By Jeffrey Davis, APR
Senior Consultant

The stars were on stages across downtown Austin during this year’s South By Southwest conference — California Governor Gavin Newsom, Jamie Lee Curtis, Steven Spielberg, Real Housewives Host Andy Cohen, entrepreneur Mark Cuban and many others. Film screenings, emerging bands, a comedy festival and SXSW sponsor parties kept the energy going all week.

I was there for the equally star-studded Innovation track. Top creative and social media minds from Disney, The New York Times, MIT, Newsweek, YouTube and Instagram filled the sessions.

The takeaway for communications pros: human judgment, creativity, credible third-party content and strong agency relationships matter more in the AI era, not less.

AI Is Embedded. Agencies Are Essential.

Lyft CMO Brian Irving and Samsung CMO Allison Stransky made clear that the future of marketing won’t be built by machines alone. Both described AI as operational infrastructure embedded across campaign development, customer experience and workflow.

“We’re all hoping that time saved in one place will be applied in another place,” Stransky said.

“Our agency partners are still indispensable,” Stransky said. “I don’t think AI is going to be more creative than humans.” On earned media and strategic PR, both CMOs were clear regarding its value. As large language models (LLMs) scan the web for signals, high-quality news coverage and credible third-party content are shaping how brands are represented in AI-generated answers. “PR is more important than ever,” Stransky said. “We need real, credible information all over the internet.”

Journalism Isn’t Dying, But It Is Changing Fast

Publishers are expanding well beyond traditional news formats to stay relevant and financially viable. The New York Times builds daily habits through products like Wordle, Connections and cooking content, all aimed at broadening engagement without diluting the journalism.

“Young people are very engaged with the news. They care a lot,” said Betsy Reed, U.S. editor at The Guardian. The entry point has just changed. News organizations are meeting Gen Z on TikTok and YouTube before converting them through newsletters and subscriptions.

How will they make money? Maybe no longer with paywalls, subscriptions and ads. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, who also owns the Park Record in Utah, says a possible solution is licensing content to AI companies.

Six Creative and Social Media Ideas Worth Keeping

Disney’s creative team doesn’t begin by asking about clicks and conversions. They start with a single question: What do we want people to feel? The answer should top the list for every creative brief, social media strategy and post.

As for the role of AI agents, a human consumer might visit five websites before making a purchase decision. An agent might visit thousands, in seconds, with no emotional response to the homepage design or brand story. Agents don’t click on ads.

At the Social Media Masterclass, former YouTube and Instagram insider Jon Youshaei made the case for retiring vanity metrics. Focus instead on click-through rate and average view duration — analytics that tell you what content resonates with your audience. Obsess over ideas and focus on being prolific, producing more rather than seeking perfection. The followers will come.

On format: audiences are increasingly wary of overly polished, manufactured content that looks like an ad.

Fix your first frame: Youshaei said to set it up physically, not as a screenshot, and keep it well under three seconds.

On content ideas: mine Reddit. Type your niche or a keyword, find the most relevant subreddit, filter posts by Top and read the most upvoted comments. Then build content around what you find. Real people, real questions, zero research cost.

What SXSW Left Me Thinking

After a week of sessions spanning AI, media, journalism and creative strategy, a few ideas kept surfacing.

AI is a productivity partner, not a replacement. It can generate options, accelerate workflows and expand capacity. What it cannot do is replace human judgment, brand stewardship or creativity.

The takeaways:

• “It’s not human versus machine. It is human and machine.” — Lyft CMO Brian Irving
• The Google blue-link era is fading. Users increasingly trust the helpful robot’s answers.
• Earned media is how brands get recognized and trusted by AI.
• High-quality PR content is one of the most effective counters to the coming flood of low-quality AI-generated material.
• The brands that will break through are AI-literate and creativity-led. That combination is the new competitive advantage.

Rasor is an award-winning marketing agency in Cincinnati, delivering communications, design, social media and public relations strategies to industries including healthcare, municipal and infrastructure and B2B/B2C. Contact us at info@gorasor.com or 513-793-1234 to find out how Rasor can help your organization with its communication needs.