The Marketers New Role In Ai
Made it to Indonesia after much sailing and it’s time to relax
Sailing around the world isn’t about being the best sailor. It’s setting up and maintaining the systems that keep your boat afloat.
Marketing with AI is much the same. We are moving from manual tasks to autopilot and now toward selfpilot. The marketer’s role is not disappearing, but shifting.
Everyone is at different stages in this evolution, and each stage requires a specific approach.
Let’s jump into it
Every sailboat is unique, shaped by its design, systems and skipper. In the same way, every marketing team’s AI journey looks different.
The challenge with AI is not to eliminate human intervention, but create systems that are reliable, adaptable and supportive.
Taking out SV Fortuna to manage and repair systems
In my last webinar, How to Bootstrap Your Marketing, someone asked about audience outreach, automation and maintaining a human connection. This question and further conversations inspired today’s newsletter.
My advice was that optimisation does not always mean automated conversations. More often, it is about the systems that surround them, including the preparation, workflows and follow-up.
Later, a separate conversation about asset creation reinforced the same point. The real challenge was not replacing human connection, but making asset customisation for clients quicker.
Marketing is no longer about tasking harder. It is about maintaining the systems that allow conversations and creativity to scale.
A helpful resource
Too often, the conversation about AI jumps to extremes. In reality, most of us are navigating somewhere in between.
That’s why I created the AI Pilots Framework. It maps the stages marketers move through as AI shifts from being a tool, to a partner, to an interconnected system.
The AI Pilots Framework
The point isn’t to race ahead or assume one stage is “better.” It’s about knowing where you are today, so you can take the right steps tomorrow.
To figure out where you stand, ask yourself:
- How much of my daily work is still manual?
- Am I using AI for one-off tasks, or connected workflows?
- Is AI assisting me, or am I still directing every move?
- Do I spend more time producing work, or maintaining systems?
- Does the AI output make sense or doing what is needed?
Moving from one pilot type to another is not a leap, but a series of small adjustments, like automating repetitive tasks, connecting workflows, standardising systems and gradually shifting your role.
By reflecting on these, you can place yourself within the framework, and more importantly, see how to move forward.
The future of marketing is maintaining the systems that scale conversations & creativity
And there’s more
✏️ Join: The recording of my webinar “How to Bootstrap Your Marketing” is available if you missed the live session.
📚 Read: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is one of my favourite meandering reads and was adapted into a film.
🎧 Listen: For something beyond a meditation app, Activations is an interesting approach with motivational audio plus music.
📍 Visit: If you’re in Tokyo soon, the design and art festival aptly named Designart is 31 October to 9 November.