Memory Isn’t Experience: Why Human Marketers should be the boss in the Age of AI
The current crop of AI models have become powerful tools in the marketer’s toolkit — able to create content, surface insights, and assist with everything from research to campaign ideation. Of course, if you are a technical founder and an AI fan, you might be tempted to think that AI could replace the Head of Marketing or CMO - not quite yet.
I'm not an anti-tech Marketing person. I have always been a fan of tools that make the CMO more powerful and efficient and accountable. I used generative AI like Midjourney from it's earliest clunky models and I am beginning to see tools that make me wonder - could an AI replace me as a CMO?
If you are the CMO of a SaaS startup in Seattle, then the answer might be yes. But if you are Head of Marketing for a Fintech or Web3 entrepreneur in the Middle East, then you would be foolish to let AI determine your marketing strategy - it doesn't have any experience.
AI has memory - of a sort, but it understands very little and it has no experience... and experience is at the heart of marketing.
The Fractional CMO + AI: A Modern Power Combo
The rise of the Fractional CMO model already reflects how companies want access to senior marketing expertise without the full-time overhead. Fractional CMOs bring strategic direction, cross-sector insights, and the maturity to lead internal and external teams — flexibly and affordably. When paired with AI, this model becomes even more powerful:
- AI brings scale: accelerating idea generation, creating buyer personas, summarising research..A Fractional CMO might take 5 days to create a tailored 4Cs Strategy by hand. Using AI can accelerate this process to minutes?
- The Fractional CMO brings common sense and critical thinking: deciding what matters, what’s relevant, and what’s aligned with the brand's DNA. An LLM AI is programmed to bring back the next most used word in a sentence.
- AI handles repetition; the CMO brings relevance.
In markets like the Middle East, where nuance, tone, and timing are everything, this combination is not just useful — it’s essential.
Lived Experience Is a Strategic Asset
The danger of leaning too heavily on AI, particularly in lean or junior marketing teams, is that it can produce plausible but out-of-context output. Even where the data is localised, it becomes an echo chamber. An AI has the same 'opinion' of a typical Dubai consumer that an Instagram user does - it's not based on reality.
It takes lived experience to:
- Know when a strategy that worked in Silicon Valley will fall flat in the GCC.
- Correct for local conditions that make the data 'look funny'. For example, unlike Christmas, which is the same date every year, Ramadan moves.
- Push back when the AI-generated option is technically right but emotionally wrong.
The Hybrid Future Is Here — and It’s Lean
Companies no longer need bloated in-house teams or expensive agencies to punch above their weight. With the right Fractional CMO + AI toolkit, small and mid-sized brands can create and deliver strategies that used to be reserved for the most well-funded marketing departments. But only if someone is driving. Only if someone with experience is there to guide the machine — to coach it, correct it, and put its output in context.
The Fractional CMO is perfectly positioned to lead this next chapter: bringing the judgment, leadership, and strategic depth that AI lacks — while leveraging AI to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce cost, and drive faster outcomes.
In this hybrid model, companies get the best of both worlds: machine efficiency and human expertise. And that’s not the future. That’s already happening.
