Thinking At The Edge Of What's Possible With Avinash Kaushik - TWMJ #1030

·1 hr 16 min·5 clips

An AI agent built a causality model overnight to prove the CFO's multi-million dollar marketing hypothesis was false.

Mitch Joel hosts Avinash Kaushik on episode 1030 of Thinking with Mitch Joel. Kaushik, a former Google analytics evangelist and current Chief Strategy Officer at Human Made Machine and brand consultant for Tapestry (owner of Coach and Kate Spade), discusses the evolution of marketing in the age of AI. The episode begins by framing AI not just as an improvement tool but as a force absorbing large parts of marketing work. Kaushik reflects on his career journey across three roles: at Google developing analytics tools, leading an agency for Lloyds Private Equity, and now advising major brands. He identifies common patterns learned, such as the critical importance of creative in marketing success and the mistake of over-indexing on performance marketing data. A central theme is the automation of analytical and performance tasks, with Kaushik predicting the current analyst role will vanish by 2028. He shares practical examples of using AI agents, like one that autonomously analyzed data to disprove a CFO's hypothesis overnight and another that scours for used cars. The discussion delves into organizational challenges, highlighting that culture and incentives matter more than tools. Kaushik cites specific HR policies from companies like Shopify and Tapestry that encourage AI adoption. He critiques AI hype from foundational model companies, advising to divide their claims by two due to unrealistic assumptions about perfect data and processes. The episode concludes with Kaushik's perspective on the future value of humans in asking strategic questions and understanding cultural nuances, illustrated by an anecdote about Japanese website preferences.

As heard by us

Avinash Kaushik makes a practical case for brand as AI takes over more measurable marketing work.

AI's advance into marketing becomes a question of what human judgment is still worth as Avinash Kaushik argues that analytics and performance work is moving quickly toward automation, if it is not there already.

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Why you'd press play

You want to know what still matters when AI starts absorbing the marketing work people used to define themselves by.

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