5 AI Tools The Smartest Marketers Are Using In 2026
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan deliver a comprehensive guide to the five most impactful AI launches of 2025 that marketers must master to succeed in 2026. (00:14) The hosts argue that while AI launches happened almost daily in 2025, only five truly transformed marketing workflows and capabilities. (00:42) They emphasize that marketers who don't adopt these tools risk becoming obsolete, as these technologies enable individual marketers to operate at 10x scale rather than just 10% improvement. (02:30) The episode covers content remixing with Gemini 3, advanced image creation with Nano Banana Pro, video generation with Veo 3.1, automation through agentic workflows, and vibe coding with Claude Code. (17:17)
- Core Theme: The five AI launches that created new marketing superpowers: content intelligence extraction, visual asset creation at scale, video production capabilities, automated workflow orchestration, and custom app development for marketers.
Speakers
Kipp Bodnar
Kipp is a marketing executive and co-host of Marketing Against The Grain, HubSpot's original podcast. He has extensive experience in marketing leadership roles and is known for his expertise in AI-powered marketing strategies. He actively experiments with cutting-edge AI tools and has been recognized as a top user across multiple AI platforms.
Kieran Flanagan
Kieran is a former software engineer turned marketing expert and co-host of Marketing Against The Grain. He brings a technical perspective to marketing innovation and has spent significant time mastering AI tools for business growth. He's particularly known for his expertise in competitive intelligence and AI-driven marketing automation.
Key Takeaways
Master YouTube Content Intelligence with Gemini 3
Gemini 3's native YouTube integration represents a paradigm shift in content research and competitive analysis. (03:01) Unlike previous tools that required manual video processing, Gemini 3 can analyze any YouTube video by simply pasting the URL, understanding aesthetics, design, dialogue, and presenter movement. Kieran demonstrated this by having Gemini 3 critique a competitor's product launch and develop counter-strategies. The tool can extract 25+ talking points from a single video, categorizing them into educational, controversial, and data-driven content with exact timestamps and proof quotes. This enables marketers to transform manual research into automated competitive intelligence gathering.
Leverage AI Image Creation for Personalized Marketing at Scale
The combination of Nano Banana Pro and GPT Image 1.5 solved the two biggest problems in AI image generation: text accuracy and iteration capability. (07:28) Nano Banana Pro, connected to Google Search, can create perfect text within images and understands real-world context, while GPT Image 1.5 allows partial image regeneration instead of complete recreation. This enables account-based marketing campaigns with custom infographics for individual prospects. Kieran created a Disney-specific HubSpot infographic that researched Disney's actual business challenges and presented tailored solutions, demonstrating how expensive one-to-many content can now become affordable one-to-one marketing assets.
Build Agentic Workflows to Operate as a Marketing Team of One
Agentic workflows represent the difference between incremental improvement and exponential scaling for marketers. (18:25) The hosts emphasize this isn't about 10% productivity gains but 10x capability expansion. Examples include automated competitor monitoring that analyzes launches, cross-references company roadmaps, and generates counter-strategies, plus prospect research agents that investigate funding, leadership changes, and growth indicators to prioritize sales efforts and create talking points. Marketers who don't adopt these workflows will be competing with individuals who essentially operate as entire marketing departments through AI assistance.
Develop Vibe Coding Skills for Custom Marketing Applications
Vibe coding through tools like Claude Code enables marketers to build personalized software solutions tailored to their specific workflows. (23:06) This goes beyond using existing tools to creating custom applications like the YouTube content analysis app demonstrated in the episode. The head of growth at Claude exclusively uses Claude Code for marketing tasks, focusing on file access, context management, and holistic marketing work rather than traditional coding. This skill allows marketers to build lead magnets, scoring models, and interactive dashboards customized to their unique processes and needs.
Adopt a Build, Buy, and Use Strategy for AI Tools
Success requires a strategic approach to AI tool adoption that combines purchasing existing solutions, building custom tools, and effectively using both. (20:10) Kipp suggests recording current work processes and using frontier AI models to determine what should be built versus bought. Some workflows require off-the-shelf agents available through platforms like HubSpot, while niche requirements need custom solutions through AI workflow tools or custom GPTs. The key is understanding when each approach is appropriate and developing the skills to implement and maintain both types of solutions effectively.
Statistics & Facts
- An AI engineer reported that 100% of the code he shipped in December 2025 was created using Claude Code, and he stopped reading it before deployment due to the reliability of the output. (25:24)
- Kipp's personal ChatGPT account placed him in the top 0.1% of users in 2025, despite representing only about 25% of his total AI usage across multiple platforms. (27:36)
- Google Veo 3.1 can generate up to 60 seconds of production-worthy video content with integrated native audio generation capabilities. (13:05)
