Niall Walsh — Writing
Ideas worth
thinking about.
Essays on marketing, technology, AI and the places where they collide.
Latest
Building a HE marketing analytics dashboard in a week with Claude
The analytics setup was there. The time, skills, and budget weren’t. What happens when you build it anyway.
All writing 14
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What football managers can teach us about AI and the developers who won’t adapt
Every generation of managers who dismissed the last wave got left behind. The same thing is happening right now with AI — and the developers who won’t adapt are already losing ground.
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AI, accountability and harm: what a landmark tech verdict means for parents
A US court ruling shows that AI companies can be held responsible for what their products do to real people. What that verdict means for design, testing, and accountability.
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Nobody lets the moment land
The moment passes quicker than the work that got you there.
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Half term, Netflix, and the marketing lesson I did not expect
“A teenage question during a Netflix binge became the clearest explanation of value I’ve heard in years. Why ‘I’ll do it myself’ almost always costs more than you think.”
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Meta’s ad changes: what local government comms teams should actually be thinking about
Meta’s consent-or-pay shift looks like a platform update. It’s actually a fundamental change in how public sector comms can operate on social — and most teams aren’t ready for what it means.
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The stories that land always come from somewhere real
What a film scene can teach us about storytelling in global health, and why AI should support the work, not replace the human part.
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FAQs: from content design sin to AI citation strategy
“FAQs were a content design red flag for a decade. AI search has changed the job — and the format we dismissed as lazy might now be your easiest route to getting cited and trusted.”
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Why your content isn’t showing up in AI search (and how to fix it)
The shift from clicks to citations is already here — and the data is stark
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Digital ID in the UK: Why Hollywood has already shaped the public’s view
Decades of dystopian film have already written the story of digital ID in the public mind. Why the UK government's rollout has a trust problem Hollywood created — and what it would take to fix it.
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Interest media: discoverability over followership, curiosity over hierarchy
Social platforms no longer reward your network — they reward your topic. What the shift from followership to interest media means for anyone trying to reach an audience.
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When safety becomes a loophole
What Malcolm Gladwell got me thinking about with self-driving cars, street football, and unintended consequences
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AI, Beer-Chugging Aliens, and a $2K NBA Ad
What a chaotic AI-generated TV commercial tells us about where content creation is heading
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Building for the visitors who’ll never visit
How AI is quietly rewriting the rules of search — and why that changes everything about how we build websites