In January 2026, a CMO at a six billion dollar software company scrapped his entire year's marketing plan only two weeks into the year. AI agents made it obsolete.

Stephanie Postles, CEO of Mission.org, and Lacey Peace, VP of Content, explain in plain English what AI agents are, why they are fundamentally different from the automations marketing teams rely on today, and what this shift means for marketing jobs, team structure, and the skills that will matter most going forward.

If you have confused AI agents with automation or wondered whether your role is safe, this episode gives a direct answer.

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction
(01:51) The CMO Who Scrapped His 2026 Marketing Plan in January
(03:23) What Triggered This, and Why It Happened in Two Weeks
(06:30) What Is an AI Agent? (Plain English Definition)
(09:15) AI Agents vs. Automation: The Key Difference
(10:53) The Mindset Shift Required to Use AI Agents Effectively
(13:19) What Happens to Marketers in Execution Roles
(16:38) How Automation Reshaped Marketing Jobs Before
(17:40) Do Marketers Need to Understand AI Internals
(29:01) Is AI Coming for Marketing Jobs, The Honest Answer
(30:05) What Marketers Should Do Right Now
(37:28) Recap and What Is Coming Next

----

Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Most brands think viral marketing takes months of planning and massive budgets. Nick Tran engineered it in 72 hours.

In this segment from Marketing Trends, the former Global Head of Marketing at TikTok breaks down the exact reverse-engineered playbook that turned unknown creators like the Ocean Spray skateboarder into overnight viral sensations, and why the traditional 2-3 month campaign timeline is dead.

From understanding why Nick tells marketing leaders to "kill your KPIs" and hire for intuition instead, to learning how he identified viral potential before it happened, this is a masterclass in speed-to-market and cultural relevance.

If your team is still running 90-day campaign cycles while competitors are shipping in weeks, this framework will show you exactly what you're missing, and how to move faster without sacrificing quality.

Chapters:

00:00 - The Reverse-Engineered Playbook

04:32 - Project Cheetah: 72 Hours to Viral

09:15 - Moving Upmarket Without Losing Your Soul

13:48 - Five Things Marketing Leaders Must Unlearn

This episode is brought to you by Lightricks.

LTX is the all-in-one creative suite for AI-driven video production; built by Lightricks to take you from idea to final 4K render in one streamlined workspace.

Powered by LTX-2, our next-generation creative engine, LTX lets you move faster, collaborate seamlessly, and deliver studio-quality results without compromise.

Try it today at ltx.studio

Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The marketing teams winning with AI today are not the ones chasing every new model release. They are the ones who found the boring, repetitive tasks their teams hate and automated those first.

Nir Pochter, Co-Founder and CMO at Lightricks, joins Stephanie Postles on Marketing Trends to break down what AI actually means for creative workflows and why most teams are still using it wrong.

You’ll learn:

- The "algebra problem" of AI adoption

- How to save your design team 80% of their time

- Why the gap between marketers who use AI well and those who don't is widening fast.

- How to use an LLM scoring system to pre-review documents for you

- The dangerous trend of "AI Marketer" job titles

- What’s really in store for the future of video+AI

Key Moments:

00:00 — Why AI Hasn't Improved Creative Output Yet

02:06 — The Algebra Problem: Tools vs. Knowing How to Use Them

07:27 — Nir's Background: AI PhD to Lightricks and FaceTune

09:46 — What Used to Take Weeks Now Takes Minutes

13:35 — Why Automating Everything Failed Miserably

16:38 — Start with What People Hate Doing

20:08 — The LLM Scoring System: Nothing Gets Reviewed Without an 85

21:43 — Train Your LLM to Be Mean, Not Nice

23:32 — Building Custom GPTs with Company Guidelines

26:30 — The Pitfall: Using AI to Please Leadership

28:47 — From Toys to Tools: Why Text-to-Video Isn't Enough

31:05 — Coca-Cola's 70,000 Prompts (Was It Worth It?)

34:41 — AI Won't Replace Creatives, But This Will

37:04 — The Two Critical Skills: Prompting and Curation

37:55 — How AI Multiplies the Skills Gap (7 vs 10 Example)

42:47 — What CMOs Should Be Asking Their Teams

46:20 — Why "AI Marketer" Is LinkedIn Fluff

This episode is brought to you by Lightricks.

LTX is the all-in-one creative suite for AI-driven video production; built by Lightricks to take you from idea to final 4K render in one streamlined workspace.

Powered by LTX-2, our next-generation creative engine, LTX lets you move faster, collaborate seamlessly, and deliver studio-quality results without compromise.

Try it today at ltx.studio

Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.