Another year, another SUGCON Europe in the bag. This year didn’t disappoint, with forty talks from Sitecore and the wider community across three tracks: Tech, Marketing, and—new this year—a Customer Showcase stage. Safe to say, there was plenty to get your teeth into. The energy across all three tracks was palpable, reflecting just how much momentum has built up in the Sitecore ecosystem over the past twelve months.

Remarkable representing

Remarkable was delighted to be a Community Plus sponsor of the event this year as it’s one of the most valuable events on the global Sitecore calendar, and—even better—this year it took place in our hometown of London! Hosting the conference here gave the whole event a special feeling, and it was gratifying to welcome so many international colleagues to a city we know and love.

The Remarkable team was out in force with Ian MacArthur, Global Chief Strategy Officer; Matt Dunn, VP of Platforms; and Peter Clisby, SVP of Technology and AI all in attendance. Having such a senior cross-functional group present meant we could engage meaningfully with clients, prospects, and fellow practitioners across both strategic and highly technical conversations throughout the day.

Both Peter Clisby and I took to the stage. Peter spoke about Sitecore use cases for Microsoft Agent Framework and related Multi-Agent Architectures consuming models privately hosted via Microsoft Foundry. The session drew a strong response from the audience, sparking plenty of questions about practical implementation and how organisations can begin to adopt these patterns within existing Sitecore environments. My talk revolved around the AI features of SitecoreAI and how they have evolved from the pre-SitecoreAI tools of Sitecore Stream and XM Cloud. It was a chance to put the rapid pace of product development into perspective, and to give attendees a clearer picture of where the platform is headed as AI becomes ever more central to the Sitecore proposition.

As Platinum Sitecore partners, this was a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our knowledge and re-affirm our standing in the global community.

Topics being discussed

Most of the talks and sideline discussions this year revolved around the potential of Agentic AI in some form. Whether the conversation centred on content authoring, personalisation, or back-end orchestration, the thread of intelligent automation ran through virtually every session on the programme.

Some of our highlights included:

• A keynote from Sitecore Global Vice President of Market Strategy and Growth, Scott Liewehr
• A panel with Sitecore’s Sean Broderick (Senior Director of Customer and Community Marketing), Ruadhán Barry (VP of Product Management), and Jacqueline Baxter (Director of Content Strategy and Content Design)
• A main stage look at the future of agentic workflows from Richard Potter, Director Digital Strategy at Microsoft Worldwide.

It was also fantastic to catch-up with our client George Chang, Senior Director of Digital Experience and Technology at Hexagon AB who spoke about the incredible journey that the company has been on over the last few years with rebuilding its entire digital platform on SitecoreAI alongside Remarkable.

George delivered some impressive statistics for how Hexagon’s digital transformation has resulted in a 35% reduction in campaign launch cycles, a 30–40% expected cost savings on future brand rollouts through the shared design system, and a 45% increase in platform engagement due to improved UX, relevance and Sitecore Search. These figures go to show why Hexagon and Remarkable won the ‘Innovative Use of Sitecore’ award at the Sitecore Digital Impact Awards in 2025. Hearing George speak so candidly about the challenges and breakthroughs along the way was a highlight of the conference, and served as a compelling reminder of what is possible when ambition, the right technology, and a strong delivery partnership come together.

If you missed out on catching up with us at SUGCON Europe, feel free to get in touch and see how we can help you navigate the changing world of DXPs together. Whether you’re evaluating Sitecore for the first time, planning a migration, or looking to make more of the AI capabilities already available to you, we’d love to have the conversation.

The post Remarkable’s Highlights from SUGCON Europe 2026 in London appeared first on Remarkable.

Sitecore Symposium 2025 delivered one of the most transformative announcements we’ve seen in years, signalling a major evolution in the platform’s vision and capabilities.

The focus was clear: unifying the ecosystem, weaving AI into every layer, and empowering marketers, developers, and content teams with automation and flexibility. Below is a breakdown of the biggest headlines and what they could mean for organisations looking to modernise their digital experience stack.

Unified Platform

SitecoreAI brings together DAM, CMS, Search, Commerce, CMP, and Personalisation into a cloud‑native, AI‑driven hub. With many features available immediately and others, such as DAM features arriving in December, to be rolled out over time.

This consolidation marks a shift toward a truly holistic ecosystem, reducing the need for fragmented tools and integrations. The unified approach is expected to dramatically streamline workflows, making it easier for teams to collaborate across traditionally siloed functions. It also signals Sitecore’s long‑term ambition to centralise intelligence and content governance under one highly scalable architecture.

Simplified Pricing

With the above Unified Platform features coming from just a few modules, the pricing will have just one metric per module. For example, the module involving DAM will be concurrent users, where the module involving CMS the metric will be visits. This simplified structure aims to remove years of licensing complexity that often slowed down procurement and project planning. Organisations will likely benefit from clearer forecasting as well as more predictable growth models.

Agentic Studio

Marketers can build, customise, and orchestrate workflows using intelligent agents. These agents automate repetitive tasks, coordinate complex workflows, and integrate with third‑party tools. Pre‑built or custom agents are already available to use, but over time this will increasingly become integrated with every aspect of the platform… AI is the platform. Existing examples include agents for research, bulk content generation, translation, account enrichment, brief generation, blogging, SEO/AEO research, and competitor analysis.

This marks a significant leap forward for marketing autonomy, enabling teams to operationalise AI without developer intervention and freeing up resources for strategy and creative thinking.

Agentic Flows

Visual, no‑code workflows connect multiple agents, automating complex processes and supporting account‑based marketing and context‑aware content delivery. Flows are a core aspect of Agentic Studio alongside Actions, Agents, and Signals. These flows allow marketers to map out sophisticated journeys that previously required technical expertise or multiple systems stitched together. By extending automation across content, insights, and decisioning, teams can deliver hyper‑relevant experiences with far less manual effort. This no‑code capability also democratises orchestration, bringing enterprise‑grade automation to non‑technical roles.

Marketer MCP & AgentAPI

The Marketer MCP is an MCP aimed at marketing functions, to enable AI Agents to perform them. The AgentAPI is the underlying API which the Marketer MCP consumes, and these can be utilised from Agentic Studio, and externally from Agents outside the platform where desired. Whilst the initial focus is on marketers, a more developer‑focused MCP Server is on the roadmap to help with things like creating renderings, templates, etc. This separation of marketer‑centric and developer‑centric capabilities promises flexibility for organisations of all maturity levels.

Custom SaaS

App Studio, Sitecore Connect, and Marketplace allow developers and partners to create, configure, and publish custom apps alongside the AI agents in Agentic Studio and externally, enabling partners and customers to expand Sitecore’s capabilities. This means the extensibility Sitecore has always been loved for is back on the agenda.

This ecosystem approach encourages rapid innovation and shared value creation, giving customers access to a growing library of tools and integrations. As partners contribute more specialised apps, the platform’s real‑world use cases will expand exponentially.

Brand Kit Integration

Ensures all AI‑generated content aligns with approved brand guidelines, improving compliance and creative output. These are the features of Sitecore Stream, plus some outright new ones in the form of Design Studio and Agentic Studio, integrated to every part of the platform. This solves a major concern around AI adoption—brand consistency—by ensuring every output adheres to tone, style, and visual standards. For large teams operating across multiple regions, this could eliminate hours of manual review. It also unlocks scalable content creation without sacrificing quality.

Bulk Operations & Analytics

Features for bulk data export, editing, validation, and asset analytics help teams manage content efficiently and track performance. These will be the DAM features that seem to be coming from Content Hub and integrated into the platform, but to be seen how this works once released. Greater bulk capability means teams can action large‑scale content changes much faster, a longstanding pain point in enterprise environments. The analytics enhancements further help in evaluating asset impact, guiding optimisation decisions. This direction highlights Sitecore’s intention to merge operational power with insight‑driven intelligence.

Content Operations

Includes tools for metadata enrichment, annotation, and review, supporting streamlined asset management and governance. This will be interesting to see the overlap between features in SitecoreAI vs Content Hub. The impression we got was that for things like making Campaigns and Content Operations use cases that might currently use CMP, SitecoreAI would cover many such use cases. The deeper integration of operations within the core platform also reduces dependency on external systems. As governance grows in importance across organisations, these built‑in tools will be key to scaling content responsibly.

Content SDK

Advanced tools for component generation, site translation, instant publishing, and analytics. The Content SDK is a pre‑requisite for using Design Studio, so a pressing reason to migrate from JSS immediately aside from the long‑term support. It’s also got performance improvements, and at some point JSS will become unsupported in SitecoreAI. This shift lays the groundwork for a more modern, flexible frontend tooling ecosystem. Developers will benefit from faster build workflows and more intuitive component creation processes. Ultimately, this will help accelerate digital delivery and reduce technical debt.

Design Studio

Design Studio lets you build forms, and generate variants of components with AI. It allows you to describe your components to enable AI to be able to understand where they should appropriately be used. These features seemed similar to Gradial, so that if just working in SitecoreAI you could achieve similar outcomes.

By bringing this functionality directly into the platform, Sitecore reduces the need for external design‑automation tools. It also bridges the gap between designers, developers, and content teams by creating a shared, AI‑powered environment for component creation.

Azure Consolidation

The underlying technical infrastructure will soon be completely migrated to Azure. This means for any customers who have a MACC agreement with Microsoft they can now have their discount applied across all components, and also have them count and consumption. Furthermore, moving to Cosmos DB for the Content Service, which underpins most of the new world, gives great scalability alongside resilience where noisy neighbours would be a thing of the past. This consolidation unlocks not only cost benefits but also improved reliability and global performance. It also ensures Sitecore is aligned with Microsoft’s enterprise‑grade standards for cloud infrastructure.

Content Service

A new data and content engine that will power SitecoreAI, where the same products will have new benefits being rolled out over time with the intention being that customers won’t see significant disruption. This foundational shift provides Sitecore with a more robust and future‑proof backbone for content delivery.

By improving consistency and speed behind the scenes, organisations can expect smoother scaling and more intuitive content interactions. The gradual rollout approach also demonstrates Sitecore’s desire to minimise disruption for existing customers.

SitecoreAI Pathway

An AI‑driven content migration tool from any platform to SitecoreAI, with around 70% reduction in effort. This is positioned to remove one of the biggest barriers to replatforming: the sheer labour involved in content migration. By automating much of the work, organisations can adopt the new platform faster and more cost‑effectively. This could accelerate SitecoreAI adoption significantly across both existing and new customer bases.

XP 10.5 Compatibility

Updates for Windows Server 2025, .NET 10, and related identity and service components, our reading of this was that XP as a platform would be largely being rebuilt away from .Net Framework to be on the latest and greatest .Net has to offer. This shows commitment to the XP roadmap, despite almost everything else at Symposium being focused on SitecoreAI. For customers still invested in XP, this will be a welcome reassurance. It also suggests Sitecore is committed to supporting hybrid customers as the ecosystem transitions into the AI‑native era.

Conclusion

The announcements at Sitecore Symposium outline a clear future: AI‑driven, unified, extensible, and engineered for scale. Whether you’re a marketer, developer, or digital leader, these updates signal a major leap forward in capability and efficiency. Sitecore is not just evolving its product suite—it’s redefining what a modern digital experience platform can be.

The post Sitecore Symposium Remarkable Headlines appeared first on Remarkable.

Two Days. One Mission: Redefine What’s Possible

Day 1: Partner Forum & OMVP Summit

Behind closed doors, Optimizely partners got a front-row seat to the future. Executive briefings, product deep-dives, and the big reveal: Opal’s agent orchestration. 

• We rolled up our sleeves for a hands-on with Opal’s new agent builder, no code, just pure innovation. 

• Product updates spanned CMS, experimentation, and analytics. 

• The call to action? Build, educate, and adopt, because the agentic future waits for nobody. 

Day 2: Main Event with Clients

With over 1,300 attendees, Opticon London 2025 was electric. Our stand became the epicentre for Opal enablement and Martech Audit conversations. The energy? Off the charts.

Opal: The Agent Orchestration Platform for Marketing Mavericks

Opal isn’t just another AI tool. It’s the engine room for marketing teams ready to break the mould. 

• Workflow Builder: Chain agents to run campaigns, optimise SEO, and set up experiments—fast, flexible, and jargon-free. 

• Trigger Automation: Agents leap into action via chat, webhooks, email, or scheduled events. 

• Context-Aware Intelligence: Every workflow is steeped in brand data, compliance, and performance history, so outputs are always on-brand. 

• Tool Integration: Plug into GA4, CMS, DAM, CRM. Opal plays well with your whole stack. 

• Custom Agent Creation: Build agents for market research, content modelling, or experiment planning. If you can imagine it, you can automate it. 

Why Our Clients Should Care

At Remarkable, we don’t just follow trends, we set them. Opal is our secret weapon for clients who want to win, not just compete. 

• Scalability & Speed: Multiply your team’s output. Run more AI-powered tasks, more often, with less effort. 

• Cost Efficiency: Cut the busywork. Free your people for the work that matters. 

• Conversion Optimisation: Agents route traffic to what works, live, in real time. 

• Personalisation at Scale: Deliver 1-to-1 journeys, powered by predictive AI. 

• SEO & GEO Visibility: Get found by AI-driven search engines like ChatGPT and Gemini. 

What’s Next? Get Certified. Get Building. Get Ahead.

• Opal Partner Workshops: Our certified specialists are levelling up in November, building agents, extending tools, and creating workflows that wow. 

• Opal Hackathon: We’re in it to win it. $5,000 in MDF funds, a $500 team prize, and a global stage to show what Remarkable can do. Kickoff: 27 October. Winners: 8 December. 

• Opticon Online – 21 October: Missed the action? Catch up with industry leaders and all the big reveals. Sign up here. 

Remarkable’s Role in the Opal Era

As a Platinum Optimizely partner, we’re not just watching the future—we’re building it. Our Martech Audit is helping brands get ready, and our Opal workshops are accelerating enablement. 

Ready to Lead the Revolution?

If you’re serious about leaving your competitors in the dust and want to experience the power of Opal first-hand, let’s make it happen. Get in touch today to unlock our Opal workshops and discover how Remarkable can put you at the forefront of the agentic marketing era. Don’t just keep up…get ahead. 

The post Opal Unleashed: Remarkable at Opticon 2025 appeared first on Remarkable.

This week, around 1,500 customers, partners, and industry leaders gathered in San Diego for Opticon, Optimizely’s flagship conference. While I wasn’t on the ground myself, several of our Optimizely OMVP colleagues were, and their takeaways made it clear: AI isn’t just part of the roadmap anymore. It is the roadmap. 

Optimizely’s platform, including their flagship AI tool Opal, was front and centre – and judging by the demos, product announcements, and audience reactions, it’s safe to say we’ve entered the era of AI-first marketing assistants. But as powerful (and genuinely impressive) as these tools are, there was a common thread running through the conversations my team brought back: 

“AI won’t fix what’s broken. It will expose it.” 

That’s why the next chapter for marketers isn’t just about adopting AI, it’s about getting the fundamentals right before AI gets involved. Building foundations has never been more important. 

AI Won’t Save a Broken Martech Stack

One of the most talked-about demos involved Opal ingesting a Figma design file, auto-generating front-end code, building out structured content models, adding metadata for SEO and GEO, and publishing it all live, literally in minutes. 

On the face of it, it looked magical. And for many, it was. But here’s the hidden truth behind that magic: it only works if the groundwork is already in place. 

Specifically: 

• A robust, structured, reusable design system in Figma 

• A clean, componentised codebase 

• Clear, semantically structured content 

• Well-maintained metadata and taxonomy 

• A modern CMS with an integrated query layer (GraphQL or equivalent) 

Without these, the AI stumbles. Or worse, it delivers something that looks slick but performs poorly. 

AI Needs Something to Read Before It Can Write

This is especially true when it comes to content. If your existing material is inconsistent, unstructured, or outdated, AI has no strong foundation to build on. 

This is where Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) comes in, the emerging discipline of optimising your content for visibility in LLM-powered search (ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, Perplexity, Google SGE, and others). 

The best AI assistants don’t just write well, they read well. But they need a library of structured, trusted, high-quality content to read from. 

That means: 

• Structuring content semantically around entities, relationships, and common questions 

• Adding metadata and schema to support discoverability and reuse 

• Aligning with E-E-A-T principles (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) 

• Ensuring content is relevant, current, and contextually rich.

Agentic AI Needs Guardrails

Whether it’s Opal or another CMS-integrated assistant generating pages, editing copy, or recommending tests, AI doesn’t replace the need for governance. In fact, it makes it more urgent. 

To ensure the output is on-brand, compliant, and conversion-focused, organisations need to define: 

• Brand-aligned tone of voice and content standards the AI can learn from 

• Human-in-the-loop review processes 

• Guardrails for regulated or sensitive content 

• Governance frameworks for content ownership and publishing authority 

Without this, the risk isn’t just poor performance, it’s reputational or legal exposure. 

Culture Still Eats Strategy (and Now AI) for Breakfast

One of the most exciting parts of Opal’s roadmap is its growing experimentation engine, where AI helps create test variants, spin up experiments, and accelerate optimisation workflows. 

But here’s the catch: tools don’t create culture. 

To make experimentation AI-ready, businesses still need: 

• Clear, well-documented personas 

• Shared KPIs across marketing, product, and growth teams 

• Transparent access to analytics and test results 

• A culture that rewards learning, iteration, and data-driven decision-making 

Otherwise, even the most advanced AI features will gather dust. 

What This Means for Marketing Teams

The upshot of all of this: AI doesn’t just enhance your stack, it tests its integrity. 

If your content is chaotic, your design systems inconsistent, or your governance lightweight, AI will amplify those problems. Which is why now is the time to audit your foundations: 

• Information architecture and content strategy 

• Metadata, schema, and taxonomies 

• SEO, AEO, and GEO readiness 

• Design system alignment 

• Conversion and experimentation frameworks 

• Internal processes, roles, and workflows.

Real-World AI Applications

AI-powered tools like Optimizely Opal and Sitecore Stream aren’t just changing how we create and optimise marketing content, they’re changing what’s possible within specific industries. Here’s how businesses across our core sectors like Travel & Hospitality, Healthcare & Wellbeing and FSI can prepare and unlock real value from these new AI tools:

Healthcare & Wellbeing

Use Cases:

• On-brand, compliant content creation: Generate articles, landing pages, or chatbot responses that stay within regulated tone and claims.

• FAQ and condition-based support content: Automatically produce structured content for specific health concerns or service queries.

• GEO-ready authority content: Optimise for LLM-driven search to appear in answers for key health queries (e.g. “how to manage chronic back pain”).

• Experiment with wellness nudges: AI-generated variants of preventative health messages or appointment CTAs to improve engagement.

Foundational Needs:

• Robust governance and QA frameworks, structured health content, schema for medical entities, accessibility adherence.

Travel & Hospitality AI

Use Cases:

• Dynamic itinerary content generation: Based on a user’s preferences or persona, Opal can generate tailored travel plans or landing pages.

• AI-augmented localisation for GEO: Optimise hotel or destination content for generative search visibility (e.g. “best family resorts near Barcelona with a kids club”).

• Test and iterate seasonal campaigns faster using AI-powered experimentation agents.

• Smart personalisation: Generate real-time messaging for loyalty members based on travel history or upcoming trips.

Foundational Needs:

• Persona libraries, brand toolkits, SEO/AEO/GEO research, rich location metadata, structured seasonal content, compliance with accessibility/localisation standards.

Financial Services (FSI)

Use Cases:

• Personalised content for different interest & risk profiles (e.g. savings vs. investment vs. mortgage customers).

• AI-supported copy for product variations: e.g. pension products, loans, insurance policies, all written to reflect compliance and tone.

• Secure, compliant experimentation: Test microcopy, UI, or form layouts without breaching regulatory guardrails.

• GEO-optimised financial literacy content: Appear in LLMs when users search for financial advice like “best tax-efficient savings for 2025”.

Foundational Needs:

• Clear tone of voice and regulatory do’s/don’ts, structured product data, content tagging by financial themes, legal oversight workflows.

Universities & Education

Use Cases:

• Automated course page creation from core prospectus information and using a structured content model (using Opal or similar).

• Persona-driven content generation: Tailored messaging for undergrads, postgrads, international students, parents, etc.

• Experimentation for campaign refinement: A/B test open-day sign-ups, prospectus downloads, or email CTAs using AI-generated variants.

• GEO/AEO-ready educational advice content: Surface in AI search for queries like “how to choose the right degree” or “best unis for AI in the UK”.

Foundational Needs:

• Modular content models for courses, rich student personas, structured event & location data, integrated comms & admissions strategy.

Manufacturing & Industrial

Use Cases:

• AI-assisted product documentation: Automatically generate or translate manuals, spec sheets, and how-to content.

• SEO/GEO-friendly product pages: Optimised for AI visibility for technical queries like “difference between X alloy and Y steel”.

• Sales enablement content: Generate or update case studies, product comparisons, or B2B landing pages based on component data.

• Bespoke variant testing: Use experimentation AI to optimise lead gen forms, quote tools, or gated content flows.

Foundational Needs:

• Structured product databases, taxonomy frameworks, multilingual content governance, integrated CRM data.

How Remarkable Can Help

At Remarkable, we help businesses prepare for AI, not just by deploying the tech, but by laying the foundations that make it work. Remarkable is an accredited Optimizely Platinum Partner, offering extensive expertise in delivering solutions that help businesses accelerate their growth, optimise customer experiences, and drive conversions through experimentation and personalisation. 

Whether that’s creating robust design systems and code libraries, designing scalable content models, embedding SEO and GEO best practices, or creating AI-augmented workflows with the right balance of automation and control, we help teams make sure their AI assistants are set up to succeed. 

Because the age of AI-augmented marketing isn’t just looming on the horizon.
It’s here. 

And it’s time to get your house in order.

The post Get Your House in Order: Preparing for the Age of AI-First Marketing Assistants appeared first on Remarkable.

1. Discovery Starts on Social

2. AI is Changing Search Behaviour

3. The Funnel is Messy – and Mostly Invisible

4. Agential AI is Booking Trips

5. Quick Wins for Travel Brands

• Refresh high-performing posts with natural language queries.
• Activate your experts – concierges, pilots, sommeliers – to build trust.
• Write in 50-word blocks for AI-friendly summaries.
• Optimise technical SEO: schema, structured data, fast load times.

6. From SEO to GEO & AEO

• Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO): Structuring content to answer conversational questions.
• Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO): Ensuring your content is cited in AI-generated results.

7. The Opportunity

The post The Future of AI & Social Search in Travel: Key Takeaways from Our Webinar appeared first on Remarkable.

When was the last time you Googled something and actually clicked past the first result? Now imagine your customers doing the same, not just on Google, but on TikTok, Reddit, ChatGPT, LinkedIn… and never making it to your website. Welcome to the new world of search and discovery in Financial Services.

In July 2025, we partnered with social media pioneers Immediate Future to host a webinar that shared insights on how AI and social search are fundamentally changing buyer behaviour in the financial services industry.

Whether you’re marketing to institutional investors, HNW individuals, or B2B buyers, your audiences are searching differently, trusting differently, and buying differently.

And that means your marketing strategy needs a reset.

Here’s what we learned, and what you should be doing right now to stay visible in a world where the funnel is broken, clicks are vanishing, and being “found first” is everything.

The Funnel is Dead. Discovery is a Digital Maze.

Forget what you knew about customer journeys. According to Katy Howell, CEO of Immediate Future:

“There isn’t a funnel. It’s about throwing out the net and making sure you’re seen and discoverable in a multitude of places.”

Social platforms have become intent-rich environments, where discovery happens through scrolls, shares, and increasingly, search. And it’s not just younger demographics.

“This isn’t just Gen Z or those side hustle TikToks,” Katy noted. “This is CFOs, investors, decision-makers, already using social media as a research tool.”

We’re seeing a rising trend of intent-based discovery happening in social feeds and AI engines. If you’re only optimising for traditional SEO, you’re ignoring a growing segment of search behaviour that no longer touches a search engine.

The Rise of the AI-Powered Customer

While social is changing the where of discovery, AI is changing the how.

As James Gray, VP of Digital Marketing here at Remarkable, explained:

“Even my mum, who’s in her seventies, was mind-blown when I showed her ChatGPT. People aren’t searching three random keywords anymore, they’re having conversations.”

Today’s buyers are using LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews to ask for financial advice, product recommendations, and brand evaluations in natural, multi-step conversations.

Some numbers to frame the shift:

• 40% of Gen Z now uses ChatGPT before Google
• 25% of all queries in Financial Services now trigger an AI Overview on Google
• 30–40% of organic traffic is being lost to zero-click answers

“We’re seeing the crocodile effect,” James added. “Impressions are steady, but click-through rates are diving. AI is answering the query up front, and brands are missing the opportunity to be part of the answer.”

The implications are profound. Your content isn’t just for readers anymore, it’s for robots too.

Social Signals Now Shape AI Responses

Here’s where things get really interesting. AI and social don’t operate in separate lanes – they feed each other.

“AI is already picking up parts of social to inform its responses,” said Katy. “The whole thing is beautifully connected.”

So when someone posts thought leadership on LinkedIn, shares a testimonial on Reddit, or writes a detailed review, that becomes part of the AI training soup. It also feeds your perceived expertise and authority.

“AI tools favour clear, factual, and well-labelled content. They prefer voices with expertise and trust signals,” Katy explained. “That includes named authors, job titles, LinkedIn presence…”

In short: social proof is becoming AI proof.

One extra nugget from Katy: “first-impression signals” travel further than we think.

LinkedIn pulls the first 90 characters of every PDF, TikTok indexes the opening three seconds of captions and even ChatGPT weights the first answer it finds in a thread. Put the plain-English hook right at the top and you’re instantly more findable across every channel (human or machine)”

On the webinar, Katy also provided a link to a ready-made checklist for Social optimisation (file names, alt text, platform quirks and all), which you can find in her blog here.

5 Strategic Shifts for FSI Marketers

Here’s what you need to do (now!  to stay relevant and discoverable in this new landscape.

1. Refresh Your Social Content with SEO Hygiene

Audit and optimise your top 10 posts across LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok:

• Use natural language
• Add on-screen text and transcripts
• Create keyword-rich, clear summaries

“Your copy needs to read like how people search,” said Katy. “Not corporate jargon like ‘building better futures’—but ‘how flexible pension plans work’.”

2. Structure Content for AI Curation

Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini reward structure:

• Bullet points, question-led headlines, short paragraphs
• Clear subheadings (your H2s matter!)
• Author bios and consistent voices

Explore our guide to SEO, AEO and GEO to ensure your structure speaks the language of machines and humans.

3. Optimise Your Site for AI Overviews

Google’s AI Mode is here—and it’s rewriting how people experience search. We break it down in this insight piece, but in short:

• Prioritise schema markup (FAQ, Article, Author)
• Ensure fast load times and strong core web vitals
• Use clean, crawlable architecture

4. Use Social as a Trust Engine

Don’t just post. Build authority.

• Feature expert POVs from your people
• Share thought leadership consistently
• Encourage user-generated content (UGC)

Need inspiration? Our UGC & Advocacy article breaks down how to turn customers into discoverability assets.

5. Think Conversations, Not Keywords

“Users are starting conversations, not just typing keywords,” said James. “You need to structure content that works for AI, traditional crawlers, and real people.”

Content needs to not only answer the current question, but anticipate the next. Think topic clusters, FAQs, and interconnected thought leadership, not isolated landing pages.

Discovery Now Lives Everywhere

We’re moving from a world of search to a world of prompt, scroll, and decide.

Your buyers are:

• Asking ChatGPT for a list of sustainable investment funds
• Watching TikToks from financial brand advocates
• Vetting your brand through your LinkedIn presence
• Skipping your website entirely and forming opinions through AI summaries

If you’re not discoverable in these spaces, you’re not in the consideration set at all.

“You’re not just optimising to rank,” James concluded. “You’re optimising for representation, inside the tools your customers are already using.”

Let’s make sure you show up. For deeper insights and conversation, be sure to watch the full webinar (above) and download Immediate Future’s Social & AI Checklist here. Feel free to explore more of our thinking on Search, AI, and Content Strategy and if you need help auditing your digital discoverability, let’s talk.

The post The Future of Discovery in FSI: Social Search, AI, and the New Rules of Visibility appeared first on Remarkable.

How is AI Transforming Travel Search?

Evolving customer behaviour and cutting-edge AI technologies are redefining the travel and hospitality landscape, and the way people search and book is changing fast. In this webinar, discover how Google is adapting to this shift with smarter, more intuitive search experiences.

Join us on the 6th May, 2pm GMT for an exclusive webinar featuring Lalit Gupta, Senior Industry Manager (Travel) at Google, as he dives into how AI is revolutionising the search landscape. Technology is changing how travellers discover, plan and book holidays, and Google is leading the way in these changes. Discover how Google is leveraging AI to reshape search experiences, and what that means for travel brands trying to stay ahead of evolving customer expectations and booking behaviours.

Adding to the conversation, James Gray will bring a real-world perspective from the travel sector and discuss Remarkable’s experience in the sector. He’ll dive into practical implications of Google’s changes for marketers, and host a lively Q&A session – so come ready with your questions!

Using AI to its full potential is more important in the travel & hospitality industry now than ever before, and our webinar will give you the head start you need to ensure your business is ahead of the game.

Follow the link to sign up for the webinar: The Future of Search and AI for the Travel & Hospitality Industry | Remarkable

Remarkable are one of the world’s leading digital experience agencies. As a double Platinum Sitecore and Optimizely partner, we offer technology solutions to help brands build experiences that convert.

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Spring has well and truly sprung, and that can only mean one thing for the Sitecore community in Europe – it’s time for SUGCON Europe 2025! 

Antwerp, Belgium was the scene of this year’s gathering on the 3rd and 4th April and, as always, it proved to be an incredibly interesting couple of days hearing from the Sitecore team as well as partners and customers from around the world, not just Europe. 

Talks about AI and Sitecore Stream in particular dominated proceedings, as well as the usual suspects like XM Cloud and Content Hub. Here are some of the Remarkable team’s highlights.

1.Keynote: Powering the Future of Sitecore Together

Dave O’Flanagan (Sitecore CEO), Roger Connolly (Sitecore CPO), and Danny Robinson (Sitecore CTO)

It was fitting that we were in a room called the Darwin Hall for a Keynote with a theme of evolution and adaptability. Sitecore CEO, Dave O’Flanagan kicked things off and took us through the Sitecore vision of being an “AI-first Intelligent DXP” with Sitecore Stream at the heart of things. Roger Connolly (Sitecore Chief Product Officer) touched on the changing face of Search in the zero click AI age and showed off some of the AI-powered A/B testing, personalisation, auto-tagging, and language translation tools that are now, or soon will be, available to Sitecore customers. Lastly, Danny Robinson (Sitecore CTO) took us through the roadmap and some key upcoming dates to keep an eye out for (expect big things in June). 

2. 30 min of AI in Sitecore

Morten Ljungberg, Sales Engineer at Sitecore

Sitecore Sales Engineer, Morten Ljungberg, gave a cracking overview of Sitecore Stream features in a demo website, showcasing the Brand Kit and Assistant features in the Stream portal, as well as a detailed look into how Stream features work in XM Cloud, Content Hub DAM, Content Hub Operations, Search, Personalise, and CDP, including everything from content generation to translation, auto-tagging, insights, and testing. 

3. Workshop: XM/XP to XM Cloud Best Practices

Jeroen Feyaerts and Katharina Luger, Sitecore Solution Architects

For the very first slot of the day, Jeroen Feyaerts and Katharina Luger, both Solution Architects at Sitecore, led a workshop on the best practices and considerations when undertaking a migrating from XP to XM Cloud, including topics like feature gap analysis, migration paths, hosting, personalisation, testing, and analytics, as well as the conversations that need to be had around XP-centric tools like Forms, EXM, and xDB that either don’t exist, or are completely different in XM Cloud. 

4. Building the Future: Extending XM Cloud with Marketplace Apps

Spyros Misichronis, Architect around the Marketplace

Liz Nelson, Senior Director, Product (Product Lead of XM Cloud)

Sitecore XM Cloud Product Lead, Liz Nelson, took us on a journey through Sitecore’s Marketplace of apps, breaking down the different between the public marketplace versus private custom applications. The audience got a look into developing extensions using the Marketplace SDK and integrating them with XM Cloud’s APIs. Marketplace Architect, Spyros Misichronis, complimented the talk with a live demo. 

5. Main Stage Demo by CI Hub

Andreas Michalski, CEO and Founder

CI Hub CEO and Founder, Andreas Michalski, gave the audience a first-hand look into the CI Hub’s connector ecosystem that opens up Sitecore Content Hub into over twenty corporate applications. The tool can do things like pull assets directly from Sitecore Content Hub into Photoshop, let you select assets from Content Hub in Outlook emails, and extend your Desktop to be able to pull up Content Hub assets as you would from your device’s folders. Impressive stuff.

6. Leading in the New Era of AI

Hans Verbeeck, Technology Manager at Microsoft

Microsoft Technology Manager, Hans Verbeeck, spoke about Microsoft’s vision on the evolution of AI, from agents able to complete repetitive tasks (e.g. Input new hire information into HR system) and answer straightforward questions (“What is the dress code in the office?”) to being able to take action (“Order a laptop for a new employee”) and collaboratively solve complex tasks (“Onboard 5 employees by Monday”). Hans touched on the Copilots available in Teams, Outlook, Word, PPT, and Excel, as well as highlighting the Azure AI Foundry’s 1,800+ models, and left us with the gem that “Copilots are for humans, Agents are for processes.” 

7. Re-Inventing Governance with AI: Accessibility, Branding, and Digital Right Compliance

Vasiliy Fomichev, Head of Digital Solutions and Co-Founder at Zont Digital

Zont Digital Co-Founder and Head of Digital Solutions, Vasiliy Fomichev, gave a live demo on how to create a simple Agentic workflow in N8n to translate content in XM Cloud. He spoke of the importance of creating a “Clean model” for training your data and outlined the Data Learning Effect (DLE) of providing constant feedback to refine your model, as well as using a “human in the loop” for critical workflows to make sure there is a human overseeing the work at important points. 

8. Sitecore Stream in Platform DXP (PaaS)

Vignesh Vishwanath, Product Manager at Sitecore

Sitecore Product Manager, Vignesh Vishwanath, gave the audience a look into how Sitecore Stream features work in a Platform DXP / PaaS setting with Sitecore XP. In this context, Stream is a module available on-prem and PaaS that you can download and install and is available on Sitecore XP 10.2 and above. The tool can generate content and variants based on the prompts you give it in Content Editor and can help improve writing, fix spelling and grammar, make the content shorter or longer, and even change tone. 

9. Pairing Sitecore CDP with Salesforce Data Cloud for the Ultimate Customer 360

Emily Lord, Sitecore Account Executive at Horizontal Digital 

Horizontal Digital Sitecore Account Executive, Emily Lord, spoke about how Sitecore CDP and Salesforce Data Cloud can work together despite being sometimes considered competing tools. Emily took the audience through the similarities and differences between the two, as well as looking at what each platform is best suited to doing. The talk touched on how Unified Customer Profiles can give brands a 360-degree view of their customer and the new Gensights (Generative Insights) Sitecore Stream feature for CDP. 

10. Navigating through Sitecore’s Personalisation Archipelago

Szymon Kuzniak, Senior Sitecore Developer at ACTUM Digital

ACTUM Digital Senior Sitecore Developer, Szymon Kuzniak, gave the audience a live demo of how personalisation works in both Sitecore XP and Sitecore Personalise. Szymon created a basic Page View personalisation in XP using Profile Cards and Pattern Cards and then created a personalised Web Experience in Sitecore Personalise that included a custom template by adding the HTML code for a component while also showcasing the Design view that marketers can use to visualise the components they wish to personalise.

Remarkable are one of the world’s leading digital experience agencies. As a double Platinum Sitecore and Optimizely partner, we offer technology solutions to help brands build experiences that convert.

The post 10 Highlights from SUGCON Europe 2025 in Antwerp, Belgium appeared first on Remarkable.

At Remarkable, we’re always delighted to take opportunities to give back to the community and inspire the next generation of digital innovators. That’s why we were thrilled to take part in BIMA Digital Day—an annual event that brings together industry professionals to mentor young people, helping them explore potential careers in digital, technology, and design. 

This year, we were invited to visit The Green Boys School in Twickenham, where we worked with a group of Year 11 students (aged 15-16). The challenge was to come up with creative digital solutions for real-world problems set by BIMA’s sponsors. Not only did the students have the chance to win exciting prizes, but the £500 cash prize for their school was a fantastic incentive to put their best foot forward. 

A Day to Inspire: Our Diverse Team of Mentors 

The opportunity to mentor these students was particularly exciting for us because it gave them a glimpse into the varied departments that make up a digital agency. From strategy and design to development and quality assurance, we wanted the students to understand the many facets of digital work. Our team for the day included: 

• Sangeeta Brady – Chief Operating Officer 

• Joana Santos – VP, People & Culture  

• Matthew Dunn – Optimizely Practice Lead 

• Aaron Ingram – QA Practice Lead 

• Elizabeth Oloruntola – UX Consultant 

Having such a diverse mix of professionals gave the students a well-rounded view of the industry. From user experience design to technical quality assurance, each of us brought a unique perspective to the table, enriching the learning experience for the students. 

The Brief: Real-World Problems, Creative Solutions 

The students were divided into six teams, each tasked with a different challenge provided by the event’s sponsors: Microsoft, RSPCA, and Burberry. Each group had to brainstorm, collaborate, and develop a digital solution to address the problem they were given. It was inspiring to see how the students approached the briefs with fresh ideas, leveraging their own experiences and creativity. 

Microsoft: Reinventing Home Learning 

Challenge: How can Microsoft use its technology to re-invent home learning for secondary school students? 

Some students proposed creating an AI-based learning assistant to help students manage their schoolwork while learning from home. It was fascinating to see how the students used their experiences during the COVID-19’s lockdown to inform their solutions, tackling pain points like lack of engagement and difficulties with remote learning. 

RSPCA: Educating on Higher Welfare Farming 

Challenge: How can technology (apps, VR, AI, social media, etc.) be used to educate consumers about the importance of RSPCA Assured and higher welfare farming? 

In this challenge, students designed a QR code system that would allow consumers to check if the food they were buying was RSPCA accredited. They identified a common misconception that the RSPCA is only focused on pet welfare and proposed a system to educate consumers about the benefits of higher welfare farming, as well as the importance of choosing certified products. 

Burberry: Sustainability and British Craftsmanship 

Challenge: How can we highlight Burberry trench coats to a younger audience as a symbol of sustainability, supporting British craftsmanship, and reducing environmental impact? 

This challenge saw students diving into Burberry’s existing digital presence and brainstorming ways to appeal to younger consumers. Ideas included redesigning the website to be more relatable to younger audiences and introducing eco-friendly messaging to align with the growing trend of sustainability. They even suggested featuring models who are influencers that younger audiences can relate to, reinforcing Burberry’s connection to British heritage and craftsmanship. 

Organising the Day: A Structured Approach to Creative Thinking 

To ensure the students stayed on track and maximised their creative potential, the day is structured into three key phases: 

1. Discover: Researching the problem and understanding the context.
2. Design: Developing a digital solution that addressed the challenge.
3. Deliver: Preparing and presenting their ideas to the group for feedback. 

Each stage was timed to keep the students engaged and help them focus on what was most important. The pressure of delivering a complete solution by the end of the day was certainly challenging, but it also fostered a sense of accomplishment when they presented their ideas. 

Key Takeaways: What We Learned from the Students 

Looking back, there were several key takeaways that stood out from the day: 

• Teenagers Think Outside the Box: The students were not afraid to challenge the status quo and think beyond traditional solutions. 

• Digital Natives Are Tech-Savvy: With today’s world being so digital-first, many students already had a deep understanding of how to navigate digital tools and platforms. 

• Engagement is Key: Young people enjoy autonomy and thrive when they’re given the freedom to come up with their own ideas. 

• The Future is Bright: The creativity and passion these students displayed reminded us that the future of digital design is in good hands. 

Conclusion: A Rewarding Experience 

Mentoring at BIMA Digital Day was a highly rewarding experience for everyone at Remarkable. Going back to school gave us the chance to see the world through the eyes of the next generation of digital talent. It was a great reminder of how important it is to support and nurture young minds, especially when they’re exploring careers in technology and design. 

A big thank you to the staff at Green Boys School, particularly J. Virani and Mr Moses, for making us feel so welcome and helping us facilitate the day. We were truly inspired by the students’ creativity, problem-solving skills, and enthusiasm for all things digital. 

We left the day with a sense of optimism for the future—these young people are pushing boundaries and challenging the norms. As a digital agency, we’re excited to see how they will shape the future of our industry. At Remarkable, we’re proud to have played a small part in helping them realise their potential. The future is bright, and we can’t wait to see where these young minds will take us! 

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