Organizations have adopted AI with remarkable speed. For CMOs and leadership teams, the questions around AI are no longer hypothetical. AI now plays a role in how we plan experiences, target customers, personalize messages, and measure impact.

Yet, as automation accelerates across marketing and communications, something unexpected is happening inside many organizations: employees feel more disconnected, customers feel less certain, and culture feels harder to hold together.

It’s a paradox unique to the current moment. As communication becomes more automated, connection becomes more valuable. 

This is where CMOs, CEOs, and leadership teams share a common challenge and opportunity. Because despite the sophistication of our tools, the organizations that stand out are those capable of generating something AI is structurally incapable of producing: belief. Belief in a brand, in a mission, in one another. Belief that moves people to act. In the AI era, belief is no longer a soft metric, it’s an organizational necessity.

Today, the most enduring beliefs do not emerge from perfectly optimized content. Belief is born from human experiences that feel unmistakably real.

The rise of the synthetic workspace

We've entered what some call a “synthetic era,” a time when nearly every medium can be manufactured, edited, polished, or artificially generated. Videos can be deepfaked, content can be mass-produced with a prompt, and messaging can be personalized without a single human touch.

Inside organizations, employees are navigating the same uncertainty customers feel: What is real? Who do I trust?

This erosion of trust is not a technology problem. It is a human problem.

And in this environment, CMOs have an unexpected leadership role: to design moments that cut through the synthetic noise and rebuild confidence from the inside out.

Because there is one truth technology cannot replicate: You cannot fake a room full of human beings.

At Wilson Dow, we believe in the power of live experiences and using creative production to help connect people to stories. A live experience, whether an all-hands, a sales kickoff, a leadership summit, a flagship customer event, or a product launch, remains the single most credible environment a brand can create. It is the moment where people don't just consume content, but they start believing in something together. 

Why live experiences matter more in the age of AI

AI expands capacity. It sharpens insights. It accelerates creative cycles. But it also raises the standard for what meaningful engagement should be. According to our recent data study, AI and tech-driven personalization, alongside rising event costs, were the most frequently cited forces shaping the future of events. When routine communication becomes automated, every automated touchpoint becomes less differentiating.

This is why the value of live experiences is actually increasing – not despite AI, but because of it. 

Great experiences do what automation cannot:

  • They foster emotional intelligence.
  • They build trust in leadership.
  • They create belonging among dispersed teams.
  • They facilitate shared memories.
  • They turn passive employees into active advocates.

In an era defined by efficiency, connection becomes a form of economic resilience. 

Events as the ignition point for year-round momentum

If the last decade treated events as isolated moments, the next decade belongs to leaders who use experiences to fuel long-term momentum. 

Post-pandemic workforce dynamics require it. Especially with remote and hybrid workforces, employees today are more disconnected and fragmented than ever. Engagement isn’t something you can simply “announce,” it’s something you have to build and earn.

This is where the most forward-thinking CMOs and internal communications leaders are shifting their strategies. They no longer view their flagship event experiences as discrete points in time. 

The organizations succeeding today share three traits:

1. They treat events as part of a cohesive event portfolio in a year-round energy engine.

They link their SKOs to their conferences to their internal learning platforms. They reinforce messages across channels instead of simply repeating them, and they make employees feel that every moment connects to something bigger.

2. They follow through with content that sustains belief.

From post-event content hubs to leadership videos, interactive digital modules to internal storytelling campaigns –– these aren’t just “nice to have,” they’re part of the behavioral reinforcement that keeps teams aligned and connected to the larger message and creates a sense of belonging.  

3. They create emotional continuity beyond just message continuity.

People don’t remember everything they hear, but they remember how a moment made them feel. The smartest organizations design for that memory to stay alive all year long.

For leaders looking to build cultures of belief in an AI-driven world, we explore these principles deeply in our ongoing research and perspectives. 

What CMOs should prioritize in 2026 and beyond

In conversations with executive teams across industries, three priorities consistently emerge:

1. Invest in the moments that cannot be automated.

Authenticity is now a brand asset, and human connection is a competitive advantage. The experiences that bring people together both physically and emotionally are becoming the most defensible investments in the marketing mix.

2. Use AI to enhance the experience, not replace it.

Let AI handle the operational lift: logistics modeling, message personalization, content tagging, sentiment analysis. Then redirect human creativity toward designing the moments where belief is built. 

3. Think in story arcs, not single events.

A single experience can inspire, but a connected journey transforms people into brand advocates. Whether your goals are around building internal culture or customer loyalty, everything relies on repetition, reinforcement, and emotional continuity.

The future belongs to leaders who can reignite the room

They understand that AI can be a teammate and help with scale, but live experiences create meaning, and earning trust is priceless.  

Great brands won’t win because they communicate more; they’ll win because their people believe in them. And this belief and a culture of connection are built in the room together.