INBOUND Blog

For years, marketers have been told there’s a “right way” to do things. Follow the best practices. Copy what worked before. Don’t deviate from the playbook. At INBOUND 2025, Jay Schwedelson shared why so much of the advice marketers rely on today is outdated, misleading, or actively holding teams back. In his session Best Practices Are Garbage: In Marketing and Life, he challenged career clichés, questioned how we measure marketing impact, and reframed common fears around AI. So how do we move past best practices and actually grow through change and constant pressure to perform? Read on for the top takeaways from Schwedelson’s INBOUND session.

My first INBOUND as a HubSpotter didn’t disappoint. What stood out most wasn’t just the scale—13,000+ people—it was the authenticity. From Dharmesh’s keynote on what AI is and how to win with it, to a practical marketing playbook for the AI era, to product demos that spoke for themselves, INBOUND felt like a working session for the future of go-to-market.

At INBOUND this year, one theme was impossible to miss: AI is everywhere. It’s dominated every headline, boardroom, and conference stage. Expectations are sky-high. But when you look closer, the reality is complicated. At the event, I spoke with business leaders who were stuck between two extremes. Some are waiting to “see how it all pans out,” and others are exhausted from juggling dozens of disconnected AI tools. Different approaches, same result: not enough real progress. That’s the gap we need to close. AI isn’t just about POCs or slick demos. It’s about how humans and AI work together to help businesses grow.

My first thought after INBOUND 2025? It’s easy to miss a product update or two… especially when there are more than 200! But if you’re focused on scaling support, driving efficiency, and putting AI to work in real customer conversations, the Service Hub updates were impossible to ignore. From the new Customer Agent that taps into your CRM to answer (and act on) customer questions, to a faster, smarter Help Desk experience, to AI that helps write your next Knowledge Base article—this was a big moment for Service teams. I’m sharing the highlights that stood out to me as GM and VP of Product for Service Hub, and why I think they’ll make a real difference in how your teams show up for customers.