INBOUND25 is just around the corner. From Wednesday, September 3 to Friday, September 5, HubSpot's annual event will take place in San Francisco. In this blog, we'd like to briefly update you on the main topics surrounding this event. We will keep a sharp eye on everything for you and on Thursday, October 2 we will host a Talkshow in which we will extensively review (sign up for the (Dutch spoken) live show) what the most important insights, product updates and implications for marketing, sales and service were.
Ahead of the event, we've already analyzed the keynotes and programmatic threads. Below is our first analysis: what HubSpot is already showing and where it is moving with AI as a common thread, as well as focusing on customer experience and retention, growth and PLG, sales strategy, data and RevOps and integrations.
Just a quick note: what is INBOUND again?
INBOUND is the annual event where HubSpot shows where marketing, sales and service are moving. It is no longer a trade show, but a pressure cooker for strategy, tooling and practice. This year, the common thread is crystal clear: AI is shifting from standalone features to full-fledged "digital peers" that run on your CRM data.
Think : Breeze Copilot for assistance and Breeze Agents as AI workforces. One of the introductions is Breeze Studio a 20+ marketplace agents that help you with your daily tasks. These agents can be installed and configured without complicated code.
Below, we take you through the six key themes that will take center stage during INBOUND25. These are the movements you can't ignore as an organization and can get started right away.
Theme 1: from copilots to agents
We are moving from smart help functions to AI agents: digital employees who perform tasks independently. Think assessment of new leads, following up on demo requests, reactivating inactive deals or preparing an offer. The difference from a traditional workflow? Agents understand context, make decisions based on your data and report what they've done. So you don't build "macros," you define roles with clear KPIs and authority.
What does this mean for you?
What does this mean for you? Don't start with "AI everywhere," but with two concrete examples where agents add immediate value. For example, have an agent automatically investigate whether a new lead fits your ideal customer profile (ICP): pull up company information, scan recent news stories and put a summary in your CRM so sales knows if it's worthwhile. Another example is an agent that analyzes where churn is most likely: combine signals such as login frequency, support tickets or contract renewals and send an alert to the account team. This is how you link AI to tangible results and know where you can make gains.
Want to know all about AI agents in HubSpot?
Then follow this (Dutch spoken) webinar on Tuesday, September 9!
Topic 2: AI search engines require answer engine optimization (AEO)
Your audience is increasingly typing their question into an AI tool. As a result, findability is shifting from "ranking on pages" to "being mentioned in answers. AEO is about structuring your knowledge so AI systems understand and cite your brand: clear FAQs, how-to's with steps, sources that consistently provide the same answer, and data points that models can "regurgitate.
What does this mean for you?
In addition to SEO, introduce an AI findability KPI: share answers in which your brand comes back to 10 key questions in your market. Keep in mind that traditional traffic reports are changing: you may see less website traffic, while your brand is visible in answers from external platforms or AI systems. Therefore, work on canonical answers, product and service pages with clear definitions and short summaries at the top, so that you not only drive traffic but also presence in AI answers.
Theme 3: data foundation over tools
AI fails without data quality. INBOUND insists on a single customer view in your CRM: consistent fields, automatic enrichment and clear ownership of this data. Only then do agents and personalization deliver reliable output. The motto: we don't need more data, but better data that is usable in the commercial process.
What does this mean for you?
Make data quality visible. Introduce a pipeline hygiene score (mandatory fields, recent edit, phase consistency), define source-and-campaign tags and turn on automatic data enrichment. In addition, designate someone in the organization as "CRM data marketer" or "CRM data police": a role responsible for data quality, governance and consistent use. Give revenue operations the mandate to 'clean up' and make that a visible part of your commercial rhythm.
Theme 4: accelerating revenue with AI
From lead scoring to forecasting, AI is becoming an accelerator of pipeline velocity. Expect concrete applications such as intent detection in calls, account prioritization, automatic summaries in your CRM timeline and offer proposals based on previous winning deals. The goal is not to do more, but to get to the next best action faster.
What does this mean for you?
Link AI to a commercial KPI: shorter time-to-first-response, higher meet-rate on MQLs or more pipeline coverage in your ICP. Agents only get value when they directly impact those metrics.
Theme 5: content and video at AI speed, with brand monitoring
AI makes content production faster, but quality is still human work. The winning approach seen on INBOUND: one "golden" longform piece per theme, broken down with AI into short-form posts, emails, landing pages and videos. With clear instructions about your brand (tone of voice, forbidden claims, product names in natural Dutch), you steer AI's creativity in the right direction.
What does this mean for you?
Measure AI share in production (e.g. 40% of output remixed by AI, always with final editing). Invest in a central knowledge base with approved examples, definitions and do's & don'ts.
Theme 6: responsible and people-centric
No adoption without trust. INBOUND emphasizes transparency (where does data come from), permission (are you allowed to use this) and human-in-the-loop. Combine guidelines, logging and clear escalations: when does a human intervene, and what does the agent log by default in the timeline?
What does this mean for you? Write a simple AI policy on one A4: goals, what can/can't be done, sample prompts, role assignment, and an audit log per agent.
A simple maturity model
Many organizations know they need to do something with AI, but lack guidance. This model helps to see clearly where you are now and what the next step is. It makes the path concrete: from loose experiments to agents that add real value and eventually to a fully integrated AI ecosystem.
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Level 0: experiments: loose tools, no reporting. Nice, but invisible impact.
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Level 1: assistant: AI co-writes, summarizes, helps. Work accelerates, impact is still individual.
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Level 2: agents on core processes: two or three tasks taken over with clear KPIs and governance.
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Level 3: orchestral: multiple agents work together across marketing, sales and service, supported by data enrichment and monitoring.
How to move forward. Together towards a clear AI roadmap
More and more often, we receive requests from C-level to establish an overarching AI strategy: from top-down strategy to the right tools, under the right conditions, including adoption within teams. We provide this by starting with a strategic session, including mapping of processes, opportunities and risks. From there, we work together toward a concrete plan that includes not only HubSpot, but the entire AI landscape:
- Which tools fit your strategy,
- Under what conditions they work, and
- How adoption will be secured.
Want us to make your 90-day plan concrete together or just schedule that strategic AI session first? Send us your goals and current stack. We'll schedule a meeting with you for a strategic session, create a proposal with KPIs, dashboards and the first draft of your AI roadmap. Then we'll help build and train your team.
