What Moves People
James Slezak, CEO and Founder of Swayable, makes a compelling case for pre-campaign measurement over post-campaign regret. He explains how the world’s biggest brands are 10x-ing creative effectiveness, why click-through rates mislead, and what it really takes to change a consumer’s mind.
“Most purchases don’t happen online and never will. Is it doing the lift it’s supposed to do or not?”
James Slezak is the founder and CEO of Swayable, the AI data platform that measures persuasion for many of the world’s largest brands, their agencies, and strategy consultancies. Originally from Australia, he brings an unusual combination of experimental physics, management consulting, journalism, and senior media leadership to the challenge of understanding what changes people’s minds.
James grew up in Australia and moved to the United States to earn a PhD in experimental physics at Cornell University, where he worked in the Davis Lab developing new measurement technology and publishing discoveries in journals including Science, Nature, and Physical Review. After Cornell, he joined McKinsey as a strategy consultant before co-founding Purpose, a New York-based social change agency, and Peers.org, working closely with the founders of Airbnb.
He then joined The New York Times, serving as Executive Director of Strategy for Digital Product and Technology and Vice President and Chief of Operations of NYT Global. After leaving the Times, he founded Swayable and took it through Y Combinator. The company is incorporated as a public benefit corporation with a mission around helping people communicate truth more effectively.
Swayable has processed more than 10 million consumer responses and operates across all major global regions. James was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Information Integrity for the 2025–2027 term and joined the ARF Board of Trustees in 2026.
“Marketing is about increasing demand, not just starting with people who already have it.”
“Pointing at click-through rates and calling it a proxy really can lead you away from the ideas that actually cause lift.”
Swayable’s entire premise rests on a distinction most marketing teams paper over. Engagement is observable and easy to report. Lift, the actual change in purchase intent or brand equity, requires deliberate measurement. The two often point in opposite directions.
“How do you use AI to support human creativity rather than replace consumer judgment?”
James was in the room when most people laughed at the idea that machines would ever contribute to the creative process. They are not laughing now. His argument is not that AI replaces human creativity but that it cannot replace human judgment about what actually persuades. The consumer still has to decide. Swayable’s AI work is built on that distinction: use it to draw out more insight from real people, not to substitute for them.
“With proper iterative test and learn, we have seen increases as high as 10x. We have the case studies to prove it.”
The difference between a brand that runs one test and one that feeds every learning into the next creative brief is not marginal. Across Swayable’s client base, the compounding effect of iterative testing produces results that look implausible until you understand the mechanics.
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