AI is now in your CRM, Design Tool, and Ad Assets. Don't fall behind ⚡️

On the Menu 📃

• 🌐 Microsoft Debuts MAI-Image-1: The first in-house AI text-to-image model is here.

• 🎨 Figma Integrates Google Gemini AI: Accelerating design with a 50% speed boost.

• 🗣️ Salesforce Unveils Voice Agents: AI agents with voice capabilities transform customer service.

• 🤖 AI Brands Go Offline: Why pop-ups and events are the new trust builders.

• 💼 Framework: The MoSCoW Prioritization Method.

• 🚨 Tool Spotlight: SurveyMonkey AI, the smarter feedback platform.

• 🛠️ Weekly AI tools that will save you hours every week.

Takeaway: Microsoft is accelerating the creative AI arms race with its own robust models. For marketers, this means more competition, leading to faster, higher-quality, and potentially more diverse tools for visual content creation.

Figma Integrates Google Gemini AI to Speed Up Design 🎨

Figma has announced a deep integration with Google's Gemini AI models, including Gemini 2.5 Flash and Imagen 4, to dramatically accelerate design workflows. This partnership is aimed at embedding state-of-the-art image generation and editing directly into the Figma platform. Early tests showed the "Make Image" feature saw a latency drop by roughly 50%, making visual iteration significantly faster.

Why it matters:

• Real-time Iteration: Cutting latency by 50% converts image generation from a background task into a real-time, in-editor operation, allowing designers to iterate on visuals without fragmenting their workflow.

• Enterprise Governance: The integration maintains admin controls, allowing organizations to manage which files contribute to model training and ensuring provenance with Imagen 4's built-in watermarking/verification.

• Holistic Design: The partnership is a strategic move to move beyond simple template generation, offering high-fidelity image synthesis and conversational commands that produce native Figma objects directly from chat prompts.

Hook Tip: Use the Gemini integration to create variations of a product's hero image directly within your Figma canvas. Test prompt variations for different target audiences (e.g., "professional," "adventurous," "minimalist") and leverage the speed increase to quickly generate 10+ variants in the time it used to take for two.

Takeaway: The line between design and generative AI is dissolving. Figma's integration with Gemini 2.5 Flash and Imagen 4 ensures designers can execute faster, focusing on creative problem-solving while AI handles the high-volume, repetitive image tasks.

Takeaway: Salesforce is leveraging voice AI to move customer service beyond frustrating chatbots and rigid phone trees. The future of service is in personalized, emotionally aware, and auditable AI conversations that integrate directly with your CRM data.

AI Brands Are Using Pop-ups and Events to Build Awareness and Trust 🤖

Artificial Intelligence brands are increasingly adopting experiential marketing strategies- such as pop-up shops and in-person events - to bridge the gap between abstract technology and real-world use. This consumer-centric approach, exemplified by events like Anthropic's Claude Cafe, is used to build brand awareness and, more importantly, foster trust. These physical activations create an interactive environment where both B2B and consumer audiences can experience AI applications firsthand, reducing skepticism and demystifying the technology.

Why it matters:

• Humanizing AI: Live, face-to-face demos and events break down barriers and misconceptions about AI, allowing brands to address concerns about data privacy and safety directly.

• Converting Curiosity to Demand: These interactive environments convert general curiosity into qualified demand by allowing users to complete hands-on tasks and see the AI's output live.

• Generating Authentic UGC: Attendees create user-generated content (UGC), which provides authentic social proof and amplifies the brand's message more effectively than traditional ads.

Try this: Host a small, internal "Prompt Challenge Wall" event. Invite a cross-functional team to post prompts for your new AI tools and compare the outputs live. If the results are compelling, film the event and turn it into a social media series to build external awareness and trust.

Takeaway: In the era of widespread AI skepticism, trust is the ultimate conversion metric. AI brands must use physical, human-centered experiences to demystify their technology and build a loyal user community.

🧰 Framework of the Week: The MoSCoW Prioritization Method

The MoSCoW Method is a straightforward prioritization framework used to categorize features, requirements, or projects based on their critical importance and necessity. It is particularly useful for managing stakeholder expectations and ensuring focus during resource-constrained cycles.

1. Must Have: Non-negotiable requirements that are essential for the project's success. Without these, the project fails or cannot deliver value.

2. Should Have: Important features that add significant value and improve performance, but the project can still function without them. These are high-priority but not essential.

3. Could Have: Nice-to-have features that are desirable but less important. They are the "vitamins," not the "painkillers," and can be easily deferred.

4. Won't Have (or Wish): Features that will not be included in the current development cycle. This category helps set clear boundaries and manage expectations.

Try this: When planning your next quarter's marketing roadmap, use the MoSCoW method with your team and key stakeholders. Force a limit on the number of "Must Have" projects to 3-5. This immediately clarifies the true minimum viable outcome and prevents the team from becoming overloaded with non-critical tasks.

🛠️ Featured AI Toolkit for the week

BuildIn

What it does:
BuildIn is an all-in-one AI-powered workspace that brings together notes, documents, wikis, tasks, databases, mind maps, and more into a unified hub. It supports embedding external content (e.g., Figma, code sandboxes, cloud storage) and lets teams customize workspaces to their needs. It also offers AI assistance like writing help, document analysis, and internal Q&A over your data.

Fast payoff:
Get started by creating a workspace, importing (or copying) a few existing docs or notes, and inviting your team. Within minutes, you have a shared “digital HQ” where people can collaborate, link info, and avoid tool-swapping. You’ll see fewer scattered files or fragmented silos and more alignment on where to look for shared knowledge.

HyperWrite

What it does:
HyperWrite is an AI writing assistant built with large language models (e.g., GPT-4) that helps you with content generation, rewriting, summarization, research support, and adaptive suggestions. It offers tools such as “Magic Write” (for generating first drafts) and “Writing Fusion” (for merging two pieces of writing into one coherent text). It also adapts to your tone, context, and preferences over time.

Fast payoff:
Open HyperWrite, type a few lines (or a prompt) for your topic, and hit generate. You’ll instantly get a draft or improved version you can refine, rather than starting from a blank page. This saves time on ideation, phrasing, and overcoming writer’s block.

Wrike

What it does:
Wrike is a cloud-based work/project management and collaboration platform.
It gives teams tools like task boards (Kanban), Gantt charts (timelines), calendars, dashboards, resource planning, templates, and automations. Wrike also embeds Generative AI features: you can prompt the tool to create or edit task/project descriptions, summaries, or briefs. It supports “blueprints” to replicate recurring projects, customizable workflows, and integrations with many other apps.

Fast payoff:
Set up your first project in Wrike (or use a template), define 3–5 tasks, and assign them. Immediately, you’ll get visibility on who does what, dependencies, and a timeline. Use Wrike’s AI to auto-draft task descriptions or briefs. That alone can cut down on manual writing, clarity gaps, and back-and-forth.