Marketing Leadership Week Prompts Fresh Insights with AI-themed CMO Day
Flagship event returns with sights set on empowering leadership potential
TORONTO, June 11, 2025 – The future of marketing is human.
That was one of the key messages delivered as many of Canada’s top marketing and business thinkers and practitioners gathered at the Toronto Reference Library for Empowered CMO Day.
The half-day conference, part of AMA Toronto’s Marketing Leadership Week, featured keynotes, panel discussions, and power talks aimed at helping leaders navigate the disruptions caused by artificial intelligence and more.
Maxim Rakov, President Elect, AMA Toronto set the stage with some opening remarks about what he called “the hottest topic on the market.”
“We hear about AI probably more than we heard about social media back in the 2000s, but we didn’t just want a theme that resonated or that was timely,” Rakov told attendees. “We wanted something that truly reflected who we are as the largest industry association and the biggest professional community in North America.”
Maxim Rakov, President Elect, AMA Toronto
Your brand is only as strong as your answers
Pete Blackshaw, Founder & CEO, Brandrank.ai led with a keynote on how AI-powered search and “the answer economy” are reshaping the way brands get discovered.
“We’re in this world where what shows up in the answers is the new shopper funnel,” Blackshaw said, adding that AI results are now, “the new front door to marketing.”
With customers increasingly turning to AI tools to research products and services, he explained, every part of the journey is implicated.
“When it comes to generative AI answer engines, your brand is a smoothie,” Blackshaw said. “One where customers get a mix of all the things being said about you in a single blended response.”
As such, Blackshaw told the audience, marketing leaders need to understand how AI sources “ingredients” from reviews, campaigns, FAQS, and more, and what they can do to shape the outcomes.
Ultimately, Blackshaw concluded, “Your brand is only as strong as its answers.”
Pete Blackshaw, Founder & CEO, Brandrank.ai
Consumers face challenges on multiple fronts
Now in its 15th year, the all-female CMO panel, moderated by Craig Lund, President, MTI, then opened with a reality check of the current economic climate.
“We have a deep responsibility to make sure we understand our consumers and what challenges they’re going through, what they’re thinking, and what they’re struggling with,” Christine Cruz-Clarke, Vice President and Global Head of Marketing Excellence, Kraft Heinz told the room.
Nicole Avery, Vice President, Marketing, Ecobee, a manufacturer of smart home products, also emphasized the need for brands to focus on helping people save money.
“We have to be very attuned to the fact that consumers are in a pinch and are unsure about what is going to happen and where they’re going to put their money,” she said.
Think before you turn your business upside-down
As the speed of business and AI adoption increases, leaders are switching to a more agile approach, a transition Simone Lumsden, Senior Vice President, Triangle Customer Loyalty and Retail Media, Canadian Tire said can be, “a massive undertaking.”
“It depends on where you’re at in your journey,” she noted. “But you need to be thinking about the measurement of incrementality and testing […] because otherwise you don’t know what the results are going to yield.”
Maja Neable, Chief Marketing Officer, TD Canada added that, in spite of the wealth of data available to decision-makers, there are few, if any, perfect answers.
“Get on the same page with your CFO and your business about the fact that this isn’t an exact science – it’s art and science,” she said. “Also, understand that there are many ways to measure, and you need a collective set of these methodologies to paint a picture.”
Left to right (on stage): Craig Lund, Christine Cruz-Clarke, Nicole Avery, Simone Lumsden and Maya Neable
A new frontier in personalization
Whether around campaigns, brand relevance or product solutions, AI has raised some big questions about the ways brands customize their offerings for individual consumers.
“Personalization can take many different directions depending on what you’re trying to do with it,” Cruz-Clarke said. “We’re trying to understand what the data is trying to tell us, how to leverage those insights and focus our teams on turning them into action.”
For big organizations with complex operational processes and large customer bases, Neable added, AI has created both opportunities and challenges.
“It’s definitely a new frontier, one that is on a next level more so than many other frontiers that we’ve run into,” she said. “There are lots of concerns about privacy and security, but it’s encouraging to see it’s much easier to adjust and make it so much better.”
Balancing profit and planet
The intersection of sustainability and financial performance are also having a profound impact on how marketers operate.
“There’s no question that climate change last year was horrible and a lot of our customers are in severe weather regions,” Avery said, adding that brands like Ecobee show that, “You can have a profitable, sustainable business that does great for the environment.”
From a CPG perspective, Cruz-Clarke said new ways to drive sustainability continue to emerge even in an industry where initiatives such as reducing packaging are already commonplace.
“One part that is newer is making sure there’s an agricultural component,” she explained. “There’s a whole supply chain where we need to make sure that we’re not just partnering with farmers, but also educating them about working in sustainable ways.”
Left to right: Christine Cruz-Clarke, Nicole Avery, Simone Lumsden and Maya Neable
Will AI replace or empower humans?
Despite the rise of AI in the workplace, the panellists noted, many of the challenges around hiring and retaining talent remain the same.
“We constantly have to make sure you’re building the right team, one that is effective and efficient and diverse, and think about how we choose to do that over time,” Avery said.
The real opportunity, Lumsden pointed out, rests in leveraging AI to get humans doing things that they were unable to do before.
“The expectation we have of ourselves and of own teams is that we’re going to be as efficient as possible, by taking the human effort out of more basic tasks,” she said. “And also use AI to take us to places that we haven’t been.”
From AI to DEI
For iconic brands such as Canadian Tire, understanding Canada’s multicultural mosaic plays a big role in how they shape both internal and external practices (including AI ones).
“We have the extreme privilege of being one of the most trusted brands in this country, and there is huge responsibility that goes with that,” Lumsden said. “So, we have to think about our brand all the time and the importance of how we show up with our consumers.”
Neable added that, when it comes to diversity, brands need to stand up for their beliefs to make their workplaces more equitable environments.
“It’s a process of looking in the mirror, thinking about what biases exist and then asking again and again,” she said. “It’s been a focus and will continue to be and I’m excited because we’ll come out stronger on the other end.”
Left to right: Craig Lund, Christine Cruz-Clarke, Nicole Avery, Simone Lumsden and Maya Neable
AMA Toronto would like to thank our sponsors Cvent, Microsoft Advertising, Dialekta, Ig2, N1, Empathy Inc., Yorkville University, Balmoral Multicultural Marketing and Nectar First, as well as our media partner Globe Media Group and venue partner IBM for their support in staging Marketing Leadership Week.
About AMA Toronto
AMA Toronto is a community of volunteer marketers who have been empowering leadership and business growth for nearly 80 years in Canada. The AMA, with more than 30,000 members and 70 chapters across North America, is the largest not-for-profit marketing association in the world serving organizations and individuals who practice, teach and study marketing.
About the author
Michael Thede is a PR manager and senior writer with AMA Toronto. Prior to relocating to Toronto, he lived and worked in Shanghai, where he led international marketing communications for China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). He has also worked with brands such as Education First, Disney and Porsche. Michael has a BA in film studies and philosophy from Western University and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in marketing at Schulich School of Business (York University).
About the photographer
Duo Ma is the director of volunteer onboarding and a photographer for AMA Toronto. Outside of AMA, she works as a Marketing and Trade Show Coordinator at Top Grade Molds. She has a master’s in marketing from Schulich School of Business. Her passion for photography has been a lifelong pursuit, stemming from her early years, and she takes joy in capturing cherished moments through her lens.
