Beyond the product launches and keynote decks, the event itself delivered. The people, the vendors, the customers, the HubSpotters. It was just so good. We have to reiterate from a LinkedIn post that nailed it: “It was my Coachella.” For many of us, it really felt that way.
Opportunities were everywhere: hotel elevators turning into prospecting conversations, exhibition floor walks that blew our minds, and late-afternoon socials (like a tremendous meet & greet with PandaDoc and our team) leading to meaningful partner discussions. The exhibition space was expansive, the vendors were plentiful, HubSpot branding lit up the city, and the vibe was universally positive.
The only real bummer about the conference was that live content was scarce for those watching at home, with only some recordings from the three-day event being planned for release over the next seven weeks. You can see HubSpot's on-demand schedule here. Hopefully there will be more options next year.
But as you have come to expect from us, we will now recap some of the more inspiring sessions as seen by our attending team on the ground in San Francisco.
Our top 5 sessions at INBOUND 2025:
1) Teardown Live! Data Pitfalls, Fixes, and Hidden Gems (with everybody's favorite email guru: Jay Schwedelson!)
2) Signal to Revenue: Personalized Campaigns That Convert
3) 24/7 HubSpot: Deploying Personal AI Agents to Work For You
4) Interactive Workflow Automation: You Vote, We Build
5) Lab: Unifying Your Tech Stack With HubSpot
Bonus: Big Themes We Couldn't Ignore
The session was a fast-paced breakdown of why your email marketing isn’t performing the way it should. Between the jokes and pop culture detours, the duo hit hard on a simple truth: your biggest problems aren’t subject lines or sending frequency, they’re lurking in your database.
The pair showed how certain AI prompts can clean messy records, why deliverability issues almost always trace back to data quality, and how outdated “best practices” like double opt-in can tank performance. The energy was high, the advice was brutally honest, and every marketer in the room walked away with tactics they could implement immediately.
The key audience questions tackled during the session:
Q. How do we end up on a blacklist if we only allow the right people onto our list?
A. Blacklists happen because of spam traps and unengaged contacts, not necessarily bad acquisition methods. Cleaning and validating lists regularly is the only fix.
Q. What do we do about duplicates in our database?
A. Use AI (yes, even free ChatGPT prompts) to identify fuzzy matches and wipe out dupes fast, saving your campaigns from confusion and clutter.
Q. We have coverage of target accounts, but minimal pipeline. What’s wrong?
A. One contact at a company isn’t coverage. You need multiple validated contacts per account, or you’ll lose opportunities when a single person leaves.
Q. What do we do with bounced emails?
A. Don’t just delete them. Turn bounced contacts into triggers for account-based marketing. Go find other active contacts at that same company.
NEW GUIDE: The Truth About Email Deliverability
Q. Should we move to double opt-in?
No. Data shows it kills list growth and doesn’t reduce spam complaints. Focus on real-time validation instead of outdated “best practices.”
Q. We changed our ESP/data provider but still have deliverability problems. Why?
A. Because the problem isn’t the platform. Dirty data and weak engagement kill campaigns. Switching ESPs just moves bad laundry from one bin to another.
There were a few other sessions Jay and Brian featured in over the three days, with one other session of Jay's set to be streamable in October (details HERE). Brian's ZeroBounce session unfortunately will not be made available.
On a final note, mad props to Jay’s Guru Media Hub team for a clever setup with a working landline phone where attendees could record marketing questions for Jay's Do This, NOT That! podcast. It was equal parts engagement tactic and genius promo for his show at INBOUND.
They explained that website visits, product usage, job changes, content touchpoints, event activity, and news mentions are all signals that can be pulled together to trigger "plays" that actually respect timing and context. An example of personalization respecting timing is waiting a month to re-engage with your contact switches jobs.
It was stressed that relevance beats generic personalization every time.
The session broke down how to put this type of personalization into practice: A "Common Room" tool gathers and aggregates signals, EJ's company Tofu then executes with coordinated multi-channel campaigns, and finally HubSpot’s Breeze agents enrich records and trigger workflows.
The kinds of signals talked about in the session aren’t just great for campaigns. They’re the building blocks of AEO. LLMs and AI-driven search engines reward brands that demonstrate relevance and authority. When your campaigns are structured around real signals and validated actions, your content becomes more machine-readable and more likely to be chosen by answer engines. In other words, personalization at this level doesn’t just improve conversions, it strengthens your visibility in a world where answers matter more than links.
Andrew Amann (CEO, NineTwoThree Studio) delivered a session that will be on-demand at the end September. He made the case that AI agents inside HubSpot are more than a cool experiment; they’re the next logical step in automating sales and marketing execution. His pitch: every repetitive action your team does today (from lead scoring to data cleanup to nudging a prospect into the right workflow) can be delegated to a personal AI agent that never sleeps.
The session walked through how these agents act as “always-on teammates.” They monitor activity 24/7, process signals, and take contextual action in real time. Instead of waiting for a human to check reports or queue follow-ups, agents can update properties, route leads, and even generate tailored outreach automatically. The result: faster handoffs, more consistent data, and fewer missed opportunities.
Andrew emphasized starting small: pick one low-risk, high-impact use case (like triaging inbound form fills or enriching new contacts), then layer on complexity once you’ve validated the workflow. He also highlighted the cultural side. He pointed out that AI agents only deliver ROI if your team trusts them enough to step back from busywork and focus on strategy.
The big takeaway here: deploying personal AI agents inside HubSpot doesn’t replace people, it amplifies them. The best teams will pair human judgment with AI-driven execution to keep revenue engines running around the clock.
This was a Reservation Required session that will not be made on-demand. It was led by a full team from Simple Strat and was delivered exactly how INBOUND crowds love: with live building, no filler; straight to the point action.
The team handed power to the audience with a QR code poll, then built the most-requested workflows on stage. Instead of hypotheticals, marketers saw their everyday headaches, such as bounces, messy lists, onboarding steps, and lead routing, solved in real time.
The real showstopper was an AI-infused workflow using Breeze. Every inbound form submission was automatically scored (yes, no, or “can’t determine”), with strong leads routed instantly to sales and weaker ones flagged for manual review. It was a simple but powerful demo of how AI can separate noise from signal, keep databases cleaner, and keep teams focused on the right opportunities. The message was clear: workflows don’t need to be complicated to be valuable. Start with something small, iterate quickly, and let AI handle the repetitive decisions so your people can focus on strategy.
Here are the standout takeaways they shared that marketers can put into practice right away:
In the end, Simple Strat’s session proved that workflow automation doesn’t have to be intimidating. When paired with AI, even simple builds can clear bottlenecks, boost efficiency, and keep HubSpot working harder for you.
This was also a Reservation Required session that will not be made on-demand. It was led by an all-HubSpot team, including Meg Duffy (Principal Professor), Charlène Lardy Vella (Inbound Professor), and Laura Vélez (Inbound Professor).
The session zeroed in on a pain every marketing and sales team knows too well: tool sprawl.
The presenters framed the challenge bluntly: too many disconnected systems, too much duplicate data, and too little visibility across the customer journey? Use HubSpot’s reimagined App Marketplace and data framework, designed to turn “yet another platform” into the hub that connects the rest of your stack.
The session outlined how HubSpot is moving beyond simple plug-and-play integrations. The emphasis is now on unified data models and apps that speak the same language across tools. Instead of having five platforms each tracking contacts differently, HubSpot is positioning itself as the system of record where marketing, sales, service, and finance apps all feed into a single customer view.
For marketers, that means personalization becomes easier and reporting finally lines up with reality. For ops teams, it means less time babysitting APIs and more time driving strategy.
The presenters also hammered home that consolidation doesn’t mean ripping out every specialized tool. Instead, it’s about using HubSpot as the connective tissue: pull in the right data, align it around the customer, and give every team access without breaking their workflows. The result is cleaner reporting, faster automation, and less friction between departments. The big message: the more complex your stack gets, the more you need one reliable home base, which is what HubSpot is aiming to be it.
It's also important to note here that unified data doesn’t just improve reporting and workflows; it helps with AEO. Answer engines and LLMs are more likely to surface brands that provide consistent, structured, and authoritative information. If your customer data lives in silos, your content is harder for AI to interpret and recommend. By consolidating data into HubSpot’s unified framework, companies strengthen the signals of trust and authority that AEO depends on, making their brand more visible.
If your content isn’t optimized for answer engines, it simply won’t be seen. Period. That makes AEO the single most urgent priority coming out of INBOUND 2025.
HubSpot is experimenting aggressively, but here's what is being recommended right now:
AEO isn’t just a content tweak. It’s a survival strategy for getting found in a no-click, AI-driven internet.
HubSpot rebuilt its AI from the ground up and is now embedding agents into everyday workflows. From lead triage to ticket deflection, these tools reduce busywork and free up strategy time. Breeze credits are the new resource to plan carefully.