI is intrinsically linked to trust in leadership. Employees won’t trust AI if they don’t trust their leaders.

💡 Key Takeaway: While AI offers immense productivity gains, managing employee experience and building trust are critical for successful implementation. An “AI-leader combination” that involves employee discussions and transparent decision-making can effectively reduce anxiety.

📊 AI by the Numbers

🧑‍💼 72% → The percentage of small businesses feeling positive about how AI is empowering their operations (Source: Paychex)

💸 $3.8B → Capital raised by AI agent startups in 2024. Nearly triple the amount raise in 2023. (Source: CB Insights)

🧠 94% → The percentage of consumers who remain loyal to brands with genuine and transparent actions, a trend amplified by AI and other technologies. (Souce: McKinsey)

📄 45.2% → The proportion of all enterprise AI application transactions attributed to ChatGPT, despite it also being the most blocked AI tool (Source: SaaStr)

📉 50% → Unilever’s cost reduction in product shoots using digital twins (Source: Adweek)

💰 $90 million → The estimated annualized efficiencies Intuit expects from its AI investments within their customer success organization in the first half of the fiscal year alone. (Souce: HBR)

📰  5 AI Headlines You Need to Know This Week

⚡️ Execs Admit: AI Is Causing Culture Cracks: A new survey reveals that 50% of enterprise leaders feel AI is “tearing their company apart”—exposing a growing disconnect between top-down strategy and frontline adoption.

💡 Google Turns Gemini into a Creative Powerhouse: The new Canvas feature transforms Gemini from chatbot to full-fledged workspace—enabling live coding, document collaboration, and voice-guided walkthroughs.

🎥 xAI Acquires Hotshot to Fuel Video Intelligence: Elon Musk’s xAI snapped up video startup Hotshot, accelerating its move into multimodal AI—where text, image, and video understanding converge.

🛡️ AI Supercharges Insurance—but Legacy Tech Lingers: From risk modeling to fraud detection, AI is overhauling property and casualty insurance. But many players still struggle with outdated infrastructure.

🤝 AI Rewrites the Brand-Agency Playbook: Agencies are moving from executors to AI-powered strategists—using automation to personalize campaigns and free teams for higher-level thinking.

💻 Tech is Easy. 🤝 Trust is Hard.

AI fails when humans resist it. And they resist it when it feels imposed, not integrated.

The most successful transformations aren’t driven by smarter algorithms—they’re driven by smarter leadership. When employees trust the process—and their leaders—they don’t just adopt AI. They elevate it.

That’s your edge. Build trust first. The rest will follow.

📩 Need Help Navigating AI?

At Velocity Road, we help middle-market companies seamlessly integrate AI into their operations—driving efficiency, scaling automation, and enabling smarter decision-making. Whether it’s strategy, implementation, or change management, we ensure AI delivers real business impact.

Let’s explore how AI can transform your business—schedule a consultation today!

📩 Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Velocity Meter straight to your inbox!

See you next week,

— The Velocity Road Team

🔥 Welcome to this week’s edition of Velocity Meter.

AI isn’t just a buzzword anymore—it’s a full-fledged revolution. From autonomous agents making decisions to AI-driven marketing strategies redefining customer engagement, industries are transforming at lightning speed.

Let’s dive into what’s happening this week.

🧠 AI Specialization—Choosing the Right Brain for the Job

Move over, one-size-fits-all AI. This week’s major development is the sheer proliferation and specialization of AI models. With companies rolling out specialized AI systems fine-tuned for distinct tasks.

• Meta’s latest Llama model is enhancing efficiency and excelling in math and knowledge-based tasks.

• Google’s Gemini Deep Research is refining how AI summarizes search results for instant insights.

• Cohere and other AI labs are pushing multimodal models that can process text, images, and complex reasoning.

• China’s Manus AI agent is making headlines as a potential leap toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

❓ Why it matters: The AI explosion isn’t just about having more models—it’s about selecting the right one for your specific business challenges. From visual data analysis to multilingual processing and supply chain optimization, AI is becoming increasingly task-specific. See the full breakdown of models here.

💡 Key takeaway: Map your business needs to the evolving AI landscape. The right AI model can unlock efficiencies, insights, and competitive advantages that generic AI solutions might miss.

🏗️  Tracking AI’s Impact Across Industries

Whether it’s supercharging marketing strategies, optimizing financial decisions, or redefining customer experiences, AI is forcing every industry to adapt. The key to staying ahead? Knowing where AI is making the biggest impact—and how you can use it.

📢 Marketing & Advertising: AI is Taking Over Ad Buying

The days of guesswork in digital marketing are over. AI is now dominating ad planning and buying, automating nearly every step and making precision targeting a reality. Amazon’s AI is scanning customer reviews to craft hyper-personalized campaigns, while Target is using generative AI to spot social media trends in real time, cutting product launch cycles from months to weeks.

💡 What to do: If your marketing still relies on intuition over AI-driven insights, you’re already behind. Start exploring AI-powered tools for content creation, customer sentiment analysis, and campaign automation.

💰 Finance & Private Equity: AI as the New Investment Analyst

Private equity firms are integrating AI to automate due diligence, analyze financial models, and source new deals. AI-driven insights are fueling $200B in private market investments, with AI accelerating deal execution and portfolio management.

💡 What to do: AI isn’t just for tech firms—investment teams should explore AI tools for financial modeling, risk assessment, and deal flow management.

🛍️ Retail & Hospitality: AI is Reading Your Mind (Almost)

Customer experience is getting an AI facelift. Hotels are rolling out AI concierge systems that anticipate guest needs, while retailers are using generative AI to predict consumer behavior. AI-powered revenue management is helping hotels dynamically adjust room prices while also explaining pricing logic to build staff and guest trust.

💡 What to do: Businesses should integrate AI-powered customer engagement platforms that predict and personalize interactions to maximize sales and customer loyalty.

⚙️ AI Integration: The Playbook for Success

The World Economic Forum highlights the Discover-Decide-Deliver framework for integrating AI across businesses. Their guide shows how companies can use AI to accelerate decision-making, automate workflows, and drive efficiency. Meanwhile, MarketingProfs stresses that AI success starts with a strong data strategy—before AI can transform your business, your data needs to be structured, accessible, and reliable.

💡 What to do: Companies should audit their data quality and identify areas where AI can optimize processes, from legal contract automation to predictive analytics for customer behavior.

🧑‍🏫 Mastering AI: The Skills Gap is Growing

AI’s power is undeniable, but there’s a catch—it’s only as good as the people using it. Businesses are rushing to upskill employees, but a talent gap in AI education is growing fast. The ability to write better AI prompts, use “chain-of-thought” reasoning, and integrate AI into workflows is quickly becoming a make-or-break skill in every industry.

💡 What to do: If your team isn’t getting AI training, start now. Consider AI literacy programs or prompt engineering training to maximize productivity and output.

🔥 Bottom line: AI isn’t coming—it’s already here. The businesses that succeed will be the ones that adopt AI-driven decision-making, invest in AI-powered tools, and train their teams to work alongside AI effectively.

The question is: Are you ahead of the curve—or playing catch-up? 🚀

📊  AI’s Business Impact by the Numbers

⏱️ Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that generative AI boosts worker productivity by an average of 33% per hour of use, providing a clear measure of AI’s impact on output.

🫥 According to the AlixPartners Disruption Index, 35 percent of executives worry that overreliance on AI will reduce employees’ problem-solving skills, highlighting a key concern beyond mere productivity .

🎯 Target has demonstrated AI’s ability to accelerate business agility by reducing product launch cycles from 7 months to 8 weeks using generative AI for trend analysis.

📄 In legal operations, AI can achieve up to 60% faster processing times in Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), showcasing its potential for significant back-office efficiency gains.

💰 ServiceNow’s $3 billion investment in AI startups exemplifies the tech industry’s strong strategic focus and financial backing of AI innovation in service management.

📰  5 AI Headlines You Need to Know This Week

⚡️ China’s Manus AI Sparks AGI Speculation: AI startup Butterfly Effect has launched Manus, an AI model with autonomous decision-making capabilities, raising discussions about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

💰 $26M Raised for AI-Powered Brand Agents: Firsthand, an AI startup, secured $26M to develop AI agents for brands and publishers, signaling major investment in AI-driven marketing.

🎯 Target’s AI-Powered Retail Innovation: The retailer is leveraging AI and social media insights to identify emerging trends faster, streamlining product development.

⏱️ AI Increases Workplace Productivity by 33%: A Federal Reserve study found that employees using generative AI see a 33% boost in productivity per hour, showing AI’s growing impact on workflows.

🐦 Bluesky CEO on AI & Decentralization: Bluesky’s CEO, Jay Graber, envisions a decentralized digital landscape, prioritizing user control over AI-generated content.

✨ AI Is a Tool—Not a Replacement for Human Innovation

As AI continues to advance, the smartest businesses won’t just automate tasks—they’ll blend AI with human creativity and strategy. The companies that win in the AI era will be those that:

• Adopt AI strategically—not just for efficiency, but for true business transformation.

• Prioritize AI literacy across leadership and teams.

• Balance automation with human ingenuity—AI can process data, but it can’t replace empathy, intuition, and brand authenticity.

The AI-driven future is unfolding fast. Are you ready to ride the wave?

📩 Need Help Navigating AI?

At Velocity Road, we help middle-market companies seamlessly integrate AI into their operations—driving efficiency, scaling automation, and enabling smarter decision-making. Whether it’s strategy, implementation, or change management, we ensure AI delivers real business impact.

Let’s explore how AI can transform your business—schedule a consultation today!

📩 Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Velocity Meter straight to your inbox!

See you next week,

— The Velocity Road Team

🔥 Welcome to this week’s edition of Velocity Meter.

AI isn’t slowing down—it’s evolving at warp speed. Autonomous agents are getting smarter, enterprises are making big bets, and the competition to stay ahead is fiercer than ever. The question isn’t if AI will reshape your business—it’s how fast you’re adapting.

Let’s dive into what’s happening this week.

🤖 AI Agents Are Going Rogue (in a Good Way?)

Forget chatbots that just answer questions. This week, the spotlight’s on AI agents that can actually do stuff on their own. Salesforce dropped Agentforce 2dx, letting AI agents autonomously manage tasks across enterprise systems. Think less human prompting, more AI-driven doing. Not to be outdone, OpenAI is reportedly eyeing a hefty $20,000/month price tag for their specialized AI agents, signaling some serious enterprise-level power. And if you’re thinking of building your own AI army? Frameworks like LangGraph, Autogen, and Crew AI are making it easier to create custom agents for everything from sales leads to investment decisions.

❓ Why it matters: This shift towards autonomous AI agents could seriously crank up efficiency and automate complex workflows. But it also raises questions about integration, employee training (more on that below!), and who’s in charge when the AI takes the wheel.

💡 Key takeaway: Start thinking about where autonomous AI agents could streamline your operations. Keep an eye on pricing models and the platforms making agent deployment easier.

🏗️  Tracking AI’s Impact Across Industries

✨ Personalization Gets Supercharged with AI

Remember when personalization meant putting someone’s name in an email? Those were the good old days. Now, AI is taking personalization to a whole new level. Kaltura launched TV Genie, an AI-powered tool that hyper-personalizes entertainment experiences for streaming services. Imagine Netflix knowing your exact mood and recommending the perfect show – that’s the vibe. In marketing, brands like Coca-Cola and Ducati are using generative AI to create deeply customized campaigns that resonate with individual consumers. Even something as crucial as hospitality reputation management is getting an AI makeover, with tools analyzing guest sentiment in real-time.

❓ Why it matters: Consumers expect tailored experiences. AI-driven personalization can boost engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, the bottom line.

💡 Key takeaway: Explore how AI can personalize your customer interactions, from marketing to product recommendations. Remember that trust and data privacy are key when wielding this level of personalization.

🧑‍💻 Skill Up or Get Left Behind: The AI Talent Scramble

All this fancy AI tech needs someone to understand and manage it. Turns out, there’s a bit of a disconnect between how confident leaders are in their AI training and how prepared employees actually feel. We’re seeing the emergence of new job titles like “generative AI management consultant,” proving that AI implementation is becoming a specialized skill. Even tech giants like Salesforce are heavily investing in reskilling their massive workforce on agentic AI. And in more traditional industries like food and beverage, the need for specialized AI competence is increasingly clear.

❓ Why it matters: Without a skilled workforce, even the coolest AI tools will gather digital dust. Bridging the AI skills gap is crucial for successful adoption and realizing ROI.

💡 Key takeaway: Assess your organization’s AI readiness and invest in training programs. Consider how new AI-focused roles might fit into your structure.

📊  AI’s Business Impact by the Numbers

From massive efficiency gains to fresh creative workflows, these numbers tell the story of a tech revolution that’s reshaping business.

📢 170% increase in job postings mentioning generative AI from January 2024 to January 2025

🏦 80% of CFOs in middle-market companies are driving AI integration in financial processes.

🚨 58% of businesses adopting AI cite competitive pressure as their primary motivator

🎨 83% of creative professionals are already leveraging generative AI tools in their work.

💰 $90 million estimated efficiencies Intuit expects from its AI investments.

👉 Case Study Spotlight: Leading gown distributor Amarra achieved a 40% reduction in overstocking, cut content creation time by 60%, and is handling 70% of customer inquiries through their AI-powered solutions.

📰  5 AI Headlines You Need to Know This Week

📌 Opera is now the first major browser with built-in AI agentic browsing, letting the browser handle tasks for you. Talk about convenience (and maybe a little bit creepy?).

📌 WPP is doubling down on AI, investing in Stability AI to boost its generative AI capabilities for marketing and advertising.

📌 Reddit shared insights on how brands can effectively adopt AI in marketing based on community feedback, emphasizing utility and transparency.

📌 Yum Brands‘ Taco Bell is showing off “Byte by Yum,” an AI tool to help fast-food managers with tasks like scheduling and inventory.

📌 A study found that 58% of businesses using AI are motivated by “pressure from competitors“, highlighting the fear of missing out in the AI race.

The Human Touch Still Matters, Folks ❤️

Amid all the AI hype, it’s crucial to remember that brand is still everything. While AI can automate tasks and personalize experiences, it can’t fully replicate human emotion, trust, and connection.

🌟 The smart move? Leverage AI as an ally for automation, not a replacement for human creativity.

❤️ So, go ahead, embrace the AI revolution, but don’t forget the human touch that truly builds lasting relationships.

📩 Need Help Navigating AI?

At Velocity Road, we help middle-market companies seamlessly integrate AI into their operations—driving efficiency, scaling automation, and enabling smarter decision-making. Whether it’s strategy, implementation, or change management, we ensure AI delivers real business impact.

Let’s explore how AI can transform your business—schedule a consultation today!

📩 Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Velocity Meter straight to your inbox!

See you next week,

— The Velocity Road Team

🔥 Welcome to this week’s edition of Velocity Meter.

AI is no longer just automating tasks—it’s becoming a digital workforce. From Salesforce and Slack embedding AI teammates to Workday onboarding “digital employees,” businesses are redefining how work gets done.

This week, we explore AI’s growing role in market research, customer service, and enterprise operations. As AI transforms from tool to team member, mastering human-AI collaboration will be key to staying competitive.

Let’s dive in.

THE BIG SHIFT

🔄 AI Agents – The Workforce Disruptor

The workplace is undergoing a radical transformation, and it’s not just about remote work anymore. AI agents—autonomous digital workers capable of handling everything from customer service to sales coaching—are taking on increasingly complex tasks, often without human intervention.

⚡️ The Acceleration:

• Salesforce and Slack are pushing AI agents into mainstream enterprise use, redefining how teams collaborate.

• Startups like Sierra are securing massive funding to build AI-driven workforce solutions, signaling a shift in how companies think about human roles.

• OpenAI expects a third of its projected 2025 revenue to come from enterprise automation tools.

• Workday is integrating AI agents as “digital employees,” onboarding them just like human workers.

⚠️ The Challenge:

• AI agents are inconsistent. Unlike traditional software, they don’t always perform the same way every time.

• Workers are unsure how to collaborate with AI. Will they replace employees, or will they truly be an extension of human teams?

• Human interactions in the workplace may decline as AI takes over communication-heavy roles.

✅ The Fix:

• Treat AI agents as team members, not just tools—define their roles and measure their performance.

• Establish governance frameworks to ensure AI operates within ethical and operational boundaries.

• Train employees to work alongside AI, so they understand when and how to leverage digital co-workers.

💡 Bottom Line: AI isn’t just a productivity booster—it’s becoming an integral part of the workforce. The companies that figure out how to manage AI-human collaboration will gain a competitive edge.

📖 Sources: Axios + Semafor

VELOCITY TRENDS

🏗️ Tracking AI’s Impact Across Industries

🗣️ AI is Transforming Consumer Research via Voice

Suzy has launched Suzy Speaks, an AI-powered voice methodology for gathering consumer insights. This innovative approach uses AI-moderated conversations to capture rich qualitative data at a quantitative scale, moving beyond traditional rigid questionnaires.

🔹 How AI is Revolutionizing Conversational Research:

• AI moderation allows for more natural and organic consumer feedback.

• It provides deeper insights that might be missed through traditional survey methods.

• This trend democratizes market research by making it more accessible and cost-effective.

💡 Takeaway: Voice-driven AI is set to revolutionize market research by enabling more authentic and scalable collection of consumer insights.

📖 Source: Trend Hunter

📞 AI Phone Agents are Automating Customer Service

Vida has introduced an AI phone agent designed to transform customer interactions by providing 24/7 availability and seamless call handling. This technology helps businesses manage high call volumes, prevent missed opportunities, and improve overall customer service.

🔹 Benefits of AI Phone Agents:

• They can automate routine tasks like appointment scheduling and follow-ups.

• The platform offers customizable call flows and multi-language support.

• Performance analytics provide actionable insights for refining customer service strategies.

💡 Takeaway: AI-powered phone agents are emerging as a crucial tool for businesses to enhance customer service efficiency and satisfaction by automating call handling and providing continuous availability.

📖 Source: Martech Zone

🛍️ AI Agents and Human Insight are Set to Transform the Shopping Experience

E-commerce is poised for a major shift with the integration of AI agents. These models, combining LLMs and multi-modal processing, will offer unprecedented personalization and operational efficiency, scaling like human assistants but without limitations.

🔹 How AI Agents Will Enhance E-commerce:

• They will create a more frictionless front-end user experience.

• AI agents will contribute to hyper-efficient back-end operations.

• Continuous human oversight (‘humans-in-the-loop’) is crucial for aligning AI agents with brand values.

💡 Takeaway: AI agents are expected to revolutionize the e-commerce shopping experience by providing highly personalized interactions and streamlining operational processes.

📖 Source: Total Retail

VELOCITY STATS

#️⃣  AI’s Business Impact by the Numbers

AI isn’t just being adopted—it’s becoming the backbone of modern business strategy. The question is no longer if AI will reshape industries but how fast companies can adapt before they’re left behind. The latest data reveals just how deeply AI is embedding itself into operations, from workforce productivity to marketing efficiency.

📈 75% of knowledge workers now use generative AI (GenAI) in their workflows, highlighting its widespread adoption (Forbes)

💻 AI integration at Salesforce has increased software engineering output by 30% (Slashdot)

📢 90% of marketers plan to increase AI integration by 2025, reinforcing AI as a must-have tool for competitive businesses (MarTech Series)

⏳ AI-fluent professionals save an average of 25.2 hours per week, demonstrating major efficiency gains (Digital Information World)

📝 Marketers using AI save an average of 12.5 hours per week, improving productivity and workflow automation (HubSpot)

🧠 Thought bubble: We’re reaching the AI tipping point—where resistance is no longer just a strategic misstep, but a direct hit to competitiveness. Companies delaying AI adoption aren’t just missing out on incremental gains; they’re actively ceding market share to those moving faster.

IN THE NEWS

📰  5 AI Headlines You Need to Know

📌 Anthropic CEO Predicts Superintelligent AI by Next Year: Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of AI startup Anthropic, predicts that superintelligent AI, capable of surpassing human intelligence in most fields, could emerge as soon as next year. Anthropic aims to create AI that transforms society by automating complex tasks, akin to the impact of the industrial revolution.

📖 Source: The Times

📌 Amazon’s Alexa AI Overhaul: Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Devices and Services, Panos Panay, discussed the significant overhaul of Alexa with the launch of Alexa Plus. The new AI-powered assistant aims to improve user interaction beyond simple commands to more complex, multi-step tasks, reflecting a strategic shift to enhance natural language processing capabilities.

📖 Source: The Verge

📌 Ad Verification Firms Target Mid-Market Advertisers with AI: Ad verification companies like Integral Ad Science are investing in AI to attract mid-market advertisers. By enhancing automation and self-serve capabilities, they aim to provide better performance metrics and support for companies generating between $200,000 and $1 million in revenue.

📖 Source: Digiday

📌 A.I. Start-Up Anthropic Closes Deal That Values It at $61.5 Billion. The announcement follows new fund-raising efforts from rivals like OpenAI, which is set to close a deal that values the company at $300 billion, and Elon Musk’s xAI.

📖 Source: NY Times

📌 Cities embrace traditional and generative AI to become future-ready. Cities around the world are racing to adopt AI to drive productivity and efficiency and boost their economies, according to a global study of 250 cities conducted by ServiceNow and Deloitte, in collaboration with ThoughtLab, a leading provider of thought leadership research

📖 Source: Financial Post

FINAL TAKE

📈 The Urgency of AI Adoption: A CMO’s Perspective.

As a seasoned marketing innovator, Shiv Singh makes a compelling case that AI is currently underhyped, especially within the marketing world. His message is direct and pertinent for businesses across all sectors: those who want to remain relevant must adapt quickly and wholeheartedly embrace AI tools.

• Singh stresses the critical need for marketers and business leaders to move beyond mere curiosity and actively integrate AI into their strategies and operations.

• The potential benefits of AI are vast, but realizing them requires a proactive approach and a willingness to evolve traditional ways of working.

• The alternative to embracing AI is stark: Singh warns that companies failing to do so risk being left behind in an increasingly AI-driven marketplace.

💡 Takeaway: The time for cautious observation is over. To ensure future success and maintain a competitive edge, businesses must heed Shiv Singh’s call to action and prioritize the adoption and integration of AI technologies now.

📖 Source: No Brainer Podcast

📩 Need Help Navigating AI?

At Velocity Road, we help middle-market companies seamlessly integrate AI into their operations—driving efficiency, scaling automation, and enabling smarter decision-making. Whether it’s strategy, implementation, or change management, we ensure AI delivers real business impact.

Let’s explore how AI can transform your business—schedule a consultation today!

📩 Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Velocity Meter straight to your inbox!

See you next week,

— The Velocity Road Team