DMexco ’26 Briefing: From scaling AI operations to teaching the next generation of ‘bold’ CMOs

The first panel on the first morning of the conference, which featured Meta’s Tino Krause, regional director Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Kristin Fracchia, Gamma’s chief growth officer, Alexander Beresford, Taxfix’s CMO and chief growth officer, and Asil Yilmaz, design director at IBM, keyed on how to turn AI into a competitive advantage at scale. The panel weighed in on the rapid evolution of AI, focusing on organization governance, trust and the necessity of maintaining human centricity amidst AI’s rapid technological acceleration.

The discussion, at the outset, acknowledged the recent developments around AI regarding its safety and considered companies’ ability to make sure their AI initiatives do good and not harm. A tighter handle on governance is an important place to begin, the panelists agreed.

“Every company using AI has a responsibility to apply it safely and compliantly. That means checking internal governance and identifying loopholes,” said Yilmaz. “Sometimes it’s a good idea to put additional security checks in place, perhaps before launching the latest model. Everyone wants to be first to release a new model, but we need to take a careful approach.”

The pace of obsolescence and pressure of changes was also a focus. For Fracchia, AI evolves so quickly that tools and capabilities can feel different from one month to the next. That makes experimentation important, but also exhausting, because models keep altering. But, she said that also can translate to rapid wins. “What our team has been able to do with AI in the past three months might previously have taken a year or more,” she said.

That speed can be seductive but also must be carefully monitored especially when weighed with the need for trust and whether AI can truly understand that very human concept.

“We’re operating in a trust economy. The challenge often isn’t the technology; it’s whether I can trust the company and the way its technology is designed. One of the biggest mistakes would be removing the human element, because that affects trust in governance systems and how users perceive AI,” said Krause. “Employees in organizations that are stronger in this area have the confidence to question AI. They don’t follow it blindly. They can say, “This is where my human instinct and direction matter more than what I’m getting from AI.”

Asked what companies must be brave enough to call bullshuit on in the face of AI hype and breakneck pacing so as not make wrong turns or miss opportunities, Beresford said organizations need to have an “end-to-end” understanding the underlying capabilities required for different roles – both executive roles and individual contributors –and how those capabilities are changing. “This technology changes what’s possible, so organizations need to focus their energy on specific tasks, responsibilities and objectives rather than trying to do everything at once,” he said.

Interestingly, Yilmaz, via her work as an AI transformation architect within companies as well as an educator around the AI proposition, believes the consumer, especially younger end users, are beginning to eschew AI as a content source. “People can often distinguish AI-generated content from human-created content, and that brands should ask what they can uniquely create rather than simply producing more content,” she said.

On day two, Digiday’s panel focused more specifically on the CMO role and how marketing and the concept of trust is being transformed by AI, data applications and the tension between brand and performance. The panelists: Jenny Treiber-Ruckenbrod, global CMO, Mini, Patrick Müller, CDO and CMO, Decathlon, and Andrea Spielmann, director of marketing, Lorenz Snacks, shared their recent perspectives on — and near-term goals for — bold and next gen brand marketing.

The discussion touched on how marketers can use AI while protecting brand distinctiveness, trust, creativity and human connection. Across those challenges the panel pointed to the pursuit of clarity of vision and an openness to change as key hallmarks of modernly effective CMOs and marketing teams.

“From now on, it’s really important for us to be clarified and courageous and to transform. We have a transformation on the technology side, and we have a transformation in our organization, the human side. We need to be clarified where we must go, giving a direction to our teams,” said Treiber-Ruckenbrod.

Part of that clarity means breaking with how things have been done in the past by CMOs and marketing teams.

“What I think will be most important for us is to always question everything because the world today, the modern world, is not working like it used to work,” said Spielmann. “AI is of course exacerbating that, from leadership thinking about ways of working, how to lead people, how to be teams, and how to give answers to our consumers.”

Openness, especially around AI and how it can operate to free up human creativity and brand storytelling, was an important trait for successful CMOs according to the panel.

“I see AI as a big chance for all of us, because it will create a lot of efficiency. I think we are moving into a new stage in our society where [the is more] human leadership,” said Müller. This human interaction will become very important with the consumer and really make a difference.”

Balancing out the AI discussion, the panelists leaned into community engagement, be it Lorenz tying up with the Rap community, Mini with surfers and Decathlon with runners and outdoor enthusiasts in general, as a more human, authentic and less transactional connection to consumers.

“The human factor which comes in, you have to feel, to hear, and then to adapt,” said Treiber-Ruckenbrod on how Mini conducts market research to engage with driver communities and accelerate brand loyalty with in them.

“Culture doesn’t need brands, but brands need culture,” summed up Spielman.

Quotable in Cologne

“I do believe it’s possible to keep up with AI, but not simply through lots of small optimizations and changes. Organizations may need to make more substantial changes in how they operate and think.”

—Kristina Fracchia, chief growth officer, Gamma

“I love AI for many reasons, but it is really important that that it doesn’t endanger our brand trust because when everyone, when every brand is communicating on basis of the same data, not taking care of its own core and history, we might really become more average together.”

— Andrea Spielmann, director of marketing, Lorenz Snacks

DMexco 2026: By the numbers

Figures provided by DMexco

• Visitors: 40,000+
• Conference stages: 17
• Conference content: 230+ hours
• Visitors with purchasing power: 65%
• Visitors in C-suite roles 27%