This episode of the Marketing AI SparkCast features Aby Varma, founder of Spark Novus, a strategic partner to marketing leaders adopting AI responsibly. Aby is joined by Todd Sawicki, CEO and co-founder of Gumshoe, an emerging platform built to help brands understand what large language models (LLMs) think about them and how to act on it. The conversation dives deep into the paradigm shift from traditional SEO to AI-driven brand discovery. Marketers will walk away with a much clearer view of AI Optimization (AIO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), the mechanics behind AI answers, and how to align messaging with LLMs to improve brand visibility.

Topics Covered:

• From SEO to AIO and GEO: Traditional SEO is losing ground as LLMs define how users discover brands

• AI’s Personalization Power: LLMs generate contextual recommendations based on user behavior and profile

• Understanding AI’s Brand View: Gumshoe audits show how often and why LLMs recommend your brand to specific personas

• AI’s Impact on Paid and Organic: Even paid search is affected as AI models push answers above ads

• Probabilistic Nature of LLMs: Discovery is no longer ranked and deterministic but context-driven and dynamic

• Gumshoe’s Methodology: Uses synthetic personas and chats to audit brand visibility in AI

• Training the AI Sales Rep: Brands must actively shape how AI perceives and represents them

• Key Channels LLMs Trust: Product pages, FAQs, knowledge bases, expert mentions, and academic citations

• How to Get Found: Crawlability, structured content, and relevance to AI queries now define visibility

Todd Sawicki is the CEO and co-founder of Gumshoe, a platform that helps brands audit and optimize their visibility within AI-driven discovery platforms. His career spans Disney, early-stage internet startups, performance marketing, and building programmatic ad platforms—all culminating in his latest venture, Gumshoe.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddsawicki

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, a firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically. He specializes in fusing brand, content, and growth through modern marketing strategy.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of The Marketing AI SparkCast, Aby Varma—founder of Spark Novus, a firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically—hosts Christian Herrity, Creative Director and AI Lead at Accenture Song. The conversation dives deep into how AI is reshaping the creative process, from rapid prototyping and world-building to storytelling and production. Herrity shares personal anecdotes, tools of the trade, and reflections on balancing human creativity with AI’s scale and speed. This episode is a must-listen for marketers, creatives, and brand leaders looking to explore AI’s potential in modern storytelling.

Topics Covered:

• Christian Herrity’s Creative Journey: From 3D artist to leading AI-driven storytelling at Accenture Song.

• Human-AI Collaboration: Using AI as a “superpower, not a superhero” in the creative process.

• The Creative Process Reimagined: How AI enables rapid ideation, prototyping, and storytelling iterations.

• Human vs AI Roles: “Volume and velocity” for AI, “value and voice” for humans.

• The “Human-AI Sandwich” Concept: Integrating human intuition and AI exploration in the production loop.

• Tools of the Trade: Herrity’s go-to platforms include Midjourney, Runway, Pika, Adobe Firefly, and ElevenLabs.

• Brand Expectations in the AI Era: Why speed doesn’t always equal cheap—and why creativity still leads.

• Creative Ethics & Compliance: Addressing artist concerns, IP risks, and the importance of respecting source inspiration.

• Democratization of Storytelling: How AI unlocks creative potential for non-traditional storytellers.

• Advice for Marketers: Start with imagination, stay curious, experiment with free tools, and let AI bring your vision to life.

Christian Herrity is the Creative Director and AI Lead at Accenture Song, where he guides enterprise clients in leveraging AI to transform creative storytelling. With roots in 3D design and directing, Herrity now focuses on scalable, AI-enabled content that preserves human authenticity. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianherrity/

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, a firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically. He specializes in fusing brand, content, and growth through modern marketing strategy. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of the Marketing AI SparkCast, Aby Varma, founder of Spark Novus, an advisory firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically, sits down with Philip Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier. The conversation dives into how marketing teams are shifting from basic automation to fully autonomous, AI-driven workflows using orchestration, agents, and no-code tools. Philip shares his unconventional career path and explains how AI is reshaping how marketing and ops teams operate, scale, and create value.

Topics Covered:

Philip Lakin’s journey: From acting to no-code innovation and enterprise automation.

From automation to orchestration: Why AI-native workflows are the next leap in marketing tech.

Understanding AI agents: A walkthrough of the KIT model—Knowledge, Instructions, Tools.

Agent vs. workflow logic: When to use deterministic paths and when to give AI creative decision-making.

Tooling landscape: Comparing low-code/no-code platforms for enterprise use.

Rise of the GTM engineer: How technical marketers are becoming the new growth drivers.

Practical limits of agents: What AI can and can’t handle (yet) in production.

Learning by building: Why hands-on experimentation gives marketers a long-term edge.

Guest bio:

Philip Lakin is Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier, where he helps companies deploy AI-first automation across operations and marketing. Previously, he led no-code initiatives at Compass and built a startup acquired by Zapier.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lakin/

Host bio:

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, an advisory firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically. He specializes in fusing brand, content, and growth through modern marketing strategy.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of the Marketing AI SparkCast, Aby Varma, founder of Spark Novus, an advisory firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically, sits down with Philip Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier. The conversation dives into how marketing teams are shifting from basic automation to fully autonomous, AI-driven workflows using orchestration, agents, and no-code tools. Philip shares his unconventional career path and explains how AI is reshaping how marketing and ops teams operate, scale, and create value.

Topics Covered:

Philip Lakin’s journey: From acting to no-code innovation and enterprise automation.

From automation to orchestration: Why AI-native workflows are the next leap in marketing tech.

Understanding AI agents: A walkthrough of the KIT model—Knowledge, Instructions, Tools.

Agent vs. workflow logic: When to use deterministic paths and when to give AI creative decision-making.

Tooling landscape: Comparing low-code/no-code platforms for enterprise use.

Rise of the GTM engineer: How technical marketers are becoming the new growth drivers.

Practical limits of agents: What AI can and can’t handle (yet) in production.

Learning by building: Why hands-on experimentation gives marketers a long-term edge.

Guest bio:

Philip Lakin is Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier, where he helps companies deploy AI-first automation across operations and marketing. Previously, he led no-code initiatives at Compass and built a startup acquired by Zapier.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lakin/

Host bio:

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, an advisory firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically. He specializes in fusing brand, content, and growth through modern marketing strategy.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of The Marketing AI SparkCast, Aby Varma, founder of Spark Novus, a leading consultancy that partners with marketing leaders to adopt and scale AI responsibly and strategically, talks with Nicola Smith, Senior AI Programs Advisor at Southwest Airlines. They explore how enterprises can move beyond tool experimentation to embed AI into strategic workflows, why marketing leaders are uniquely suited to lead AI adoption, and how AI fluency is evolving from a competitive advantage to a regulatory necessity.

Topics Covered:

Nicola’s Career Journey: From production design and agency leadership to corporate AI strategy at Southwest Airlines.

Why Every Company Needs an AI Strategist: The AI strategist’s role in driving adoption, ROI, and cross-functional change.

The Role of AI Literacy: How varying employee fluency affects adoption and why education is essential.

AI in Marketing Workflows: Uncovering campaign inefficiencies and opportunities through strategic audits.

Strategic vs. Tool-Driven AI: Avoiding the trap of “doing AI” without a clear, value-aligned plan.

Efficiencies vs. Effectiveness: Shifting focus from doing more to doing better with AI.

Design Thinking for AI Opportunities: Why uncovering pain points—not just tools—is the key to smart implementation.

Future of Work & Skills Shift: Entry-level marketing roles are changing, but communication-first marketers are primed to lead.

Why CMOs Are Well-Positioned for AI Strategy: Marketing’s blend of creativity, systems thinking, and communication makes it ideal for cross-functional AI leadership.

Enterprise Collaboration: AI adoption needs top-down executive support and cross-department ownership.

Nicola Smith is the Senior AI Programs Advisor at Southwest Airlines, where she develops AI strategy and builds internal capabilities for AI literacy and product design. With roots in marketing and tech-forward creative leadership, she helps large organizations turn emerging tech into real-world impact.

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, a consulting firm helping marketing leaders adopt AI responsibly and strategically. A Forbes Council member, he fuses digital content, brand strategy, and AI transformation to drive growth. Passionate about ideas that inspire change, he also serves as Head of Marketing for TEDxAtlanta. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of The Marketing AI SparkCast, Aby Varma—founder of Spark Novus, which partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically—hosts Mike Ensing, Founder and CEO of Revere AI. They explore how LLMs are revolutionizing search, shifting the customer journey, and forcing a new marketing playbook where brand discovery is increasingly mediated by generative AI systems rather than traditional search engines. The conversation delves into trust, hallucinations, data structure, and the strategic role of agents in brand engagement.

Topics Covered:

The Disruption of Search by LLMs: Traditional search is being replaced by answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity, reducing organic traffic through “clickless” interactions.

LLMs as Influencers: LLMs are becoming the key influencers of purchase decisions, with billions relying on them across multiple platforms.

Evolution from SEO to LLMO: Marketers must now optimize for LLMs through practices such as data structuring, LLMs.txt standards, and strategic visibility.

Hallucinations and Trust: Brands can reduce LLM hallucinations by increasing the volume and quality of data accessible to these models.

Agent-Led Decisions: Autonomous agents are starting to handle complex purchases, mirroring the trust people already place in self-driving cars.

Brand Monitoring Tools: Ensing introduces Brand Lumineer by Revere AI, which tracks how brands are presented across various LLMs and personas.

LLMs and Social Media Influence: LLM sentiment is shaped by broader internet content, including social channels like Reddit and user-generated platforms.

Crystal Ball Forecasting: Ensing predicts parity between GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and traditional SEO within 18 months.

Mike Ensing is the Founder and CEO of Revere, a company he founded to help brands navigate the disruptive shift from traditional search to LLM-based brand discovery. With leadership roles at Microsoft, Deloitte, McKinsey, and Real Networks, Ensing brings deep experience in both AI strategy and corporate transformation. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-ensing-b0228b4

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, helping marketing leaders adopt AI strategically and responsibly for innovation and growth. A Forbes Communication Council member and AI optimist, he hosts The Marketing AI SparkCast podcast and leads Marketing AI Pulse, a community dedicated to AI in marketing. Passionate about ideas that inspire change, he also serves as Head of Marketing for TEDxAtlanta. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of the SparkCast, Aby Varma—founder of Spark Novus, a firm that helps marketing leaders adopt AI responsibly and strategically—sits down with Daniel Kravtsov, CEO and Co-Founder of Improvado. Daniel shares his unique journey from Russia to founding a cutting-edge martech company in the Bay Area. Together, they explore how AI agents are transforming the marketing analytics lifecycle—from extracting data to normalizing, visualizing, and even fixing it—all without technical expertise.

Topics Covered

AI’s new role in marketing analytics: AI agents can now extract, clean, and analyze marketing data without engineering support.

Why marketers are frustrated with legacy analytics workflows: The traditional approach is slow, technical, and often disconnected.

How Improvado differentiates from traditional BI tools: Focused on business users with no coding required and enhanced semantic understanding of data.

Rise of “vibe analytics”: Real-time, conversational analytics enabling faster decision-making and iteration.

Human-AI collaboration in strategy: While AI handles the grunt work, marketers must still ask the right strategic questions.

Trust and validation in AI-driven insights: Marketers are advised to treat AI like human analysts—always validate outputs.

The future of marketing teams: AI agents may replace or coexist with human analysts and even operate as independent team entities.

Daniel Kravtsov is the CEO and Co-Founder of Improvado. With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing and ad tech, Daniel has built scalable tools that simplify marketing data operations. A computer science engineer by training, Daniel began his entrepreneurial journey in Russia before founding and selling his first company. Now based in the Bay Area, he is a global thought leader on data and marketing transformation. Follow Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielkravtsov/

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, helping marketing leaders adopt AI strategically and responsibly for innovation and growth. A Forbes Communication Council member and AI optimist, he hosts The Marketing AI SparkCast podcast and leads Marketing AI Pulse, a community dedicated to AI in marketing. Passionate about ideas that inspire change, he also serves as the Head of Marketing for TEDxAtlanta. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of The Marketing AI SparkCast, Aby Varma, founder of Spark Novus, sits down with Piyush Saggi, co-founder and CEO of Parmonic, to discuss AI’s impact on video storytelling. They explore AI’s role in video transformation, storytelling challenges, and how brands can balance automation with authenticity.

Topics Covered

* The Rise of AI in Video Storytelling: AI is reshaping video content creation, making it more accessible and efficient for marketers.

* Parmonic’s Origin Story: Piyush shares how Parmonic started as a response to the overwhelming amount of long-form content that audiences struggle to consume.

* AI’s Role in Video Editing vs. Storytelling: While AI has made strides in video editing, its ability to shape compelling narratives is still developing.

* Brand Authenticity vs. AI Automation: Marketers must balance AI-powered content creation with maintaining genuine brand messaging.

* Synthetic Avatars and Deepfakes: The ethical and compliance risks of AI-generated avatars and voices in marketing.

* AI-Powered Video Personalization: The future of AI in delivering personalized video content tailored to the viewer’s knowledge and interests.

* The Future of Video Creation: AI will enable more marketers to create video content without professional editing skills, shifting the role of traditional video teams.

Guest Bio

Piyush Saggi is the co-founder and CEO of Parmonic, a video transformation platform that helps marketers convert long-form content into engaging, bite-sized clips. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at Microsoft in sales and marketing before venturing into entrepreneurship. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/psaggi.

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus, helping marketing leaders adopt AI strategically and responsibly for innovation and growth. A Forbes Communication Council member and AI optimist, he hosts The Marketing AI SparkCast podcast and leads Marketing AI Pulse, a community dedicated to AI in marketing. Passionate about ideas that inspire change, he also serves as Head of Marketing for TEDxAtlanta. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/.

Aby Varma, founder of Spark Novus, leads a discussion on how AI is reshaping marketing within large B2B enterprises. He speaks with Shonodeep Modak, CMO of Schneider Electric’s Energy Management Business, about their AI journey, operational challenges, and strategies for successful AI adoption in marketing. They highlight lessons learned, misconceptions, and the future of AI in enterprise marketing.

Topics Covered

• Schneider Electric’s AI Journey: How the company introduced AI in marketing and scaled adoption across 1,600 marketers.

• AI in Enterprise Marketing: The role of AI in content generation, campaign optimization, and customer engagement.

• Operationalizing AI at Scale: Overcoming challenges in AI adoption, including IT compliance, legal concerns, and internal skepticism.

• AI’s Impact on Marketing Efficiency: How AI is improving content quality, not just saving time.

• Prioritizing AI Use Cases: Strategies to select high-value AI applications that align with business goals.

• Future of AI in Marketing: The role of AI agents, automation, and evolving AI capabilities in marketing.

Shonodeep Modak is the CMO of Schneider Electric Energy Management, overseeing AI transformation within marketing. He previously held leadership roles at GE and Exxon. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shonodeep/

Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus. Through Spark Novus, Aby partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI strategically and responsibly, fostering innovation and operational excellence. He specializes in fusing digital, content, and brand strategy for growth. Aby is a Forbes Council Member and a seasoned CMO, guiding AI-centric transformations for global brands. Learn more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/

In this episode of  Marketing AI SparkCast, host Aby Varma, the founder of Spark Novus, a firm that partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI responsibly and strategically discusses the nuances of AI integration with marketing and content expert Rob Rose. Together, they explore that AI adoption is not a standalone strategy but technology that should be used to add strategic value.

Topics Covered:

• The Misconception of AI as a Strategy: Exploring why AI needs to be applied to specific objectives to provide value.

• Dunning-Kruger Effect and AI: Understanding cognitive biases in evaluating AI-generated content and their implications for marketers.

• Pragmatic AI Adoption: Discussing how organizations can audit and align their processes to identify meaningful AI applications.

• AI's Impact on Content Marketing: Examining how AI is reshaping content creation and personalization.

• AI Tools for Marketers: Exploring tools like ChatGPT for summarization and derivative content creation.

• Avoiding Mediocrity at Scale: Warning against over-reliance on AI without a clear strategy, which can lead to average content proliferation.

• Value-Driven AI Use Cases: Emphasizing the importance of identifying gaps in workflows where AI can deliver measurable benefits.

Rob Rose is a trusted advisor to global brands. He is a marketing strategist, podcaster, and speaker with expertise in content strategy and digital transformation. Rob is the founder of The Content Advisory, where he helps brands optimize their storytelling and scale marketing efforts. Learn more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robrose/

 Aby Varma is the founder of Spark Novus. He specializes in fusing digital, content and brand strategy for growth. Through Spark Novus, Aby partners with marketing leaders to adopt AI strategically and responsibly, fostering innovation and operational excellence. Aby is a Forbes Council Member and a seasoned CMO, guiding AI-centric transformations for global brands. Learn more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abyvarma/