Every few weeks there’s another headline declaring the “death of the CMO.” The argument changes slightly each time but it’s basically the same thing, some version of: Companies are flattening leadership, marketing is becoming decentralized, AI can create campaigns faster than people can, or automation will replace marketing. The implication is always the same: The role is becoming obsolete.
It’s a strange narrative because no other executive position gets treated this way. You rarely see a steady stream of articles asking whether CEOs, CFOs, or CIOs are still necessary. Yet the CMO is constantly portrayed as expendable, as though marketing itself has somehow become less important. I think the opposite is happening.
It’s not just about speed
Marketing has never been more difficult. Consumers divide their attention across countless platforms and devices. Traditional search is being reshaped by artificial intelligence. Social algorithms change constantly. The number of companies competing for attention grows while the amount of attention available does not. Winning customers today requires far more than buying media or publishing content. It requires clear positioning, disciplined messaging, a strong brand, and an organization aligned around a coherent growth strategy. This is all exactly what great marketing leaders do, and much of it is human work. Machines don’t have the same judgement even if they can help you move faster in certain areas.
The misconception is that marketing leadership is primarily about execution and speed. AI has certainly changed execution. It can generate copy, summarize research, build presentations, analyze performance, and automate work that once consumed entire teams. Those capabilities will continue to improve, and marketers should embrace them. But execution has never been the defining responsibility of a great CMO. Spam companies have out-executed large brands like Apple for years, and yet will never come close to their market cap. The people who believe marketing is simply about “doing more” do not understand the craft.
Marketing leadership’s role has always been about making decisions that software cannot, such as understanding customers, identifying opportunities in the market, determining how a company should be positioned against competitors, deciding where to invest limited resources, and aligning product, communications, brand, sales, and demand generation around a common objective. Those responsibilities require judgment developed through experience versus simply access to better or faster tools.
In many ways, AI makes those responsibilities even more important. As execution becomes easier, more companies will produce more marketing. The internet is already filling with AI-generated articles, advertisements, emails, videos, and social posts. Creating content is rapidly becoming a commodity. And some of the content might even be good, but earning attention requires more than “good content, faster.”
A growth engine, not a cost center
That means the competitive advantage shifts away from simply producing more marketing and toward making better strategic decisions. Which customers should you pursue? Which markets should you enter? What story should your brand tell? How do you differentiate when everyone has access to similar technology? What should your pricing be? These are all leadership questions.
Companies that view marketing as a cost center may see AI as an opportunity to reduce head count. Companies that view marketing as a growth engine will see something different. They will use AI to eliminate repetitive work so their marketing organizations can spend more time on strategy, creativity, customer understanding, and cross-functional leadership.
History suggests that organizations rarely outperform because they go cheaper on their marketing. They outperform because they market better, smarter, more human. The best CMOs succeed because they help define where a company competes, how it earns trust, and why customers choose it over the alternatives. Those responsibilities become more valuable as markets become noisier and competition intensifies.
The role will undoubtedly evolve; obviously, every executive role does. Finance leaders now rely on software that didn’t exist a decade ago, engineering leaders manage AI-assisted development, legal teams increasingly use AI to review contracts. New tools change how work gets done, but they don’t eliminate the need for experienced leadership. Marketing is no different.
Shaping strategy
The next generation of CMOs could potentially oversee leaner teams empowered by AI, but they will also be expected to have broader influence across the business. They will need to connect product strategy with brand, communications with demand generation, customer insights with executive decision-making, and long-term brand building with short-term revenue goals. Success will depend less on managing campaigns and more on shaping company strategy.
The “death of the CMO” makes for a provocative headline. It just doesn’t reflect reality. A company with a competent CMO will run circles around a competitor that is checking boxes and purely lets machines take the wheel.
