David
Zagury.
Where AI meets
media strategy.
The most exciting part of marketing right now is figuring out how to make AI actually work for us. I use this space to share what I'm learning about turning AI theory into real-world practice.
— David Zagury
Weekly Newsletter
The AI Enablement Brief
No hype. No fluff. Just what's working, what's not, and what it means for the people actually doing the work in media and marketing.
Weekly · Substack · Free
Bridging the gap between media strategy and AI execution.
I've spent 14+ years in digital media — from search analyst to agency lead to directing paid media across global brands at NP Digital. The throughline has always been the same: figure out what works, then build a system to do it faster.
Today that means AI. I'm focused on how AI actually changes the day-to-day work of media and marketing teams — not the hype, but the workflows, the tooling, the decisions that used to take hours and now take minutes. I've led AI adoption sessions, built tools teams actually use, and helped organizations move from “we've heard of ChatGPT” to “AI is embedded in how we work.”
I write about this every week in The AI Enablement Brief and build tools like MediaPlan.ca to put that thinking into practice. I also sit on the Canadian Marketing Association's media council, leading sessions on AI adoption. When I'm not deep in campaign strategy, you'll find me at CrossFit, chasing after my two kids, or explaining AI agents to a room of CMOs.
What I build.
Tools I've created to solve real problems — starting with the ones I felt most acutely myself.
Free Guides
Practical guides for AI in marketing.
Four stages from Aware to Compounding. Diagnose where your team is now and find the single move that gets you to the next one — the natural entry point to everything else here.
A four-stage operating cycle (Briefing → Planning → Operating → Reviewing) for paid media teams running with AI.
Four-stage cycle (Connecting → Analyzing → Narrating → Deciding) plus the dual-mode reporting surface: scheduled reports + conversational analytics.
A three-layer framework — Reclaim, Multiply, Compound — for measuring and defending AI marketing ROI, with the one-page report your CFO will accept.
SR&ED, NRC IRAP, Mitacs, Scale AI, ESSOR — how to find and access the money available for AI projects in Canada.
§ Data
Living data on AI adoption and AI models.
Every number sourced. Nothing modeled or fabricated.
§ Speaking
Book David to speak.
Keynotes, workshops, and panels on the intersection of AI and marketing — how teams do more with less.
Recent: SocialWest · Corporate keynotes · Futurpreneur
Career.
14+ years building and leading digital media teams across agencies, brands, and my own ventures.
