Designing Marketing Teams for the AI Era

Most marketing orgs still operate like it’s 2015. Roles are specialized, and work moves in straight lines from one team to the next.

But AI is upending that model.

It’s not just accelerating execution. It’s reshaping the role of the marketer, expanding individual capability, and exposing the limits of outdated org charts.

In this piece, I’ll lay out a new structure—one built around a role I believe will define the next era of marketing: the producer.

AI as a Force Multiplier

AI changes the equation of productivity. On one hand, it enables you to do more of what you already do: more copy, more content, more campaigns, faster.

But the real shift is functional. AI gives marketers the ability to reach across disciplines. Writers can design. Designers can edit video. Strategists can build landing pages. It stretches the boundaries of individual capability—turning specialists into hybrids.

But here’s the catch: you can’t fully harness either type of productivity boost if you’re still operating under the traditional marketing team blueprint.

A bloated approval chain, a fragmented tool stack, and strict role demarcations are all enemies of AI-fueled growth. The structure must evolve to match the opportunity.

The Rise of the Producer

In this context, I want to advocate for the role I believe will be at the core of modern marketing organizations: the producer.

Producers are the connective tissue between strategy and execution. They’re not project managers. They’re not just creatives. They are multi-capable operators who own a marketing product or initiative from end to end.

They can design, write, build, distribute, integrate, and optimize. They don’t wait for a baton pass—they carry it the whole lap.

And yes, they use AI. They build upon a base competency (say, writing or visual design), and use AI to extend their reach into complementary skill areas.

Teams of Producers

This doesn’t mean every producer is a unicorn. In fact, producers work best in a structure that mirrors a creative studio or a small startup.

Senior producers guide and train junior producers. They set standards, manage complexity, and ensure consistency across a portfolio of products.

Under this model, marketing teams stop functioning like a factory assembly line and start behaving more like a showrunning team—agile, autonomous, and aligned.

You still bring in specialists when needed. You may still have contractors and assistants. But here's the thing: most of those roles are now directly competing with AI.

Designing a logo? Generating social variations? Cleaning up data? AI is faster, cheaper, and often good enough. Which is why the producer—human and whole—is the most strategic investment you can make.

It’s a role AI can assist, but not replace.

What AI Can’t Do

The producer role resists full automation because it requires a set of capabilities AI doesn’t (yet) possess:

• Organizational fluency: Producers know how to navigate internal politics, stakeholder relationships, and decision dynamics. AI doesn’t have a badge.
• Customer insight: Real empathy still requires lived experience and deep context. Producers interpret nuance in ways a model cannot.
• Creative taste: While AI can generate options, it takes a trained human to know what’s on-brand, what’s fresh, and what will resonate.
• Standards enforcement: AI can follow a style guide, but it doesn’t enforce one. Producers shape and protect quality across the system.
• Original thinking: AI is trained on what already exists. Producers create what’s next.

If marketing is a mix of art, science, and systems—producers are the integrators. They use AI as fuel, not a crutch.

Designing for the Producer Model

To implement this structure, you need to reframe your org around outcomes, not functions. Ask:

• What are the key “products” your marketing team creates? (Campaigns, events, content series, partnerships, etc.)
• Who owns each one end-to-end?
• Where can AI unlock speed or variety?
• Where does human judgment still matter most?

Then staff accordingly. Build teams around product ownership. Give producers the authority and tools to own the lifecycle.

Invest in their training—not just in marketing, but in AI literacy and systems thinking.

This model also scales. You can start small: one or two producers operating like in-house agencies. As their output grows, so does your capacity to spin up new initiatives, test faster, and iterate with data.

Final Thoughts

AI doesn’t eliminate the need for marketing teams. It changes what those teams do. In this new era, agility is more important than headcount.

Integration beats specialization. Design beats tradition.

The producer is the new archetype of the modern marketer. Equip them. Empower them. Then clear the runway.

The old marketing org chart won’t survive the AI era.