The Future of Talkable Products and Humanized Branding: A Conversation with Sarah Nagle at SxSW 2025
South by Southwest (#SxSW) is always the best event for me – year in and year out. It’s an incubator of thought leaders, tech, innovation, capital and great conversations taking place from an intellectually curious perspective, often times on topics that you know nothing about. Everyone is interested in learning. Everyone is willing to share.
This year, I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Nagle, Head of Strategy at Vurvey Labs, to discuss the evolving landscape of interactive brand experiences, talkable products and how AI is shaping our relationship with brands. (You knew #AI was going to be the anchor of so many conversations this year!)
Meet Sarah Nagle and Vurvey Labs
Sarah describes her role at Vurvey Labs as dynamic – working on everything from strategy to vision, to designing coasters for SxSW brand activations. Vurvey Labs, she explains, is an enterprise platform that helps brands bring their data to life through AI-driven agents.
“We work with brands to help them bring their data to life through agents,” Sarah shares. “That could mean taking all the consumer research data they’ve collected and making it talkable and accessible for everyone within an organization.”
In other words, they’re humanizing data, making it actionable and conversational. Which is such an interesting perspective, especially since you know I talk about H2H (Human to Human) instead of B2B and B2C. But this is with data. What’s the saying? Data is powerful. Information (which is processed and contextualized data) has meaning and relevance. But now we are able to take the information and humanize it by making it conversational – wow! That is game changing. And it doesn’t stop there — Vurvey Labs is taking interactivity to the next level by creating talkable products.
Imagine If Your Sneakers Could Talk
What does it mean for a product to “talk?” Sarah explains:
“We can embed QR codes on products – like sneakers or beauty creams – so that customers can interact with them at retail or at home. Imagine scanning your sneakers and learning more about their sustainability story, or asking your beauty cream how to apply it properly.”
But the innovation doesn’t stop at products. Vurvey Labs is exploring talkable advertising, where banner ads and digital marketing assets could engage in real-time conversations with potential customers.
AI Powered by People
Sarah is also the host of AI Powered by People, a podcast that explores what it would mean if experiences, brands and products could talk. She recently flipped the script on me, asking: If South by Southwest could talk, what would you ask it?
Great question. My answer? Well, I’m happy to say that it made the final cut of the podcast, which can be heard here:
The Human Side of AI and Branding
A key theme in our conversation was the importance of humanizing technology and branding. Sarah emphasizes that Vurvey Labs’ model isn’t just another AI-powered chatbot – it’s built on a people-first model.
“Traditional AI models are just about predicting the next word,” Sarah says. “Our model is based on real human insights. We tap into millions of real people globally to layer human behavior on top of AI, making the experience more authentic.”
This approach aligns closely with something I’ve been advocating for years: Humanizing the Digital. It’s not enough for brands to chase vanity metrics and engagement rates. The real magic happens when brands create genuine relationships – whether through storytelling, branding or even something as simple as a Taco Tuesday post.
Authenticity and Imperfect Perfection
When I asked Sarah for advice on how professionals and brands can humanize their presence, she had a brilliant response:
“The most authentic brands aren’t afraid to show imperfections. There’s beauty in the flaws – it’s what makes a brand real and relatable.”
That struck a chord. Imperfection fosters connection because it’s real. And in a world filled with highly curated, overly polished digital personas, embracing imperfectly perfect branding is a powerful differentiator.
The Power of a Professional Branding Quirk
Speaking of authenticity, I shared my own accidental brand-building experience with Sarah – how Taco Tuesday became an unexpected part of my professional identity. What started as a playful LinkedIn experiment turned into a genuine connection point, one that has even led to real business opportunities.
“When I first posted about Taco Tuesday on LinkedIn, I wasn’t sure how people would react,” I said. “But for some reason it was a hit and became part of my brand. People send me Taco Tuesday memes, ask me for taco recommendations and reach out about business opportunities because it made them think of me.”
Sarah loved the story and added, “That’s so clever! It’s the little things that stick. It’s all about creating an emotional connection.”
Final Thoughts: Building a Brand That Talks (and Listens)
Vurvey Labs is revolutionizing how brands interact with consumers. By blending AI, human insights and interactive experiences, they’re moving beyond traditional marketing to create meaningful brand relationships.
The key takeaway? Whether you’re a company, a consultant or an individual, your professional brand should feel human. Be imperfectly perfect. Strive for an emotional connection – even on a professional platform like LinkedIn. To do this, you have to engage. Social media was designed to be social, so a strategy of only broadcasting will never bring you meaningful relationships.
And on that note—anyone up for tacos?
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For the full video interview: https://youtu.be/NyAU03Hohjo
Sarah’s LinkedIn post about SxSW can be found here:
