Feature
The Gist
- Email remains the least dangerous channel. As platforms fracture and AI reshapes discovery, Chad S. White argues that owning direct customer relationships through email and CRM is still the most durable marketing strategy.
- AI is a double-edged sword for marketers. From inbox summaries to AI browsers, automation is helping and hurting brands at the same time — forcing tougher, longer-term decisions.
- Trust is becoming the real competitive advantage. Platform volatility, misinformation and AI shortcuts are eroding confidence, making credibility and transparency central to modern marketing.
Few digital marketers have spent as much time tracking the fault lines beneath modern marketing as Chad S. White. A longtime observer of email, platforms and customer relationships, White brings a journalist’s instinct for pattern recognition to an industry increasingly shaped by volatility, automation and trust erosion.
As group vice president of CRM strategy at Zeta Global and author of four editions of Email Marketing Rules, White has made email and owned channels his analytical anchor. In 2025, that perspective resonated strongly with CMSWire readers navigating AI disruption, platform instability and the growing realization that not all innovation moves marketers forward.
Editor’s note: Chad S. White is a multiple-time CMSWire Contributor of the Year. His work stands out for its clarity and restraint — helping marketers understand not just what is changing, but what those changes mean for long-term trust, ownership and resilience.
Table of Contents
- Digital Marketing Success = Owning Customer Relationships
- Where AI Helps Marketing — and Where It Hurts
- Platform Risk and the Cost of Dependency
- Why Trust Is the Real Marketing Battleground
- 2026: The Year Marketers Will Face Tough Tradeoffs
Digital Marketing Success = Owning Customer Relationships
Across his CMSWire columns and conversations, White consistently returns to a core principle: marketing works best when brands own their customer relationships. In an era of collapsing organic reach and AI-driven intermediaries, that principle feels newly urgent.
White describes email as “the least dangerous thing you could do” as a marketer — not because it’s immune to disruption, but because it preserves a direct line between brand and customer. As search, social and discovery become increasingly mediated by AI, he sees owned channels like email and SMS as critical insulation against disintermediation.
This perspective is shaped by White’s background as a journalist and analyst. Rather than chasing novelty, he tracks how systems interact — how inbox providers, platforms, AI browsers and marketers respond to one another — and where those interactions create unintended consequences.
Where AI Helps Marketing — and Where It Hurts
White does not frame AI as an existential threat to marketers, but he is clear-eyed about its tradeoffs. “AI is becoming this sort of double-edged sword,” he says. While marketers are using AI to drive efficiency, personalization and segmentation, inbox providers and platforms are deploying AI just as aggressively — often in ways that complicate brand communication.
Inbox summaries, for example, introduce new uncertainty into email messaging. White argues that these tools attempt to solve a problem that no longer exists. Modern subject lines and preview text are already optimized, and AI summaries can misrepresent tone, humor or intent — undermining clarity rather than improving it.
The broader concern extends beyond email. AI browsers, White notes, threaten to turn brands into “pipes,” stripping away the relationship layer in favor of automated intermediaries. That dynamic, he argues, is already provoking legal challenges and will only intensify in the year ahead.
Related Article: Survive the AI Takeover of Search: 5 Moves Every Brand Must Make
Platform Risk and the Cost of Dependency
One of White’s most widely read 2025 articles examined the fallout from platform instability — particularly the paths taken by X and Meta. His concern is not ideological but structural: brands that invest heavily in third-party platforms risk losing both reach and credibility when those platforms shift direction.
White points to declining trust in social media influencers and brand recommendations, alongside rising skepticism toward platform content and advertising. As he explains, marketers are increasingly forced to ask whether their spend is building durable relationships or renting attention from systems they don’t control.
This platform risk, White argues, is driving a re-evaluation of budgets and priorities. While experimentation with AI optimization will continue, he believes more brands will double down on channels where identity, authentication and customer trust are clearer — particularly email.
Why Trust Is the Real Marketing Battleground
At the center of White’s analysis is trust — not as a soft metric, but as a strategic asset. AI-generated summaries, automated recommendations and loosely sourced content all raise the same question for consumers: who is really speaking?
White warns that marketers must be vigilant about whether their tactics build trust or erode it. When AI tools misrepresent messages or blur accountability, the brand pays the price. “Trust, trust, trust,” he says, framing it as the defining test for marketing decisions in the year ahead.
That emphasis explains why his work consistently resonates with CMSWire readers. White does not promise easy wins. Instead, he challenges marketers to make harder, more disciplined choices — prioritizing ownership, credibility and long-term value over short-term optimization.
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Chad S. White’s 2025 CMSWire Contributions
These articles illustrate the themes, risks and strategic choices that defined Chad S. White’s contributions to CMSWire in 2025 — from email resilience to platform trust and AI disruption.
| Article | Core Thesis | What Marketers Need to Do |
|---|---|---|
| X, Meta and the Great Social Media Meltdown | Social platforms are moving away from trust, stability and brand safety, putting long-term audience relationships at risk. | Reassess social media dependence and redirect investment toward channels that preserve control and credibility. |
| 4 Hallmarks of Today’s Best Email Marketing Strategies | Modern email success is defined by relevance, discipline and customer respect — not volume or gimmicks. | Treat email as a long-term relationship channel, with strategy rooted in trust and consistency. |
| We’ve Lost Preview Text for Email. Are Subject Lines Next? | Inbox provider AI features are eroding marketers’ control over message framing. | Adapt copy strategies for clarity and resilience as inboxes increasingly reinterpret brand messaging. |
| 4 Trends Affecting Digital Marketing This Holiday Season | Seasonal marketing is increasingly shaped by economic pressure, AI experimentation and shifting consumer trust. | Balance experimentation with proven channels and avoid overcommitting to untested tactics. |
| AI’s Impact on Digital Marketing Jobs: The Highest ROI Opportunity | AI’s greatest value lies in augmenting skilled marketers, not replacing them. | Invest in upskilling teams to use AI as a force multiplier rather than a shortcut. |
| Gmail’s Email Upgrades Are Actually a Step Backward | AI-driven inbox changes introduce confusion and risk without clear consumer benefit. | Push for clarity, authentication and trust over inbox novelty. |
| What Xmail’s Launch Could Mean for Email Marketers | New email platforms may reshape inbox expectations but won’t rewrite fundamentals. | Focus on principles — permission, relevance and trust — regardless of platform changes. |
| Survive the AI Takeover of Search: 5 Moves Every Brand Must Make | AI-powered search is accelerating zero-click behavior and disintermediation. | Reduce reliance on search by strengthening owned channels and direct relationships. |
| How Tariff Messaging Can Make or Break Brand Loyalty | Poorly handled pricing and tariff communication can permanently damage trust. | Lead with transparency and empathy when communicating cost-driven changes. |
| Which AI Path Will You Take as a Marketer? | Marketers face a strategic choice between short-term AI gains and sustainable capability building. | Choose AI investments that reinforce long-term differentiation and trust. |
| The Unsubscribe Experience Is Part of CX — Treat It That Way | How brands handle exits shapes perception long after engagement ends. | Design unsubscribe flows that respect customers and preserve brand goodwill. |
2026: The Year Marketers Will Face Tough Tradeoffs
Looking ahead, White expects marketers to face tougher tradeoffs — not just between channels, but between short-term efficiency and long-term resilience. As AI continues to reshape discovery and engagement, he believes more organizations will focus on owning their audience rather than chasing every new optimization game.
For White, the path forward is not about rejecting AI or innovation, but about using them deliberately — in ways that preserve trust, reinforce identity and keep the customer relationship intact. That steady, systems-level thinking is what continues to make his voice indispensable to CMSWire’s digital marketing coverage.
