The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

Episode: AI Will Automate Content. Humans Will Own Strategy
Host: John Jantsch
Guest: Peter Binet, Co-Founder of AI Ready CMO
Date: January 21, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, John Jantsch is joined by Peter Binet, a seasoned marketing leader and strategist, to tackle the ever-evolving role of AI in marketing. Their discussion explores how AI is poised to automate large swathes of content production while underscoring the enduring value of human strategy, judgment, and empathy. They dig into how marketing agency roles, organizational structures, and career trajectories are changing in the face of rapid AI advancements.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The True Impact of AI: Evolution, Not Hype

• Comparison with Previous Digital Shifts:
  John and Peter compare AI’s emergence with milestones like websites and social media, emphasizing that while tools change, the need to adapt is a constant in marketing.
• Peter’s Perspective:

  “I don’t dramatize or panic around this. You just need to adapt.”
  (Peter Binet, 02:45)
  They reflect on how initial specialization (e.g., social, digital agency labels) faded as marketers normalized new tools—AI is following a similar trajectory but is expected to change business models more profoundly.

2. Hype Versus Real Strategic Change

• Newsletter Approach:
  Peter’s AI Ready CMO newsletter takes a deliberately "non-hype, strategic" view of AI, focusing on frameworks and real use-cases over clickbait.
• Dealing with Uncertainty:

  “I'm not afraid to say that I don't know. During these times that are changing, it's really hard to know what will happen.”
  (Peter Binet, 05:10)
  He stresses the pace of change—predictions from just six months ago can quickly become out-of-date.

3. What AI Does Best — and What Stays Human

• Automating Production:
  Peter is nearly certain “production of marketing materials… will be either fully automated or... come with a minimum barrier of entry.”
  (Peter Binet, 07:00)
• Human Role: Oversight and Strategy:
  Even as AI improves, it needs humans for supervision, taste, review, and empathy.
  • “Human in the loop… will matter for now, for a couple of years at least.” (Peter Binet, 08:45)
  • Where humans remain essential: understanding client needs, expressing empathy, making strategic choices, exercising judgment and taste, and managing operational workflows.
• Host’s Summation:

  “The barrier to producing quantity is gone. However, I think the barrier to producing quality is still a real differentiator.”
  (John Jantsch, 10:50)

4. Hiring, Training, and the Talent Shift

• Future Talent Needs:
  Organizations once hired for content production. They now face the need to hire for taste, judgment, and brand intuition.

  • "Do we now need to hire for taste and for judgment and for brand intuition?" (John Jantsch, 12:40)

  • Peter affirms: “I would be immediately start some sort of like a training company or anything around that that helps people… upgrad[ing] them to be able to use those skills in a refined manner…” (Peter Binet, 13:15)
• Value of ‘Soft’ Education:
  Peter humorously advocates for the arts, history, and literature, arguing these teach critical thinking, context, and aesthetic judgment—skills likely to become more valuable in the AI age.

  “If you have like a general arts degree… these studies might be something that can be valuable because they teach you the basics of how to read, how to judge aesthetic things, how to think critically, how to think in context.”
  (Peter Binet, 15:30–17:14)

5. The CMO Role: From Commander to Orchestrator

• Peter’s View on the CMO’s Future:

  “The CMO role is becoming more like an orchestrator… leading and creating environments of workflows where people work together with AI and AI automation.”
  (Peter Binet, 17:44)

  • Juniors and specialists may be most at risk; those who can blend people and workflow management—and embrace new operational skills—will maintain their value.
  • CMOs who do only high-level planning without operational or workflow expertise must evolve or risk obsolescence.

6. The Fate of AI Tools: Consolidation & DIY

• AI Tool Redundancy:
  Both agree: standalone niche AI tools are at risk as tech giants will subsume best features into standard products.

  “Googles and the Microsofts of the world are going to build all those best of class tools into their work tool… and they will wipe out a lot of these one-off tools.”
  (John Jantsch, 19:27)

  • Peter: “Most of the tools will be irrelevant… startups and AI tools just die every day because new tools come out.” (Peter Binet, 20:20)
• Custom, No-Code Solutions:
  Peter shares a standout story—building a content repurposing app with AI in under an hour and with no coding skills, hinting near-future marketers will increasingly build bespoke tools for themselves.

  “I built it under an hour while I having breakfast at my kitchen table… Claude did it just by prompting it.”
  (Peter Binet, 22:12)

• Advice:

  “Don’t really bother subscribing to 20-something AI tools. Probably 95% of them will be extinct within a year or two… Second answer, build your own.”
  (Peter Binet, 24:17)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Hype-Free AI Perspective

  "The focus on non-hype bullshit... is a personal choice of ours but also a strategic choice as well."
  (Peter Binet, 04:58)

• On AI and Content Quality

  "AI just highlighted how not many of us have taste, and how most of the content that we produced so far anyway was... mediocre."
  (Peter Binet, 10:52)

• Hiring for Soft Skills

  "I wouldn't send my kid to engineering school right now… If you have like a general arts degree... these studies might be something that can be valuable."
  (Peter Binet, 14:46–16:59)

• On the Future of Niche AI Tools

  “One simple AI feature added to Google Ads... will probably kill 90% of the AI tools out there right now.”
  (Peter Binet, 21:30)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00–01:31: Introduction of Peter Binet and AI Ready CMO
• 03:47–04:56: AI as an evolutionary phase, not a revolution; the role of strategy
• 05:10–09:47: Human versus AI roles; content production and strategy
• 10:52–13:05: Taste and quality as human differentiators in a world of AI-generated content
• 14:30–17:18: Preparing the next generation for an AI future; soft versus technical skills
• 17:44–19:27: The changing function of CMOs and marketing orgs
• 20:05–24:34: Consolidation of tools, custom applications, and the end of tool overload
• 25:01–25:18: Where to find Peter’s work and close

Resources & Further Info

• AI Ready CMO: aireadycmo.com
  • Daily AI and marketing newsletter, workshops, and community.
  • “It is a newsletter that I read every day. I appreciate it.”
    (John Jantsch, 25:15)
• Duct Tape Marketing: Strategy-first consulting and tools for marketers/CMOs.

Summary Tone & Essence

The conversation is candid, thoughtful, and occasionally playful—both John and Peter view AI’s rise through a lens of practical adaptation rather than fear or hype. They challenge listeners to rethink what skills and roles are truly future-proof, inspiring marketers to focus on what can’t be automated: judgment, strategy, taste, and empathy.