Highlights from a Hightouch CWO Dinner:
Agentic AI for marketing efficiency and ROI
“Great evening. Loved the format and the relaxed nature of it.”
– Brand Partnerships Manager, World Vision
London’s senior marketing leaders gathered at the Michelin-starred Pavyllon in the heart of Mayfair, for an exceptional Chief Wine Officer dinner; hosted in partnership with AI experts Hightouch. Guided through a curated wine tasting by Master of Wine Peter McCombie MW, with business discussions led by Marcella Blom of Otrium, and Accenture’s Jon Tippell, guests enjoyed an evening of expert insight and the kind of peer exchange that only happens when the right people are in the right room.
The staggering pace of change
Like all good events, the evening began with a glass of Blanc de Blanc – characterised by high acidity, elegance and brioche notes – a fitting overture to the networking and conversation that followed. Marcella Blom, Senior CRM & AI Retention Executive at Otrium, welcomed guests from companies including Three UK, Sainsbury’s, PetLab Co. and TES.com, before guiding the table through a candid assessment of where marketing stands today.
The marketer’s job, she argued, has changed more in the last six months than it did in the previous ten years. The primary goal of CRM has always been an in-depth understanding of the customer. Who they are, how they shop, and how they can be reactivated. But as Marcella described, the gap between insight and action has historically been the biggest problem. Often, the crucial moment passes before it can be acted upon.
Even in the early days of AI, available tools demanded a level of technical expertise that left most marketers on the sidelines. But the technology has advanced quickly. Today, sophisticated database analysis that once required days of briefing and interpretation can be completed in minutes and understood by anyone. Marcella was unambiguous about the efficiency gains on offer and bullish about what the next two years might bring.
The joy of discovery
The MW guided the table through an elegant selection of white wines, each chosen to complement the first course. As the conversation broadened, guests compared notes on their own AI journeys, trading tips on the use-cases that make the biggest impact on day-to-day operations.
Guests shared stories of using Gemini and Claude for everything from campaign scheduling to writing bedtime stories for children. Beneath the levity was a consistent thread; with everyone agreeing they had barely scratched the surface of what’s possible. The excitement was real, and unanimous.
Jon Tippell, Managing Director for Products, Data & AI at Accenture, picked up the thread. Working with some of the UK’s leading FTSE 100 companies daily, Jon is closer to the cutting edge than most; and yet, he told the table even he finds the pace of change dizzying. Every week brings something new.
Are we post-generative?
As guests continued their fine wine journey with the arrival of some richly flavoured red wines, Jon offered broader context for the moment the industry finds itself in.
When GPT-1 launched eight years ago, it had 117 million model parameters. The most recent generation runs to 1.8 billion parameters: a staggering 180x increase. But the more significant shift, Jon suggested, isn’t one of scale. We have moved beyond Generative AI, which produces outputs based on prompts, into the agentic era. One in which actions can be performed autonomously, guided by defined guidelines and goals.
Yet for all the momentum, Jon’s counsel to the room was measured. He looks forward, he said, to the day that AI becomes boring. When the sense of permanently rushing to keep up gives way to something more settled and strategic.
His key advice for the evening was that AI is something to buy, not build. Data is the other way around. AI safety and governance are too important to tinker with; leave that architecture to the specialists. But there is equally no reason to wait for your data to be perfect before beginning. First acquire robust, compliant AI, then enable it with what you have. Let what you know about your customers guide the journey from there.
“I look forward to the time when AI becomes boring...”
— Jon Tippell, Managing Director, Products, Data & AI — Accenture
A fitting finale—and a worthy champion
No Chief Wine Officer evening would be complete without the much-anticipated fine wine tasting competition; this time led by the incomparable Peter McCombie, Master of Wine. Peter brought wit, expertise and genuine theatre to the close of the evening, challenging guests to put their newly educated palates to the test.
The competition brought a welcome competitive edge to proceedings, drawing laughter and no small amount of debate around the table, before a worthy winner was crowned and raised a well-deserved glass. Dessert followed, indulgent and accompanied by the kind of conversation that only comes at the end of a genuinely good evening.
The guests left Pavyllon with more than a few strong opinions on wine. They left with a better picture of where AI is taking the marketing function.
About the host
Hightouch is the leading data and AI platform for marketers. Trusted by Autotrader, Calendly, Cars.com, Monday.com, and PetSmart, Hightouch helps teams deliver personalized experiences, optimize marketing performance, and move faster with data and AI.
Hightouch empowers business users to drive revenue, grow brand awareness, and maximize ROI. Hightouch’s Composable Customer Data Platform (CDP) collects behavioral data, resolves identities into Customer 360 profiles, builds audiences, syncs to 300+ destinations, and measures campaign impact—directly from a company’s cloud data warehouse. Hightouch also offers AI Decisioning, which enables marketers to achieve 1:1 personalization at scale. Marketers define goals, guardrails, and creative content, while AI agents use reinforcement learning to optimize customer engagement and report back performance insights.
Hightouch never stores your data and meets SOC-2 Type 2, HIPAA, ISO-27001, GDPR, CCPA, and Privacy Shield standards.
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