4 Takeaways & Classes Realized From Our Time on the 2025 Expertise for Advertising Expo

A number of Brafton executives, salespeople and managers attended the 2025 Expertise for Advertising (TFM) Expo in London this previous September. They have been there to showcase contentmarketing.ai, but in addition poke round to study extra about entrepreneurs’ AI and content material ache factors within the present panorama.

After the present, they shared their greatest takeaways and classes realized.

What Is the Expertise for Advertising Expo?

Expertise for Advertising is the UK’s largest and most attended AI and advertising and marketing tech (martech) occasion. On the 2025 present, greater than 10,000 attendees and 200 answer suppliers and businesses gathered to discover martech services and products, showcase their experience and chat with business leaders and newcomers alike.

It’s the place to be, whether or not you’re searching for new AI advertising and marketing options otherwise you’ve bought one to introduce to the market.

Why We Went + Our Key Takeaways & Classes Realized

Whereas our workforce attended to exhibit contentmarketing.ai’s capabilities at its very first commerce present, they have been additionally there to take a pulse verify on the business. By partaking with on a regular basis entrepreneurs, we wished to study extra about their hardest challenges and the options they are saying would assist relieve strain.

Our workforce found that, whereas many entrepreneurs are utilizing AI for content material creation in some capability, their present instruments (typically the favored selections) nonetheless fall brief.

Listed below are 4 key classes Braftonites realized at TFM Expo 2025:

1. AI Will Work Its Manner Into Each Service Providing Quickly Sufficient

It’s no shock that AI abounds and exists in almost each service providing in a single kind or one other. 93% of entrepreneurs report that new AI options have been added to instruments of their tech stacks final yr. Brafton’s COO, Adam Barber, confirmed this throughout his time chatting with others on the commerce present ground:

“Everybody I spoke to who’s doing content material is utilizing AI,” mentioned Adam. “AI goes to be a part of each service providing very quickly. We both provide that in a compelling approach or shoppers will go elsewhere.”

The problem — now that entrepreneurs and software program suppliers have broadly adopted AI or are creating their very own instruments — is to distinguish themselves from what’s at present on the market. Not with one other shiny device designed to ‘interrupt’ the business, however by creating actually efficient options that handle actual and customary ache factors effectively.

2. Entrepreneurs Aren’t Happy With Present In style AI Options

ChatGPT is the most important generative AI chatbot on the market right this moment by market share. Swaths of on a regular basis of us and professionals use it to streamline duties from grocery checklist making to content material creating and technique outlining, and it’s nice for a lot of useful use circumstances. However ChatGPT (and different in style GenAI instruments) doesn’t verify each field on the subject of content material advertising and marketing, and entrepreneurs are starting to understand that.

Cecelia Thornett, contentmarketing.ai Trial Supervisor, factors out simply what number of customers are unhappy with present AI options for advertising and marketing purposes:

“What stood out most was the sheer scale of curiosity in AI for advertising and marketing and the way so many companies, no matter measurement, are on the lookout for higher options.”

A Brafton-conducted survey about AI in Advertising from late 2024 revealed entrepreneurs’ greatest issues with AI:

• Generic or bland content material that didn’t align with their model voice (71.7%).
• Skinny or irrelevant content material that didn’t align with their target market (42.4%).

The truth that they’re nonetheless utilizing AI options, although, highlights simply how highly effective these platforms are, even with in style selections’ present points.

“Advertising stays a significant ache level for therefore many companies,” Cecelia mentioned. “AI can genuinely make a distinction.”

3. The Way forward for search engine optimization Is Nonetheless Unsure

SEO (search engine optimization), reply engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO) — there are such a lot of “EOs” on the market, it’s arduous to know what’s what. And whereas it is changing into more and more necessary to optimize for AI in most of its varieties, I feel the hurry and naming frenzy are additionally indicative of uncertainty. The place is search engine optimization headed? How huge a task will AI finally play? And, what will we even name it?

Of us on the expo appeared to agree, as Josh Davies, AVP, EMEA Progress & Consumer Expertise, identified:

“[There were] numerous conversations round ‘AEO’, GEO and the way forward for search engine optimization/PPC,” he mentioned.

We already know that optimizing for Google’s AI Overviews and generative engines like ChatGPT may be worthwhile, however there are nonetheless questions round how you can strategy it, what truly works effectively and what doesn’t.

“It was nice to satisfy so many like-minded people, share tales of our advertising and marketing pasts and discover out extra about their ache factors!” Josh mentioned.

The extra folks discuss the way forward for search engine optimization — and the extra AI firms replace their algorithms — the extra we’ll study AI engine optimization and how you can strategy it with extra certainty.

4. Many Are Utilizing AI To Draft Content material, However the Output Wants Plenty of Modifying

Regardless that many entrepreneurs are challenged with the instruments at their disposal, most are nonetheless utilizing them. This speaks to each the effectiveness of AI’s capability to streamline duties (regardless of frequent ache factors) and entrepreneurs’ urge for food for options, even when they don’t fulfill all of their wants.

It appears as if in style instruments excel at one or the opposite, however not often each, and entrepreneurs are making trade-offs. That is most evident in content material creation:

“Entrepreneurs are utilizing AI instruments to put in writing content material, primarily drafts, however must do a whole lot of tweaking to make sure the output is on model,” Ramiro Gonzalez, AVP, Gross sales & Account Administration at Brafton, mentioned. “Prospects want scaled, on-brand content material, and instruments like ChatGPT aren’t chopping it.”

Ramiro additionally famous that curiosity in options that might present precisely and persistently branded content material at scale was the No. 1 want amongst these he chatted with.

Making use of What We Realized

Most of what our workforce realized at TFM Expo 2025 confirmed ideas and emotions they already had after years of working alongside entrepreneurs and AI: Folks need AI options and are eager to make use of them, however present choices fall brief.

Demoing contentmarketing.ai was our technique to present prospects that folks are constructing instruments that bridge the hole between effectivity and effectiveness with instruments that streamline content material creation whereas holding every little thing distinctive about your model on the forefront of that content material.

We met a whole lot of prospects inquisitive about what contentmarketing.ai needed to provide, and our workforce shall be scheduling conferences for weeks to return.

If you end up in the identical camp as most entrepreneurs (i.e., anticipating AI instruments however not fully glad with the present customary), let’s get you on our calendar: request your demo right here.

Notice: This text was initially printed on contentmarketing.ai.