Competing With the Machine
There’s a strange pressure building in marketing right now; one we don’t really talk about, because it’s easier to share the polished take: AI is exciting. AI is powerful. AI makes everything faster.
And yes, it does. But if you work in marketing today, there’s another layer underneath it:
It often feels like you’re competing with the very tools you’re expected to master.
The expectation has quietly shifted. A few years ago, “wearing multiple hats” meant picking up a little design, a little copy, a little strategy. Today, it means:
learn every new AI tool
stay current on every platform change
adopt every workflow update
teach the team how to use it
and somehow still deliver the same volume and quality as before
All without extra time. All without extra resources. All while the industry becomes noisier, faster, and more complex.
The narrative is: “AI saves time.” The reality is: It increases expectations.
Workloads haven’t decreased, yet expectations have expanded. Many teams assume AI is a second employee. But AI is only useful if you understand how to actually use it, what to ask, how to edit it, and ironically, how to be more human than it. That takes skill. That takes practice. That takes time.
And while AI can write a paragraph or build a brief in seconds, it can’t:
prioritize
interpret nuance
read internal dynamics
understand brand politics
sense when something “doesn’t feel right”
build relationships
replace taste or judgment
Those are still human responsibilities. They’re just harder to see, so they get undervalued.
There’s also the emotional side. The quiet fear of falling behind. The pressure to stay ahead of something that moves faster than any of us can realistically track. The feeling that you’re supposed to be excited about a tool that also makes your job feel less secure.
Here’s the truth we never say out loud: AI isn’t eliminating work. It’s just changing what counts as “enough.”
And while AI is a remarkable tool, one I certainly use and genuinely value, there’s still a very human cost to keeping up with the pace of innovation. The industry hasn’t adjusted for that yet. Most teams still operate like nothing changed, while expecting output to double. The future isn’t “AI replaces marketers.” It’s “AI requires more from marketers than ever before.”
More adaptability. More judgment. More clarity. More emotional intelligence. More ability to connect the dots the machine can’t see.
We’re not competing with AI. We’re competing with unrealistic expectations of what AI can do on its own.
And at some point, the conversation needs to shift from: “Look at what AI can do.” to: “Look at what humans still carry.”
That’s the part worth talking about.