“I was so impressed, I bought the company.”

Terence Kawaja : Media / Tech Industry Advisor :

“I was so impressed, I bought the company.” That was the tag line of a famous advertisement from the 1970s that starred Victor Kiam, owner of Remington Products. Fast forward to 2026 and I’m having my own “Victor Kiam” moment. Well, sort of.

I’m pleased to announce that I am joining the advisory board of FlamAI, an exciting AI company that’s leveraging groundbreaking creative technology to revolutionize product engagement. FlamAI’s no-code tech can stream interactive 3D imagery on your phone with no download, app or website. This format is a game-changer for consumer engagement and conversion as major brands (Google, Samsung, Salesforce, YouTube + 100 enterprises) are discovering and the company is experiencing explosive growth (30x growth in ARR in last 12 months)!

In the process of assembling the AI LUMAscape, we diligenced hundreds of companies at the intersection of AI and advertising and FlamAI stood out above all others. This is the only advisory board I have joined in the 15+ years running LUMA. I look forward to spending more time with Shourya Agarwal, FlamAI’s Founder and CEO.

I am joined by other industry OGs on the advisory board including:
– Carolyn Everson, Board Director at Coca-Cola, Disney and Under Armor
– Paul Woolmington, CEO of Canvas Worldwide
– Tariq H., ex CMO of McDonalds, Petco See less

If this technology solution sounds interesting, please ping me.

Introducing the AI LUMAscape.

AI technology will be ubiquitous and therefore undifferentiating

The back story:
Initially, we said we would never make an AI LUMAscape for the same reason there is no ELECTRICITY LUMAscape or CLOUD LUMAscape – we assume that AI technology will be ubiquitous and therefore undifferentiating. However, while that is likely true in the medium term, there is a period of time over say the next 3 years as the technology is taking hold where companies can differentiate on AI tech whether they choose to do so via building, partnering or buying. Also, the amount of reverse inquiry was off the charts and sometimes you just have to give the people what they want.

The challenge:
Creating an AI LUMAscape has inherent challenges. How do we vet the tech capabilities? What should be the criteria for inclusion? Won’t every company in Ad Tech want to be on it and if we did include every logo that would defeat the purpose (and make for some really small logos!). We set out this summer doing primary and secondary research and asking a lot of people smarter than us about how to construct it. We have something that we think makes logical sense.

The punk:
Terry posted a teaser a month or so ago in which he punked the industry by suggesting there where 3 categories of companies: 1) AI First, 2) Fast Adapters who either built or bought AI tech, and 3) AI Poseurs. Obviously, the last category was intentionally derogatory to instigate a response. And what a response! – the post went viral on the socials and hundreds of companies reached out to prove their AI bona fides in hopes of placement on the scape. This was by design as we use this reverse inquiry to get us from 80% finished to 90% finished, which is good enough to launch. We expect to improve it the rest of the way in the coming weeks based on your feedback.

The caveat:
There’s only one thing that we can say with certainty about this launch version of the AI LUMAscape: it is wrong. We know that for certain. Now we need you all – the market – to tell us where. Maybe we left off your deserving company, maybe we mischaracterized your capabilities – sorry, and let’s get on the phone so you can explain how / why so we can see how best to resolve it. Or maybe you would just like to chat about it – we’d like to hear from you. BTW, no guarantees that such interaction will produce an edit but it’s helpful. We truly appreciate all reverse inquiry to help us make the scape the best it can be. Please direct all feedback to info@lumapartners.com. We will read every email.

The criteria:
The parameters we used to construct the scape are as follows:
1. Selection based on strategic relevance to advertising
2. Selection based on core business model focus, not scale
3. Broad categories reflect converging capabilities
4. One logo per company (unless your market cap is denoted with a “T”)
5. Corporate logos only, no division or product logos
6. Agentic / AI co-pilots not broken out separately