Over the past few months, our team has shared perspectives on AI, customer experience, and digital platforms across webinars, podcasts, industry publications, and events. The conversations tackled questions facing the organizations we work with: what clients should expect from AI-powered development, how retailers promote their own brands, and how websites prepare for traffic spikes.
Phil Crumm with WordPress VIP on the future of the web
Phil Crumm, Managing Partner of Content Solutions, joined WordPress VIP CMO Jodi Cerretani for Future of the Web 2026: What the Data Says and How to Build for It. The webinar examined the gap between what consumers expect from the web and what brands are building.
Phil and Jodi explored how AI summaries can drive traffic to the websites they cite, and why consumers still click through to original sources. WordPress VIP’s research found that 86% of surveyed U.S. consumers always or sometimes check the original source after an AI summary. They also discussed how brands can use AI while preserving their voice and customers’ trust.
Jake Goldman in The Repository on the changing economics of digital work
In his article for The Repository, Fueled Partner and Advisor Jake Goldman argued that AI is changing what clients should expect for their investment in digital services. As comparable work becomes faster and less expensive to produce, competitive pressure will eventually reshape pricing.
He argued that the same fee should buy more value, whether through better quality, faster delivery, or expanded scope. For agencies, that requires investing in shared tools, training, and delivery practices. For individuals, it means spending more time defining problems, shaping architecture, and deciding what to build as routine implementation becomes faster.
Christian Chung in TechTarget on the hidden cost of AI cleanup
AI adoption figures can look healthy while employees spend hours correcting the output. In TechTarget’s feature on “botsitting,” Christian Chung, Senior Director of AI Enablement, described how that cleanup work obscures the return organizations get from AI.
He pointed to people in the same role attempting the same task with very different results. Those who had invested in their agents’ context, connections, and instructions produced stronger work; less developed workflows required considerably more human intervention. Counting tool usage alone misses that difference. The time spent making an output usable is part of the cost of producing it.
Jessica Wagner with Store Brands on promoting private label
Jessica Wagner, Managing Partner of Digital Product, joined Store Brands Spotlight to discuss how retailers can use their apps and websites to promote private-label products more effectively.
Private label is often associated with price, but Jessica discussed how digital experiences can communicate quality and convenience as well. The episode explored the role those channels play in helping shoppers discover retailers’ own brands and giving them reasons to purchase again.
Alexandra Gallus with MoEngage on the cost of martech sprawl
In MoEngage’s look at martech sprawl, Alexandra Gallus, Senior Director of Growth, described how disconnected marketing systems create disconnected customer experiences. A team may have plenty of customer data and still struggle to act on it while someone is engaged.
She shared an example of a wellness retailer whose ecommerce, loyalty, email, app, and SMS data lagged by 12 hours or more, preventing timely responses to customer behavior. Connecting those systems enabled recommendations and communications based on current behavior. Alexandra also emphasized the organizational work: marketing, technology, finance, and product teams need to agree on the outcome before choosing a platform. Consolidating tools cannot resolve competing priorities on its own.
Paige Maguire in CMSWire on customer journeys that cross channels
Paige Maguire, Senior Director of Research & Design, contributed to CMSWire’s examination of changing customer journeys. Her example captures why a neat sequence of stages falls short: someone might discover a brand on Reddit, return through a YouTube ad weeks later, and eventually convert through Google search.
She also addressed the role of AI answers in discovery: “Brands are no longer just trying to get clicks; they are also trying to get into the answer.” That puts greater emphasis on content with the clarity and structure AI systems need to interpret it.
Douglas Barahona in IT Brew on preparing for traffic surges
A product launch or flash sale can put a website’s database under sudden pressure. In IT Brew’s guide to preparing for traffic surges, Douglas Barahona, Lead Systems Engineer, explained why preparation starts before requests reach the database.
Storing frequently requested information in a cache, serving read requests from database replicas, and improving inefficient queries all reduce the load on the main system. Douglas also discussed managing automated traffic: useful agents can operate within rate limits, while abusive traffic is blocked. His recommendations focus on understanding and optimizing the infrastructure already in place before a spike forces an emergency response.
More from Fueled
Elsewhere around the web, Jeff Paul spoke with The New Stack about helping coding agents find and respect open-source contribution guidelines, including his approach to maintaining instructions across different tools.
The WP Weekly covered our Pantheon partnership, which brings ElasticPress.io search to Pantheon customers.
Noah News referenced our findings from AI visibility audits in its coverage of brands updating content and improving technical access for AI-powered search.
At Webflow Conf 2026’s Partner Day, Phil Crumm discussed the evolving relationship between agencies and technology partners. As AI blurs the boundaries between their roles, the conversation focused on how both can continue delivering value to clients.
For media inquiries or speaking opportunities on these topics, get in touch with Fueled.
