Influential Women launches masterclass on empathy and AI in marketing

Influential Women has launched a masterclass featuring Branch & Bramble founder and CEO Emily Lyman on how empathy and behavioral science can help brands build trust in an AI-driven marketing landscape. The session focuses on using AI for insight and scale without losing the human connection that drives customer loyalty.

Why it matters: - AI can speed up content creation and automate marketing tasks, but it also makes it harder for brands to stand out. - The masterclass argues that emotional connection, not more content, is what helps brands earn trust and long-term loyalty. - The session is aimed at marketers trying to balance automation with authenticity as AI becomes more common in business operations.

What happened: - Influential Women launched Empathy: Your Marketing Edge in an AI-Accelerated World, a masterclass featuring Emily Lyman, founder and CEO of Branch & Bramble. - The program centers on how empathy and behavioral science can improve marketing in an AI-accelerated environment. - Influential Women says the series is part of its broader effort to give women leaders, founders and experts a platform to teach from their own experience.

The details: - The masterclass presents a framework for weaving empathy into each stage of the marketing process. - Participants are guided to look beyond demographics and standard analytics to identify emotional motivations behind customer decisions. - Lyman shows how AI can be used to spot patterns and generate insights while people handle creative and relationship-building work. - The session says marketers should use the Customer Empathy Scorecard to evaluate content. - Participants are expected to learn why empathy is a competitive advantage, how emotions and values shape decisions, and how to identify emotional drivers behind customer behavior. - The curriculum also covers a five-step framework for empathetic marketing strategies and ways to use AI without sacrificing authenticity. - Influential Women describes itself as a media platform focused on women leaders, founders and experts through masterclasses, podcasts, editorial features and thought leadership content. - The company invites viewers to explore additional masterclasses through Influential Women Masterclasses. - Emily Lyman’s LinkedIn profile is available here, and Branch & Bramble’s website is here.

Between the lines: - The message reflects a larger shift in marketing: AI is increasingly useful for efficiency, but brands still need human judgment to create relevance. - The masterclass positions empathy as a practical business skill, not just a soft value. - That framing suggests marketers may need to treat emotional insight as a measurable input alongside data and automation.

What's next: - Businesses adopting more AI tools will likely face greater pressure to prove their marketing still feels personal and credible. - The masterclass points to a future where marketers combine behavioral science, AI analysis and human creativity to improve performance. - Influential Women is expected to continue using masterclasses and related content to expand its platform for women experts.