I connect people, brands and machines

Strategic Communication AI Transformation

Stefan on thisAI voice clone of Stefan

I have worked with people, brands and machines for more than 20 years. Today my focus is on two topics that belong together, even if at first glance they seem to have little to do with each other: strategic communication and AI transformation. Both topics keep me busy. And I believe — and I know: brands today need both. A clear voice, and a clear understanding of what artificial intelligence does to their communication. To the brand. To the people who work for the brand. And to the people the brand wants to reach.

I'm Stefan Margenfeld

Line drawing portrait of Stefan Margenfeld

Stefan on thisAI voice clone of Stefan

I'm Stefan Margenfeld. People, brands and machines have actually been part of my whole life. For as long as I can remember, my life has revolved around machines in one way or another. As a kid I was given an old cassette recorder — it had a broken record button. I did what probably every other kid did back then, at the end of the eighties: I recorded things. There was the TV series ALF — an alien lands on planet Earth and moves in with a family, long story, in case you don't know it — and it bothered me that the theme song had no lyrics. So at the end of the eighties I simply wrote some lyrics and sang the theme tune into the old cassette recorder. It went something like this: "Alf, du wohnst in den Sternen…" ("Alf, you live among the stars…") — well, I'll spare you the singing now, but that's how it started. The Commodore 64 connected me to machines, too, because we had one. Especially when it was raining outside, I spent entire epic afternoons with my sister and old Data Becker books (German computer manuals of the time). We typed in BASIC code and kept wondering why it didn't work. Did we make a copying mistake? Did we type something wrong? That's where I learned what iteration means. And when I think about it, these two little stories already hold much of what was to come later: voice. Stories. Machines. And the need to move something with my own voice. I think even back then I sensed that a voice is more than sound. A voice is a way of going into resonance. With people. With topics. And sometimes with machines, too. It has never let go of me since.

For 46 years I have been asking one question

What future
do we want
to build together?

Line drawing triptych: a boy at a computer, a radio host, a man at a whiteboard

Stefan on thisAI voice clone of Stefan

Here we see three stations. The boy at the computer — that was me, long before I knew it would one day become an essential part of my work. The host at the microphone — more than 20 years of radio, voice, stories. And then the man at the whiteboard: brands, org charts, strategies, AI programs. At first glance, these are three very different rooms, three very different tools. But the question that runs through all three has always stayed the same: What future do we actually want to build? Today we ask that question in a new light. Artificial intelligence is here. It is changing how we communicate, how brands sound, how brands can be built, how decisions are made — and how fatal it is when we cannot make consistent decisions. And it throws us back to an old question that has nothing to do with technology: What should remain human? Where do we let the machines in? And where can the machines not help us at all? These are not technical questions. They are strategic ones — and in the end, cultural ones too. I don't believe anyone can answer these questions on their own. We have to build this future together, or it will be built for us.

I have looked everywhere

On television. On the radio. In recording studios. In companies. In code and bots and academies.

Along the way I learned something important.

The future lies
in connection

Line drawing: three trees whose root networks connect

Of people, brands
and machines

Line drawing diptych: a Stone Age scene with jewelry and fire, next to a modern scene with a drink and a smartphone

Stefan on thisAI voice clone of Stefan

Let's look at this picture. On the left: the Stone Age. A woman wearing jewelry she made herself. A brand, you could say — long before the word existed. With it she signaled a form of status. Next to her, a man by the fire, and with him the oldest tool we know: something between a hammer and a hand axe. On the right: today. A man with a bottle, the logo of a global brand. Next to him, a younger man with a smartphone — for many, the most powerful tool we have today. About 30,000 years lie between these two pictures. What has changed is obvious. What has stayed the same, we often overlook. What has stayed is this: people want to belong. They want to show themselves. They want to be understood. Brands try to give answers to that. And machines — from the hammer or hand axe to the language model — are the tools people use to shape their world. It is in both pictures. Human. Brand. Machine. It is not new. It is just different every time. If you want to seriously change one of these three levels — communicate strategically, introduce AI in a meaningful way, ask meaningful questions — then you need a human conversation.

Let's talk.

I'm interested in an exchange of ideas — on strategic communication, on AI transformation, on everything in between.

Or directly:

stefan@margenfeld.com

I connect people, brands and machines

I'm Stefan Margenfeld

For 46 years I have been asking one question

What future do we want to build together?

I have looked everywhere

On television. On the radio. In recording studios. In companies. In code and bots and academies.

Along the way I learned something important.

The future lies in connection

Of people, brands and machines

Let's talk.

What future
do we want
to build together?

The future lies
in connection

Of people, brands
and machines