For a decade, marketing leaders were promised clarity. Every click could be tracked. Every conversion could be attributed. Every pound could be justified with apparent precision. That promise was always overstated. Privacy reform, platform opacity and signal loss have not destroyed certainty. They have revealed that it was never as solid as it appeared. The […]
Tag Archives: AI
Why clarity is the real competitive advantage in AI marketing
posted by Mike O'Brien
There is a fundamental shift happening in marketing that most organisations have not yet recognised. For decades, competitive advantage in marketing came from access: better tools, better data, better technology, better talent. Organisations competed to acquire scarce resources faster than competitors. That era is ending. AI, automation, and agentic systems are becoming universally accessible. Within […]
A simple framework for deciding where AI fits in your marketing
posted by Mike O'Brien
Marketers do not need more inspiration about what AI can do. They need structure for deciding what AI should do in their specific context. Most AI marketing content focuses on possibilities: impressive demonstrations, ambitious use cases, transformational potential. This creates excitement but rarely creates clarity. What is missing is a practical, reusable framework that helps […]
When not using AI is the smarter marketing decision
posted by Mike O'Brien
There is a quiet form of pressure running through marketing teams right now. The pressure to adopt, implement, demonstrate progress with AI. This pressure creates a dangerous assumption: that using AI is always better than not using it. In reality, strategic maturity often shows in restraint. The most confident marketing leaders are not those who […]
How to introduce AI without frightening your team or your boss
posted by Mike O'Brien
Resistance to AI in marketing teams is rarely what it appears to be. When someone pushes back on AI adoption, questions pilot proposals, or expresses scepticism about agentic systems, the response is often dismissive: they do not understand the technology, they fear change, they are protecting their position. In reality, resistance is usually rational. It […]
The quiet skills marketers need more than new tools
posted by Mike O'Brien
There is a persistent misunderstanding about what separates high-performing marketers from struggling ones in AI-enabled environments. The assumption is technical capability: understanding how models work, mastering prompt engineering, keeping pace with platform updates, demonstrating tool proficiency. That assumption is wrong. The marketers who thrive as AI, automation and agentic systems become standard are not those […]
What agentic marketing actually means in day-to-day work
posted by Mike O'Brien
Agentic marketing is often described as autonomy. That framing creates both excitement and anxiety in equal measure. Excitement: Systems that pursue goals independently, make decisions in real-time, and coordinate activity across channels without constant human intervention. Anxiety: Loss of control, unpredictable behaviour, decisions made without adequate oversight, accountability gaps when outcomes go wrong. Both responses […]
The hidden cost of marketing automation no one budgets for
posted by Mike O'Brien
Automation is sold as time saved. In practice, it often changes where the work happens rather than removing it altogether. This matters because many marketing teams feel busier after automating, not lighter. The technology has worked. The promise has not. This blog is part of a practical guide to making sense of AI, automation and […]
Stop asking what AI can do. Start asking where it should help
posted by Mike O'Brien
One of the quiet reasons AI feels so disruptive to marketing is the question everyone starts with. What can AI do? It sounds sensible. It feels responsible. It is also the wrong place to begin, and it is a primary driver of the overwhelm explored in the previous post. This blog is part of a […]
Why AI feels overwhelming to perfectly capable marketers
posted by Mike O'Brien
Time to stop and smell the roses in the garden of AI Hype There is a quiet misunderstanding at the heart of today’s AI conversation. When marketers feel overwhelmed, it is often assumed they are behind, resistant, or under-skilled. In reality, the opposite is usually true. Most marketers are capable, curious, and motivated. What they […]
Why 40% of agentic AI projects will become operational zombies
posted by Mike O'Brien
Marketers are right to be excited about agentic AI. Properly designed agent-based systems can reduce manual effort, accelerate campaign execution, and coordinate decisions across complex customer journeys. Yet Gartner expects more than 40% of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by 2027.
Marx and the machine
posted by Mike O'Brien
This piece reframes the AI debate through a longer arc of economic history. Workers were once seen as the heart of society, but the liberal globalisation wave led by Reagan and Thatcher shifted that centre of gravity. Deregulation empowered corporations, weakened unions and elevated shareholder value as the dominant organising principle. Inequality widened as executive elites surged ahead. AI is not the beginning of that story. It is the acceleration point. The question now is whether leaders allow AI to deepen exclusion or use it to restore a more balanced, human-centred economy.
When the boss is a bot
posted by Mike O'Brien
How to spot a toxic AI marketing manager in 2035 Disclaimer: All names and bots have been anonymised. Any resemblance to emotionally unavailable machine-learning overlords is purely coincidental. If you think burnout is bad now, just you wait. In 2035, marketing will be a fusion of creativity and code. AI does the targeting, personalisation, and […]
Mediocre machines and lost leaders
posted by Mike O'Brien
Are we handing the future to AI by default? As the global conversation around Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) intensifies, a tantalising – and troubling – question emerges:Could AGI actually be an upgrade on the world’s current leaders? At first glance, the idea sounds oddly reassuring. After all, AGI is, by definition, designed to reason, learn […]
Writer runs into ChatGPT
posted by Mike O'Brien
Writer: Will AI replace writers? ChatGPT : While AI has made significant advances in generating written content, it is unlikely that it will replace writers entirely. AI-generated content can be useful for certain tasks such as generating reports or summaries, but it is still limited in its ability to create unique and creative content that […]
Semi-sentient avatars and my optimised digital marketing fantasy.
posted by Mike O'Brien
Life will never be the same. I miss the visionary novels of the one and only Ian M Banks. His mind-blowing Culture novels make me feel pessimistic and optimistic in equal measure. While artificial intelligence seems to have peaked at robot soccer tournaments; data, search, social and mobile stand on the verge of morphing into […]

