News & insights

Creativity as a shift in perception: how CMOs can win by changing their mental models

Highlights from the keynote of Luc de Brabandere at Innovation Day 2025.

From promise to pressure: what leaders are learning as AI becomes real

Inspired by the panel at Innovation Day London 2026: AI Made Real.

From AI to human potential

Inspired by Dr Daniel Hulme's keynote at Innovation Day London 2026: AI Made Real.

Scaling inspiration: how Zalando is rebuilding fashion & lifestyle content with AI

Inspired by Roland Butler's keynote at Innovation Day London 2026: AI Made Real.

Why execution, not experimentation, will define the next decade

Inspired by David Billings’ keynote at Innovation Day London 2026: AI Made Real.

Lessons from the Barbican: key takeouts from Innovation Day London

AI Made Real: from ambitious ideas to the reality of execution.

IAB’s The Great Debate: Retail Media 2026

Watch our panel session on AI‑Powered Retail Media Supply Chain

Algorithmic double jeopardy: AI advertising and the brand divide

Why AI advertising risks widening the brand gap and what happens when optimization engines lose the plot.

Measuring marketing effectiveness in real time with AI

Lía Inoa Pimentel (Mars) and Liz Salway (Empathy Lab) reveal how brands can finally measure campaign success while it’s happening, not just after the fact.

From spectator to stakeholder,
fandom is entering its ownership era

Inside the rise of digital collectibles and immersive experiences, turning fan engagement into real value.

Craft for feeling. Built for growth. Join us at Cannes Lions 2026.

Creativity without a system is just a spark. A system without creativity is just machinery. The brands winning right now have learned to ignite both.

Synthetic Audiences: the research revolution hiding in plain sight

Missed our live webinar? Watch the recording here and learn how to get research insights in minutes, not days.

Beyond the commerce stack:
the buy vs build reset

Smart commerce leaders aren’t asking “can we build it?” but “should we?”

AI is changing the game. But marketing still plays by old rules.

How orchestration can fix the coordination problem at the heart of marketing

AI is reshaping demand – but marketing is out of sync

Marketing has a systems problem. Automating it isn’t enough: orchestration is now the real imperative

The CMO’s new role in the age of AI

Why mastering orchestration, not just automation, is the new mandate for marketing leaders

Haptic feedback and sound: designing products and experiences beyond visuals

Tiny sensory cues turn flat user journeys into confidence builders that speed decisions and increase loyalty.

The future of search: how AI is changing the game

SEO Lead Ivan Tadic and Digital Marketing Specialist Matti Vissers unpack the seismic shifts in search and what brands must do to stay visible in an AI-powered world.

Measuring what matters with Mars

Inspired by the fireside chat of Lía Inoa Pimentel and Liz Salway at Innovation Day 2025

The CMO at the fork in the road

Automate or orchestrate. David Billings and Alex van Gestel discuss the question shaping the future of marketing

The Growth Operating System

A blueprint for growth in an AI-mediated world

How neurotechnology is rewriting the relationship between people and intelligent systems

Inspired by prof. Pim Haselager’s keynote at Innovation Day 2026: AI Made Real

AI-powered retail transformation in action at Albert Heijn

Inspired by the keynote of Akshay Jadhav and Jorrit van de Geer at Innovation Day 2026: AI Made Real

Reactive to proactive: the tech trends that will shape 2026

Innovation Strategist Thomas de Vos breaks down the game-changing moments of 2025 and the moves that will matter in 2026.

How PostNL moved from omnichannel to one intelligent front door

Inspired by Jeroen Manten’s keynote at Innovation Day 2026: AI Made Real

The smartest brands are being built right here

Launching Empathy Lab in North America

Empathy Lab expands into North America

Helping CMOs accelerate AI-enabled business growth & transformation

Why eCommerce won’t win on best practices alone

The next phase of growth comes from rethinking your commerce ecosystem

Passive fandom is over. Today’s supporters want the front-row feed, 24/7.

The only question: are you ready to deliver it?

Why agentic AI is redefining the marketing operating model

From prompts to performance: the agentic inflection point for marketing

Operational AI starts here: lessons from Innovation Day 2026 in Amsterdam

Four playbooks from Innovation Day 2026 on making AI an everyday operating system.

Why you should kickstart customer research with synthetic personas

They don’t replace classic research but increase focus, speed and ROI.

Orchestrate or automate? Marketing’s AI crisis point is here

At The Drum’s Predictions 2026, Empathy Lab joined Nectar360 on stage to explore why the next generation of leaders are re-architecting marketing for orchestration, not efficiency

Should UCP be part of your agentic commerce stack? What brands should consider.

UCP points to the future of agentic commerce but it’s just one piece of a much bigger picture.

The next chapter for spatial and immersive experiences beyond 2026

The top 4 shifts redefining spatial and immersive experiences in the year to come

Is your operating model stuck in the past?

4 ways to help you turn your AI investments into real ROI

AI in 2026: what brand leaders see coming next

The bold shifts required to make AI work at scale: inside Empathy Lab & Adobe’s CMO Roundtable

Is your brand missing a major value driver? Meet Spatial XP.

How spatial experiences cut through noise and make your brand unforgettable.

Creativity isn't a nice to have. It's a survival skill.

Inspired Luc de Brabandere’s keynote at Innovation Day 2025: AI Made Real

Synthetic personas speed up research, but human judgment remains the compass

Synthetic audiences can power faster, data-driven testing when you validate it with real-world human insight

The CMO’s future: from automation to orchestration

Inspired by David Billings’ keynote at Innovation Day 2025

Context engineering: turning data into connection

How context engineering connects the dots that data can’t, powering richer engagement.

AI Made Real: The event where ideas meet action

Innovation Day 2025 turned Brussels into a proving ground, as 180+ clients from 145 brands swapped real results, live demos, and next-move playbooks across industries.

The CMO’s existential choice

From AI-driven automation to intelligent orchestration

How do you design AI with empathy?

Six tactics to embed empathy into AI systems and turn every touchpoint into connection.

AI made real: how to turn AI ambition into impact

Inspired by Alex van Gestel’s keynote at Innovation Day 2025: AI Made Real

Can AI ever really be empathetic?

How to build emotionally aware systems and make empathy part of your AI foundation.

A business case for empathy

How emotional intelligence can become your most measurable business advantage.

From pressure to performance: Driving Retail Media growth in a shifting landscape

Scaling, measuring, and winning in today’s retail media landscape

Digital commerce is no longer evolving, it’s splintering

The new rules for commerce leaders in a fractured digital world.

From conversion to conversation: how agentic AI is rewriting retail's game

Discovery, consideration, and purchase are collapsing into a single conversation. If brands don’t adapt, aggregators will own the customer.

Copywriting isn’t dead, it’s evolving – are you?

Generative systems can scale words. Only writers can create meaning and craft connection.

From SEO to GEO: how to earn your place in AI-powered search

Making your brand machine-readable with the new rules of LLM-era search.

This is not a pilot: lessons from Reckitt’s global rollout of agentic AI

Inside Reckitt’s real-world rollout of agentic AI with Empathy Lab and why marketers need to stop waiting and start doing.

Agentic AI’s role in media transformation

From brief to plan in seconds, and what that means for media teams.

Smart growth: data quality and innovation at scale

The CMO’s role in building trust through smarter data and deeper stories.

How agentic AI is reshaping your marketing team

The true power of AI doesn't lie in having as many as you can.

AI that actually helps: lessons in keeping it practical

Beyond the noise: how AI is helping teams move faster and think smarter.

What is Model Context Protocol, and why should marketers care?

Consumers are turning to AI tools to make decisions, not just search. Model Context Protocol helps marketers stay part of that conversation.

Quantum marketing: why the next leap isn’t what you think

The real breakthroughs may already be in your hands.

Unlock hyper-personalized loyalty: How AI delivers scale without losing touch

AI helps CMOs go beyond generic campaigns to understand customers, create tailored content, and drive real value.

How Total Commerce enables empathetic retail

Real time transformation of data into experience drives brand bond building on both sides of the front line.

Global EPAM study maps AI adoption in business

From Hype to Impact: How Enterprises Can Unlock Real Business Value with AI.

How AI is radically changing the role of the CMO

With the increasing dominance of AI, marketing isn’t just evolving, it’s being reengineered.

Driving smart demand: using AI to power promotion personalization at scale

Customers don’t just want discounts, they want to feel understood and appreciated.

From compliance to connection: building meaningful experiences around Digital Product Passports

Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are coming. But what if we can elevate them beyond compliance to become the one-on-one connection with your customers?

How Empathy Lab helps brands leverage AI strategically and creatively

Adformatie interviews Empathy Lab’s Sjoerd Van Gelderen and Patrick van der Vliet.

What is the real future of conversational AI?

Here are 5 insights from Chatbot Summit 2025 worth knowing.

From disruption to connection: how AI and experience are reshaping marketing

Empathy Lab at UBA Trends Day: a CMO's guide to the future.

People powered by AI is the strategy the C-suite needs to embrace.

How forward-thinking leaders are using AI to amplify human potential rather than replace it.

AI’s marketing transformation: from automation to elevation

The brands who will define the next decade are not the ones that use AI first, but the ones that use it most thoughtfully. 

5 innovation trends every business leader should know

The world of technology is evolving at breakneck speed, reshaping industries and redefining possibilities. Take a look at the key takeouts from Brussels' Innovation Day 2024.

Navigating the future of retail media networks

Harnessing intelligent orchestration to overcome challenges and drive growth in a competitive landscape.

Introducing Empathy Lab. The launch of something...needed

The brands who will define the next decade are not the ones that use AI first, but the ones that use it most thoughtfully.

Bringing synthetic consumers to life

AI-powered personas that drive research, refine insights, and empower innovation.

The dual potential of AI in loyalty: revolutionizing programs from the inside out

The time for AI adoption is now, according to findings from EPAM and Antavo’s Global Customer Loyalty Report 2025. It’s not just improving customer engagement but streamlining operations too.

Emakina is now Empathy Lab – the first AI-native agency

The User Agency lives on as Empathy Lab, by EPAM – the first AI-native agency that harnesses the power of AI to elevate human creativity and connection.

Omni-modal experiences: a new era of smarter, seamless, more human-like interactions

Omni-modal is the next frontier in customer experience. Discover how to forge deeper customer connections by tailoring to the individual, not the channel.

Adapting to AI orchestration: what retailers need to know

We all know AI is reshaping customer experiences. The next leap? Just one prompt will manage your life – from shopping to travel. But is your brand ready?