Marketing in the AI era: What does a board need to know?

Presentation

Speaker(s): Melissa Clark-Reynolds
Date: 7:00am — 9:00am, 10 February 2026
Venue: The Northern Club
Location: 19 Princes Street, Auckland
Price members: $75.00 incl GST
Price non-members: $129.00 incl GST

Overview

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, artificial intelligence is transforming how businesses connect with customers and make strategic decisions. This session will explore the profound impact of AI-driven search on marketing practices and customer acquisition. Attendees will gain insights into the relevance of traditional tools like SEO and SEM, understand where emerging platforms source their data, and discover how shifts in business models, from Reddit to ChatGPT, are reshaping the advertising ecosystem. As people are using AI search, how does it change the way we find and convert our customers?

Are SEO and SEM still relevant?
Where do CoPilot, ChapGPT and others get their data from?
Where should we be focusing our advertising spend now?
Why are Reddit and ChatGPT changing their business models
Learn from Walmart and others for today's best practices.

Melissa Clark-Reynolds

CFInstD

Melissa became a Professional Director after 25 plus years’ experience as an entrepreneur and CEO of a number of Technology companies. She was awarded the ONZM for Services to Technology in 2015 and is currently a Director of Atkins Ranch and Wētā Workshop. She has previously been Chair of Alpine Energy Limited and Little Yellow Bird, Deputy Chair of Radio NZ, and the first Independent Director on Beef and Lamb NZ.

In recent years Melissa has studied at MIT, Cambridge University and Stanford University twice, as well as The Institute for the Future in Silicon Valley. In addition to facilitating for the Institute of Directors, Melissa works with companies to execute transformational strategies through her Futurist Practice FutureCentre.nz

Melissa loves governance because more hearts and minds working together have a better chance of solving wicked problems than one genius on their own.

Additional information

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