Ben Koolen is Solutions Lead at SCHMACK. He is responsible for the technical quality of everything the agency delivers; making sure solutions are built properly from the start, streamlined and functional. A big part of that is working at the front end of projects alongside the senior team, shaping how solutions are built before they go into delivery; creating proof of concepts, testing new tools, and working out how emerging technology actually applies to clients before it becomes a conversation. Right now most of that attention is on AI decisioning through Braze; moving away from rigid lifecycle journeys toward more adaptive, personalised engagement that responds to how customers actually behave rather than forcing them down a fixed path. In this session Ben covers what the right technical foundations actually look like; how to build CRM infrastructure in Braze that runs without constant intervention, and how AI decisioning is changing what is possible for teams that have those foundations in place.