Are you sick of AI yet? [Take the survey]

How are B2B marketers really feeling about AI right now? [Take the survey]

I had lunch with a big tech CMO last week.

This person is plugged in. Public company. Billions in revenue.

He's also completely AI-pilled (as they say) and fully bought in to how AI will change business.

But he also said to me "you have no idea what's coming."

I'm paraphrasing, but the point was this: in the next 18 months there's going to be a big shift with the narrative around AI.

People are turning against the AI companies because of the jobs they say they will take (and it's not just them taking the jobs, it's the way they are out in the public saying this so… in your face). Then there's the impact from the data centers, the spending, etc.

Look I am not a tech policy / political / whatever you might call it expert. I know about marketing, working out, and being a Dad. But I can 1,000% match this information with what I am feeling around our community with AI.

The narrative is shifting on AI.

In the last 60 days (basically since the end of March) there are more voices getting louder and grumpier about the AI stuff.

They are tired of the headlines "you will be replaced by 2027, so act accordingly" or "how I replaced our VP marketing with AI over the weekend."

Because while AI certainly provides incredible capabilities to marketers (ex: never login and deal with ads managers again) they don't want it at the cost of their jobs. Or just this idea that the role of marketing can be replaced by a computer.

I don't have a long-term point of view on what happens with business marketing, and AI, but I certainly feel more of a stronger pushback beginning to happen.

I'm not giving you my hot take. I'm not giving you thought leadership. I am simply sharing an observation. You can decide what to do with that information and what it might mean.

All I'm saying is this: I'm noticing more people in both my work life and personal life beginning to push back on AI in the last 60 days.

But I also simultaneously hold the belief that AI has incredible potential and power, both in my personal life and in marketing. Gah. So I am torn. And you might be too…

What happens from here? Where do you stand on AI and your job?

Take our 45-second survey and tell us where you actually stand on AI right now.

I also realize that many of you who read this newsletter work in AI right now and I'm not trying to throw stones, but I think there's a positioning and PR challenge that you will face if you want to really win over the hearts and minds of the marketers here too.

- Dave

PS. Written by a human, from today's "writing space" - because nothing promotes clear thinking like a messy craft table that I've asked my kids to clean up three times already but I needed to ship this draft of my newsletter to Dan ASAP so he doesn't have to spend Sunday night getting this out…

‍