Evolve or Extinct: Brad Kugler Talks AI

November 6, 2025 • Posted by Michelle

If you’re ready to glimpse the future of direct mail, this is one interview you don’t want to miss.

Printing Impressions’ Ashley Roberts met with Brad Kugler, CEO and Co-Founder of DirectMail2.0, at PRINTING United Expo 2025 to talk about how the company continues to innovate in an industry that’s far from slowing down. From the acquisition of Who’s Mailing What! — the iconic archive of direct mail creative — to the launch of DM20.ai, a groundbreaking tool that uses predictive modeling to optimize campaigns before they’re even printed, Brad shares how data and AI are transforming traditional marketing.

As Brad puts it best:

“If you are not evolving or learning with AI, you are becoming a dinosaur!”

Tune in to hear how DirectMail2.0 is keeping direct mail modern, measurable, and more effective than ever — and what these advancements mean for marketers, printers, and agencies ready to stay ahead of the curve.

Transcript:

Hi everyone. I’m Ashley Roberts, content

director of Printing Impressions, a

Printing United Alliance brand. And with

me here, I have Brad Kugler, who is the

CEO and co-founder of Direct Mail 2.0.

Hello, Brad.

Thank you, Ashley for having me. Great

to be here.

Yes. So glad to be here. So tell me,

what are you showcasing here at the

expo?

Every year we grow and in the last year

we’ve added a new brand to our envelope.

What we do is is we enhance and improve

the effectiveness of direct mail. So,

anything that is complimentary to that,

we either build it or we buy it. The

most recent one is our who’s mailing

what where it’s competitive intelligence

to search direct mail providers and

everyone can kind of see what everyone

else is doing. Our core business is the

enhancement and reporting on direct mail

which actually lifts the engagement of

it. And this trip we just launched our

directmail.ai

which is uh predictive modeling on

direct mail campaigns before you print

it and before you mail it.

Perfect. And I know you’re involved with

the printing AI pavilion here. So how’s

that been going?

So this is really great because I I’ve

been saying that if you are not evolving

or learning AI, you are becoming a

dinosaur. This is even more important

now than for those of us who went

through the dot revolution of 2000. This

is a bigger change and a faster train

than that even was. So, it’s super

important. A lot of traffic there. It’s

been really good.

Perfect.

Brad, thank you so much. I really

appreciate it.

No problem. Anytime.