AI fluency is non-negotiable (so train your damn team)

We’re past the prompt-play era.

The “just have a go with ChatGPT” days are over. At this point, AI literacy is table stakes. Not just for the innovation team or that one clever intern, but for every single marketer on your roster.

From brand to performance, research to production, marketers must now know how to build with, deploy, and market through AI. This isn’t a future problem. This is right now. The industry is being rewritten in real time—and if your team isn’t learning, they’re lagging.

Let’s be very clear: AI isn’t a tool. It’s a tectonic shift.

First things first, the CMO is being rewritten.

I’ve seen whispers about this dotted around the internet for months. Now it’s undeniable. The CMO job description used to be about brand building, customer experience, and hitting growth targets. It still is, obvs. But now, it also includes:

• Owning automation strategy

• Leading org-wide AI adoption

• Translating between data science, creative, and product

• Managing new kinds of vendors (AI tools, prompt engineers, synthetic research partners)

CMOs must become systems thinkers—as comfortable talking model performance as they are discussing media spend. Because soon, your competitors won’t just be running better creative. They’ll be running AI-augmented operations that move faster, test wider, and waste less.

AI isn't a side hustle for marketing leaders anymore. It’s core business. Being a modern CMO means knowing how to brief both a creative team and a language model.

In saying that, every marketing role is getting an upgrade (or a rewrite, however you choose to look at it).

Your performance marketer is now part-analyst, part-automation architect. Your brand strategist needs to understand generative video tools. Your content lead should know how to run a synthetic research panel by lunch and write a Claude-accelerated product launch plan by 3pm.

This isn’t sci-fi, baby. It’s already happened.

The next generation of marketers aren’t just fluent in creative ideas. They also know how to:

• Prototype with AI

• Co-write with large language models

• Work alongside design tools like Adobe Firefly or Google’s Flow

• Optimise campaigns in real time using AI-driven feedback loops

The marketer of tomorrow is a shape-shifter: part storyteller, part coder, part product thinker, part data analyst. And depending on the day (or the sprint), they’ll need to embody all of the above.

So, the talent is rising (yay) but the transition may be messy (oh).

As much as AI creates new capabilities, it also exposes gaps. Senior marketers who’ve built careers in traditional structures might feel behind. Junior marketers fluent in AI-native tools are suddenly leapfrogging. Entire hierarchies are being destabilised by speed, fluency, and adaptability.

That’s not a threat. That’s a training opportunity.

The teams that thrive will be the ones that:

• Upskill proactively

• Celebrate internal learning loops

• Give people time to experiment (and fail)

• Rethink what seniority really means in a fast-moving environment

This is the beginning of a great marketing unbundling and reassembly.

Well then, is it time to rethink talent development and who to outsource to?

The thing is, you can’t outsource your AI brain. Agencies and vendors can help with execution, but if your internal team doesn’t understand what’s possible, you’ll always be behind. That means it’s time to rethink:

• What do we need to build internally?

• What do we no longer need to hire for?

• Where do we empower experimentation?

• What skills are truly differentiating for our brand?

Train for prompt fluency. Train for tool flexibility. Train for AI-literate leadership at every level of the org. Because your success in the AI era won’t be defined by your tech stack. It’ll be defined by your team’s ability to use it well.

AI is no longer just something you “play with” when the real work is done. It’s literally how the real work gets done. So if AI isn’t baked into your briefs, production timelines, creative development, customer research, content workflows, and campaign measurement…you’re not behind the curve. You’re off the freaking chart. Not in a good way.

Marketers shouldn’t just know what AI can do. They should know what it should do, and how to wield it with taste, intelligence, and intention.

AI isn’t coming for your job, but it may be coming for your job description.

So uh, yes. Train your damn team. Build the capabilities internally. Give your people the time and permission to experiment, fail, and level up. Because AI won’t make your marketing better on its own.

But the marketers who know how to use it? They’re about to eat.

-Sophie Randell, Writer