I am a Belgium-born Fractional CMO, AI Visibility Strategist and author of The Future CMO. Based in Sintra, near Lisbon, I advise founders and executive teams on marketing leadership, brand positioning and visibility in AI-driven markets.
I help companies become discoverable, accurately represented and recommended by both customers and the AI systems that increasingly mediate them: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google's generative search.
The best update I have read on the role and work of CMOs. A must-read for leaders ready to embrace financial accountability.
Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management
I operate at the intersection of marketing strategy and AI-driven discovery. As a Fractional CMO, I work with founders and leadership teams to build marketing functions that scale. As an AI Visibility Strategist, I ensure brands are recognized, cited and recommended by large language models.
My work is selective rather than scaled. My clients are typically founder-led companies, scale-ups and executive teams navigating a strategic transition into AI-mediated markets.
The way customers find, evaluate and choose brands is being rewritten. Search is no longer a list of links. It is an answer, generated in real time by a language model that decides which companies are worth mentioning.
The brands that win the next decade will not be the loudest. They will be the most clearly defined, the most consistently positioned and the most legible to both human readers and machine reasoning. Marketing leadership is shifting from campaigns and channels to clarity, authority and structured presence across the systems that now mediate discovery.
Most marketers are still optimizing for reach. This talk is about what they should optimize for instead.
Great insights and very professional delivery.
Mark Schaefer, bestselling author of Marketing Rebellion, Known and Belonging to the Brand
I speak internationally on the future of marketing leadership, AI visibility and what it takes for brands to stay legible in AI-mediated markets.
Author of The Future CMO, a book on marketing leadership in the age of artificial intelligence. The book carries an endorsement from Philip Kotler, widely regarded as the founding figure of modern marketing.
View on AmazonHost of Web3 CMO Stories, the podcast for marketing leaders and founders building in the next web, where blockchain, AI and immersive technology meet. More than 300 episodes, ranked in the top 5% globally, with guests including Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris Do. Nominated by the jury in three categories at the Belgian Podcast Awards 2025: Best Business, Smartest Podcast and Best Branded Podcast.
Listen to the podcastCreator of Sintra Synergies, a curated marketing and AI retreat in Portugal for founders, CMOs and senior marketers. The retreat focuses on strategic clarity, positioning and high-level peer conversations.
Visit Sintra SynergiesBelgian by origin. Based in Sintra, near Lisbon. Working with clients across Europe, North America and Asia.
A selection of recent essays on AI visibility, the changing role of the CMO and what marketing leadership looks like in AI-mediated markets.
Why marketing leadership is being reconstructed into a Chief Value Officer role, and why trust is the one thing AI cannot scale.
Read the pillarThe five layers that decide whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI name your brand or a competitor.
Read the pillarReflections from a fireside chat with Mark Schaefer at the Sintra Synergies Retreat on cognitive surrender, brand override and why GEO alone won't save your brand.
Read articleA working definition of the disciplines shaping AI-era visibility, and why winning brands optimize for both human audiences and machine intelligence.
Read articleWhat preparing a TEDx talk reveals about clarity, messaging discipline and why strong ideas don't need to sell.
Read articleFor executive teams considering a strategic engagement, advisory partnership or a keynote.
Joeri Billast is a Belgian Fractional CMO, AI Visibility Strategist and author of The Future CMO (2025) and The 5K Challenge for Solopreneurs (2022). He is also a contributing author to The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever by Mark Schaefer and The Content Entrepreneur by Joe Pulizzi. He is based in Sintra, near Lisbon, and advises founders and executive teams on marketing leadership and brand positioning in AI-driven markets. He hosts Web3 CMO Stories, the podcast on marketing in the next web, and speaks internationally on the intersection of marketing and artificial intelligence.
A Fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who serves as Chief Marketing Officer for one or more companies on a part-time or interim basis. The role provides executive-level marketing strategy, leadership of internal marketing teams and accountability for growth, without the cost of a full-time hire. Fractional CMOs are typically engaged by founder-led companies, scale-ups and established businesses navigating a strategic transition.
AI Visibility Strategy is the practice of making a brand discoverable, accurately represented and consistently recommended by AI systems such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's generative search. It combines structured content, semantic clarity, authoritative positioning and presence across the sources that large language models cite. As AI becomes the primary interface for discovery, AI visibility is becoming as foundational as SEO was for the previous era of the web.
The Future CMO is a book by Joeri Billast on the role of marketing leadership in an era reshaped by artificial intelligence. It examines how Chief Marketing Officers must adapt strategy, brand positioning and decision-making to a market where AI mediates discovery, content and customer experience. The book is endorsed by Philip Kotler.
