Consumer AI sentiment is shifting, your ICP probably isn't who you think, and ChatGPT ads are now a line item you can actually test.

This week's edition covers:

  • The Signal: Signal: AI adoption keeps climbing while sentiment sours, plus why your ICP is probably leaving the bigger buyer pool on the table
  • Tools & Tactics: an early-mover playbook for ChatGPT ads, and a field event motion that stops post-show ghosting
  • Quick Links: Claude agents land in Slack threads, SparkToro adds TAM sizing, ASOS preps for agentic shoppers

Kevin's Take

The youngest users are the most skeptical, and that should change who you market to

I think most marketers have the AI-buyer persona exactly backwards, and a new Pew survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adults just put a real number on it.

The finding that I find most interesting is that under-30s are the heaviest users of AI chatbots and also the most skeptical about where AI is heading, while older adults use it less but actually carry more optimism on certain dimensions. If you're segmenting your AI-forward messaging by age and assuming young equals bullish and old equals resistant, you're aiming at the wrong target.

What I find compelling is that this mirrors something we've been seeing in our own work at Mighty and True. The people who use these tools the most every day, in Claude Code, Vercel, GitHub, n8n, in skill systems we've built, are also the ones who are most clear-eyed about what the tools actually can't do.

"The people who use these tools the most every day are also the ones who are most clear-eyed about what the tools actually can't do."

Heavy use makes you skeptical because you watch the model break in small ways every single day. You see where it hallucinates, you see where it confidently rewrites something that was already right, you see the moments where you have to step in and use actual judgment.

Optimism tends to come from a little distance, from reading the headlines and imagining the upside without watching the seams. That's not a knock on older buyers, it's just a different relationship to the tool. So when you market an AI-forward product to a 28-year-old practitioner, leading with magical claims is probably the worst move you can make, because they've already had the model fail them this morning. Lead with control, with verifiability, with what they can audit and govern.

When you talk to a 55-year-old executive sponsor, the conversation is genuinely different, it's about the strategic shift and where this changes how the company actually operates.

What I think is useful in this data isn't that one group is right and one is wrong, it's that usage and belief are coming apart, and your messaging needs to come apart along with them.

That's it for this week. Talk soon.

— Kevin Kerner, CEO, Mighty & True

The Signal

AI adoption is up but public sentiment is sour (1 min read)

Pew Research finds growing American adoption of chatbots, AI summaries, and smart speakers, but public sentiment toward AI remains negative across age groups. Even younger adults express skepticism about the pace of AI advancement.

Why it matters: If your AI-forward messaging assumes consumer enthusiasm, this data should reshape how you position AI features to your buyers and their end users.

Your ICP is probably smaller than the audience you're missing (1 min read)

SparkToro audience research reveals that the assumed buyer persona (electricians) for commercial backup power is dwarfed by a larger, adjacent audience marketers were ignoring. The piece argues persona assumptions routinely undersize and misdirect B2B targeting.

Why it matters: If your ICP was built from sales intuition rather than audience data, you're likely spending against the wrong segment and leaving the bigger buyer pool untouched.

Tools & Tactics

A practitioner's playbook for launching ChatGPT ads (1 min read)

A practitioner's end-to-end walkthrough on launching ads inside ChatGPT, covering setup, targeting, and creative considerations. Written from hands-on experience rather than secondhand reporting.

Why it matters: ChatGPT ads are a new surface your competitors haven't figured out yet, and getting in early gives your team a learning curve advantage before CPMs catch up.

A field event playbook that prevents post-show ghosting (1 min read)

Andrei Zinkevich shares a playbook for using field events and conferences to engage target buyers and avoid post-event ghosting by sales reps. Focuses on pre/during/post-event orchestration between marketing and sales.

Why it matters: If your team is investing in field events without a follow-up motion, you're burning budget and handing your reps cold lists that go nowhere.

Resources & Tools

Work with us — Growth Systems

Stuck rebuilding the same workflows every quarter? Mighty and True Growth Systems builds the AI-fueled marketing stack — from spec to shipped — so your team stops reinventing and starts compounding.

▶ Build your growth systems

Help us with a research report

We are putting together a research report on how mid-market tech companies are actually allocating budget in 2026. Not the aspirational version, the real one. If you are willing to share your numbers anonymously, reply and I will send the survey. You will get the full report before anyone else.

▶ Share your numbers →