What’s Left of Marketing After AI? The Experts (Part 1)
You may have seen the Adweek headline: 65% of marketing jobs may not survive AI. The data behind it comes from Anthropic’s Labor Market Impacts report, which ranked marketing specialists and market research analysts fifth on its list of 800 occupations most exposed to AI displacement (behind only programmers, customer service representatives, data entry, and medical records).
If you’re a marketing leader, here’s what actually matters for how you build and resource your team right now.
AI is doing execution; the experts are overseeing it
Adweek‘s Mark Ritson is careful to note that the 65% figure applies to tasks, not people. What AI is stripping away is the execution layer: research synthesis, content production, campaign reporting, data analysis, competitive intelligence. Work that has inputs, processes, and outputs that can be systematized.
What AI cannot reliably replicate is the work that takes years of experience to build – brand judgment, institutional knowledge, management capabilities, and strategic positioning. Can your marketing team read a market shift before it shows up in a dashboard? Does the creative direction feel true to a brand? Is data telling you the complete story?
The organizations winning with AI right now are reallocating time from execution to strategy, using AI to scale operations without losing control of brand, budget, or data governance. It means the value of strategic brand work and experienced marketing talent is increasing.
Even Anthropic needs a marketing strategist
Here’s the irony that’s been making the rounds: Big Tech is paying high six-figure salaries for senior communications roles. While Anthropic’s research flags marketing as one of the most AI-exposed professions, the company itself posted a Head of Product Communications role this past February at a $400,000 salary. Netflix was simultaneously seeking a senior director of communications at up to $1.2 million. OpenAI posted multiple communications leadership roles with packages up to $430,000.
In a landscape flooded with AI-generated content, organizations still need to consistently produce high-quality communications that build customer trust and drive revenue in ways that volume alone cannot.
What this means for how you hire (and how you work)
Do you have the right talent in the right places for a world where execution is increasingly automated? For many organizations, the skills marketers need include AI fluency alongside strategic judgment. The good news is that experienced marketers who work this way already exist.
At EM, we’ve been cultivating a bench of AI-enhanced consultants ready to address a variety of marketing needs. If you’re thinking about what your team and workflows need to look like in the second half of 2026 and beyond, we’d like to help you through this process.
Editor’s Note: Next, we look at the hidden risk inside organizations that are cutting too deep, too fast. Stay tuned for Part 2.
