A business owner emailed me this week. His team had been getting some good wins using AI agents. He was pleased, sounded good to me. I said just that, and offered to help with the strategy sitting behind it.
That’s the conversation worth continuing right now. We have powerful new AI tools. They’re streamlining delivery. They’re helping teams get results faster than ever... when there’s a real strategy in place. The catch is making sure the strategy is there in the first place. And that's the HI piece we need to drive - the Human Intelligence.
Marketing still needs three things. AI can only do one of them.
Every marketing function, in any business, at any stage, needs three things.
Strategy
Leadership
Implementation
Strategy is the direction. What are we trying to achieve? Who are we talking to? What does this business need marketing to do over the next 90 days, and why?
Leadership is the ongoing judgement. Are we doing the right things? Are the right people doing them? What do we stop, start, and change?
Implementation is the execution. The content. The campaigns. The ads. The emails. The day-to-day delivery.
AI can dramatically accelerate implementation. It can draft copy, analyse data, build first cuts of campaigns, automate the repetitive stuff. It can move execution faster than any team could on its own.
What it can’t do is leadership. And it definitely needs some HI for mastering the strategy.
HI is the missing piece in the AI conversation
Yes I'm saying it again, because it's important. HI is Human Intelligence.
It’s what 20 years of running businesses, leading teams, sitting at board tables, making the wrong call and learning from it, making the right call and noticing why – actually buys you. It’s the layer of thinking that knows when a strategy is pointed at the wrong audience. The instinct that says “this doesn’t sound like us.” The pattern recognition that goes “I’ve seen this play out before, and here’s where it usually breaks.”
HI is supported by AI.
For sure, Claude can produce a strategy in 30 seconds. But the information, knowledge and insight requires HI to generate a good strategy. Once produced, the HI is what tells you if it's the right direction for your businss, your team, your market. That’s an HI call.
Fast in the wrong direction is still the wrong direction.
HI keeps you pointed the right way.
What a Fractional CMO actually delivers
Meeting this week. Happens fortnightly with this owner. He spent the better part of an hour talking through what’s going on in his business. Market shifts. Team challenges. The decisions he’s sitting with. Where he’s wanting to take things next.
That conversation isn’t a deliverable. There’s no spreadsheet attached to it. You can’t put it in a content calendar.
But it’s the most valuable thing I do each fortnight with him.
Why? He’s not talking to a tool. He’s talking to a peer who has run a business, exited a business, sat on boards, made the calls he’s about to make. Someone who can sit with the complexity of his actual situation – not produce a polished answer in three seconds.
That’s HI in action. It’s what AI can’t replicate, no matter how good the prompts get. And it’s what business owners need most when the path forward isn’t obvious.
But what about implementation?
For sure, things have shifted.
10-years ago we wouldn't have been using the term "Fractional CMO" here in New Zealand. Roles needed to sit at a desk, be there 40hrs a week, lead a team and know how to outsource what the team couldn't do (or be pressured to hire a marketing unicorn). We weren't thinking about bringing someone in to deliver a role in a fraction of the time.
But we know, things have changed. And AI continues to change that too.
There are things I can now do more efficiently, that previously may have needed a specialist. With the right AI tools, an experienced strategist can wear more hats than they used to – without it being a bad use of their time.
What hasn’t changed is where the value sits.
The value is in the thinking. In the decisions. In the judgement that says whether a we should head in one direction or another.
The output is faster. The thinking is still HI.
The one question to ask before your next AI decision
Before you add another AI tool, hire another person, or sign off on another campaign, it’s worth asking one question.
Is there HI in the room?
Someone with real experience. Real pattern recognition. Someone who’s been in your seat – or near enough to it – and can look at what AI produces and say “yes, run with that” or “no, that’s not it.”
AI can do a lot. But from my experience, it doesn't bring that lived-experience to the table that helps you decide whether it's worth doing.
It's your call. My advice? Make sure there’s HI in the room.
Jacqui Gage-Brown
📷 Sunrise on Paku with Bennet. AI knows the time. HI got us out of bed!
