Humans of AI: Presented by WRITER

WRITER

WRITER's Humans of AI takes listeners behind the business of AI and into the intimate stories of those at the forefront of the AI era. Listen to leaders as they navigate how generative AI is changing their work, and lives.

  1. Sep 16

    From ZMOT to the AI Marketing Canvas: Jim Lecinski on the five stages marketers can't skip

    In 2014, inside a room at Google, Jim Lecinski watched AI teach itself to play Pong. No rules, no programming. The machine learned over a weekend. He'd been in the room when the web went commercial twenty years earlier. Now he was watching it happen again. Jim Lecinski has spent thirty-seven years in marketing — twelve at Google, where he published "The Zero Moment of Truth," a framework that over 300,000 marketers downloaded and that changed how an entire generation understood customer behavior. Now a clinical professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School, he's written a second book, "The AI Marketing Canvas," mapping the five stages of AI marketing maturity.  Jim shares why 85% of marketing teams are stuck in AI transformation — and why the problem isn't technology. It's people. He introduces the evolution of the Zero Moment of Truth from three sources to five, the concept of "whole brain marketing," and a practical tool: synthetic personas that keep the customer in the room. And he has a warning. "Don't give into cognitive surrender." The temptation to accept AI's first draft without questioning it. Every time we do, we chip away at the craft that makes our work worth reading. Alaura asks the question every CMO is asking right now: what are we building toward? Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    From ZMOT to the AI Marketing Canvas: Jim Lecinski on the five stages marketers can't skip

  2. Sep 2

    Slow down to speed up: Megan Filbin on where value lives when AI does the work

    If you’re a marketer at a company implementing AI, you’re likely wrestling with this question: what defines your value when AI does, or changes, what you used to do? As Senior Lead of Marketing Strategy and Operations at WRITER, Megan Filbin found her answer in systems thinking: looking at the big picture to understand how the components work together before jumping in with a solution. But that discovery raised a harder question: if her value is in systems, where does everyone else's value live on her team? In this episode, Megan joins hosts Diego Lomanto and Alaura Weaver to break down a framework that doesn't touch the org chart. Instead, it names four functions already emerging on marketing teams: strategy (setting direction and making the high-stakes calls), curation (defining what good looks like), architecture (building the systems), and orchestration (running the work). These are functions, not job titles — most people combine two or three of them within a single role. Execution moves to agents. And the creative work, the part that actually differentiates a brand, gets more time. This is the honest version, including the parts that usually get cut: the maintenance tax, the talent pipeline fear, and the gap between what AI can produce and what it takes to know whether the output is any good. Real AI maturity isn't measured by how much you automate. It's knowing what to automate, what to augment, and what still requires human judgment. Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    Slow down to speed up: Megan Filbin on where value lives when AI does the work

  3. Aug 12

    Generic in, generic out: Colin Kelton (former CMO, Vanguard) on why AI scales mediocrity

    Colin Kelton spent 36 years at Vanguard — the last several as its first Global CMO and Chief Communications Officer. He retired from a company that manages $13 trillion in other people's money, ranked No. 1 in brand trust in the J.D. Power investor satisfaction study, and earns a 9 or 10 reputation score from 73% of people. For context, Apple sits at 39%. Diego Lomanto and Alaura Weaver sit down with Colin to explore: how do you stand out when AI makes infinite mediocrity easy? Colin's answer is built on something most marketing leaders talk about but few actually do. Years before AI was a conversation, he rebuilt Vanguard's entire marketing tech stack from scratch and standardized the brand across every division, region, and channel. When AI arrived, Vanguard was ready — not because anyone predicted it, but because the hard, unglamorous work was already done. Colin explains why AI doesn't create what makes your brand different. It amplifies whatever's already there. Why LLMs are scanning Reddit, press, and third-party endorsements, making brand investment more important now, not less. And why the efficiency trap — using AI only to cut costs — causes companies to miss the chance to grow revenue. This is a conversation about discipline, distinctiveness, and the work that makes AI work. Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    Generic in, generic out: Colin Kelton (former CMO, Vanguard) on why AI scales mediocrity

  4. Jul 29

    When AI scales what's already broken: Lisa Gately, Principal Analyst at Forrester

    Lisa Gately spent more than 20 years building content systems inside tech companies before she crossed over to study those systems as a Principal Analyst at Forrester. After hundreds of conversations with marketing leaders, she found something uncomfortable: content problems are rarely about content. They're organizational problems that show up in the content first. As a featured guest on this episode of Humans of AI, Lisa reveals what‌ separates teams thriving in the AI era from those spiraling into scatter. The answer isn't more tools or bigger budgets. It's three things marketers have known for years and the hard organizational work of prioritizing them. We also dig into the visibility vacuum: a world where buyers form opinions through AI-generated answers without ever visiting your site. And the Ferrari problem: what happens when your CIO hands every employee the same general-purpose AI and expects marketing to maintain brand differentiation with it. Hosted by Alaura Weaver. Listen to find out: Why the keyword-first content model was already broken before AI arrivedWhat "the visibility vacuum" means for your brand strategyThe single most important relationship every marketing leader needs to maintain right nowYour Monday Morning Action: one thing you can do this week to start building content that only you could createSubscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    When AI scales what's already broken: Lisa Gately, Principal Analyst at Forrester

  5. Jul 1

    From magic to muscle: Qualcomm's Brent Summers on why people — not models — drive enterprise AI transformation

    In this episode of Humans of AI, hosts Alaura Weaver and Diego Lomanto sit down with Brent Summers, head of AI platforms and GTM innovation at Qualcomm. Brent shares his journey from a UX-obsessed kid on dial-up bulletin boards to leading AI transformation at one of the world's great engineering companies. We explore what it means to be a "human marketer" in an organization that bends physics, why AI needs to transition from "magic to muscle" through daily practice, and why the most important part of any AI transformation is the people in the middle. Plus, Brent offers a bold contrarian take — the biggest risk of AI isn't that it makes us less human. It's that we use it as an excuse to avoid the hard, uniquely human work of building relationships. Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    From magic to muscle: Qualcomm's Brent Summers on why people — not models — drive enterprise AI transformation

  6. Jun 17

    Marketing AI Institute’s Cathy McPhillips on the new productivity, and the value of productive struggle

    Cathy McPhillips spent nine years at Content Marketing Institute building content marketing before most companies had a budget line for it — back when executives still asked where “content” even fit in the org chart. Now, as Chief Growth Officer at the Marketing AI Institute, she's watching the same pattern play out again with AI. In this episode, Cathy, Diego, and Alaura dig into what that pattern means for marketers right now — specifically, the risk of using AI to do more of the wrong things, faster. When execution gets effortless, the question shifts from “how do we produce this?” to “should we produce this at all, and does it actually earn trust?” They get into the “productive struggle,” the friction that builds judgment, sharpens instinct, and can't be automated away without real cost. And the hardest question of this moment — in a world of infinite content, how do we protect the work that's worth reading? This one's for anyone who's been moving fast and wondering if they're building or just busy Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    Marketing AI Institute’s Cathy McPhillips on the new productivity, and the value of productive struggle

  7. Jun 3

    The messy reality of enterprise AI: Lilly Raymond on adoption, trust, and human judgment

    We don’t always talk about the human side of transformation. We like the case studies. We like the ROI slides. But what happens when you bring powerful new tools to teams of experts who care deeply about quality, judgment, and craft? In this episode of Humans of AI, host Alaura Weaver and WRITER CMO Diego Lomanto sit down with Lilly Raymond, a marketing executive who has led MarTech and AI transformation across major financial services brands. Lilly shares a practical perspective on leading marketing teams through AI adoption in complex, highly regulated environments. We explore the tension between pride in craft and the need to build new ways of working, and how leaders can navigate workflow, governance, and change management in regulated industries. Lilly discusses why AI’s greatest impact may come from being embedded earlier in the process, helping teams improve the quality, consistency, substantiation, and readiness of content before it reaches legal, compliance, or expert review. Plus, as a university professor, Lilly shares a unique perspective on what the next generation of marketers is telling us about AI, authenticity, and the skills that will matter most as entry-level work evolves. Key takeaways: Pride in craft:Why experienced teams care deeply about quality, voice, judgment, and professional standards, and how AI adoption works best when it respects that expertise.The power of vulnerability:How leaders can foster adoption by admitting they don’t have all the answers and learning alongside their teams.Improving review readiness:Why AI’s biggest impact in regulated industries may be upstream, helping teams strengthen content before it enters legal, compliance, or expert review.Developing future talent:How changes to entry-level work create a greater need for internships, apprenticeships, and hands-on projects that build human judgment.The enduring value of storytelling:Why judgment, taste, and the ability to craft a narrative remain critical skills in an AI-driven world. Listen now to hear how leaders can guide teams through the human side of enterprise AI transformation. Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    The messy reality of enterprise AI: Lilly Raymond on adoption, trust, and human judgment

  8. May 20

    When the Funnel Collapses: Rebuilding Marketing with AI Agents | Christian Westcott

    For decades, the inbound marketing playbook was clear: create content, rank on search engines, and capture leads. But what happens when that machine breaks? In this episode of Humans of AI, hosts Alaura Weaver and WRITER CMO Diego Lomanto sit down with Christian Westcott, a search industry veteran who watched the traditional top-of-funnel collapse as AI search engines changed how buyers find information. Instead of denying the shift, Christian reframed his entire role. We explore the messy, uncomfortable, and necessary process of tearing down your own expertise to build something new. Christian shares how he moved past the fear of obsolescence to build AI agents that eliminated 95% of his team's operational friction, saving 80 hours a month on QA alone. More importantly, he reveals how he's pioneering new ways to measure and capture "AI visibility" in a world where traditional attribution is getting cloudier. If you're a marketing leader trying to figure out how to adapt your team's workflows for the AI era, this episode offers a pragmatic, optimistic look at what's possible when you stop improving the past and start inventing the future. Listen to discover: Why the shift from search to AI is a move from productivity to differentiation.How to identify the "cluttered pantry" workflows in your team that are ripe for AI automation.The reality of building AI agents: why false positives and iteration are part of the process.How to measure success when traditional attribution models no longer tell the whole story.The "Monday Morning Action" you can take to start transforming your team's work today.Watch the full unedited conversation on YouTube Read the recap blog post Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    When the Funnel Collapses: Rebuilding Marketing with AI Agents | Christian Westcott
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WRITER's Humans of AI takes listeners behind the business of AI and into the intimate stories of those at the forefront of the AI era. Listen to leaders as they navigate how generative AI is changing their work, and lives.

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