The third-party data economy is over. Apple killed the cookie. Google capped tracking. Meta charges by the impression. A Swiss software company is selling the only thing that still scales: direct customer ownership.
AI is now the first step in casting calls, generating ranked lists of potential campaign faces. A new study, the "AI Casting Index," reveals that AI recommends documented talent due to a "Structure Premium." This means actors and athletes dominate recommendations, while many creators are overlooked because their careers primarily exist within feeds, not documented public records. To adapt, creators must build a verifiable public footprint beyond their content. Brands must also understand the limitations of AI-driven casting.
B2B digital marketing spent a decade borrowing tactics from B2C and accepting its reputation as the less creative cousin. The 2026 reset — category creation, founder-led GTM, Citation Share as the metric.
Why the bots cite one consumer brand and skip another. It's not size. It's not ad spend. It's citation infrastructure — and the five layers that build it.
Ernst & Young's digital marketing strategy under global CEO Janet Truncale — the All In positioning, Entrepreneur Of The Year, EY-Parthenon, and how EY builds authority inside AI answer engines.
