Is it Possible to Future Proof a Career Given AI?

What Marketing Could Teach Us if We Were Actually Marketing

Jack Ma, speaking at the World Economic Forum in 2019, warned:
“We have to teach our kids something unique, so that a machine can never catch up with us: values, believing, independent thinking, teamwork, care for others—the soft skills—sports, music, painting, arts, to make sure humans are different from machines.”

This sentiment echoes deeply in the current moment, where technology — particularly AI and robotics — seems poised to disrupt every aspect of work. But the root cause of many challenges AI now magnifies lies not in technology itself but in something more fundamental: the unraveling of Marketing.

Marketing, once the engine of business, was gutted by the internet. Here’s how it happened, and why it matters more than ever.

The Fall of Marketing

Before 1995, Marketing wasn’t just about advertising, branding, or lead generation. It was everything related to the market — from understanding customers to shaping products, driving sales, recruiting talent, and finding investors. Marketing leaders often held the reins of entire companies.

Historically, Marketing encompassed all work related to the market. As Peter Drucker famously put it, “Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.” Marketing wasn’t just about advertising or sales; it was the framework for understanding whether a business should act, how, and why.

Since the dawn of business, whether known or performed as such or not, through the early 1990s, Marketing steered the strategic direction of companies. CMOs shaped products, led market research, and managed customer relationships. Budgets reflected this importance: Marketing consumed the lion’s share because it delivered the insights and strategies that drove the business.

But the internet arrived, and with it, a seismic shift. The moment of reckoning for many Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) came when young, internet-savvy employees began to wield tools like early SEO and digital ads. Suddenly, these “kids” (I was one of them, so don’t judge my seemingly ageist criticism of myself; what’s true is true) could deliver data-backed results—a 5x return on ad spend, clear customer insights, and actionable strategies—while many CMOs couldn’t even define “click-through rate.”

Rather than embracing this transformation, Marketing executives panicked. To protect their authority, they marginalized the internet as “digital marketing,” relegating it to junior staff or external agencies. Marketing fractured into silos:

1. Websites became a tech team’s problem.
2. Product development splintered off, prioritizing MVPs and feature creep over market alignment.
3. Sales claimed ownership of the customer relationship, sidelining Marketing’s role in research and strategy.

This fragmentation culminated in the rise of the Chief Revenue Officer; a title born out of the perception that Sales — not Marketing — drives revenue. The silo’s fostered the challenge of a Head of Product distinct from being directed by the market; we saw the rise of Lean Startup and focusing on customers, designing solutions because founders *think so* and believe biased confirmation from people who might buy. Websites that failed to really meet the expectations and needs of the market, increasingly pushed for platforms, Content Management Systems, SaaS, and alternatives, that would make a better website, when the marketing team itself should be fully capable of doing just that.

Today, Marketing is often reduced to a support function—branding, lead generation, or content creation. This narrow definition has fueled a vicious cycle:

• Employers hire marketers with superficial skills, who fail to deliver meaningful results.
• Marketers burned out by trying to fix broken systems, leave or adapt to roles where they cannot lead.
• Businesses undervalue Marketing, turning instead to automation or outsourcing.

As Scott Galloway explains in The Four, “Marketing has been forced into a corner, where it’s measured by likes and clicks instead of by how it drives business strategy.”

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The Chaos that Followed

By 2010, the fallout was clear:

• SEO became a patchwork of hacks rather than a strategic discipline.
• Content marketing devolved into “content for content’s sake,” driven by the mantra that “content is king.”
• Influencers and growth hackers seized control of the narrative, muddying the waters of what Marketing truly is.

As a result, even venture capitalists — those who should champion strategic market insights — began to advise startups they were “not ready for marketing.” Marketing, once the cornerstone of business, was reduced to promotion and lead generation.

A Lesson in Failure

This collapse of Marketing created a vicious cycle. Employers hired marketers who didn’t know how to market. Real marketers, burned out by trying to fix broken systems, abandoned the field or took on roles where they could no longer effect change.

And now, AI steps into this vacuum. Marketing, stripped of its strategic core, is the first to be automated.

Here’s the paradox: as AI automates transactional tasks—data entry, ad optimization, coding—it’s creating space for humans to focus on what AI cannot do. Jack Ma’s emphasis on creativity, independent thinking, and empathy points to Marketing’s future:

1. Storytelling: Crafting narratives that resonate with human experience.
2. Market Insight: Using tools like AI to deepen research, not replace it.
3. Creativity: Turning data into strategies that surprise and delight.

Philip Kotler, a father of modern Marketing, captures this shift:
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make but about the stories you tell.”

We allowed SEO and, later, Influencers to flourish. We dove headfirst into “Content is king” and pushed everyone to think we create content or do podcasts

As a result, VCs who had bad experiences with “marketing” because of people who weren’t actually marketing, starred preaching that you’re “not ready for marketing,” because marketing became only promoting or advertising.

And that’s where we are today.

The majority of consulting and advising I do encounters organizations struggling because Marketing (their marketing) is just brand, getting flyers made, growth, leads, or promotion. And if you aren’t driving sales, you’re failing.

Morons. I mean it. Absolute dumbf**** who are killing their business because they fell into the completely understandable trap, that marketing is a minor role instead of the primary role.

You can’t find a job right now because WE allow half assed promotions, influencers, salespeople, lead gen spam, SEO, and other crap, to teach employers that that is what marketing is. Marketers who actually know what they’re doing, take any job because they (we) need it. We then try to course correct until we feel dead inside from trying to fix the mess, but things don’t change, because the boss won’t listen, while the business languishes. We perpetuate our own lack of good jobs. And the employers understandably perpetuate that because the “marketers” who don’t know what they’re doing (or who aren’t actually marketers), ALSO take any job because they (we) need it, but they hack some positive outcomes, fail to accomplish anything else critical, causing employers to think “marketing” doesn’t work.

And what does this have to do with your question?? As AI and robotics takes a more prominent role in our economy, can we future proof ourselves for jobs?

There is THE bright side.

Technology is replacing the mess. Product is now data driven. Sales is automated. And fundamental coding is being done by AI.

What’s left that makes any business unique and compelling is marketing: storytelling, competitive analysis, market research, and creativity. Jack Ma was right.

We might be able to course correct, but only if more of us DO Marketing. Fix the ignorance. Stop allowing hucksters to claim to be marketers. Stop pretending that we’re in the b.s. lead gen business because our job isn’t selling, it’s everything that makes a business valuable. INCLUDING HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE.

And what makes the right people, whether you’re in Sales, an Engineer, or in Finance? What makes the right Marketer when much of what we do can be done with AI? Doing your job WITH AI, along with your humanity, creativity, audience, and influence, YOUR independent thinking, teamwork, and care for others, makes you unique. How? Learn sports, music, painting, and the arts, and DO it, show it, so that we’re not just hiring another human resource replaceable by AI.

The Bright Side

This is our chance to course correct. Technology is automating the busywork — ad optimization, basic coding, and even sales processes, as well as recruiting, accounting, and operations. What remains is the essence of Marketing:

• Storytelling: Crafting narratives that resonate with people.
• Competitive Analysis: Understanding not just what customers want but what competitors are failing to deliver.
• Creativity: Turning insights into compelling, differentiated strategies.

These are the skills that make businesses thrive. These are the skills that will make YOU thrive no matter what your role.

To start, Marketing must reclaim its role as the driver of business strategy so as to expect everyone (from you in engineering to your friend in accounting) to operate in the same manner. To do that…

Redefine Marketing’s Role
Marketing must return to the boardroom, steering decisions about products, markets, and investments. It’s not about driving sales—it’s about creating value.

Reject the Commoditization of Marketing
Stop allowing SEO hacks, influencers, and lead-gen spam to define the field. Marketers must reclaim their expertise, demanding that businesses value strategy over tactics.

Invest in Skills AI Can’t Replace
Empathy, creativity, and cultural intelligence are the future. Businesses should prioritize hiring and developing talent with these strengths.

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1. Stop settling for mediocrity. Refuse to let “influencers” or SEO hacks define Marketing.
2. Invest in human skills. Encourage creativity, teamwork, and empathy as core competencies.
3. Lead with strategy. Make Marketing the central driver of decision-making once again.

As AI reshapes the job market, this approach isn’t just good business—it’s survival. Marketing must return to its roots, not as a department but as the soul of the enterprise.

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Read These, I’m Not Alone in Saying This!

• Scott Galloway, on the fragmentation of Marketing, “The mistake we made was letting Marketing become a cost center instead of the foundation of strategic growth.” (https://www.profgalloway.com)
• Philip Kotler, on Marketing’s purpose, “Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value.” (Marketing Management, 2016)
• Jack Ma, on the future of work: (World Economic Forum Speech)
• Tom Goodwin, author of Digital Darwinism, “The companies that fail are the ones that treat digital as a channel instead of a shift in how businesses must think.” (Digital Darwinism on Amazon)
• Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, “Data is a useful servant but a terrible master. The real breakthroughs come from creativity and intuition, not spreadsheets.” (Video: Whoever owns the data owns the conversation)
• Seth Godin, marketing pioneer, “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.” (Seth’s Blog)

The rise of AI marks a crossroads. Either Marketing reclaims its role as the strategic engine of business, or it becomes obsolete — and with it, your job – tasks relegated entirely to algorithms. The choice is ours.

By embracing the soft skills Jack Ma championed—values, creativity, and care for others — Marketing can not only survive but thrive. It can lead businesses into an AI-powered future where humanity still matters.