Affiliate Summit West is always a good barometer for where the industry is heading, but this year felt less about chasing the next big thing and more about pressure-testing what’s already changing.
Across meetings, side conversations, and sessions, the same questions kept coming up: how AI is reshaping discovery and performance, where efficiency helps or creates risk, and how to grow without eroding trust.
For us, ASW was about seeing familiar patterns repeat and confirming we’re already focused on the right things heading into the year ahead at Stack and BrandCycle.
The AI Conversation? More Grounded Than Expected.
In practice, that meant fewer conversations about shiny new tools and more about how teams are actually using AI day to day, where it helps, and where it still needs guardrails.
Partners weren’t asking whether AI belonged in their workflows. They were asking how to use it responsibly, how to move faster without losing quality, how to reduce manual work without introducing new risk.
There was real excitement about AI’s potential, but also a clear awareness of where its limits show up, especially around discovery, influence, and trust. How do we balance speed with intentionality?
When an Internal POV Shows Up on the Main Stage
One of the moments that crystallized those conversations was a panel featuring BrandCycle’s general manager, Erin Gagnon, on authenticity in an increasingly AI-driven creator economy.
What stood out wasn’t that the New Creator Paradigm panel introduced a new argument, but how clearly it echoed themes we’ve been talking about and hearing from partners for some time. As AI becomes more capable of generating content and driving short-term performance, the line between what works and what lasts is becoming sharper.
The discussion reinforced a point we keep coming back to:
Creative voice, lived experience, and trust can’t be automated without consequences.
Performance alone isn’t enough if audiences don’t understand where recommendations are coming from or why they should believe them.
That tension—wanting to move faster and smarter without sacrificing credibility—is one we’ve been hearing from partners over the past year. Getting to hash it out in a shared space felt overdue in the best way.
Where AI Clearly Adds Value and Where the Industry is Drawing the Line
By the middle of the event, those conversations had become very specific and practical. Where AI really shines right now is behind the scenes, particularly when it comes to:
- Workflow automation and internal tooling
- Data analysis and reporting
- Smarter decision support
For even the most AI-averse, replacing guesswork and vibes-based calls with clearer signals is hard to ignore.
In creator and affiliate marketing specifically, it’s helping teams be more thoughtful about how they identify opportunities, evaluate partners, and allocate resources.
Replacing lived experience, creativity, or real product interaction introduces risk that most partners aren’t willing to take. The efficiency gains may look appealing in the short term, but they don’t compound if audiences lose trust.
That distinction came up repeatedly across brands, publishers, and platforms.
Trust Is the Constraint That Shapes What Scales
One thing became very clear at ASW: Trust isn’t just a value. When it’s missing, deals fall apart.
As AI lowers the cost of creation, it raises the stakes for trust.
Creators are deeply protective of their relationship with their audiences. Brands rely on credibility and authentic storytelling to justify pricing and differentiation. Platforms and networks benefit from maintaining quality as content volume increases. Trust becomes the signal-to-noise differentiator.
Where the Real Work Happened
Away from the main stage, the most productive moments of ASW were still rooted in relationships.
Over the course of the week, we held more than two dozen meetings with both new and existing partners. Conversations centered on how to expand reach, diversify distribution, and unlock incremental revenue opportunities together, often by rethinking how different channels and partners work in concert.
Sponsoring impact’s Topgolf event reinforced that dynamic. In a relaxed, informal setting, it was easier to move past surface-level conversations and align on priorities, challenges, and goals for 2026. Those moments of connection continue to be where real collaboration thrives.
What ASW Clarified for the Year Ahead
By the end of the week, the throughline felt clear. AI will continue to accelerate how work gets done across affiliate, creator, and commerce ecosystems. But the strategies that endure will be the ones that pair smarter systems with human judgment, transparency, and strong partnerships.
The takeaway was simple: Technology should support the work, not get in the way of it.
