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73% of marketers now use AI every day, and most of us feel the boost: more speed, more output, more “done”. But one number stops me cold: only about 30% say they’re seeing significant measurable results. That gap is the signal. The big question for marketing leaders is no longer whether AI belongs in the team. It’s whether AI is making our marketing better or simply making us faster at producing more.

I unpack what the 2026 AI Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner and the Social Media Examiner team really means for CMOs, founders, and growth leads. We talk about why AI makes marketing activity cheap while value creation stays hard, and why the future CMO role shifts toward orchestration: connecting business goals, customer needs, marketing technology, people, and outcomes. If your AI success metric is “hours saved” or “content shipped”, we’re stopping too early. The board cares about what changes because of the work.

We also explore the tension between visibility and differentiation, pulling in ideas I’ve discussed with Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris Do. AI discovery is real, and being present across formats matters, but when everyone can publish endlessly, the differentiator becomes deeply human: judgment, taste, courage, a clear point of view, and trust. With rising concerns about accuracy, reliability, data privacy, and security, trust is the one thing AI can’t scale for you.

This solo episode was recorded via Descript on August 26, 2026. Read the blog article and show notes here: https://webdrie.net/the-ai-adoption-race-is-ending-what-michael-stelzners-2026-report-means-for-marketers


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