Beyond discovery, agentic commerce represents a paradigm shift as AI agents become capable of acting as autonomous shoppers, identifying preferences, comparing options, and even completing purchases on behalf of consumers. OpenAI has embraced this with its “Buy it in ChatGPT” feature, which allows users to make purchases directly within the platform. These developments not only demand a rethinking of brands’ marketing channel mix but also a proactive approach to ensuring they are prominently featured by generative engines. For CMOs, this means keeping both the broader implications of gen AI and specific trends on their radar and rethinking the whole customer journey, from discovery to conversion. By proactively adapting to these changes, companies can position themselves as leaders in the next phase of marketing innovation. Interview: Inside BMG’s gen AI revolution Bertelsmann’s music subsidiary, BMG, has embraced gen AI, carefully exploring the opportunities presented by the technology’s capabilities. In this interview, BMG CEO Thomas Coesfeld and Technical University of Munich professor Jochen Hartmann discuss the company’s efforts, guided by TUM’s collaboration providing academic rigor, systematic validation, and access to state-of-the-art models. Their responses have been edited for clarity and length. McKinsey: What role does AI and gen AI specifically play in BMG’s overall strategy? Thomas Coesfeld, BMG: Gen AI, and AI more broadly, are key strategic growth drivers, that are helping us unlock new revenue opportunities and boosting effectiveness across marketing, rights management, artist and writer services, and film/TV/commercial licensing. We’re using gen AI to expand our commercial reach, deepen client value, strengthen our data and analytics, and enhance content creation and storytelling by reimagining catalog narratives. It’s also opening up entirely new ways to drive revenue growth. For example, we developed MAGE (marketing asset generation engine), a pipeline designed to enhance the effectiveness of our marketing assets through gen AI, particularly across high-impact channels like TikTok. At the same time, AI is streamlining workflows and improving decision-making speed and accuracy, enabling us to scale smarter, grow faster, and serve creators more effectively in a dynamic music industry. Jochen Hartmann, Technical University of Munich: AI is a strategic enabler for repertoire activation, helping BMG unlock the commercial potential of its vast catalog. BMG wants to become the leading AI music company and MAGE is a flagship project for this initiative, exemplifying how gen AI can create tangible business impact and augment human artistry. McKinsey: What motivated you to develop and implement the MAGE pipeline? What is its purpose and impact? Thomas Coesfeld: Our primary motivation was to see if AI-generated content could drive stronger audience engagement and conversion, ultimately boosting campaign performance and revenue. We were convinced that AI can help music find its audience and deepen artist-fan engagement. At the same time, we aimed to explore cost synergies by automating parts of the asset creation process. The results were compelling, with higher click-through rates and improved engagement demonstrating that AI can drive both growth and efficiency. 44 State of Marketing Europe 2026