What AI-driven audiences mean for ROI
We should be slightly uncomfortable. If we're not, our marketing isn't growing.
That insight stayed with me from the FMI Summit in New York, where I ran my first 'synthetic' versus 'real' audience experiment live. I was nervous going in and relieved coming out, as the real audience ranked the videos in the same order as the AI one.
Here's why that matters: as marketers, we're constantly trying to answer two questions: how do we prove ROI, and how do we sustain genuine audience engagement? Both are hard because we're usually measuring after the fact, not predicting before we commit.
How AI is shifting audience insight earlier in the process
What's changing is our ability to model audience response before content goes live. With AI-powered audience simulation, you can test messaging with a virtual community that mirrors your target audience, for example their demographics, motivations, even their decision-making style. Insights that used to take months now take days.
This isn’t about replacing human judgment. It’s about gaining directional insight early enough to inform better decisions before campaigns go live.
When I tested the video below with my synthetic focus group and asked about using it as thought leadership, they did exactly what demanding executives would do: they wanted more data, more proof, more case studies.
For that deeper layer, head to Socialtrait. It has allowed me to experiment with its platform, which may point to another meaningful shift in the months ahead.
And remember, if it makes you slightly uncomfortable, you're probably heading in the right direction.
