Position2 Inc

Will AI agents replace the CMO by 2026?

The latest Spark of Ages podcast featured a "hot take" session with Nicole Fuselier and Randi Barshack, and their perspective on autonomous marketing was a much-needed reality check.

The prediction: AI will research, create, and deploy campaigns without humans.
The verdict: A hard "No."

Why?

▪️The "Vanilla" Trap: Randi warns that without human intervention, AI outputs tend to fall toward the middle. Great marketing requires taking risks and going to "the edge"—something AI isn't yet programmed to do.

▪️The Fact-Check Gap: Nicole emphasizes that while AI removes the "simple tasks," humans are still required for strategic sourcing and factual accuracy.

▪️The "Cute Robot" Factor: In physical AI (like Dusty Robotics), storytelling is about humanity—packaging technology so it isn't threatening. You can't prompt "human empathy" into a vacuum.

AI is the engine, but the "spark" still belongs to us.

Listen to the episode here: https://na2.hubs.ly/H0595dn0

Episode 61 | Position² Great marketing, in my opinion, is sort of about the magic when creativity and process come together. So it's great storytelling and creative ideas and thinking that will gain you attention combined with the rigor of revenue marketing and the metrics.

We spent 3 days in Park City with 30 Marketing Leaders.

No fluff. No surface-level trends. Just honest conversations about what’s actually changing.

The takeaway: the companies pulling ahead aren’t doing more, they’re pairing AI with human expertise and moving beyond the old model.

Swipe to see what we learned. →

Why Enterprise AI ROI is failing (and how to fix it).

According to Oren Michels, founder of Barndoor AI, most enterprises are stuck in "Glorified Enterprise Search" mode.

The problem? The Trust Gap. When companies don't trust their security controls, they water down AI use cases until they are "safe"—meaning they stay in read-only mode.

The Insight: "If they're not allowed to write anything, they can't do anything terribly useful."

To unlock true ROI, we have to move from:
1. Who are you? (Identity-based access)
2. What are you trying to do? (Context & intent-based governance)

The future of the enterprise isn't just chatting with a PDF; it's giving agents "write access" to move needles, manage workflows, and execute tasks—all within a programmatic control plane.

Watch the full episode: https://bit.ly/4sF1RdX

From API Economy to Agent Economy - Barndoor AI, OpenClaw, Agentic Governance ~ Spark of Ages Ep 60 Rajiv talks with Oren Michaels about why enterprise AI ROI stalls when tools live in chat and stay stuck in read-only mode. We break down how a control plane...

Is it an apocalypse, or just a long-overdue right-sizing?

We just wrapped an incredible roundtable on the Spark of Ages podcast with Ankur Srivastava of Flywheel and Priya Ramachandran of Foster Ventures, and one word kept coming up: .

But here's the twist—it's not about software dying. It's about the "wild west" of AI costs finally meeting a savvier, more empathetic procurement process.

Key takeaways from the session:

▪️The FinOps Paradox: Traditional practices are failing because AI "inference costs" are volatile. We're moving from static licensing to a world of "token-metered economics."
▪️The FUID Solution: Ankur shared how Flywheel is cleaning up "F-dubbed" data (yes, he said it!) with their Universal ID to make cloud buying actually transactable.
▪️The Human Element: Despite the rise of "agentic buying," Priya reminded us that brand affinity and empathy can't be automated. People still buy from people.

The industrial revolution of our time is here, and it's being built on better data and better relationships.

Catch the full episode to hear Ankur and Priya battle it out over Indian food history in our "Spice Protocol" game! 🌶️🌶️🌶️(Link in comments)