“Help, our CEO has decided Marketing needs 80% fewer people because of GenAI,” lamented a CMO at a $275M SaaS company. Tempering my outrage for a moment, we tried to laugh off the insanity and then searched for solutions. An untempered rant to follow. Then jujitsu.

First, a few snarky responses to this CEO to clear the air:

• You’re joking, right?
• Why not cut 100% of Marketing and let the bots do the whole thing?
• While you’re at it, why not cut Sales, HR, accounting, and engineering by 80%?
• Which genius guru told you this was a good idea?
• Or did your digital twin recommend this approach? Mine suggested I update my LinkedIn profile.

Rant over. Time for some leadership jujitsu.

Finding the Pony in the AI Panic

My father loved to remind me that if you saw a lot of shit in the paddock, there had to be a pony nearby. My job was always to find the pony. Stay with me.

Like it or not, AI will transform every aspect of business. It won’t happen overnight. It won’t be easy. Many will screw it up, moving too quickly, emphasizing tactics over strategy, efficiency over effectiveness. It will be messy.

The bigger question now is who within the organization will lead that transformation. You can guess who I think could and should find that pony. Hint: It’s not the CEO mentioned earlier.

The CMOs Role in Leading the AI Shift

CMOs are uniquely positioned to grab the reins of this bronco:

• You’re already spending more on tech than any other department
• You were the first to experiment with GenAI
• You know how to run cross-departmental initiatives
• You know how to orchestrate pilot tests
• You know that strategy comes before execution
• You can use both sides of your brand
• You know what matters to your customers
• You have the empathy to help fearful employees gallop through this gauntlet

I could go on.

Change the AI Narrative Before Your CEO Does

So, let’s reimagine the conversation with the CEO, steering it from staff cuts to change management:

CEO: Marketing needs to cut its staff by 80% (because of GenAI)

CMO: I agree with you that GenAI will dramatically improve the productivity of our department. In fact, we could be a model for the whole organization.

CEO: I’m not sure I follow.

CMO: We are currently benchmarking every workflow, from content creation to campaign management, pipeline tracking to sales enablement, and so on. We also have a list of strategic priorities that GenAI can probably help us with.

CEO: That’s nice, but so what?

CMO: With these benchmarks and our strategic priorities in place, we can determine where GenAI could yield the most significant productivity gains. It could also help us be more effective, driving a lot more pipeline and revenue with the same headcount. But first, we need to run some pilots.

CEO: Pilots?

CMO: Yes, by running pilots, we can test our way to success without disrupting everyone at once. Our successes can be replicated across the organization, and others can avoid our failures.

CEO: And you can lead this?

CMO: Damn straight! Let's ride.

Written by Drew Neisser