How will AI change the way we create, consume, and shop?
Recorded live at SXSW Sydney, this special crossover between Commerce Media Matters and Mind the Model podcast brings together Paul Blackburn, Nathan Guerra, and Emily Crone for a conversation about the collision of AI, commerce, and creativity.
From agentic shopping and retail media’s next evolution to copyright, deepfakes, and data power plays, the trio unpack how AI is reshaping the way we buy, sell, and tell stories. It’s equal parts thought-provoking, entertaining, and a little bit alarming — covering everything from ChatGPT’s commerce integration to the future of brand trust in an AI-driven era.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
AI-generated video’s double edge: powerful creative potential, but growing risks around trust, authenticity, and verification.
Why premium content is more impactful than ever: how trust will become a competitive advantage in the AI era.
The looming question of copyright and compensation: exploring how credit and references for original content could work with AI.
Ad-funded AI models on the horizon: with rising compute costs, sustainable AI will hinge on advertising and commerce integrations, reshaping how brands, agencies, and creators show up.
The future of shopping goes conversational: unpacking what agentic commerce really means for brands, retailers, and media owners.
Data ownership and transparency in the AI era: who stands to gain as LLMs rewrite the rules of first-party ecosystems.
Soundbites to listen out for:
Deception of fakes
“I’m scared of how good the fakes are. It's scary how easy it is to put out communications, to put out videos that seem real, that are fake news. We need guardrails and education because it’s getting harder to tell what’s real.”
From inspiration to checkout
“You should be able to transact from the point of inspiration. Announcements like Shopify, Etsy, and Walmart now being able to transact inside ChatGPT meet the UX that consumers expect.”
Get conversational
[Publishers] need to have ecosystems that are like conversational commerce. You know, you need to go to Vogue and be able to talk to Vogue like you've talked to ChatGPT.
Rewarding the source
“How do we get the money back to the original publishers who did all that hard work is something that we need to grapple with. I'd like to see a cost per citation type model. It means that the consumer is aware if you're citing an original piece of content that they can trust.”
Trust is the new premium
“Premium publishers have an opportunity to play the trust game. You don’t want to go to the open internet for advice, you want to go to trusted voices like Vogue who have trained their whole life around fashion and are held to journalistic standards.”
The ad model never dies
“I think eventually there'll be an ad funded model. I mean, we've seen it with everything, haven't we? I think we've seen through history that subscription only models can’t sustain, you need more revenue streams. And so advertising comes for all of them.”
About Mind the Model podcast
Mind the Model is a modern marketer’s guide to AI – cutting through the noise to show how advertising and marketing teams are really using it. Hosted by Emmalee Crellin and Nathan Guerra, two seasoned ad pros based in sunny Sydney, the show empowers marketers to confidently integrate AI into their everyday work and demystifying what’s happening in AI, sharing real-world applications you can start using straight away.
Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn
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