build smarter marketing systems
Follow along with weekly annotations
The thesis
Marketing is being rebuilt as a system that needs design.
AI didn't add a layer to marketing. It's rebuilding the system underneath it. Strategy, team, tools, and workflows used to be separate decisions; now they shape each other, and AI accelerates every weak point between them. Faster isn't better — it just scales whatever you already had. Good strategy scales beautifully. Bad strategy scales — and compounds. Most teams are bolting Claude onto a stack that was never designed for it.
Inference is an independent marketing studio for that rebuild, at the intersection of strategy and systems. Craft and speed, combined with pattern matching you can't prompt for. We help companies build marketing systems that are worth scaling — positioning, growth architecture, operational infrastructure — so when AI accelerates everything, it's accelerating something good.
Built on 20 years of building marketing engines at some of Europe's fastest-growing startups — SoundCloud, Grover, Pitch, Prolific. Now collaborating with teams rebuilding their strategy and GTM into systems that hold up to what's coming next.
Thom Cummings
Founder, Inference
The publication
annotations
Weekly guides, tool breakdowns, and field notes from the frontline of implementing smarter marketing systems.
Read →- Weekly writing on AI-native marketing in practice
- Guides and tool breakdowns you can actually use
- Paid subscribers unlock the Blueprints library
The products
blueprints
Standalone marketing systems that rebuild each layer of an AI-native stack. Use them one at a time, or combine them into a full system.
Browse →- Real, working systems — not templates or playbooks
- Multi-layered workflows tested in live environments
- Buy individually, or subscribe on Substack for the full suite
The consulting
collaborations
For when your marketing ambitions have outgrown what's underneath them. Hands-on engagements that install the system that rebuilds your marketing.
Work together →- Strategic Marketing Partner — senior thinking, in the work with you
- Fractional CMO — embedded marketing leadership without the full-time hire
- Systems Build — install your marketing system for brand, growth, agent teams
The framework
system map
Inference's framework for mapping marketing activities — strategy, research, campaigns, measurement, technology and expertise — into one self-learning, agentic growth system.
Explore the map →- An interactive map of how the whole system connects
- See where AI accelerates — and where it compounds weak points
- Run the diagnostic to pinpoint your weakest layer
ergo
A marketing advisor in your Slack. Inference's frameworks pressure-testing your plans, monitoring strategic drift, and steering the calls that matter — with a human on the hard ones.
Meet Ergo →- Judgement, not agreement — it pushes back when you’re wrong
- A direct line to a human on the calls that matter
- A living brain, trained on your context
Trusted by
let's talk.
We'll dig into where your marketing stands, where the gaps are, and how Inference can help.