Some Assembly Required*

Some Assembly Required*

The Presence Economy Is the Next Great Brand Frontier

Why the most important thing a brand can do right now can’t be generated, automated, or scaled

Christopher Smith
Jun 16, 2026
∙ Paid

In Part I of this series, I wrote about AI as rehearsal space — the cognitive interval that prepares us for the conversations, relationships, and moments that actually matter. This is where that argument lands.

We are experiencing the synthetic expansion of our world, and with it, the rediscovery of presence. The Presence Economy is the growing premium p…

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