At Forge 2025, the keynote “The Great Unlock” brought together visionary leaders to discuss one of the most urgent questions in marketing today: AI and the future of the CMO. What role will artificial intelligence play in shaping the future of our craft?
On stage were Astha Malik (Chief Business & Marketing Officer, Braze), Tyler Bahl (Chief Marketing Officer, Activision), and Seth Matlins (Host of The CEO’s Guide to Marketing).
Their message was clear: AI is not here to replace marketers, but to unlock creativity, integration, and impact at a scale we’ve never seen before.
📌 First-Party Data: The Real Foundation
Astha Malik reminded us that AI is only as smart as the data behind it. Behavioral signals are useful, but they only scratch the surface. To truly understand customers, brands must capture:
- What people do (behavioral data).
- How they feel (feedback, sentiment).
- What they intend to do (preferences, surveys).
Without this depth of first-party data, personalization remains shallow and AI-driven marketing risks being just noise.
🔗 Integration: Where AI Meets Reality
Tyler Bahl pushed the conversation toward execution. Great AI strategies collapse without strong integration.
That means:
- Breaking silos between marketing, product, and data teams.
- Building on high-quality platforms and analytics (👀 Amplitude).
- Ensuring marketers—not only data scientists—can access and act on insights.
The reflection for every brand: Do you have the right stack in place to power AI with meaningful context?
🧑💼 The CMO as the CEO of Marketing
One of the boldest ideas came from the panel’s redefinition of the CMO role.
A modern marketing leader can’t just be “the creative one” or “the data one.” They must be all at once:
- PR strategist
- Growth driver
- Creative visionary
- Engagement leader
- Data-informed decision maker
The CMO of the future is effectively the CEO of Marketing, orchestrating every part of the craft into one connected strategy.
⚡ Experimentation as an Investment
Another strong theme: experimentation is not optional—it’s the fuel of innovation. Leaders must create psychological safety for teams to test, fail, and learn. As one speaker put it:
“If it drives results, it’s an investment — not an expense.”
AI requires constant experimentation. It will break, it will surprise, and it will evolve. The brands that thrive will be those that embrace uncertainty and adapt quickly.
🧑🤝🧑 Human Strategy Over Machine Output
While AI can generate copy or automate workflows, it cannot replace:
- Human empathy.
- Strategic judgment.
- Cultural understanding.
- Emotional nuance.
Marketers must shift their focus away from “campaign execution” and toward business impact, community building, and human connection.
As Activision’s example showed with Call of Duty: listening to the community (even sarcasm or negative feedback) can unlock insights that AI alone would miss.
⚠️ AI: Powerful, But Not a Silver Bullet
The panel closed with a warning: don’t get blinded by AI hype. Many confuse inputs with outputs, leading to poor results. Clarity and human judgment remain essential.
And yes—jobs will change. Some roles may disappear. But the real opportunity lies in reskilling and redefining what marketing leadership looks like in the AI era.
🔑 Key Takeaways for Growth Leaders
- Data is the foundation – First-party data fuels meaningful AI.
- Integration is everything – Silos kill scalability.
- CMOs must evolve – Today’s marketing leader must think like a CEO.
- Experimentation drives innovation – Bold testing creates ROI.
- AI is a tool, not a replacement – Human creativity and empathy remain irreplaceable.
✨ The Minders Reflection
At Minders, we see AI not as a replacement for marketers, but as an accelerator for growth. When you combine Braze for engagement and Amplitude for analytics, you get exactly what this keynote envisioned: the ability to transform data into action, imagination into reality, and campaigns into true business impact.
Because in this new era, it’s more important than ever to be intentional, bold, and excellent.
