History Factory’s CEO Jason Dressel opines on what’s happening in business and culture through the lens of history in his newsletter The History Factor.
It’s conference season and over the past weeks, I was in Austin at SXSW followed by Page Society‘s Spring Seminar in DC. It was truly a Tale of Two Worlds (and I’m not talking about Texas versus DC).
The Bold and the Cautious
At SXSW countless panels and keynotes preached the message of boldness. Be audacious. Stand out. Go viral. In a world of noise, sameness, and AI-generated superficiality, the new mantra of many a marketer is to be disruptive. And at the Page Spring Seminar, chief communications officers of leading global companies heard (and expressed) a very different message. In an environment of political polarization and a new Trump administration that is breaking norms and willing to prioritize both personal affronts and appeals over policy, be quiet. Externally, say only what you have to. Stay focused on your internal communications. Don’t be non-partisan. Be non-political. Avoid controversy.
With one team’s incentive to draw attention and stand out and another’s incentive to do the opposite, what could possibly go wrong? Neither perspective is flawed, but they can be at odds. There’s a long history of tension between marketing and communications. In the current environment, marketers and communicators are going to need to collaborate – and respect one another’s perspectives – maybe more than ever before.
AI: The Tool is the Medium
Throughout history, transformative technologies have followed a familiar pattern: they begin as tools, designed to enhance efficiency, and then evolve into mediums, shaping the way we create, communicate, and experience the world.
The printing press was first a tool for mass-producing text, but it became a medium that democratized knowledge, enabled journalism, and revolutionized public discourse. Photography started as a way to document reality, but quickly became an artistic and storytelling medium, giving rise to cinema and visual culture. The internet began as an information-sharing tool, but it didn’t take long for it to turn into a digital ecosystem—shaping commerce, culture, and even identity.
At first, AI was seen as an assistive tool—generating text, enhancing images, and automating mundane tasks. But now, it is becoming a medium for creation, interaction, and storytelling. AI isn’t just powering creativity; it is becoming the canvas, the collaborator, and even the audience. AI-generated entertainment is already shifting the media landscape. From films that adapt in real-time to AI-driven music composition, creative expression is entering new territory. Interactive brand experiences are being built around AI, where customers don’t just consume content but actively engage with AI-driven narratives, chatbots, and digital personas. AI as an environment—just as the internet created a digital world where people socialize, work, and create, AI is generating new spaces where interaction happens dynamically and autonomously.
This shift isn’t in the future—it’s already happening. Just as Photoshop redefined visual creativity and the internet reshaped communication, AI is on track to become the next great medium of human expression. The question is not whether AI will be integrated into our workflows, but how deeply it will shape the way we think, create, and interact with the world. Agree or not, it’s becoming clear why visionaries like Sundar Pichai have espoused that AI is the most profound technology in human history, more so than even fire or electricity.
Managing Brand Heritage and Lore the Lumon Industries’ Way
Last week, Apple TV+’s Severance wrapped its second season, cementing its status as one of the world’s most talked-about shows. Its eerie, dystopian take on corporate life has struck a chord. Ben Stiller’s SXSW panel was a highlight, and the show’s themes and aesthetic were referenced in sessions throughout the festival, underscoring its relevance to modern work culture.
While Severance skewers everything from onboarding rituals to DEI initiatives, one of its sharpest critiques is how companies manipulate their heritage. At Lumon Industries, history isn’t preserved—it’s weaponized. Employees worship founder Kier Eagan with cult-like devotion, his words memorized, his portrait looming over the office. The Perpetuity Wing—a subterranean shrine—curates history not for learning, but for control and compliance. Real-world companies mythologize their founders too, and sometimes to a dangerous degree. But the best organizations treat history as a living asset, using it to inform decisions and connect employees to a shared legacy rather than enforcing blind reverence.
The show’s most cringe-worthy take on corporate history is Lumon’s attempt at inclusive revisionism. In a painfully awkward scene, Seth Milchick is gifted a “recanonized” portrait of Eagan depicted as a Black man in a hollow effort to make him “feel seen.” It’s corporate revisionism at its worst, rewriting the past for optics instead of confronting uncomfortable truths. Real inclusivity requires reckoning with history, not repainting it.
Severance is brilliant because it exaggerates real corporate tendencies, but the lesson is clear. Companies that treat their history as inclusive, shared, and evolving create cultures where employees feel truly connected. That’s the opposite of Lumon Industries and the hallmark of organizations that thrive.
Keep making history!
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