Brand Intelligence: Navigating the Transformation in the AI and Web3 Era (Future of Business and Finance)

The rise of the Internet, social media, mobile technology, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and Web3 has fundamentally transformed how brands engage with consumers—enabling smarter marketing capabilities, personalized user interactions, and exponential growth in revenue, influence, and data value. This book introduces the concept of Brand Digital Intelligence, a two-step framework that helps brands thrive in the digital age through digital transformation and intelligent marketing. Structured around a digital transformation roadmap, the book explores how organizations can build robust digital infrastructure, foster active user participation, and turn consumers into long-term value contributors.

Key topics include marketing innovation, platform business models, consumer journey design, online communities, smart stores, mobile applications, AI-powered marketing, and decentralized brand strategies enabled by Web3. The book calls for a paradigm shift from traditional campaign-based marketing to intelligent, data-driven ecosystems, where private domains, users, and data become core strategic assets—powered by algorithmic decision-making and compounding flywheel effects that drive sustained growth and engagement. Extending this evolution, the book illustrates how AI-driven brand ecosystems in the Web2 era naturally progress toward autonomous, community-driven organizations in the Web3 world, enabled by tokenized incentives, digital ownership, and co-created value.

Combining strategic frameworks, real-world case studies, and actionable insights, this book is an essential guide for marketing professionals, technology leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors seeking to master the next frontier of AI and Web3-powered brand transformation.

Baohong Sun, Ph.D. is the Dean’s Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing and Director of the AIxWeb3 Research Center at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), China.Before joining CKGSB, she served as the Carnegie Bosch Chair Professor of Marketing at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Southern California, USA.

Based in New York, USA, Professor Sun is a globally recognized scholar and thought leader in AI-driven marketing, Web3 business models, digital transformation, and brand intelligence. Her pioneering research explores how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital platforms reshape consumer behavior, marketing strategy, and business model innovation across industries such as consumer goods, finance, healthcare, e-commerce, and social media.

Professor Sun’s work has appeared in top-tier journals such as Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, and Management Science. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and Journal of Marketing. Her papers have been nominated for the John D. C. Little Best Paper Award, Long-Term Impact Award by The INFORMS Society for Marketing Science, and she received the CART Research Frontier Award for Innovative Research at Carnegie Mellon University.

A passionate educator, she has taught in Executive Education, EMBA, MBA, and PhD, and undergraduate programs across the United States, Europe, and Asia, receiving numerous accolades including the All-Star Teaching Award, Master of MBA Teaching, and the George Leland Bach Teaching Award.

Beyond academia, Professor Sun serves on several boards of directors, and has advised Fortune 500 companies such as Bosch, IBM, Verizon, John Deere, PNC Bank, UPMC, Caterpillar, and Tsingtao Beer. Her insights have been featured in global media including The Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, and BBC. A frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum (Davos), she is also co-author of Customer-Centric Marketing: A Pragmatic Framework (MIT Press).