By Business & Finance 
Pictured (L-R): Tim Sutter, Adebola Olomo, and Stephen O’Leary
The session explored how brands are approaching data, personalisation, and artificial intelligence (AI) to drive growth while retaining human connection.
The 2025 edition of the Business & Finance CMO 100 Index, in association with Cvent, was launched in May. It recognises the top marketing professionals operating in Ireland in 2025.
On the morning of 23rd September, the CMO 100 fireside, entitled ‘From Personalisation to Profit: Breakfast with Marketing Leaders’, featured a lively discussion between Adebola Olomo, founder of Deefrent Media Agency, Stephen O’Leary, founder of Olytico, and moderator Tim Sutter from Cvent. The session explored how brands are approaching data, personalisation, and artificial intelligence (AI) to drive growth while retaining human connection.
AI Needs a Conductor
AI dominated as a conversation point. Olomo likened AI to an orchestra: the tools may provide instruments, but it takes human direction to create harmony.
She said: “Imagine everything is set … But guess what, you need a conductor … That’s the work of humans, that’s the work of strategy … You still need humans to manage your AI output … It helps us to elevate the work we do.”
O’Leary described a major retailer using a custom AI system that cross-references first-party shopping data with trending cultural moments. The tool generates a shortlist of campaign ideas, which humans then refine and test with customers.
Olomo shared similar experiences with restaurant and retail clients using AI for personalised recommendations, such as remembering a customer’s past orders or birthdays.
Data and Storytelling
Conversation also centred on how brands can leverage data in event marketing. O’Leary gave the example of financial services firms tapping into Reddit discussions about finances.
“Thousands of questions about pensions are being asked in Ireland every day publicly. I don’t know if any of you spent any time on Reddit, but it’s probably the single most important network for our clients in terms of what we monitor in Ireland at the moment, so much so there was a dedicated subreddit, like a little part of Reddit called ‘Irish personal finance.’
“And every day people will go on and say, ‘I’m 26 years old, I’m female, I have no dependents, and I want to start a pension, what should I do?’ And there will be like dozens of responses, that come through … If you mine that data, [it] gives you the questions for your event. That tells you the questions you should be asking on stage as part of your Q&A because that’s the voice of the customers.”
Olomo reinforced the importance of creative storytelling, even in regular communications: “How people give you their data … It becomes a way of them saying, ‘you have my story.'”
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