Advertising has come a long way: from the golden age of TV and print to the rise of banner ads and social media. Each new format promised to bring brands closer to their audiences. It did.
But through it all, one thing remained constant: it was one-way communication. Brands spoke AT customers, not WITH them.
Even the most targeted ads and data-driven campaigns were, at their core, still monologues. They may have been optimized for clicks, but they weren’t built for true engagement beyond likes.
Until now. Ads that speak and websites that talk back are totally possible and already live.
For the first time, brands can show up not just with a broadcast message, but with the ability to respond. In real time. In their own voice. The shift from one-way to two-way marketing communications didn’t happen because formats changed. It happened because technology did.
At Intentful, we created our first brand-aware AI back in 2021 for Broadway Inbound. We fine-tuned then-state-of-the-art GPT-3 to represent their brand – its tone, language, and product knowledge. We didn’t call it an “agent” back then, but the concept was already there. In spring 2022, we presented that work in Oxford’s Diploma in AI program, a case study for how AI and data could come together to represent a brand and connect with customers in all-new ways.
Since then, the technology has evolved significantly, but the principle remains: You can teach AI to know your brand – to speak in your voice, know products in fine detail, reflect brand values, and stay within the boundaries of what’s true and useful.
This is the foundation of a Brand Agent.
We humans are wired for search and conversation. It goes back to survival: ask, discover, learn, share, decide, act. Technology is not replacing human connection. On the contrary, it augments our knowledge to the degree we can’t fully even understand yet.
This Is the New Default: Interaction, Not Impressions.
Your customers are already talking with AI, whether it’s ChatGPT, Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT alone has over 300 million active users each week.
There’s no reason brands should stay on the sidelines and continue broadcasting at customers. It’s time to engage in real conversations with customers, in the moment, at scale.
From “Target Audience” to Actual People
For decades, marketing has treated people as “target audiences,” grouped by demographics, behaviors, or segments on a dashboard. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it’s been the industry standard for a long time.
But in the process, individuals have been reduced to data points.
Assumptions were made about who people are, what they want, and how they’ll behave. The qualitative side – why they did it, what they were hoping for, what they didn’t find – is often missing or buried in limited focus groups and post-campaign surveys.
Impressions. Click-through rates. Conversions. Most of this data is quantitative: what people did, when they did it, where they clicked.
That gap between what the brand says and what the person actually needs? Let’s look in the mirror – all communications are mostly based on assumptions.
Two-way marketing closes that gap. Whether it’s answering a question inside an ad, guiding a customer on a website, or assisting in-store through an app, a Brand Agent makes the brand present and useful when it matters most.
This is the difference between a broadcast and a relationship.
A New Era Begins
We’re entering a new era, the one where brands are no longer just seen and heard, but understood and truly accessible. Where communication flows both ways, powered by intelligence, context, and intent. Two-way marketing isn’t a trend. It’s a return to what marketing was always meant to be: connection with every customer, one-on-one and at scale. And now, the technology finally makes it possible.
