AI is going to take our jobs. AI will commoditize creativity. AI will make strategy worse.

But AI isn't making those decisions. We are.

In this PostPod, Marc and V reflect on their conversation with Pats McDonald, Chief Strategy Officer at dentsu, and explore one of the most important ideas emerging from the AI conversation: human agency still matters.

They discuss why AI may eliminate barriers without eliminating expertise, how LLMs naturally pull marketers toward the average, the danger of settling for “strategy-ish,” and why faster answers don't necessarily produce better thinking.

The conversation also explores what AI means for specialists and generalists, how marketing organizations may need to evolve, and why companies may eventually need to onboard their AI systems with the same strategic frameworks, principles and ways of working they use to onboard their people.

Because the biggest question may no longer be what AI can do.

It's what we're going to choose to let it do.

Chapters:

00:00 Stop Blaming AI

00:46 Reflecting on Pats McDonald

02:02 AI, Jobs and Human Agency

03:00 AI Is Removing Barriers to Entry

05:13 Why Expertise Still Matters

06:36 Design for Difference, Not Sameness

09:27 The Danger of “Strategy-ish”

11:24 When AI Becomes “Good Enough”

13:53 Do We Still Need Specialists?

14:58 The Marketer of the Future

16:16 Why AI Still Needs Human Expertise

17:07 Turning Ideas Into Reality Faster

20:16 Human Agency Still Matters

20:27 AI and Strategic Drift

21:30 Keeping AI Inside the Strategic Framework

24:00 Should Companies Onboard Their AI?

26:29 Final Thoughts