Annabelle Jones, Lori Susko, Jenny Ringland and Tom Crawford.
Rumblings, an AI-powered decision engine that translates early cultural shifts into strategic recommendations, has been established by four founders with backgrounds across data science, journalism and marketing.
Annabelle Jones and Lori Susko, co-founders of insights consultancy We Scout, partnered with Jenny Ringland, founder of communications agency G+S and a former News Corp journalist, and Tom Crawford, former head of advanced analytics and data science at Woolworths Group, to build the platform.
The founders said Rumblings was built in response to a growing problem, more information than ever, but less clarity on what matters.
"Marketing teams today are drowning in signals and tools. Social listening tells you what has already happened. Trend forecasting tells you what might matter in 18 months," said Annabelle Jones, co-founder of Rumblings.
"Generative AI helps you produce more content. But nobody is solving the gap between seeing a cultural shift emerge and knowing what your business should actually do next and why.
“Think of it like your personal insights partner, someone incredibly well read, who's already consumed everything, spots cultural shifts early, and tells you why they matter to your role and your brand," said Jones.
The product enters a market seeing significant investment in AI-powered tools.
A PwC survey found 88% of executives planned to increase AI-related budgets over the next 12 months, with agentic AI among the biggest priorities.
Grand View Research estimates the AI marketing industry will grow to US$82 billion in annual revenue by 2030, a 25% compound annual growth rate from 2025.
Crawford said the market remained fragmented, with businesses piecing together strategic direction from disconnected tools and teams.
"Right now, companies have trend agencies, internal research teams, social listening platforms, consultants and generative AI tools all operating separately.
“But very little exists to connect those dots into one clear commercial recommendation. That's the opportunity we saw," said Crawford.
The platform combines real-time cultural signals with brand intelligence, including audience behaviour, category dynamics, commercial goals, brand positioning and user psychographics, to generate tailored recommendations for decision-making teams.
Jones said the platform was built to counter a flattening effect she said was already visible across marketing.
"A lot of AI is creating optimisation, but not originality, and that's a real problem. You can already see the flattening effect happening across marketing, same aesthetics, same campaign structures, same language," said Jones.
"Two brands could see the exact same cultural shift, and we see it as Rumblings' role to filter what is important to the end user, and explain what they should do with it, and why. That's intentional. The future isn't brands using AI to copy each other faster. It's brands using AI to better understand themselves, their audiences and where they can lead."
"The real competitive advantage won't come from producing more content. It'll come from knowing what matters early and having the evidence to support the confidence to act on it," said Jones.
Rumblings currently has pilot conversations underway across brands, agencies and innovation teams, with a broader release planned for later in 2026.
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