It’s 2026. If you have computer job you have access to some version of AI.
Anyone can hop into an LLM, have it consume a brief, and get some smart sounding outputs a few minutes later.
And if anyone can do that does that mean that everyone can be a strategist? In some ways, yeah, probably they can. That is if strategists are simply known as the ones who know how to help brands via marketing theory.
The shift that is seemingly occurring fast, and hopefully doesn’t slow down, is one in which strategists have to do less thinking and less framework building, and spend more time focusing on the exact skill set that AI has no right claiming.
The people stuff.
Connecting with a client and understanding their pain points.
Being able to cohesively and persuasively deliver an argument.
Leveraging your previous experience to articulate why something works or why something wont.
Taking in a whole lot of information and data and making it connect at a human level.
AI will keep getting smarter and more useful. But its still not real in the way that matters. The way a strategist can be the person who makes you believe in a solution, and knows how to get a whole room to believe it with you.
Let the model build the deck. I want to be in the chair next to the client when it actually counts.