I'm a CMO who thinks AI has brought a long-overdue reckoning for top marketers. Here's how I'm adapting for the future.

"Too many CMOs have been doing the business of marketing, which is the role of a VP of marketing. The business of marketing is doing campaigns, managing channels, communications, engagements, and brand. The role of the CMO should be to do the business of the company: vision, deciding where the company is going, what the company stands for, and how it grows."

"The uncomfortable truth is that what CMOs have been doing for a lot of years is coordination, reporting, briefs, approvals, and production. That's not strategic vision. And AI is exposing that. The CEO says, 'Wait, can AI not do this today?' AI amplifies whatever judgment already exists in the organization. It raises the floor and amplifies the ceiling."

"The role of the CMO has been under attack for years. Part of the reason is that the role has never actually been consistently defined. If you walk into 10 different companies, you will find 10 different versions of what a CMO is supposed to do. That inconsistency has made the role easy to question and really easy to cut."

The CMO role has faced criticism due to inconsistent definition across organizations, making it vulnerable to elimination. Many CMOs focus on marketing operations—campaigns, channels, communications—rather than strategic business decisions. The distinction between a CMO and VP of marketing has blurred, with CMOs handling tactical execution instead of defining company vision, growth strategy, and market positioning. AI has exposed this gap by automating operational marketing tasks, forcing organizations to reconsider the CMO's value. AI amplifies existing organizational judgment and capabilities, raising both floor and ceiling performance. CMOs must redefine their role around strategic business impact rather than marketing production to remain relevant.

Read at Business Insider