Turn Marketers into Managers

“AI isn’t replacing jobs. It’s replacing the 30% of your job you didn’t want to do anyway.”
- Everyone who’s actually using it

What Happens When CMOs Start Managing the Machine

Here’s the lie:
AI is going to take your job.

Here’s the truth:
AI is going to take the parts of your job that suck—the boring, repetitive, shallow work that clogs up your week—and do it instantly.

That’s the opportunity.
But only if you treat it right.

Because AI doesn’t think.
It just… works.
Which means the results are only as good as the manager behind it.

This is where most teams blow it.
They treat AI like a tool.
They should be treating it like a junior hire.

Your Newest Intern is Fast, Cheap, and Clueless

AI is not your boss.
It’s not your replacement.
It’s your intern.

A tireless, lightning-fast intern who:

• Never asks for PTO

• Delivers work at 3 am

• Makes up stats if it doesn’t know the answer

• Has no clue what “on-brand” means

That’s powerful—if you manage it.
Dangerous if you don’t.

The Real Skill Now? Management.

Old world: Learn the tools.
New world: Manage the output.

The best marketers today aren’t button-pushers.
They’re conductors.
They know how to ask the right questions, cue the machine, and shape the results into something that drives growth.

No conductor = noise.
No score = chaos.
Your job now is to run the team, including the robot.

Use the MANAGE Framework

Here’s how to keep your AI intern useful (and stay out of trouble):

M – Mission
Don’t give it a task. Give it an outcome.
Bad: “Write a blog post.”
Good: “Create a blog post that drives signups for our new CFO tool.”

A – Assets
It can’t guess tone, voice, or product nuance. Feed it brand docs, examples, and source data.

N – Nudges
Midpoint check-ins > end-of-project rewrites. Treat it like you would a junior copywriter.

A – Audit
Nothing ships without human review. Ever. Even the good drafts still need polish.

G – Guardrails
Set boundaries. Tell it what’s out of bounds before it drifts into legally questionable territory.

E – Expansion
Start small. Once it nails the easy stuff, scale it into bigger plays.

Start Small. Scale Fast.

This is where most CMOs get stuck. They want a big AI transformation moment.

Forget that. Start with the boring stuff:

• Weekly KPI summaries

• Meta-tag cleanup

• First-pass ad copy

Let it prove itself.

Then promote it to:

• Nurture sequences

• Competitive research

• Post-mortems

Track hours saved. Campaigns launched. Insights shipped.
(“Prompts sent” is not a real metric.)

Where CMOs Are Already Winning with AI

• Building audience segments in minutes, not meetings

• Spinning 20 ad variations before the design team finishes lunch

• Prepping QBR decks while sipping their first coffee

• Pulling daily competitor intel without ever logging into SEMrush

None of this replaces headcount.
It replaces friction.
It puts your team back in a position to think, test, and scale faster.

One Last Thing: AI Doesn’t Need More Tools. It Needs a Manager.

This isn’t about which LLM you picked.
It’s about whether your team has a system to use it well.

Because everyone has the tools now.
The only edge left is how well you manage them.

The CMOs who win?

• Set clear goals

• Train their team to prompt well

• Review everything before it ships

• Track the right outcomes

• Build repeatable systems

The CMOs who lose?

• Let AI “run in the background”

• Hope ChatGPT turns strategy into revenue

• Scale garbage faster

The Takeaway

AI gives you leverage.
But leverage without leadership? Just chaos at scale.

Treat the model like a junior hire.
Build the systems.
Train the team.
Then get out of the weeds and focus on what actually moves the needle.

Because speed without direction is like a Ferrari with no GPS. It’s impressive, but totally lost.

Point your intern (or your AI) at the right target, keep a loose grip on the wheel, and suddenly you’re not just moving fast, you’re compounding. Output starts to sound like music and smell like money.