Digital marketers, branded content creators and a whole range of creative professionals came together in Philadelphia for the Digital Summit (#DSPhilly on Twitter) Aug. 23-24 to hear from digital-space thought leaders about what’s next in e-marketing. Here are some highlights from the first day.

Your story is the start of what sets you apart. “The biggest missed opportunity in marketing is playing it too safe,” said dynamic first-day keynoter Ann Handley (@annhandley) of Marketingprofs. “We live in a noisy world. Creating engaging content is more about brains than budget.”

According to Marketingprofs data, while 73% of B2C brands plan to produce more online content this year, 35% still say they’re not sure which content strategy is most effective. That’s why, Handley said, companies should define and lead conversations, not follow them.

“Who are you?” Handley said. “Why do you do what you do? What’s your brand like to deal with? Once you have your larger narrative in place, it puts your business in context of what people care about – how you fit into consumers’ lives. If you cover up your logo, would people still recognize you and your product?”

Learn to thrive in the post-digital age. “Thanks to digital devices, consumers are entitled,” said Eric Yale (@ericyale) of Forrester. “They have very high expectations for brands to be relevant to their lives.” On average, people over age 18 are connected by 4.5 devices and are “always addressable” consumers.

Yale said savvy marketers should be looking less at how many clicks a post drives and more on how their company solves customer problems. “Ask questions like, how can I reduce stress within my customer’s decision-making process?” he recommended. “Have I demonstrated my brand promise everywhere we interact with clients? Do we act human and helpful?”

Get ready for the next decade of mobile. From a Nokia phone with a one-color screen and the ability to store 50 contacts to today’s ubiquitous iPhone, a lot has changed on the mobile landscape. “Get ready for even more change,” said Michael Trapani (@ThatsLogical) of IBM, who gave an overview of what’s on the horizon.

For one, app usage is evolving. Between Android and Apple’s App Store, users can access almost 5 million apps, yet app usage is plummeting. But not for the reason you might think, Trapani said. In 2008, consumers downloaded eight to 10 new apps a month. “Eighty percent of our time is now spent in three types of apps: messaging, browsers and social media,” he said. “Apps are basically escaping their icons where you don’t have to click into the app to use it.” Plus, video, especially on Facebook, is eclipsing written posts in terms of views.

Consumers will also access virtual and augmented reality “for the masses,” which will involve hooking a headset into your smartphone to experience altered reality via mobile.

Chat bots, artificial intelligence and digital personal assistants are the next customer service wave. Did you know 53% of consumers prefer to talk to a business in a chat window than on a phone? “Landing pages are becoming nonessential as companies race to employ chat bots to interact with customers,” said Purna Virji (@purnavirji‏) of Microsoft.

Case in point: 1-800-Flowers.com experienced an order flurry when it added a chat bot option: 70% of those orders were from new customers who had never ordered from the site or called the company on the phone.

Virji noted that by 2020, 85% of a customer relationship will be managed without human interaction. “This will be the norm, especially as 5 billion digital personal assistants will be in use by 2021, most of them mobile-based,” she said.