About Intentful: Intelligent Brand Infrastructure

Commercially deployed since 2021 · Best AdTech Startup 2026 — M&A Tech Connect

Intentful operates where AI and brand communication meet. The company helps enterprise B2C brands and destination organizations function as interactive, intelligent entities for the AI era, combining proprietary products with practical, hands-on advisory support.

Interactive Ad

Client: Visit Visalia

What this shows

This is a standard display ad unit where a consumer can speak with the brand directly. The AI answers in real time, stays on-brand, and works inside the ad space.

• Real-time
• On-brand
• Within ad space

Company snapshot

Who we are

Intentful is a technology company focused on the intersection of AI and brand communication.

Core technology

Intentful provides infrastructure that helps brands become interactive, intelligent entities across ads, commerce, and content.

Beyond the product

The company also supports organizations adopting AI through hands-on advisory, from readiness planning to upskilling.

Customers

Enterprise B2C brands & Tourism Boards

Geography

Global

Commercially active

Since 2021

Recognition

Best AdTech Startup 2026

Patent

Generative Response Ads — global patent pending

What makes a brand interactive

An interactive brand brings together three connected capabilities.

Brand equity & AI representation

This concerns the way AI systems interpret and present the brand across different environments. When an AI system refers to a brand, the representation should align with the brand’s intended positioning.

Real-time engagement

This is how customers get immediate, governed, on-brand responses at the moment they show intent, across touchpoints. One example is ads that answer in real time inside ad spaces on the brand’s behalf.

Continuous brand intelligence

Customer interactions become a steady source of brand learning and insight. The result is a living intelligence guided by the organization, with governance over both engagement and representation.

People

The team behind Intentful.

Co-Founders

Marina Petrova

CEO & Co-Founder

Technology strategist with 30 years of experience across technology and marketing communications, including Publicis and WPP. Her work has reached organizations across 50+ countries. Speaker at WFA, Oxford, Singularity University, Columbia, and Mobile World Congress. Led the creation of patent-pending Generative Response Ads and Intelligent Brand Infrastructure.

Bruce Amick

COO & Co-Founder

Background across media, technology, and finance. He named the company Intentful years before the market turned its attention to intent-driven AI. Earlier leadership roles include Broadway.com, The Shubert Organization, and BBVA, with experience scaling platforms and managing complex operational ecosystems.

Alex Scherban

CTO & Co-Founder

30+ years in software development. Built solutions for GM, HP, Disney, Coca-Cola, Air France-KLM, Unilever, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Architect of the Intentful Knowledge Engine that powers all products.

Leadership

Stefan Merkl

DMO & Tourism Industry Advisor

20 years of work with DMOs, attractions, and sightseeing companies in U.S. and international markets. First point of contact for destinations exploring Intentful. MBA. Originally from Germany, based in Sonoma County.

Wanda Kalbach

EVP, Operations & Delivery

Leads client delivery and the operational infrastructure behind deployments. Ensures brand content systems are implemented accurately and on schedule across engagements.

Intentful is intentionally lean: strategic thinkers, developers, and operators using AI to remove unnecessary complexity. The team is proudly global, with members across the United States, Europe, and Ukraine.

Built with AI

Intentful builds AI products and also runs on AI.

The company’s proprietary technology is model-agnostic. Its patent-pending infrastructure connects with any foundation model, and the team uses AI throughout its own work.

Patent-pending, model-agnostic technology

Intentful’s patent-pending infrastructure is a proprietary technology layer, not a wrapper around someone else’s AI. It works with any foundation model, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and can switch between or combine models depending on performance, cost, or client needs. Clients are not locked into a single model.

AI agents unlock value faster

An AI agent, for example, helps create Intentful’s Generative Response Ads, helping brands reach the value of interactivity more quickly without production bottlenecks or weakening brand governance.

AI-augmented engineering

The development team uses advances in AI to ship more innovation and discover new opportunities. This website, for instance, was built entirely by Claude, Anthropic’s AI, in collaboration with the Intentful team.

Commercial deployments

In-market since 2021.

Intentful has dozens of live deployments with early adopters in travel and tourism, performing arts, telecommunications, and consumer brands.

Visit Florida Keys

Interactive Ad

The source page includes a client quote attributed to Kara Franker, CEO, Visit Florida Keys & Key West, for Visit Florida Keys. The quote represents a destination leadership voice emphasizing intentional early adoption, learning how AI affects traveler discovery, and helping shape that experience rather than responding after the fact.

Visit Visalia

Interactive Ad

A 300×250 display unit lets consumers ask questions and receive live answers from the destination inside the ad space.

Tourism & destinations as early adopters

Tourism and destination brands were among the earliest organizations to use Intentful’s technology. These organizations have high visitor intent, complex offerings, and a need for real-time, governed brand interaction, making them a proving ground for the model.

Deployments have also moved into performing arts and consumer brands. Other enterprise partners are not named because of contractual terms.

Featured & recognized

Intentful advances the practical use of AI in marketing communications.

The company regularly participates in executive forums, industry working sessions, and academic programs centered on taking AI from experimentation into operational reality.

• Oxford University — Oxford, UK
• WFA — World Federation of Advertisers
• Singularity University — Silicon Valley, CA
• Columbia University — Startup Lab · New York, NY
• MWC — Mobile World Congress · Barcelona
• ProcureCon — Marketing Procurement Leaders
• eTourism Summit — Digital Travel Leaders
• World Travel Market — London, UK
• MMA London — Mobile Marketing Association
• EACA — European Association of Communication Agencies
• CMO Summit — Executive Marketing Leaders
• And more — Ongoing

Ongoing conversations

Intentful remains open to conversations with brands, destinations, agencies, publishers, and press.

About Intentful

Intentful is a technology company that helps enterprise B2C brands and destination organizations operate as interactive, intelligent entities in the age of AI. Founded in 2021, the company supplies infrastructure for governing real-time engagement across touchpoints, influencing how AI interprets and represents the brand, and converting customer interactions into continuous brand intelligence. Intentful’s patent-pending Generative Response Ads turn standard ad units into real-time brand conversations.

Products include Generative Response Ads, As Seen by AI, Content Space, AI Readability Report, Local Business AI Discoverability, and Intelligent Brand Enablement. Advisory programs include AI Readiness Advisory, AI Immersion Workshop, AI 101: Travel & Tourism, and AI Today Upskilling. Clients include Travel Oregon, Visit Sacramento, Broadway Inbound, Rakuten Viber, HotelPlanner, and destination organizations across the United States. Named Best AdTech Startup at M&A Tech Connect 2026.