MarTech & AI
DMexco 2026: Brands Confront AI at Scale and a Bolder CMO Role
AI adoption and the future CMO role dominated DMexco 2026 in Cologne, where Meta, Gamma, Taxfix and IBM executives debated scaling AI with governance and human centricity.
The future of AI adoption and the role of the CMO in that disruption and transformation dominated the main stage across the two days of DMexco 2026, held in Cologne, Germany this week.
Conference media partner Digiday hosted two panels that outlined the central challenges and opportunities of both themes.
The first panel, held on the opening morning of the conference, keyed on how to turn AI into a competitive advantage at scale. It featured Tino Krause, regional director Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Meta; Kristin Fracchia, chief growth officer at Gamma; Alexander Beresford, CMO and chief growth officer at Taxfix; and Asil Yilmaz, design director at IBM.
The discussion weighed in on the rapid evolution of AI, focusing on organizational governance, trust and the necessity of maintaining human centricity amidst AI's rapid technological acceleration.
Those tensions — scaling AI operations without sacrificing human oversight — framed the debate over how marketing leaders should reposition themselves as the technology reshapes their remit. The second Digiday panel took up the people side of that shift, addressing how to teach the next generation of what the program billed as "bold" CMOs.
For brands scaling AI beyond pilots, the panels made the stakes explicit: competitive advantage now depends as much on governance and trust as on the technology itself, and the CMOs best placed to deliver it are those willing to rethink how the role is trained and staffed.
Source: Digiday
Elena Vasquez
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Senior reporter covering media and advertising at Marketing Herald.
