Leveling Up Engagement: AI, Gaming, and the New Rules of Storytelling

At The State of the Story Breakfast Club, marketing leaders gathered to explore how AI is reshaping human engagement through gaming. Here’s what became clear: AI isn’t just changing how we tell stories. It’s changing what stories are—adaptive, empathetic, and designed for co-creation.

Real Talk from the Frontlines of Innovation

🔹 Magnet CEO Michelle Vincent set the tone:‍

“We’re in a moment where there’s a massive intersection between gaming, AI and brand connection.”

Rather than competing with human creativity, AI is emerging as a partner. It’s a tool that helps brands rise above the noise by uncovering new audience insights, streamlining ideation, and expanding reach through personalization.

“From integrating AI into production workflows to using it for smarter strategy and research, we're embracing it to help our clients break through,” Michelle explained. 

This wasn’t about hype. It was about a deeper, more intentional way to connect.

🔹 Lori Goode, CMO at Index Exchange, made it real:‍

“The perception of gamers as a specific type of person... really thinking about gaming generally and how much of a stronghold gaming has on all individuals globally… it grounds it in the consumer experience.”

Gaming is now understood as a universal digital language. Whether it's teens playing online or commuters solving Wordle, gameplay has become a key behavior driving digital interaction.

AI enables these immersive, game-like experiences to be tailored in real-time, opening the door for marketers to engage deeper, longer, and more meaningfully.

🔹 Across organizations, AI is going beyond content.‍

Alisha Rappaport of S&P Global echoed that mindset. She’s leading development on AI-powered sales agents and gamified metaverse experiences to help clients explore financial solutions more interactively:

“We developed a metaverse... with a gamification component for folks to explore our suite of solutions.”

“The agent does the investigative work... and when it can no longer answer questions, it sends them to a demo form or a booking link.”

The insight? AI isn’t just powering faster systems. It’s reshaping how customers discover, navigate, and connect—across the entire journey,

🔹 In fintech, AI is unlocking new insights.

‍For Ruth Hubbard of Fiserv, AI connects behavior and intent:

“A credit card doesn’t lie,” she said. “We’re trying to connect the dots with payment data and who people are based on what they say and how they behave.”

She also highlighted how engagement strategies from gaming – where UX is critical – are enhancing point-of-sale experiences and enabling real-time decision-making in commerce.

Gaming isn’t just a metaphor for engagement. It’s a model for how consumers expect to move through systems: fluidly, intuitively, and with agency.

Three Big Shifts You Can’t Miss

AI isn’t just a tool—it’s a teammate.‍

The best creative teams treat it as a partner, not a replacement.

Empathy is the real differentiator.‍

AI helps scale personalization, but it's human-centered design that makes it resonate. The strongest brands don’t just automate. They connect.

Innovation works best when it’s shared.‍

From internal upskilling to org-wide experimentation, the companies leading in AI are the ones who are making it accessible across teams, roles, and objectives.

Why This Moment Mattered

This wasn’t just a breakfast club. It was a lens into the next era of storytelling.

One where AI isn’t just speeding things up. It's making space for deeper, bolder, more human expression.

And the real breakthrough? Leaders aren’t chasing the next shiny thing. They’re building frameworks that invite creativity, empathy, and experimentation into every layer of the brand.

Let’s Keep the Story Going

At Magnet, we believe in convening voices that shape the future—at the intersection of creativity, technology, and human truth.

Want to turn your brand’s purpose into real impact?

📩 Let’s talk.

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