A conversation with leading CMO’s about the impact of AI on their business and marketing teams
As AI accelerates change across the business landscape, marketing leaders are rethinking the tools they use and the very makeup of the teams they build. For today’s CMOs, the conversation is no longer simply about adopting AI. It is about adapting leadership, talent models, the skills of their teams and decision-making itself.
In recent conversations that Marketers That Matters had with CMOs across a wide variety of industries one message came through clearly: the definition of a high-performing modern marketer has fundamentally changed.
Marketers today are expected to move faster, think broader, collaborate deeper and operate with increasing business fluency, all while navigating a technology landscape evolving at unprecedented speed.
At the same time, many leaders believe the rise of AI is actually amplifying the importance of deeply human skills.
“AI has added new layers to how we work, but it hasn’t changed what we value most: expertise, intuition and creativity” said Jill Renslow, CMO/CDO of Mall of America.
Nii Addy, CMO of Philo said, “We probe for examples that demonstrate the people are early adopters of tech and have taken the initiative to become in-house mavens who lean into tinkering to solve problems or push boundaries.”
That broader mandate is reshaping both how teams operate and who gets hired.
Adaptability Has Become the New Baseline
One of strongest themes emerging across the responses was the growing importance of adaptability.
The most effective teams are no longer built around rigid channel specialization or static long-term plans. Instead, CMOs described environments defined by experimentation, agility and constant evolution.
High-performing teams are described as agile, data-fluent, fearless and results-driven. “They truly tie all investments to the broader company’s goals, and know their customer to an unreasonable level,” said Sean Harris, President and CMO of Eero.
Others pointed to curiosity, resilience and learning velocity as critical differentiators.
“At minimum, it’s important that candidates are personally using AI and leverage the tools,” said Dave Schneider, CMO of Red Wing Shoe Co. “Aside from the obvious productivity benefits, it signals curiosity which is critical.”
Margaret Murphy, Founder & CEO of Bold Orange Company said she is seeking “innately curious leaders who lean into adopting new tools.” She added that she wants people willing to disrupt the historical channel-first vertical view and move to a horizontal, experience-first view of the world.
That sentiment appeared repeatedly. Marketing leaders increasingly see curiosity and adaptability not as secondary leadership traits, but as core baseline requirements.
The Rise of the AI-Orchestrator
AI is also changing how marketing teams need to think and perform.
Several leaders noted a shift away from purely execution-oriented roles toward marketers capable of orchestrating workflows, systems and AI-enabled collaboration.
“Hiring now favors orchestrators over executors, said Scott Morris, CMO at Sprout Social. “I look for AI-native thinkers who view LLMs as collaborators, not just tools.”
“We are moving from specialists to strategic operators as AI handles more execution increasing the premium on judgement, strategy and synthesis.” said Molly Biwer, CMO at Emory Healthcare.
The implications for hiring are significant.
Many respondents emphasized the growing value of marketers who can think strategically about how AI tools integrate into broader business and customer experience goals, not specialist marketers who know how to use individual platforms.
Prompt engineering, workflow orchestration, predictive modeling and AI fluency surfaced frequently. But even more important was the ability to apply judgment and understanding.
Kristy LoRusso, CMO at Kaiser Permanente said, “A highly productive, modern marketing team operates at the intersection of strategy and empathy. They don’t just execute; they connect.”
That evolution is forcing many organizations to rethink team structures, workflows and expectations.
Human Skills Matter More — Not Less
Yet for all the discussion around automation and AI, respondents consistently returned to one central idea: technology alone is not enough.
Empathy. Storytelling. Emotional intelligence. Strategic clarity. Customer understanding.
“The top skills start with curiosity and a growth mindset, especially with how quickly the marketing landscape keeps changing” said Jessica Stejskal, Chief Experience Officer at Bridgewater Bank.
“Modern marketing teams require three core capabilities: curiosity to uncover insight, empathy to understand customers, and the ability to work cross-functionally with speed to drive results,” said Wendy Bergh, CMO of Rakuten.
Those capabilities may actually become more valuable as AI-generated content becomes more abundant.
The growing importance of knowing what to prioritize, what to ignore and how to maintain an authentic brand voice amid increasing automation is also critical. While AI can dramatically accelerate execution, many leaders remain focused on protecting originality, authenticity and meaningful customer connection.
In many ways, the rise of AI appears to be increasing the premium on uniquely human judgment and authentic, differentiating branding.
The Modern CMO Is Becoming a Business Operator
The evolution is not limited to marketing teams alone. Many CMOs also are making meaningful shifts in how they operate as leaders.
“Five years ago, marketing leadership was focused on campaigns, annual plans and larger teams to produce output,” said Brian Donnelly, CCO of Myriad Genetics. “Today, I think more in terms of systems and feedback loops.”
Today’s CMO increasingly looks less like a traditional functional marketing executive and more like an enterprise-wide growth operator. That means deeper fluency in financial performance, operational complexity, data interpretation and organizational leadership.
Said Anna E. Banks, EVP & CMO of AARP, “We are clearly in the Wild West, and no one really knows where all of this is going, so I have a greater willingness to ask the ‘dumb’ questions and seek out education to better assess the future.”
It also requires greater comfort with ambiguity.
The pace of technological change has forced CMO’s to become more flexible, iterative and experimental in their leadership approach.
The result is a new leadership model — one grounded not in certainty, but in adaptability, curiosity and strategic clarity.
The Future Belongs to Hybrid Leaders
If there was one consistent theme from CMOs today it was this: the highest-performing marketers of the future will combine technological fluency with deep human leadership capabilities.
“Be an early adopter, figure out what works, don’t be afraid to test, use and sunset frequently,” said Lynn Farmer, Chief Audience and Engagement Officer at Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “In the end, continue to focus on basic human needs which are at the core of marketing messaging.”
AI may continue to reshape workflows, content creation and operational efficiency, but the marketers who stand out will be the ones who can synthesize complexity, inspire teams, understand customers and make sound strategic decisions amid rapid changes.
The modern marketing organization is not becoming less human.
If anything, the bar for human critical reasoning and leadership is rising.
And for CMOs building teams today, that may be the most important shift of all.
