AI is reshaping advertising faster than most organizations are prepared for. The real advantage lies with those who control the data, talent and trust that power it. To kickoff OpenAP’s Audience Summit at CES, 3C Ventures Founder and CEO Michael Kassan sat down with author and Future of Work luminary Rishad Tobaccowala to unpack how AI, platform power and shifting data access are redefining competition across the industry.
AI may be accelerating everything, but according to Tobaccowala, it’s bigger than automation. “Drop the word artificial intelligence,” Tobaccowala stated. “The right word is alien intelligence.” The idea that AI is neither human nor machine but something new entirely rewrites how power accrues. In that world, scale, capital and access to information give major platforms a durable edge, while the individuals who truly understand and wield AI gain unprecedented leverage.
AI isn’t here to simply drive efficiency, it will demand (and already is) structural reinvention. Tobaccowala warned that companies built for yesterday’s workforce models are unprepared for what’s coming: fractionalized employees, agentic labor and a fundamental mismatch between how organizations are designed and how work will actually get done. “For every dollar you put into technology, you’ll need to put three into human training and organizational change,” he continued.
When it comes to data, the source will matter less as much as how the data is activated and experienced. As AI-driven interfaces become more conversational and intimate, Tobaccowala suggested that real-time interaction, and more importantly–trust–may matter more than static ownership of data assets, reshaping how brands, agencies, and platforms earn relevance.
“The real currency in the future won’t be data alone, it will be trust.” - Rishad Tobaccowala