Cameron Shackell

Dr Cameron Shackell completed his undergraduate degree in Economics at UQ, his Master of Letters in Applied Linguistics at ANU, and his PhD in Semiotics and Information Technology at QUT.

He is currently a Visitor and Sessional Academic at the QUT School of Information Systems. He also works in the private sector as CEO of GeneriTrend, a firm using AI to analyse brands and trademarks.

Cameron's research interests include semiotics, artificial intelligence, data science, branding and marketing, trademark evidence, and the economics of intellectual property. He writes regularly for World Trademark Review and Brandingmag.

AI/Machine Learning

If you think AI is being overhyped, check out what happened to a similarly revolutionary technology a century ago

- October 8, 2025 4 MIN READ

The electrification boom of the 1920s set the United States up for a century of industrial dominance and powered a global economic revolution. But before electricity faded from a red-hot tech sector into invisible infrastructure, the world went through profound social change, a speculative bubble, a stock market crash, mass unemployment and a decade of… Read more »

artificial intelligence advertising
AI/Machine Learning

The real reason retailers are replacing staff with AI bots is not because they’re cheaper, but for customer data

- May 7, 2024 4 MIN READ

You might have seen viral videos of Wendy’s drive-thru customers in the United States ordering their fast food from the firm’s generative AI bot Wendy’s FreshAI. Most show a very human-like transaction punctuated with cries of amazement at how fast, accurate and polite the system is. While the system and others like it are in… Read more »