ANA Calls on Marketing Industry to "Push Pause & Power Up" for the AI Future

September 17 Global Day of Learning will bring together marketing leaders from General Motors, Mastercard, LEGO, Duolingo, SAS, and others for practical training on AI agents, synthetic audiences, measurement and the future of marketing work

Key Takeaways

• The ANA Global Day of Learning returns September 17, 2026, bringing marketers together for a full day focused on The Future of Marketing Work and the skills needed as AI reshapes the profession.
• Leaders and experts from General Motors, Mastercard, The LEGO Group, Duolingo, SAS, eos Products, and others will address AI, changing consumer behavior, and new ways of working.
• The program includes training in AI agents and custom GPTs, synthetic audiences, cross-media measurement, co-creation, and future-proofing marketer relevance.

NEW YORK, Aug. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As artificial intelligence rapidly changes how marketing work gets done, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is calling on the industry to put down the day-to-day work for one day and focus on building the skills marketers will need next.

On Thursday, September 17, 2026, the ANA will host its annual Global Day of Learning, a full day of live master classes, workshops, and conversations built around this year's theme, "The Future of Marketing Work."

The initiative is driven by the ANA Global CMO Growth Council and organized around priorities identified by marketing leaders from around the world.

"AI isn't simply giving marketers another set of tools. It's forcing us to reconsider what skills matter, where human judgment creates the most value, and how the marketing organization itself needs to evolve," said Nick Primola, Group Executive Vice President at the ANA and leader of the Global CMO Growth Council. "Global Day of Learning is our opportunity to collectively push pause on the work immediately in front of us and power up for what's coming next. The goal isn't to predict the future of marketing. It's to give marketers practical ways to prepare for it."

Why is the ANA asking marketers to "push pause"?

Global Day of Learning is built around what the ANA calls "PTO — Personal Time ON": dedicated time to step away from immediate deadlines and focus on learning and skill-building.

This year's "Push Pause and Power Up" call to action reflects the ANA's belief that keeping pace with AI and other industry changes requires marketers to invest in their own capabilities, not just new technology.

Who is speaking at the 2026 ANA Global Day of Learning?

Featured speakers and sessions include:

• Raja Rajamannar, former Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mastercard, on the emerging era of "Quantum Marketing."
• Shenan Reed, Global Chief Media Officer at General Motors, on the future of cross-media measurement as audiences and media investment fragment across platforms and AI-driven channels.
• Julia Goldin, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at The LEGO Group.
• Rahul Chopra, Vice President at Duolingo, and Eric Fulwiler, Co-Founder and CEO of Rival, on building challenger brands at scale.
• Jennifer Chase, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President at SAS, on AI, technology, and B2B brand growth.
• Soyoung Kang, President of eos Products, and creator and entrepreneur Funmi Monet, on the evolution of creator marketing from transactional endorsements toward deeper brand-creator co-creation.
• Rishad Tobaccowala, Co-Founder of The Athena Project, on future-proofing marketer relevance.

The program will also include hands-on AI training from Cord Silverstein, CEO of IntegrateAI, who will teach participants to build and deploy Custom GPTs and AI agents using ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini.

What is the ANA Global Day of Learning?
The ANA Global Day of Learning is an annual industry-wide initiative designed to give marketing professionals dedicated time for education, professional development, and skills-building.

Over the past three years, more than 20,000 marketing professionals and students from more than 100 countries have participated, learning from senior marketers and subject matter experts from across the industry.

The program is a cornerstone of the ANA's investment in developing the marketing profession and is aligned with the ANA Industry Growth Agenda and the priorities identified by the ANA Global CMO Growth Council.

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SOURCE Association of National Advertisers