Marketing 7.0 and leading through disruption

0:00 Intro: Marketing at “breakneck pace” 1:58 The state of marketing today 2:20 What is the “augmented human”? 4:32 From behavioural to cognitive marketing 8:10 Inside the augmented mind: attention, social & reward brains 9:35 Leadership reboot: humility, empathy & lifelong learning 10:36 AI as coworker, not replacement 17:46 Trust in a fragmented, filtered, frugal world 20:12 Experimentation, sandboxes and safe failure 21:23 The human side of tech: avoiding AI sameness 26:28 Burnout, “always on” culture and hybrid teams 29:17 Marketing as the soul and central nervous system of business 34:49 Executing excellently in Marketing 7.0 38:09 Will marketers ever be replaced by algorithms? 41:26 Looking ahead to Marketing 8.0: marketing for good 44:29 Final advice and legacy for the next generation of marketers In episode 120 of the CIM Marketing Podcast, host Ben Walker is joined by the legendary Professor Hermawan Kartajaya, co-author of the Marketing X.0 series and father of Asian marketing and CIM’s chief executive, Chris Daly to explore how marketing and leadership need to evolve in the age of AI. Together, they unpack what Marketing 7.0 really means in practice: shifting from influencing customer behaviour to leading customer cognition, balancing human creativity with machine intelligence, and ensuring marketing remains an engine for growth, as well as the moral compass of the organisation. Across the conversation, they discuss how AI is reshaping customer decision-making, why differentiation is at risk in an AI-first world, and how leaders can build trust, avoid burnout, and create safe “sandboxes” for experimentation, all whilst keeping marketing’s human soul at the centre. Listen in to the full episode to discover: Why modern marketing leadership must move beyond nudging behaviour and begin “leading the customer’s mind” and how understanding the attention, social, and reward “brains” is key to driving decisions in an AI-shaped world. How to treat AI as a coworker that handles the heavy lifting while humans focus on creativity, differentiation, empathy, and trust, avoiding the twin pitfalls of ignoring tech or over-relying on it. A glimpse of what comes next: using technology responsibly to drive impact across the 5Ps – People, Prosperity, Planet, Peace, and Partnership—positioning marketing as both top-line growth engine and force for societal good. Want to know more? Check out the CIM Content hub now for all things marketing: https://www.cim.co.uk/content-insights/ Thanks for listening to this episode. You can share your thoughts and feedback in our survey below, or contact us at [email protected] Survey: https://bit.ly/4tsKmiu #podcast #interview #leadership #marketing #ai