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💥 Today’s Highlights

• Your weekly spark

• What you missed at The Mixdown

• Roundup of open jobs across the community

🔥 And now, for your weekly spark.

Override.

Would you let AI shop for you?

At The Mixdown last night, I heard two leaders draw different lines. One said she lets AI buy things for her. Another said she won’t.

One is willing to let AI spend her money. The other isn’t ready to hand over that decision.

Same technology. Different boundaries.

It’s a small example, but I like what it reveals. We’re all figuring out where we’re comfortable letting technology make decisions for us, and where we still want a say. That’s not so different from asking what we want to build our time around in the first place.

That question was at the center of our panel, What I Won’t Let AI Decide For Me, which I moderated during Advertising Week at The Mixdown, in partnership with OpenX.

We brought together brand marketing and media leaders for an intimate conversation about the calls they aren’t ready to hand over to AI. What stood out wasn’t a blanket rejection of the technology. It was the recognition that making something faster doesn’t automatically make it better, and that knowing when to trust a tool is a judgment call in and of itself.

AI can help us move faster. It can make recommendations, automate tasks, and take certain decisions off our plates. But deciding what matters, what feels right, and what we’re willing to stand behind is a different kind of work.

Knowing when to override the automation is becoming a judgment call of its own.

👉🏽 Those lines aren’t always obvious until we start talking about them.

That’s one reason I believe so much in community. The value of a room like this goes beyond hearing opinions from people with different titles or backgrounds. It’s getting to test your own thinking against theirs.

With any data output, the input matters just as much, and it should represent all of us. Someone else’s boundary might make you question yours. Their stories and experiences from different angles might lead to disagreement, and that might help you see a decision more clearly.

Sometimes, figuring out what matters most starts with getting clear on what you want to build around.

We don’t have to reach the same conclusion to leave with a better question.

As more of our work and lives become automated, knowing what to delegate matters. So does knowing what we want to keep for ourselves.

Sometimes the most important thing technology can do is give us more time. The question is what we choose to do with it, and which parts of being human we refuse to outsource.

📌 Draw Your Line

Think about the decisions you make at work and in life. Where do you draw the line?

👉🏽 What am I comfortable delegating? Where does automation genuinely make my life or work better?

👉🏽 What still needs my judgment? Which decisions depend on context, values, relationships, or a feel for the moment?

👉🏽 Who might challenge my line? Have I talked with people who approach this differently, or am I just reinforcing what I already believe?

👉🏽 What will I do with the time I get back? Am I using it for more output, or for the things that matter but are harder to automate?

🔥 The goal isn’t to keep technology out of everything. It’s to be intentional about what we let it into.

That’s part of why we build rooms like The Mixdown: to make space for the honest conversations that help us think and see it all differently.

Read more and meet the people who made the conversation.

✅ Now Hiring

Is someone you know considering what’s next for them? Here are a few roles with people hiring across the network. I list roles here every week, so stay tuned and make sure to spread the word.

💥 Group VP, Consumer Marketing — SiriusXM

💥 VP, Brand Marketing — Maisonette

💥 Sr Director, Marketing — Keen

💥 Sr Director, Global Campaigns & Experiences — K18

💥 Head of US Marketing — Scope Eyecare

💥 Director, Marketing — JM Smucker

💥 Marketing Director, Action & Entertainment — MGA Entertainment

💥 Director, Media Strategy — The Hershey Company

💥 Director, Brand Marketing — Samsung

💥 Director, Brand Strategy, Culture, & Partnerships — Sol de Janeiro

💥 Director, Paid Media & Growth — Bluevine

💥 Leader, Marketing Strategy, Brand, Apple TV — Apple

💥 Sr Manager, Marketing Strat & Campaigns — Disney

💥 Sr Marketing Manager — Tyson Foods

💥 Sr Manager, Brand Marketing — Lululemon

💥 Sr Manager, Retail Marketing — Alo

💥 Sr Brand Marketing Manager — Blueland

💥 Performance Marketer, Paid Social — Lovable

💥 Manager, Growth Marketing — Factor

💥 Brand Strategy Manager — Wayfair

ICYMI: The Last Jobs Roundup

💥 VP, Brand Marketing — Prose

💥 VP, Omnichannel Media — Ritual

💥 Head of Marketing Science — Vibe.co

💥 Sr Director, International Brand Experience — Inspire Brands

💥 Director, TikTok Shop & Performance Marketing — P&G

💥 Director, Integrated Marketing — The RealReal

💥 Director, Marketing — Formula Fig

💥 Director, Brand Strategy, Marketing, & Comms — Culinary Institute of America

💥 Director, Integrated Marketing — Magnolia Bakery

💥 Director, Brand Marketing & Programming — Seaport Entertainment Group

💥 Sr Manager, Digital Marketing — Sharp

💥 Sr Manager, Paid Media & Affiliate Marketing — David’s Bridal

💥 Sr Direct Marketing Manager — Apollo

💥 Sr Manager, Product Marketing — Sega

💥 Manager, Influencer Marketing & Media — Estee Lauder

💥 Manager, Social & Digital Media — Colgate-Palmolive

💥 Manager, In-store Media — Walgreens Advertising

💥 Manager, Digital Consumer Experience — Krispy Kreme

💥 Partner Marketing Manager — Wiz

💥 Marketing Talent Transformation Manager — GEICO

And before you go, consider who else might value this newsletter and what’s coming up on YouTube. Make sure to fwd this newsletter onward to them too. They can subscribe here for more directly in their inbox.. 🔁 

In community,

Fahad