The Narrative On AI Is Shifting
Have you noticed? Have you felt this disturbance in the force?
I put it around March. Everyone was still riding high; our event in Arizona was buzzing with CMOs using Claude Code. But as we turned into April and May I started … smelling a little something different. A funky smell from a neighboring town. OK sorry I am off script riffing too much. But basically over the last 60 days I’ve noticed in our community, on the phone, and on social media, people in marketing are getting louder and grumpier about AI. Tired of the “you’ll be replaced by 2027” headlines. Tired of “here’s how I replaced my VP of Marketing with AI.”
I don’t have a grand take on where this all goes. I just kept noticing more people pushing back, at work and in my personal life.
So instead of guessing, we threw together a quick poll the other week for readers of this newsletter and got 540 responses from B2B marketers. Not a scientific study so don’t come at me for the data; just a quick read on how marketers are feeling right now. Four things stood out, and actually, it’s less doom than I expected. Here’s what we learned.
1. Everyone’s already using it. Duh. But how much?
92% use AI at least weekly. 71% every single day. Whatever pushback exists, it’s not coming from holdouts. It’s coming from people who live in these tools and have opinions from using them, not from reading think pieces. So we’re using AI, but we’re worried about the future? Interesting.
2. But nobody’s panicking.
The most common feeling was “optimistic but cautious” (35%). Only about 1 in 5 rated their fear of losing their job in the next 18 months an 8 or higher out of 10. The average worry score was a 4.9 out of 10, right in the middle. There’s fatigue in there (20% are tired of hearing about it), but that’s hype fatigue, not tool fatigue. They’ve made their peace with it.
3. The fear is slop, not job loss. Interesting.
When we asked what worries them most, the runaway answer (34%) was AI flooding every channel with low-quality content. Not “a robot takes my job.” That’s a craftsperson’s worry; I like that trend. B2B marketers are not scared for themselves; you see how you can stay employed – but you’re scared the bar is dropping as the boss wants more AI, more efficiency, and more “tell me things you did with Claude!” I feel better after seeing this. This seems to be the right thing to worry about; and the whole reason good work is about to stand out more, not less. We’re bullish on the CRAFT of marketing around here.
4. The bosses are the most into it.
Here’s the one that surprised me. The heaviest users aren’t the kids fresh out of school. They’re the executives. 83% of CMOs and VPs use AI every day, more than the directors and managers below them. They’re also the least worried and, by a wide margin, the most excited.
My read: AI is handing the CMO job back to the actual craft. Less managing the machine, more taste and judgment. So the people at the top are leaning in the hardest. OR, doomer take: the CMO has to do all the AI because the CEO asked to cut all of marketing and thinks you just need a CMO and an AI agent (!) Woof. OK, that’s the quick read out – but I’d love to get more sentiment in my inbox (and maybe there’s more follow-up we could do here). So reply back and tell us – the whole crew here at E5:
Which camp are you in? More excited about AI than you were six months ago, or more tired of it? Hit reply and let us know.
– Dave
(real Dave, human Dave, not crying because I am writing this as we plan my daughter’s birthday for tomorrow and how is she growing up so fast and WTF am I doing with my life and time and blahhh do you know this feeling; parents with older children please tell me there is something to look forward to. I miss those babies)
