Juan Mendoza, CEO of The Martech Weekly, joins the show to unpack a major shift in customer experience: volitional personalization. As consumers increasingly rely on AI agents like ChatGPT to guide purchase decisions, marketers are losing control over the touchpoints that once defined the buyer journey. Juan and Sara dive into how this pull-based model flips the script on traditional campaign strategies and forces brands to rethink their approach to data, content, and visibility.

Juan:
“Consumers actually using AI agents to do their bidding for them is an entirely new channel that we have no idea how to grapple with yet.”

Links & Resources:
Connect with Sara: linkedin.com/in/sara-faatz-b67213
Connect with Juan: linkedin.com/in/juan-mendoza-2b3a63a4
Read The Martech Weekly: themartechweekly.com
Learn more about Progress: progress.com

Timestamps:
00:25 – The rise of agentic AI in marketing
01:15 – Navigating the hype vs. harm of AI agents
02:45 – Real-world example: AI-driven real estate personalization
03:50 – Volitional personalization vs. speculative personalization
05:30 – Why combining push and pull strategies matters
07:00 – Alarm clocks, AI, and the new search experience
08:10 – Juan’s hot take: The death of marketing visibility
10:20 – Where Juan goes to learn: Hacker News & hands-on experimentation