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Speed, Creativity, and Context: The 2026 AI Playbook for Modern Marketers
What does it really look like to prepare your marketing for 2026—with AI, shifting buyer journeys, and changing KPIs all at once?
In this episode of Good Marketing with Stephanie, host Stephanie Pryor chats with Lisa Zwikl, Chief Strategy Officer at SmartAcre, about the intersection of brand, AI, and the future of search.
Lisa started her career in PR, moved into strategic communications and demand operations, and now helps B2B brands modernize their demand engines and adopt AI with intention. Her take: your brand is context—and without that context, AI can’t help you the way you want it to.
You’ll hear about:
Why a strong brand foundation is essential for any AI strategy
What it means to train AI models as a marketer (using tools like ChatGPT in a practical way)
How to use projects and guardrails in AI tools to stay on-brand and safe
The shift from traditional SEO to AEO (AI / Answer / Action Engine Optimization)
Why organic traffic is changing and what to focus on instead
How to repurpose and amplify long-form content across channels with AI
New ways to think about conversions (beyond gated ebooks)
Why speed and creativity will matter more than ever in 2026
Stephanie and Lisa also talk candidly about the fear and hype around AI, why “AI will replace marketing teams” is a bad take, and how AI is best used as an amplifier—not a replacement—for strong strategy and good marketing.
About Our Guest
Lisa Zwikl, Chief Strategy Officer at SmartAcre (B2B marketing agency).
Connect with Lisa & Smartacre: https://www.getsmartacre.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lzwikl/
Connect with Stephanie
https://lancmarketing.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieapryor/
Show Notes
Lisa suggests checking out HubSpot’s Marketing Against the Grain podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3bMqKPfI45OmTK5hENtIOk?si=e3cfacaff1d84560
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934
If you’re a marketer, communicator, or PR pro trying to figure out what comes next, this episode will give you both big-picture perspective and practical next steps for 2026.
View all episodes
By Stephanie PryorWhat does it really look like to prepare your marketing for 2026—with AI, shifting buyer journeys, and changing KPIs all at once?
In this episode of Good Marketing with Stephanie, host Stephanie Pryor chats with Lisa Zwikl, Chief Strategy Officer at SmartAcre, about the intersection of brand, AI, and the future of search.
Lisa started her career in PR, moved into strategic communications and demand operations, and now helps B2B brands modernize their demand engines and adopt AI with intention. Her take: your brand is context—and without that context, AI can’t help you the way you want it to.
You’ll hear about:
Why a strong brand foundation is essential for any AI strategy
What it means to train AI models as a marketer (using tools like ChatGPT in a practical way)
How to use projects and guardrails in AI tools to stay on-brand and safe
The shift from traditional SEO to AEO (AI / Answer / Action Engine Optimization)
Why organic traffic is changing and what to focus on instead
How to repurpose and amplify long-form content across channels with AI
New ways to think about conversions (beyond gated ebooks)
Why speed and creativity will matter more than ever in 2026
Stephanie and Lisa also talk candidly about the fear and hype around AI, why “AI will replace marketing teams” is a bad take, and how AI is best used as an amplifier—not a replacement—for strong strategy and good marketing.
About Our Guest
Lisa Zwikl, Chief Strategy Officer at SmartAcre (B2B marketing agency).
Connect with Lisa & Smartacre: https://www.getsmartacre.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lzwikl/
Connect with Stephanie
https://lancmarketing.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieapryor/
Show Notes
Lisa suggests checking out HubSpot’s Marketing Against the Grain podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3bMqKPfI45OmTK5hENtIOk?si=e3cfacaff1d84560
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934
If you’re a marketer, communicator, or PR pro trying to figure out what comes next, this episode will give you both big-picture perspective and practical next steps for 2026.