Just another marketing apocalypse: thoughts on Generative AI for marketers

The sky is falling. Again.

Yes - generative AI is having a hugely disruptive influence on marketers. The marketing landscape and daily reality for marketers will be changed beyond recognition.

But here's the thing: this isn't new. This is yet another marketing apocalypse, and they come along all the time.

Sometimes it's an algorithm change that sends everyone into a tailspin. Sometimes it's zero-click search results decimating your carefully crafted SEO strategy. Sometimes it's the GDPR turning your data practices upside down. Sometimes it's marketing automation threatening to make whole teams redundant. Sometimes it's needing to build a website when you've only ever done print. 

Sometimes, it's something else entirely.

The myth of the competitive advantage

Marketers are accustomed to apocalypses. With each one, the same pattern emerges:

• Some panic but do nothing, paralysed by fear
• Others dismiss it as 'yet another new thing' and assume it will pass them by
• Both groups fall behind and eventually die off

But there's a third group - those who engage with the change, capitalise on it, and do what marketers always do: they go where their audience is, build meaningful relationships, and thrive.

The world of marketing transforms with each apocalypse, but those who adapt don't just survive - they flourish. 

And, as these winners emerge, you'll start to hear people talking about AI as their 'compeitive advantage'. And that's just nonsense. It always frustrates me when people refer to their technology or their people as a 'competitive advantage'. It's simply not true.

HubSpot isn't your competitive advantage - anyone can buy HubSpot, and then the advantage is competed out. Hiring a senior marketing automation expert isn't your competitive advantage, because anyone can do that too.

Your competitive advantage isn't what you can buy in (people, HubSpot, AI, or anything else). It's how you go about things - your methodologies, intellectual property, and unique approaches to work.

Great marketers know this. They live it with every apocalypse. So, make sure you don't get caught up in the hype of seeing AI as your competitive advantage because it's not. AI is the stairway to the even playing ground post-apocalypse. 

Dust off your change management processes and get to the work of bringing AI into your marketing strategy.

Transformation and change: a goal and a mechanism

During the panel debate at B2B Marketing Live in Manchester on 16 July 2025, my fellow panelist Sarah Aird-Mash challenged my use of the term 'change' - and she was absolutely right to do so.

Sarah argued that change isn't the goal; transformation is. Change, she said, is a choice - something you can roll back. Transformation is a mindset and ethos that goes across the entire business.

She shared how her efforts to change her team's behaviour fell flat until she focused on transforming how they work as a team. Once she shifted to a transformation mindset rather than change, her efforts met with great success.

Sarah's absolutely right. But, if transformation is the goal and endstate, then change is the vehicle by which we get there. We need a transformation goal so clearly visualised that we can practically taste it. But we will only reach that state through the skilled application of change management. With each change being a milestones along the way to your vision of transformation.

The AI apocalypse survival guide

So how do marketers survive the AI apocalypse? The same way they survived the last one, and the same way they'll survive the next one:

1. Have a vision for transformation - Know where you're heading, not just what you're running from
2. Execute change management skillfully - Break transformation into manageable milestones
3. Go where your audience is - If they're using AI, you need to be there too
4. Build meaningful relationships - Technology changes; human connection endures
5. Develop unique methodologies - Your how is your competitive advantage, not your what.

The cycle continues

Eventually, the advantage of having adapted to AI will be competed out. Everyone will have access to the same tools, everyone will be using them, and it becomes the new normal.

Marketing is always in a state of flux. We have to change now for AI. Next time, we'll have to change for something else.

That's not a bug - it's a feature. Change is our business.