Let's stop calling it efficiency.
When you eliminated that role last quarter and redistributed the work across AI tools, you didn't optimize. You replaced a human being with a machine and gave it a softer name. Most marketing leaders are doing exactly this right now. Very few are saying it out loud.
That's where Deb and I started today's conversation. Because if we can't be honest about what's actually happening, we have no shot at preparing for what's coming next.
The Reality Check Nobody's Giving You
The execution layer of marketing is being hollowed out in real time. Basic copywriting. Ad operations. SEO content. Routine reporting. Simple design. These aren't jobs "at risk" anymore. They're already going. Entire content teams have been replaced overnight. The Big Four consulting firms have cut graduate hiring by over 30% in a single year.
That last point matters more than people realize. If there are no junior roles, there's no pipeline. And if there's no pipeline, where do the senior marketers of 2035 come from? We don't have a good answer to that yet. The industry doesn't either.
The Middle of Your Career Is the Sweet Spot. For Now.
Here's the uncomfortable truth about the "strategic roles are safe" narrative: it's only half right. Yes, pure execution is the easiest target. But if your version of strategy is mostly pattern recognition, template application, and synthesizing research, AI does that too, and faster. The marketers who are genuinely safe are the ones who bring something AI can't replicate: real critical thinking, cultural instinct, ethical judgment, and the ability to know when the machine is wrong.
As Deb said it plainly today: if all you're doing is showing up to cut and paste, you don't belong in a modern marketing organization. I couldn't agree more.
What the Team Looks Like in Five Years
Smaller. A 20-person team today likely becomes 10. Not because the work disappears but because AI handles the execution while a leaner, sharper team handles direction. The functions that survive aren't standalone departments anymore. They're capabilities. Brand strategy. Demand generation strategy. Sales alignment. Customer experience. Content orchestration.
The roles emerging right now that most orgs don't have job descriptions for yet: AI Workflow Architects who build and manage marketing automation pipelines. Agentic Campaign Supervisors who oversee AI agents running campaigns autonomously. GEO Specialists replacing traditional SEO as AI-powered search rewrites discoverability. Brand Integrity Managers ensuring thousands of AI-generated assets actually sound like the company. And someone responsible for preserving institutional knowledge as AI systems take over more of the work. We called that one a Marketing Memory Architect and I think it's more important than it sounds.
RevOps morphs into AI Systems Operations. Managing hundreds of intelligent agents and workflows requires a different kind of operator, part strategist, part data scientist, part systems thinker.
The Skills That Actually Matter
AI literacy is no longer a differentiator. It's table stakes, the new "proficient in Microsoft Office." What matters now is data fluency, systems thinking, emotional intelligence, ethical judgment, and above all, storytelling. In a world drowning in AI-generated content, the human who can tell a true story that actually connects will be worth more than ever.
The Bottom Line
The train has left the station. You can get on it or get rolled over by it. That's not pessimism. It's the most optimistic framing available because it means the opportunity is still wide open for marketers willing to move.
The best marketers in 2031 won't be the ones who feared AI the least. They'll be the ones who got curious the fastest.
Catch the full conversation on Revenue Marketing Raw. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.