Scaling the Personalized Touch: Insights from Tech Earnings and Keynotes

After spending the last few weeks listening to Q3 earnings calls and product launches from the Magnificent 7 and their orbit, I think it’s safe to say:

We’re approaching a fundamental shift where AI doesn’t just scale operations—it enables radical personalization at scale. And this tension between “more” and “customized” will reshape how we communicate, campaign, and connect.

Hi, are you new to Anchor Change? I’m Katie Harbath. Most people listen for the numbers. I listen for where product and policy are heading. And today’s piece is a good example of the kinds of work I share in my newsletter every week. Subscribe today to get this kind of analysis right in your inbox.

After listening to Salesforce’s Mark Benioff talk about the future of customer service and Google’s Sundar Pichai mention how browsing will change, here are six things that stood out to me—and what they mean for anyone navigating tech, politics, or the messy space between.

1. Moving From Pages You Browse to Agents You Brief

Salesforce calls it “the end of the do-not-reply era.” Google is reimagining search and Chrome as agentic interfaces. By next year, your customer won’t scroll through your website—they’ll ask a question, and an AI will answer on your behalf.

What that means for you: If your content isn’t structured for agents—clear product data, authenticated actions, safety guardrails—you’re invisible in that conversation. Start designing for a “briefed” world now.

2. The Democratization of Software Development

Nearly every company referenced how AI collapses the barrier between “having an idea” and “shipping something.” Andreessen Horowitz drew parallels to early YouTube: suddenly, anyone could create and distribute content without a studio. Now, anyone can build software without hiring developers.

The catch: When everyone can create at scale, advantage shifts to orchestration—how seamlessly you connect identity, data, channels, and fulfillment. The magic isn’t in making things; it’s in making things work together reliably.

3. Scale AND Personalization (Not Scale OR Personalization)

After listening to these calls, this is the juxtaposition that intrigues me most. AI is enabling companies to reach a wider audience while simultaneously tailoring every interaction.

* YouTube/Google is helping creators make episodic content shoppable—shortening the journey from “I’m interested” to “I bought it.”

* Meta is optimizing ad delivery end-to-end, so advertisers just state their objective and the AI handles the rest.

* Netflix’s K-pop demon hunters became a surprise hit, showing studios need to move faster on merchandising cultural moments.

For campaigns and advocacy: 2026 and 2028 will be the first elections where agentic stacks let you contact, persuade, and service constituents at unprecedented scale—but in messages that feel like they were written for each person. The transparency challenge here is huge.

4. The Human Layer Isn’t Going Away—It’s Expanding

While it’s popular to say that ”AI replaces people,” leaders kept describing AI as expanding what humans can handle:

* Salesforce and Meta both argued you can finally answer every customer service inquiry—which means hiring more humans alongside automation, not fewer.

* Sales changes too: AI lets your team pitch to more prospects and close faster. Same humans, exponentially more reach.

The advantage isn’t zero-human; it’s right-human. To me, this means you put your best people where judgment, nuance, and relationships truly matter. Use agents to amplify their impact.

5. Three Infrastructure Realities Shaping Strategy

Across every call and launch, no one could escape these these three elements that are impacting their next steps:

* No One Has Enough Compute. Capacity planning is now a C-suite conversation. Every roadmap is gated by compute availability.

* Energy Is Policy. OpenAI’s framing was direct: building AI infrastructure requires a surge in skilled trades and electricity. “Unlocking electrons” is both an economic opportunity and a bottleneck—one that regulators will shape.

* DC Proximity Is Now an Advantage. The industry that once prized distance from Washington is planting offices there. NVIDIA staged events in DC. Anthropic is opening an office. Policy fluency isn’t optional anymore.

Your move: Lock long-lead capacity early. Build relationships with policymakers before you need them. Align your safety and transparency practices with wher