Don’t Mistake AI First For Strategy

In this special Thanksgiving edition of This Old Marketing, Joe and Robert dive into the future of AI and what it really means for marketers, creators, and anyone trying to build an audience in the next few years. The boys explore how long traditional marketing roles will remain intact and why we may be much closer to a tipping point than most people want to believe.

The Window Is Closing

Joe and Robert revisit a theme they've both been writing about lately: the shrinking window of time before AI reshapes content, distribution, and discoverability. They break down what creators and marketers can still do right now to secure their position before the landscape shifts for good.

Their take: you have a few years. Maybe less. And waiting is not a strategy.

The Real Job of the Future

In a world where AI generates nearly everything instantly, Joe and Robert ask the big question: what will the actual marketing job look like five or ten years from now?

The answer isn't another technical role. It isn't prompt engineering. It isn't "AI operations."

The position of the future is rooted in skills AI can't replicate:

• Being known personally by real people

• Building in-person trust

• Hosting gatherings, leading communities, and showing up in the real world

• Connecting human beings to human beings

If AI floods the world with infinite content, the new scarcity becomes physical presence.

What Creators Must Do Next

The boys outline the shift every marketer and content entrepreneur must make: from chasing reach to cultivating real connections. From relying on platforms to building owned audiences. From algorithmic exposure to human relationships that cannot be automated.

This special episode is a wake-up call and a roadmap rolled into one.

Why This Matters Right Now

Thanksgiving is a time for reflection, and the episode closes with Joe and Robert reminding listeners that the next few years are arguably the most important years in the history of marketing.

AI will change everything. But it won't replace the marketers who understand what actually makes people move, trust, and gather.

Subscribe and Follow: Follow Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose on LinkedIn for insights, hot takes, and weekly updates from the world of content and marketing.

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Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/

Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at http://www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/ Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.joepulizzi.com/signup/.

Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/ Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/

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This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork