Offcuts

In this episode, I sit down with Luke to unpack why consumer brands are still struggling to turn AI hype into real value.

We break down the big myths, including the widely shared idea that most AI projects fail and whether that was ever true for this industry.

Luke shares insights from more than thirty brand interviews, revealing the same pattern everywhere. Leaders believe AI will reshape operations, but most don’t know where to start, feel overwhelmed by the pace of change, and lack a practical playbook. Public case studies are thin because real experiments are happening quietly inside teams with no time to share them.

We dig into the blockers too: vendor over-promising, fragmented tech stacks, unclear budgets, and rising pressure from shareholders to show progress.

A straight, honest conversation about where brands really are and what it will take to make AI actually deliver.

On this episode, I’m joined by Mac King, co-founder of Domaine, to talk about how agencies are navigating the next wave of commerce and AI.

We catch up on what’s changed since he was last on the podcast, including the merger that created Domaine, their move into the UK market, and how the agency is scaling internationally. Then we get into Domaine’s AI Commerce Suite and what it reveals about how brands are starting to use AI both on-site and behind the scenes.

We talk about how agencies can separate real innovation from AI marketing spin, what makes an AI-native tech stack, and how services businesses can balance experimentation with credibility.

Finally, we explore how this connects to Factory’s Internal and External AI framework, what each of us is seeing in the market, and where the biggest operational opportunities might appear next.

If you’re thinking about where AI actually fits inside a modern commerce organisation, this one’s for you.

On this episode, I’m joined again by Luke Hodgson to talk about a shift that’s quietly taking place inside every brand: the move from customer experience to operator experience.

We unpack what Luke calls OX2030; his framework for how AI is reshaping the way brands actually run. The idea is simple but big. Over the next decade, the biggest transformation in retail won’t happen on the front end. It will happen behind the scenes, in the systems, workflows and cross-functional teams that keep everything moving.

We talk about how AI is flattening hierarchies, what it means for how brands are organised, and why most of the value in automation will come from fixing the low-value work that slows good people down. We also get into how this connects to Factory’s Internal and External AI framing, where the real opportunities live, and what it means for leadership and culture inside consumer brands.

If you’re thinking about how AI changes the structure, not just the strategy, of how your business operates, this one’s for you.

Enjoy the episode.

On this episode, I’m asking a question that’s quietly reshaping digital marketing: Will AI change the way we search? I’m joined by Sam Hurley, founder of NOVOS an SEO and AI Search agency. We unpack what’s happening to discovery as AI answers more of our questions for us, and what that means for brands, agencies and search strategies.

We talk about how AEO or GEO or AIEO or what ever you call it fits into the mix, how it differs from traditional SEO, and why Google, OpenAI and Perplexity might soon be the new gatekeepers of visibility. We also get into what brands can actually do right now to prepare for AI-native search, and whether this shift is likely to change consumer behaviour forever.

If you work in commerce, brand marketing or digital strategy, this episode will help you understand what’s next for search, discovery and visibility in the age of AI.