Key Takeaways from our Event: AI in DAM - Real-World Use Cases that Deliver Today!

A Unique Venue for an Unforgettable Event!

Hosted on the iconic HMS Belfast, right on the Thames in central London, we brought together over 100 of the leading lights in DAM. After a guided our around the historic venue, the event was kicked off by CI HUB CEO and Founder Andreas Michalski, followed by a presentation from DAM Consultant Kristina Huddart, who presented insights from the 2026 State of AI in DAM & Content Operations Report. 

Kristina's report highlighted the top AI use cases delivering real value today, some of the biggest barriers organizations are still facing, how industry leaders are building AI integration strategies that actually work, and made predictions for where we are heading next.

Notable findings from her report included:

• While nearly 4 in 5 organizations are actively using AI, only half call it a success;

• The most adopted AI use cases for DAM right now are metadata tagging and workflow automation, however;
  

• Only 26% of organizations have a formal AI strategy in place.

Key Quotation

“Too many organisations are experimenting at the top of the stack while the basics remain broken at the bottom...The organisations that will win with AI in content and DAM aren’t necessarily the ones experimenting the fastest. They’re the ones disciplined enough to fix their data and governance foundations first."

For the full results, you can download the report! You can download the presentation sides here.

EF Education First: why agentic DAM starts with API-first

 
The partner presentations were kicked off by Vitor Martins, Account Executive at Scaleflex, along with Jens Köhler, Business Process Re-engineering Consultant at the international education firm EF Education First. While so called 'agentic' AI is widely discussed, actually acting on assets at scale depends on an API-first foundation, not features layered on top. This foundation is a differentiating factor for Scaleflex.

EF Education First is a clear example of this. Victor and Jens showed that in over 50 countries, their media library can find images by what they show, edit them with Gen-AI and manage usage rights in the background, all while ensuring every asset remains compliant over time. This, they argued, will be the foundation that unlocks what comes next in AI enabled DAMs.

You can download the presentation sides here.

From Experiment to Engine: Canva AI 2.0 + CI HUB Inside a Bank  

Daragh McGrath, CEO at Xanadu knew that 'AI inside Canva' was the headline everyone wanted to see. But for a regulated enterprise, AI that generates whatever it likes is a brand and compliance problem, not a solution.

In his session, he charted another path. Using a fictional retail bank, Daragh walked through 'Canva AI 2.0', doing real creative work: localised campaigns, compliant assets, and content at speed. He showed that in this operation, CI HUB sits at the core, feeding it only approved, on-brand assets straight from the DAM, then saving the finished work back. The result is AI that ships brand-safe content today, not someday!

You can view the presentation sides here.

Before the AI Works: A Siemens Reality Check on Data, Integration, and What Nobody Puts in the Brochure 

While much of AI talk is of vision and high-flying possibilities, Sharedien CEO GTM  Simon Putzer took the stage with the aim of bringing things firmly down to earth. In an honest conversation with Sofia Simões, an IT Lead with engineering giant Siemens, the pair focused on how the multinational was actually implementing AI at global scale, across a complex landscape of systems, markets, and user groups.

Key takeaways included the vital importance of data quality as the foundational work that decides everything, and what could happen when it is underestimated.

You can download the presentation sides here.

The AI Co-Admin: Using AI Inside, Outside, and Alongside Your DAM 

In his session, Acquia VP of Sales & GTM Jake Athey drew upon real-world use cases to walk through three ways AI creates value for content operations professionals today.

Those three ways are: 1) the capabilities already embedded inside your DAM; 20 the jobs you can get done outside your DAM using the CRIT framework to direct any LLM on governance audits, metadata design, and ROI storytelling; and 3) the emerging integration layer working alongside your DAM with the MCP Server that bridges your asset data to AI-powered workflows, and what the arrival of AI Agents means for the role in the near term.

Key Quotation:

“AI on bad data is just faster failure. Governance isn't a blocker on AI adoption — it's what makes it work.”

Download the presentation slides here! 

Embedded Content Governance: The Counterintuitive Unlock to Enterprise AI Adoption and Enabling Everyone to be a Content Creator for You.  

Jaime Punishill, CPO at Lytho opened his session with a stark but timely reminder: Generative AI can only ever be as good - and as safe - as the content used to train it, tune it, and guide it. In his view, the key to harnessing the power of AI is being able to control it, everywhere, at all times, but unobtrusively to its users.

Punishill argued that learning how an AI powered content supply chain, AI governance layer, and AI content guardians provide the controls that unlock freedom for all your employees, distributors and partners to  embrace, unleash, and succeed with generative AI.

Key Quotation:

“Governance isn’t a tax on creativity and speed, it’s the accelerant that makes AI automation possible and safe. Fix the risk and compliance layer first, and you unlock wave 2 and wave 3 of genuinely transformative capability.”

You can download the presentation sides here.

How Grounded AI Delivers the Better Outcomes

In the final session of the day, CI HUB CPO Fabian Frei highlighted different ways that companies can get the most out from their DAM systems and AI by connecting them with CI HUB AI Connector to give AI grounding and context.

Key Quotation:

"What organizations are underestimating is that each AI in each tool is a different AI; from a different provider and with different context. That means it may not react predictably with their context. So, the challenge is, how can organizations get their AI into every tool."

All Aboard! Some Highlights from HMS Belfast