martech - Martech Therapy (Page 6)

Agentic AI in Martech: Trust without understanding

Part 5: How to govern systems you can’t fully comprehend.

My Tesla occasionally does something that makes me question everything I think I know about driving. Since I have owned it, there have been numerous times when it suddenly slammed on the brakes while on autopilot, no visible obstacles, no construction signs, perfect weather. Just phantom braking, the phenomenon that’s been getting Tesla scrutinized by government agencies.

My wife hates when this happens. She’s made it very clear that I shouldn’t rely on autopilot when the family is in the car, both for safety reasons and because she’d prefer I not sleep on the couch.

What if there isn’t a method?

Why I hesitate to give Martech advice I wouldn’t take myself

There’s a genre of professional content I’ve come to recognize instantly. It begins with confidence, proceeds with certainties, and ends with a prescription. Or worse, “Comment [enter random term]”.

Here’s the method.
Here’s what works.
Here’s how to win.

And every time I see it, a small part of me cries inside.

Not because I think they’re wrong, but because I’ve been inside enough organizations to know that none of this unfolds in a vacuum. Advice that sounds brilliant on a whiteboard often dissolves the moment it hits budget constraints, team friction, or

Agentic AI in Martech: The new org chart

Part 4: Roles that emerge when AI handles execution

A friend recently asked me what a marketing ops manager actually does when AI agents are handling campaign execution, optimization, and conflict resolution. It's a fair question. If systems are making billions of decisions autonomously, what's left for us mortal humans?

My first instinct was to give the standard consultant answer about "strategic oversight" and "creative direction." But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that's probably wrong. The interesting human roles in an agentic world are likely to be things we haven't fully invented, yet.

Beyond the "Human in the Loop" fiction

Most discussions about AI

Humans, not tools - A Martech podcast about the real stuff

Phil Gamache on podcasting as therapy, measuring what matters, and why being opinionated at 4am might just land you a guest slot.

Phil Gamache said, “I ask questions like an analyst, but I listen like an operator.” And that’s exactly why I invited him onto Couch Confidentials, for quotes like that. At the end of the day we are all trying to achieve the same.

He doesn’t just host Humans of Martech, he’s built a platform that holds up a mirror to the way we actually work. The late-night migrations. The marketing ops arguments. The tools that break quietly while no one’s watching. His podcast is not about frameworks or vendor checklists, it’s about people trying to

Shopify isn’t enough

…and deep down, you already know that.

There’s a moment that creeps in somewhere between “should I try another email pop-up plugin?” and “why don’t my reports ever answer real questions?” It’s a quiet realization. The platform that made it beautifully easy to launch your store might not be built to help you scale your marketing or understand your customers beyond last Tuesday’s sale.

Shopify does many things well. It’s clean, manageable, and doesn’t ask you to learn code or bribe a developer friend. It’s perfect for what it is: a commerce platform. Not a data platform. Not a campaign

Agentic AI in Martech: When agents disagree

Part 3: The inevitable conflicts in multi-agent systems

Picture this scenario: your personalization AI decides that Sarah (Conner? 😅), a loyal customer, should receive a premium upgrade offer because her engagement scores have been climbing. Simultaneously, your churn prevention AI flags Sarah as a retention risk and recommends a discount promotion to keep her engaged. Meanwhile, your email frequency optimization AI determines Sarah is approaching communication fatigue and suggests suppressing all promotional messages for the next week.

Three different systems, three different conclusions, one very confused customer experience.

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This is the multi-agent conflict

Posts tagged with martech

Beyond the "Human in the Loop" fiction