Speak WITH Customers, Not AT Them: Intentful’s Generative Response Ads and Two-Way Brand Intelligence Layer

Most advertising and brand messages still follow the same pattern: they broadcast, people listen (or they don’t). But that’s not how we humans engage today. We want to ask questions. We expect immediate answers, all in context, in the moment, clear, happening here and now.

That’s where Intentful comes in.

Intentful introduces a new approach to brand communication, one where customers don’t just receive messages, they can engage in actual conversations. Whether it’s an ad that can answer questions on the spot or a product page that responds like a knowledgeable brand expert, Intentful’s technology helps brands speak with people, not at them. 

This article explains how it all works, why it matters, and what it means for the future of marketing communications and advertising.

Intentful: Key Facts

• Founded in 2021, headquartered in New York City, and operating globally.
  
  
• Core technology: a brand-aware intelligence layer that embeds brand and product knowledge and brand personality. It then enables real-time, brand-consistent communication across ads, websites, commerce, and activation environments, powered by the Brand AI Agent.
  
  
• Intentful products:
  
  
  • Generative Response Ads (GRAs): A type of an ad unit that allows consumers to ask questions and receive real-time, brand-specific answers, right within an ad space. It integrates into existing ad inventory (patent pending).
    
    
  • AI Assistants: Embedded across websites, apps, physical locations, and more, these assistants answer questions applying each brand’s voice, tone, and factual content.
    
    
  • Industry Solutions: Modular configurations tailored for Brands, Tourism and Travel (DMO) and Publishers.
• Customers: Works with leading companies in travel and tourism, CPG, telco, and the performing arts. Industry agnostic. Trusted by brands including Travel Oregon, Visit Pasadena, Florida’s Historic Coast, Rakuten Viber, and The Shubert Organization.

• Recognized for thought leadership by the World Federation of Advertisers, Oxford University, and other organizations across the globe.
  
  
• Partners with agencies, DSPs, and adtech platforms to deliver two-way brand communication at scale.

Brand-Aware AI, Built For Real-Time Engagement

Since its inception in 2021, Intentful has focused on developing custom, brand-aware artificial intelligence. These Brand AI Agents act as intelligent systems representing a brand’s voice, knowledge, and tone, across ads, websites, product pages, and even physical touchpoints like shops. While generic AI lacks brand context, Intentful’s technology is designed to understand and express each brand’s unique identity and product facts.

Intentful’s vision is to transform the architecture of advertising and marketing communications by replacing one-way broadcasts with two-way interactions, where customers engage directly and brands respond in real time. The company’s purpose is to connect brands and real people, not assumed personas or audience segments, through conversations grounded in real moments, real understanding, and real impact.

Intentful Products

Intentful offers a suite of modular, AI-powered products designed to enable real-time interaction between brands and consumers in multiple touchpoints, be it advertising, websites, commerce, or activation.

At the heart of every Intentful product is a Brand AI Agent which ingests brand-specific knowledge, tone, and messaging to deliver context-aware, brand-consistent responses across the above touchpoints.

Generative Response Ads (GRAs) is a recently launched ad unit format that makes it possible for consumers to literally speak with ads: ask questions and receive real-time answers, directly within the ad space. Imagine seeing an ad, and instead of clicking to get to a company website and search for information, you can ask an ad a question, and it will respond to you. “Is this sweater available in blue?” or “How long until I see results with this face serum?”

These conversational ads are designed to work within standard ad formats and channels, making them easy to integrate into existing media plans and ad serving platforms.

Formats: Display Banner Ads, TV and Connected TV (CTV), Video, Out-of-Home (OOH and DOOH).

Channels: Programmatic, Retail Media Networks, direct-sold publisher inventory.

Most ads don’t talk: They broadcast. They push a message out, hoping for a click, a view, or a reaction. But that’s not how people behave when they’re curious. They ask. And now, for the first time, advertising can answer.

Generative Response Ads (GRAs) are designed around this simple human truth: conversation is how we people explore. From trade routes to search bars, questions have always been the interface. With a GRA, someone can ask a question, “Is this product gluten-free?” or “Do you ship to Canada?” or “Does it come in black?” and get a real-time, brand-consistent response immediately right inside the ad. No landing pages. No multiple steps to engagement. No delay.

Who will talk to ads and why? Consumers today are already asking questions out loud to Siri, ChatGPT, Perplexity, typing them into search, and chatting with AI assistants. GRAs meet people in that same behavioral space, but within the ad itself, allowing engagement to happen before the click to a landing page, not after. The result is a more intuitive and less disruptive form of advertising that mirrors how people explore, decide, and buy.

Every Generative Response Ad is powered by a Brand Agent that knows the brand’s own voice, facts, and style. This allows responses to be accurate, helpful, and on-brand, no matter the question. And if a user gets creative and asks a question that AI cannot answer, it will say “I don’t know” and will not be making up the response. This is more than a chatbot-in-a-banner. It’s real-time conversation, tailored to a brand’s identity and optimized for an in-ad interaction.

That shift, from speaking at someone to speaking with delivers value both to marketers and consumers. For marketers, it is the ability to truly connect with every customer, one-on-one and at scale, and being present during the moment of intent. For consumers, it is getting the answers exactly when they need them. Once an ad becomes a conversation, it stops acting like an ad and starts acting like the brand itself.

Qualitative Insights from Generative Response Ads

Generative Response Ads don’t just deliver engagement, they reveal intent. GRAs surface unscripted, in-the-moment signals that traditional research tools often miss. These real conversations, captured anonymously, offer a unique view into what customers truly want to know while they’re exploring or deciding.

• Unscripted
• Honest
• Specific
• Scalable

Unlike surveys or focus groups, this qualitative data is live, contextual, and directly tied to the brand experience. It opens the door to deeper understanding and faster iteration, giving marketers visibility into the questions that drive interest, conversion, and loyalty.

All interactions are captured anonymously and without personal identifiers. The value comes not from who asked the question, but from what was asked, providing brands with actionable insight while fully respecting user privacy.

Intentful’s AI Assistant

Intentful’s AI Assistants enable brands to deliver real-time, conversational experiences across digital and physical environments. Visitors can ask questions and receive instant, on-brand answers, whether they’re on a product page, scanning a QR code at a physical location, or exploring content on a mobile app.

• Unlike generic chatbots that rely on scripts or basic logic trees, Intentful’s AI Assistants are powered by a Brand AI Agent, a structured intelligence layer that knows the brand’s voice, facts, tone, and content.
• Whether answering product questions, guiding exploration, or enhancing on-site experience, Intentful’s Assistants help brands engage customers through conversation.

• Organization or Brand websites
• Product detail pages (PDPs)
• QR code activations
• Mobile apps
• In-location screens or tablets
• Kiosks or signage in physical environments

While typical chatbots handle wide-ranging queries, Intentful’s AI Assistants are purpose-built around brand-specific content and context. They are specifically designed to represent and reflect each brand’s or organization’s unique identity.

Intentful’s AI Assistants are built to engage users beyond customer support scenarios. They actively support exploration, decision-making, and meaningful interaction across various channels, including websites, mobile apps, retail environments, and physical activations. In other words, these AI Assistants aren’t simply conversational; they’re brand conversational, turning every interaction into a reflection of your brand’s character and knowledge.

Like Generative Response Ads, Intentful’s AI Assistants capture anonymized, qualitative data about user intent and interest. Every interaction provides insight into what customers genuinely want to understand or explore, revealing opportunities to improve products, content, and engagement strategies.

Intentful collects no personally identifiable information, ensuring insights remain valuable without compromising user trust or privacy.

It may look like a chatbot on the surface, but it’s designed to do so much more: It’s the intelligence behind your brand’s voice, deployed conversationally.

• It fits in the chatbot category, but it thinks like a brand.
• It is built for real-time interaction.
• Think chatbot, but now imagine it knows your brand and company better than most of your team.
• It’s a responsive system for real-time engagement. Think of it as your brand’s voice, made interactive.
• It’s not a chatbot with a script; it’s your brand, capable of answering with context.

Just like with the Generative Response Ads, the conversations in the AI Assistant are powered by the AI agent that knows the organization and its products and understands how to speak, represent a brand, and stay consistent across every interaction and touchpoint.

While typical chatbots rely on scripts, decision trees, or generic language models, Intentful’s AI Agent:

• Has brand voice, tone, and facts.
• Built for scale across ads, websites, product pages, and commerce, not just support channels.
• Modular and easily embeddable, without UI bloat or the need for custom development.
• Chatbots mostly solve for customer service. Intentful solves for brand responsiveness – at speed, scale, and in the moments that matter most.

What Makes Intentful Different

Intentful is not a chatbot company, not a SaaS dashboard, and not an ad agency. Our core product is a plug-in intelligence system for two-way brand interaction designed for easy integration with minimal lift from agency or client-side teams.

Intentful represents a new category in advertising and communications infrastructure. Just as:

• HubSpot redefined CRM for marketers,
• Twilio enabled developers to build messaging without telecom complexity,
• Snowflake made data warehousing accessible and scalable,
• Intentful powers two-way brand communication within ads, websites, and commerce touchpoints.

The foundation of our system is a brand-aware AI that knows how to represent a company across customer interactions. Unlike generic AI systems that generate one-size-fits-all responses, Intentful’s technology reflects each brand’s unique tone, facts, and style. It is built to handle scale, nuance, and the complexities of real-time engagement.

Unlike agencies, Intentful does not create campaigns or brand strategy. Instead, it enables those ideas to become engaging and responsive wherever audiences encounter them. We partner with agencies to support their work for clients to enter a future where brand communication is responsive by default.

Intentful Products and Solutions: Modular Integration and Applications by Industry

Intentful’s solutions are modular by design. Each product, such as Generative Response Ads (GRA) or AI Assistants, can operate independently or be combined into customized bundles designed specifically for various verticals and use cases.

This modular structure allows brands and organizations to select precisely the capabilities they need. Whether activating real-time ad interaction, enhancing website experiences, or creating unified multi-channel engagement, Intentful provides targeted packages ready to integrate seamlessly.

Clients only interact with modules relevant to their specific objectives. Intentful fully manages the underlying Brand AI Agent and related systems, eliminating the need for clients to build, maintain, or manage their own AI infrastructure.

• For Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), Convention Visitor Bureaus (CVBs), and Travel, Intentful offers an AI Suite that combines AI Assistants, Generative Response Ads (GRA), and a Content Platform.
  
  
• For museums, there is a “Speak with an Exhibit” program that transforms visitor experiences from “do not touch” to “just ask,” enabling people to have real-time conversations directly with exhibits. Visitors can ask questions and instantly receive engaging, informative answers in the museum’s own voice, bringing stories and knowledge to life through conversational AI Assistants.

• For Publishers and Platforms, Intentful provides a new type of ad unit, Generative Response Ads (GRA), creating additional monetization opportunities with this interactive, real-time ad inventory.
  
  
• For SSPs and DSPs, Generative Response Ads (GRA) introduce a new conversational ad inventory category that can enhance engagement and unlock additional placement value.
  
  
• Retail and Retail Media can benefit from interactive, real-time conversational tools that enhance customer experience and purchase decisions:
  
  
  • Retail Media: Generative Response Ads (GRA) enable shoppers to interact directly with digital ads by asking product questions and receiving immediate, accurate answers within the ad itself.
    
    
  • Product Detail Pages (PDPs): Intentful provides AI Assistants that answer shopper questions, assist product exploration, and guide purchase decisions with real-time product-specific knowledge.
    
    
  • In-Store: Intentful can deliver AI Assistants embedded in kiosks or displays, allowing customers to easily access product information, availability, comparisons, and guidance right at the point of sale.

• For Agencies, Intentful provides Generative Response Ads (GRA), AI Assistants, and broader Two-Way Marketing solutions. These enable agencies to extend their strategic and creative expertise with a powerful, real-time interaction system, turning their ideas into dynamic, conversational brand experiences.
  
  
• For Brands, Intentful offers two distinct collaboration tracks: one focused on deploying conversational brand tools such as Generative Response Ads and AI Assistants, and the other is building a strategic internal AI roadmap. We are incredibly good at helping brands step into the future, as we’ve been working with AI for marketing use since 2021. For the AI roadmap projects, Intentful helps brands align internal teams, vendors, and agencies around practical, on-brand AI integration, providing clear guidance on navigating governance and commercial guardrails, without slowing down momentum or innovation.
  
  
• With Associations, Intentful collaborates strategically on initiatives around AI in marketing communications, serving as an educational partner to help navigate industry transitions through hands-on expertise, practical insights, and proven best practices.

To discuss pricing and identify the right solution for your organization, please contact Intentful directly at hello@intentful.ai.

Organizations and industries working with Intentful

Intentful works with a wide range of innovative organizations across multiple sectors, currently supporting organizations across travel and tourism, performing arts, CPG, telecommunications, and agencies (including adtech), and is expanding globally.

Intentful solutions are already deployed with leading destination marketing organizations, including Travel Oregon, Visit Pasadena, and Florida’s Historic Coast, as well as notable enterprises like the Shubert Organization (Broadway Inbound and the Broadway Collection) and Rakuten Viber. In collaboration with GMS and AdSpark, Intentful launched Generative Response Ads (GRA) for Globe, one of the largest telcos in the Philippines.

Intentful is recognized as a trusted voice in AI innovation, with insights shared at leading organizations and institutions worldwide, including the World Federation of Advertisers and Oxford University. Notably, Intentful created “Ritbot,” the AI alter ego of marketing icon Mark Ritson, for WFA’s Global Marketer Week. Ritbot appeared as a panelist alongside L’Oréal, PepsiCo, and Adweek leaders.

Intentful works with numerous Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), including Visit Lodi, Hello Burlington, Travel Santa Ana, Visit Skagit Valley, and many others. Some DMO customer names using Intentful solutions can be found on intentful.ai/for-dmos, but please contact us directly at hello@intentful.ai for the most recent information and examples relevant to your company.

Intentful’s AI Assistants have delivered significant engagement results for DMOs. For example, Travel Oregon presented at eTourism Summit in April 2025 that the engagement rate for visitors who ask the AI Assistant a question is 98%, significantly higher than the site's average of 51%. These users also spend an additional 2 minutes and 45 seconds on the site and view 52% more pages per session. 

See Intentful tech live on the Travel Oregon website (“Ask me about Oregon”)

Onboarding Intentful products

Depending on complexity and scale, the process takes just a few days or weeks. No complex integrations into other systems are required. Intentful fully manages technical infrastructure and ongoing optimization, while clients are primarily responsible for providing brand content, reviewing, and approving the Brand Agent before it goes live. Intentful’s team ensures minimal client lift, providing clear guidance at every step for a seamless onboarding experience. Implementation involves identifying your brand’s needs, ingesting brand-specific information and knowledge, and configuring your Brand AI Agent. Once the Brand AI Agent is live, Intentful monitors performance and provides regular reports to ensure transparency and ongoing optimization.

Compliance, Data Privacy, and Anonymization

Intentful is fully committed to compliance and responsible AI practices. The company’s solutions comply with applicable data privacy and protection regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ensuring robust standards for user privacy and data security. All user interactions are anonymized, and no personally identifiable information (PII) is collected or stored, ensuring user privacy and compliance at every stage.

Third-Party LLM Transparency (LLM-Agnostic Approach)

Intentful’s proprietary intelligence layer works on top of a Large Language Model (LLM). We maintain a fully transparent and LLM-agnostic approach and do not depend on any single third-party, and instead select and integrate foundational models based on best fit, performance, privacy, and compliance standards. Intentful openly communicates model usage and limitations, providing clarity and confidence in how third-party technologies are integrated and managed.

Intentful Contact and Support Information

General Inquiries hello@intentful.ai

Partnerships and Business Development hello@intentful.ai

Press and Speaking Engagements hello@intentful.ai

Support for Existing Clients support@intentful.ai

Learn More by Sector:

DMOs and Travel Brands: intentful.ai/for-dmos
Publishers: intentful.ai/for-publishers
Brands: intentful.ai/for-brands

Meet the Intentful Team

Leadership:

Marina Petrova, CEO and Co-Founder, Intentful

Marina Petrova is the Co-Founder and CEO of Intentful, the company behind two-way brand communication. Under her leadership, Intentful created Generative Response Ads, Brand AI Agents, and a suite of intelligent solutions that enable brands to speak with customers in real time – across ads, websites, commerce, and more.

With over 25 years of experience across digital, creative, and media, Marina has worked with clients in more than 50 countries. She is widely recognized for her ability to connect technological innovation with human insight, making AI both practical and on-brand.

Marina is a frequent speaker on the practical use of AI, with talks delivered at the World Federation of Advertisers, Oxford University, Singularity University, Columbia University Startup Lab, Mobile World Congress, ProcureCon and more.

Known for challenging the status quo and anticipating the industry's future, Marina is focused on building tools that help forward-thinking organizations stay relevant and thrive in an AI-driven world.

Bruce Amick, COO and Co-Founder, Intentful

Bruce Amick is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Intentful. With a career spanning media, technology, and finance, Bruce brings a rare combination of operational depth, creative vision, and commercial insight to the company’s mission of transforming the architecture of marketing communications from speaking AT customers to speaking WITH them.

Before real-time, two-way brand interaction was even part of the industry conversation, Bruce recognized that understanding customer intent would be fundamental to the future of communication. He came up with the name “Intentful” to reflect that belief, years ahead of the market’s focus on AI-driven engagement. His ideas often anticipate where the market is going long before others catch on, blending technological insight with a deep understanding of human behavior, storytelling, and the needs of modern organizations.

Prior to co-founding Intentful, Bruce held leadership roles at Broadway.com, The Shubert Organization, and BBVA, where he focused on introducing innovation through technology, scaling platforms, and managing complex operational ecosystems.

Known for connecting the big picture to operational detail, Bruce ensures that Intentful’s innovation is both visionary and grounded in the structure and realities of scale.

Alexander Scherban, CTO and Co-Founder, Intentful

Alex is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Intentful, where he leads the engineering of the company’s products. With over 30 years of experience in software development and technical leadership, Alex has built solutions for some of the world’s most recognized brands across technology, entertainment, travel, and consumer goods.

His portfolio includes work for GM, HP, LG, Disney, Coca-Cola, Air France-KLM, Sanofi, ING, Unilever, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among many others. Known for his precision, speed, and calm under pressure, Alex brings deep fluency in multiple programming languages and database environments, including Ruby, Perl, Python, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and MS SQL.

At Intentful, Alex is the architect behind the Intentful Knowledge Engine, the core system that powers real-time interaction across all of the company’s products, including Generative Response Ads and AI Assistants. He has been instrumental in creating the foundation that allows it to scale without compromising quality or performance.

Deeply focused, Alex prefers to stay behind the scenes, letting the technology and results speak for themselves. His collaboration with CEO Marina Petrova spans over two decades, marked by a shared vision and complementary strengths that continue to shape Intentful’s innovation.

The company is proudly global, both in mindset and presence, with team members based across the United States, Europe, and beyond. Intentful maintains a strong development presence in Ukraine and remains deeply committed to supporting the country and its talent. Business continuity is firmly in place, built on a distributed model that ensures collaboration and momentum no matter the circumstances.

Intentful provides the infrastructure for a future where brand communication is not only intelligent and real-time, but truly responsive to how people explore, decide, and connect.