For years, we’ve built marketing to operate almost like a production line. A brief comes in, teams create content, campaigns go live, reports get produced, and we move on to the next one.
Now AI promises to make every part of that process faster.
That’s useful. But I think we’re asking a rather small question of a very powerful technology.
I’ve spent much of my career working where marketing and technology meet. I’ve seen how new platforms have changed the way we reach customers, manage campaigns and measure performance. And I’ve also seen how easily we can confuse doing something faster with doing it better.
If AI helps us create thirty versions of the wrong message, have we really improved marketing? Or have we simply become more efficient at getting something wrong?
I believe the bigger opportunity is to rethink how marketing works, not just how quickly we deliver it.
Take something as basic as understanding the customer. Today, valuable information sits across sales conversations, campaign results, customer research, digital behaviour and the experience of people working directly with clients.
Imagine if we spent less time collecting that information and more time connecting it. If AI could help us spot changes in customer behaviour, question our assumptions and identify opportunities we might otherwise miss.
And imagine marketers, creative thinkers, data specialists and engineers working together from the beginning, rather than passing work from one team to another.
That would change more than productivity. It would change what we expect from marketers.
We would need fewer people spending their time on repetitive tasks and more people who understand customers, ask better questions, challenge ideas and connect marketing decisions to business outcomes.
I’d also invest more in brand and original thinking. When every company can produce polished content in minutes, simply producing more won’t set anyone apart. Having something meaningful and different to say will.
For marketing leaders, I think this calls for a change in where we put our attention and investment. Not every problem needs another AI tool. Sometimes it needs better customer knowledge, closer collaboration or the courage to stop doing work that adds little value.
The question I’d encourage all marketing leaders to ask is not, “How much more can my team produce with AI?”
It’s, “What can we understand, decide, and do better because we have AI?”
That, to me, is the more interesting future of marketing. Not simply a faster department, but one that understands its customers better, makes better decisions, and contributes more meaningfully to business growth.
