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The world doesn’t announce its turning points. But sometimes you catch them in the corner of your eye: a flurry of late-night pizza orders ahead of earth-shaking events, a defence startup topping a tech list, or a chatbot outscoring humans on creative briefs. This week, we’re tracking those small oddities with big implications – and asking what they mean for brand building, business strategy and the stories we tell ourselves about how growth really works.

Enjoy!

Geopolitical alerts, powered by pepperoni

A former defence official has coined the “Pentagon Pizza Index” – a theory that surging pizza orders signal looming geopolitical crises. The logic suggests that when late-night demand spikes at key military offices, it means analysts are working overtime on emerging threats. According to a recent interview with Fast Company, this pattern has tracked with past events from the Iraq invasion to the war in Ukraine. The idea remains anecdotal, but it hints at a broader question: in a world of real-time data, are there underused behavioural signals hiding in plain sight? Read more at Fast Company.​

The battle of the bots – now judged on creativity

A new tool from Springboards.ai benchmarks large language models not on speed or precision, but on something trickier to measure: creative thinking. The test challenges ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and others with prompts that mimic upstream strategy work – from naming products to generating metaphors and reframing briefs. The goal isn’t automation, but inspiration: to help teams choose the AI that best complements their own creative process. Early feedback suggests Claude excels at conceptual thinking, while others perform better on direct outputs. The full test takes less than ten minutes – and might just change how you brief your next big idea. Take the test here.

Crawlers blocked: AI’s open web honeymoon is over

Cloudflare, the web infrastructure provider that sits in front of more than 20% of all websites globally, will now block AI crawlers like OpenAI and Anthropic by default unless site owners opt in. It’s a small change with big consequences: companies must now actively decide whether their content should feed large language models. For sectors like publishing, higher education and ecommerce, the implications range from missed exposure and reduced discoverability to new opportunities for licensing, allowing brands to decide what’s seen, scraped, or monetised. It used to be a backend technical decision but is now a front-line branding and business strategy issue. Get the story here.

What comes first: fixing operations or fuelling growth?

It’s a common standoff between marketing and finance: should you polish operations before spending on customer acquisition? Countrystyle Recycling’s Jack Francis argues yes – poor margins, broken onboarding and leaky sales funnels only waste marketing budget. But others suggest that context matters. In high-growth sectors, early brand building can be a competitive weapon. The smarter question: how efficient is efficient enough before you hit the gas? Read the post here.

A living Library of Alexandria – powered by you

What if your expertise could outlive your schedule – or even your lifetime? That’s the idea behind Delphi, an AI tool that lets you build a digital version of your brain. More than a chatbot, Delphi uses what it calls “conversational media” – structured around beliefs, heuristics and lived experience – to let authors, founders and creators scale themselves. Since launching its beta in late 2023, thousands of “digital minds” have been created, helping answer questions, extract audience insights and even monetise knowledge. It’s just raised $16m from Sequoia and others. The ultimate goal being a searchable archive of wisdom, accessible across time, language and geography. I’m intrigued – and I think you will be too. Find out more here.

Your brand isn’t what you think it is

A new peer-reviewed study by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute tested more than 400 brand assets across five categories – and uncovered a startling disconnect between marketers’ perceptions and consumer reality. Only 2% of brand professionals could accurately predict how recognisable their logos, colours or characters really were. Nearly 60% were wrong by more than 20 percentage points. The research shows that marketers tend to overestimate fame and underestimate distinctiveness – a risky combination that leads to overuse of weak assets and unnecessary scrapping of good ones. The fix is to measure, not guess. Fame and uniqueness are testable – and collective judgement is better than solo gut feel. As the researchers put it: your brand doesn’t live in your head. It lives in theirs. Download the report here.

AI’s new vanguard: defence startups dominate CNBC’s Disruptor 50

This year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 is led by a new kind of tech unicorn: defence-focused AI startups. Anduril, Saronic Technologies and Shield AI all appear in the top 20, reflecting a broader trend where geopolitical tensions are accelerating investment in dual-use technologies. Together with OpenAI and Flock Safety, they represent a shift in where innovation – and capital – is now concentrated. AI is no longer just a productivity tool or creative assistant. Increasingly, it’s becoming core to national security infrastructure, and that’s reshaping both the start-up landscape and the strategic priorities of global investors. Take a look at the list here.

The death of dull: B2B marketing grows a personality

B2B marketing used to mean snooze-fest slide decks and lead-gated PDFs. Not anymore. Pipedrive’s latest trend report captures the shift: founders are stepping into the spotlight, content is getting punchier and more visual (yes, TikTok is making its mark) and AI is freeing up time for real storytelling. B2B brands are finally realising that buyers are people too – and that a little personality can go a long way in a long sales cycle. It’s not just about clicks and leads anymore. It’s about being memorable. Read the trends here.

AI prompt of the week: rewrite for the world beyond clicks

If your homepage still imagines a search-driven buyer journey, it might be time for a reset. AI-powered answer engines are reshaping how people find and evaluate brands – and most websites aren’t ready. Here’s a prompt to help pressure-test yours:

“Act like a senior UX strategist reviewing this website. What’s working, what’s confusing and what key messages are missing? Now assume the future of search is zero-click – users get answers from AI without visiting a site. How would you rewrite or restructure the page to ensure your message survives in that environment?”

It’s a useful way to audit clarity, hierarchy and relevance – and to prepare your content for a world where traffic isn’t guaranteed.

Essential (and useful) viewing

I’m a huge fan of TED talks and love to share my favourites – and also get the latest recommendations from friends and colleagues. Here are the ones I’ll turn to time and again for inspiration.

Drop me a line

That’s it for this week. If something here challenged a long-held belief – or gave you a nudge towards a new one – I’d love to hear it. Just hit reply. I’m always curious what smart people are reading, testing or rethinking. Until next Sunday.

Cheers!
Adam

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