What happens when the Content Crisis meets AI creativity?

In this episode of the Hello $Firstname podcast, I sat down with Villads Leth, CEO and Founder at Alvas.ai, to explore what fully individualised, AI-written email content looks like in practice. And why it’s forcing marketers to rethink what content is, how it’s created, and what it means to personalise at scale.

🎯 Here’s what makes this conversation so relevant:

Villads and his team are enabling brands to go far beyond segmentation. They’re generating email content that’s 100% unique—based not just on the products in a customer’s basket, but also their behavioural history, preferences, and context. It’s 1:1 communication, built in real time by AI.

But this isn’t just a story about scale.

It’s a story about what happens when content creation becomes decisioning—and when marketing teams have to shift from writing to prompting, from planning to QA.

• The Two Modes of Content Production:
  • Hyper-individualised 1:1 emails for triggered flows
  • Efficiently produced, semi-personalised content for broader segments and campaigns
• Prompting ≠ Briefing: Why marketers need to learn to talk to machines—and teach them to speak brand.
• Content QA at Scale: What internal processes are needed to safely roll out GenAI-driven content.
• When Not to Personalise (or at least individualise): Yes, really. Villads makes a strong case for restraint when intent is fuzzy.
• The New Content Pipeline: How GenAI transforms not just what content gets made—but how, when, and by whom.

Villads also reflects on how fast things are moving: 🧠 The cost of content creation with AI has dropped by a factor of 200. ⚠️ But trust is fragile—one bad AI-generated message, and the damage is done. 💡 That’s why they’re big on guardrails, education, and starting small.

📺 Watch the full video here 📥 Download the CX Layers & Content Crisis Manifesto

• The book 'Hello $Firstname – Profiting from Personalization'
• The Content Crisis Manifesto

📘 Buy the book 📄 Download the abstract 🎧 Get the audiobook (free) 🖼️ Download all illustrations & models 🎤 Book me for a talk or workshop

In the latest episode of the Hello $Firstname podcast, I’m joined (Again! Congrats on being the first 2nd-time guest, David) by David Mannheim — author of The Person in Personalisation, founder of MadeWithIntent.ai, avid Disney fan and all-around provocateur of personalization norms.

David and I go way back — he even wrote the foreword for Hello $Firstname — but this episode isn’t just a nostalgic reunion. It’s a bold look at how website personalization has lagged behind other parts of the customer experience, and how understanding customer intent is the key to finally catching up.

📊 What’s the Intent Gap? David’s team recently released a report that shows just how off the mark many ecommerce websites are. Despite having tons of data, 63% of online shoppers say digital experiences feel “inappropriate” or even “manipulative.” That’s not just a CX issue — it’s a trust issue.

💥 The Big Idea: Most web personalization doesn’t match buying stages, it matches page templates. But just because I’m on a product page doesn’t mean I’m ready to buy. (Maybe I’m still browsing, maybe I’m stuck, maybe I’m about to bounce.) David argues — convincingly — that we should personalize for intent, not location.

🔁 Context Is King What’s powerful here is how MadeWithIntent generates real-time data signals based on digital body language — scroll depth, mouse movements, time between clicks — and turns that into insights about a user’s mindset. The aim? To surface the right message at the right time, both onsite and in outbound comms.

And this connects beautifully to the CX Layers framework. MadeWithIntent enriches the Data Layer with real-time context, enabling the Personalization Layer to act meaningfully — not just generically.

🧠 We also dive into:

• Why discounting might feel like the only optimization lever (but is often a race to the bottom)
• The difference between existing content and new nudges
• How outbound marketing can learn from onsite signals
• Why most retargeting emails are just… bad
• The long-term promise (and current limits) of GenAI in website personalization

🎧 This one’s packed with sharp insights, useful provocations, and some delightfully David-style perspectives on what real personalization should look like in 2025 and beyond.

1. Check out 'The Intent Gap Report' here or

2. 'Made with Intent' here or

3. Connect with David here

As always the episode is based on Rasmus Houlind's book ’Hello $FirstName - Profiting from Personalization’ and in turn the Content Crisis Manifesto.

The Content Crisis Manifesto can be downloaded here.

The full book is available in print and kindle and can be bought here (or your local amazon in case it doesn't work...)

An written abstract of the book can be downloaded here.

The full audiobook can be downloaded here (courtesy of Agillic).

All models and illustrations from the book can be downloaded here.

Book me for a presentation, meeting or talk here!