Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails, while our Rockstar CMO host Ian Truscott picks his brain on a marketing topic.

This week, as they lift their glasses to the new year, Ian and Robert dig into one of Robert’s favorite predictions for 2026, and they discuss:

AI strategy will be integrated into everyday business and the term 'AI strategy' will be quickly outdated.
AI tool use will increasingly be driven by personal productivity, rather than by a corporate mandate.
The business need for human skills augmented by AI.
Using AI to make work better rather than faster.

Plus, a prediction about crypto, as both Ian and Robert show that they are not crypto experts.

If you have a question for the bar or an opinion on this week's discussion, please get in touch - just search “rockstar cmo” on the interwebs or LinkedIn.

Enjoy!

—

The Links

The people:

Ian Truscott on LinkedIn
Robert Rose on LinkedIn

Mentioned this week

This Old Marketing’s - 2026 Content & Marketing Predictions
Robert’s newsletter: Lens, his websites, robertrose.net and seventhbear.com
Ian’s firm - Velocity B

Rockstar CMO:

The Beat Newsletter that we send every Monday
Rockstar CMO on the web, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Previous episodes and all the show notes: Rockstar CMO FM.

Track List:

We’ll be right back by Stienski & Mass Media on YouTube
Piano Music is by Johnny Easton, shared under a Creative Commons license

You can listen to this on all good podcast platforms, like Apple, Amazon and Spotify.

This podcast is part of the Marketing Podcast Network

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Rose & Rockstar: AI Strategy is *so* 2025

The Rose & Rockstar: AI Strategy is so 2025