About Intentful: Enabling Interactive Brand Operations

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

Intentful operates where AI and brand communication meet. The company gives enterprise B2C brands and destination organizations the technology and guidance to function as interactive, intelligent brand entities in the AI era. That work combines proprietary products with practical, hands-on advisory.

Infrastructure for Interactive Brands.

Interactive Ad

Client: Visit Visalia

What the viewer experiences

This is a standard display ad unit, transformed so a consumer can converse directly with the brand. The AI answers immediately, stays aligned to the brand, and does it all inside the ad placement.

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

Intentful at a Glance

• Who we are: A technology company working at the intersection of AI and brand communication.
• Core technology: Infrastructure that helps brands become interactive, intelligent entities across ads, commerce, and content.
• Beyond the product: Practical advisory for organizations adopting AI, from readiness work through upskilling.
• Customers: Enterprise B2C brands and 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

Three elements operate together.

Brand equity and AI representation

This is how AI systems understand, describe, and present a brand across different environments. When an AI system refers to a brand, the question is whether that reference matches the positioning the brand intends.

Real-time engagement

This is the ability for customers to get immediate, governed, brand-consistent answers at the moment they are expressing intent, across touchpoints. One example is an ad that answers in real time inside the ad space on the brand’s behalf.

Continuous brand intelligence

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

People

The team behind Intentful.

Co-Founders

Marina Petrova

CEO & Co-Founder

Marina Petrova is a technology strategist with 30 years of experience across technology and marketing communications, including Publicis and WPP. Her work spans organizations in 50+ countries. She has spoken at WFA, Oxford, Singularity University, Columbia, and Mobile World Congress. She led the creation of patent-pending Generative Response Ads and Interactive Brand Infrastructure.

Bruce Amick

COO & Co-Founder

Bruce Amick’s career covers media, technology, and finance. He named Intentful years before intent-driven AI became a central market focus. His previous leadership roles include Broadway.com, The Shubert Organization, and BBVA, where he scaled platforms and managed complex operating environments.

Alex Scherban

CTO & Co-Founder

Alex Scherban brings 30+ years of software development experience. He has built solutions for GM, HP, Disney, Coca-Cola, Air France-KLM, Unilever, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is the architect of the Intentful Knowledge Engine that powers all Intentful products.

Leadership

Stefan Merkl

DMO & Tourism Industry Advisor

Stefan Merkl has spent 20 years working with DMOs, attractions, and sightseeing companies in U.S. and international markets. He is the first point of contact for destinations evaluating Intentful. He holds an MBA, is originally from Germany, and is based in Sonoma County.

Wanda Kalbach

EVP, Operations & Delivery

Wanda Kalbach leads client delivery and operational infrastructure. She makes sure brand content systems are implemented accurately and on schedule across every engagement.

Intentful is deliberate and lean: a global group of strategic thinkers, developers, and operators using AI to remove unnecessary complexity. Team members are based across the United States, Europe, and Ukraine.

Built With AI

Intentful builds AI products and also operates with AI at the center of its own work.

The company’s proprietary technology is model-agnostic. Its patent-pending infrastructure connects to any foundation model, and the team applies AI throughout its operations.

Patent-pending, model-agnostic technology

Intentful’s patent-pending infrastructure is its own proprietary technology layer, rather than a wrapper around another company’s AI. It can integrate with any foundation model, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini, and it can switch between or combine models depending on performance, cost, or client requirements. Clients are not locked into a single model.

AI agents accelerate value

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

AI-augmented engineering

Advances in AI help the development team ship more innovation and identify 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 across early adopters in travel and tourism, performing arts, telecommunications, and consumer brands.

Visit Florida Keys

Interactive Ad

The source page includes an attributed executive quote from Kara Franker, CEO, Visit Florida Keys & Key West. The quote emphasizes choosing to adopt AI early, understanding how AI is changing traveler discovery, and helping shape that experience proactively rather than responding after the fact.

Visit Visalia

Interactive Ad

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

Tourism and destinations as early adopters

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

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

Featured and Recognized

Intentful helps advance the practical use of AI in marketing communications.

The company regularly participates in executive forums, industry working sessions, and academic programs focused on moving AI beyond experimentation and 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

About Intentful

Intentful is a technology company that helps enterprise B2C brands and destination organizations become interactive, intelligent entities for the age of AI. Founded in 2021, the company provides 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 live brand conversations.

Products include Generative Response Ads, As Seen by AI, Content Space, AI Readability Report, Local Business AI Discoverability, and Interactive 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. Intentful was named Best AdTech Startup at M&A Tech Connect 2026.